Republican News · Thursday 5 December 2002

The seat of power!

By ROBBIE MacGABHANN

It was clear from early morning that this was not just another day in Leinster House. It wasn't just that the protestors outside were a bit more numerous and loud than usual or that the car park was even more bulging with 02 registrations from the length and breath of the statelet.

The corridors of Leinster House were bulging with visitors and TDs and even that rare breed of elected representative, the government minister, was casually loitering around the Dáil talking, laughing and eating. This wasn't a Budget. It was a day out.

None of the government deputies seemed at all interested in what provisions McCreevy was introducing or his reasoning for them. They were here for the craic, and by the time the division bells were ringing for votes on income tax changes, VAT and excise duties, particularly those on alcopops, it was clear that the craic was winning.

It was clear too that some government deputies and maybe even a minister had sampled too much of the same, probably in the rush to get them in before the tax increase.

Funny that there was no interest in the more technical details of the Budget, such as that by cutting the secret service spending we could double the amount of money available for funding the prorgrammes that tackle violence against women.

How many TDs were concerned that for the fifth year in a row the Overseas Development Aid targets won't be reached or that there will be a 63% cut in anti-racism awareness campaign funds?

That, though, would mean actually exercising power, and working your democratic mandate. For the vast amount of government TDs and indeed, some opposition ones, this was the wrong place and the wrong day.