Kenny accused of robbing Bertie with his style of verbal gymnastics

DÁIL SKETCH: THE THEFT of political clothes has resurfaced in the Dáil. Some years ago, the then taoiseach Bertie Ahern and his Fianna Fáil colleagues took themselves off to Inchydoney, in west Cork, for their annual autumn think-in.

On return, Ahern told anybody prepared to listen that he was a socialist. Some thought the west Cork air had gone to his head, while others believed he had finally emerged from a political closet.

The more sceptical felt he was attempting to stem Fianna Fáil’s declining opinion poll fortunes.

It prompted Socialist Party TD Joe Higgins to claim at the time that Ahern had raided his ideological wardrobe and stolen his socialist clothes.

These days, Taoiseach Enda Kenny is the focus of Higgins’s questions. Yesterday, he raised with Kenny the plight of those living in houses affected by pyrite contamination.

Kenny, in a lengthy reply, said the State was interested in the wellbeing of the families involved. “I have seen this at first-hand and I am aware of the distress it has caused,” he said.

Higgins was unimpressed with the reply, although he did concede that Kenny had shown empathy with the people concerned.

He then suggested that the Taoiseach had stolen Ahern’s clothes when it came to verbal gymnastics at question time.

“When responding to questions, he spends much of his time describing the problem, which reminds me of . . . one Bertie Ahern, who gave us the whole story and scientific background of everything, but did not answer the questions,” said Higgins.

Denying this, Kenny declared: “There is no comparison.” Minister for Health Dr James Reilly rushed to assure Higgins that no born-again socialist, emulating Ahern, would surface on the Fine Gael benches.

“The deputy’s clothes are safe here,” said Reilly.

The Taoiseach insisted that asking him questions was not the equivalent of playing handball against a haystack, a charge the Socialist Party TD had once made against Ahern.

Fianna Fáil’s Billy Kelleher suggested a more appropriate metaphor in Kenny’s case. “A haystack, as against a turf bank for the Taoiseach.”

The focus of Independent Luke “Ming” Flanagan, from Roscommon, was on real-life rural matters. He asked Kenny if he was aware of the “dire consequences” for rural people of the birds and natural habitats regulations 2011, which he understood was signed on Tuesday. Flanagan said he had heard that Kenny came from rural Ireland. “Do not hear it; know it,” replied the Mayo-born Taoiseach.

Flanagan appeared to warn of trouble next spring if there was an absence of bird song in rural parts. “Believe me, the Taoiseach will know it in April,” he said.

Meanwhile, as the presidential campaign proper got under way, Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams urged a more democratic route to a nomination and said he was sure the Taoiseach would agree all seven in the race were appropriate candidates. It was a barbed comment, given Fine Gael’s targeting of Martin McGuinness. Kenny did not rush to agree, showing understandable reluctance not to steal the Sinn Féin leader’s clothes on the issue.