Last week saw Fianna Fail make an unedifying spectacle of themselves. On Sunday, the Greens joined in. Now it is the turn of the Independents. I had thought that nothing about the unfolding drama in the Dail could shock or surprise me but the grandstanding of Michael Lowry, Jackie Healey Ray and Mattie McGrath regarding their support for the Finance Bill is truly unbelievable.
These are three wise men who for the last three years have propped up a Government that bailed out the banks, drove 100,000 to buy one-way tickets out of the country, put 250,000 extra people on the dole and made a complete mess of the public finances. These are the three wise men who used the accident of them having the balance of power to extract promises for their own constituencies – casinos, bypasses and all- in complete disregard for the national interest.
Now, in the last week of this Government, they are having one more crack at it. The optics might be good for them, and the politics is cunning without a doubt. But I suspect that all the voters outside the three men’s constituencies will be less than impressed. I know I am