New TD launches anti-waffle campaign in maiden heckle

DÁIL SKETCH:FINE GAEL'S Ray Butler made his maiden heckle in the Dáil yesterday.

The new TD for Meath West appeared from deep among the crowded Government benches as Sinn Féin’s Mary Lou McDonald castigated the Government, on the Order of Business, for failing to reject the McCarthy report.

She claimed it was preparing “to go down the cul-de-sac of selling State assets in a bid to pay bank and bondholder debts”.

She sought an assurance from Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore that Labour had not “bought wholesale into the Fine Gael-led agenda of flogging the family silver to bail out the very wealthy”.

It was all too much for the new TD, who was clearly not prepared to go along with the customary heckle-free period observed by new members of the House.

“The deputy is supposed to ask a question,” snapped Butler.

Ceann Comhairle Seán Barrett assured him that he would deal with the matter.

Butler warmed to the theme of his first heckle.

“It is an absolute disgrace,” he said. “Deputies are supposed to ask questions and receive answers.” Barrett remarked: “If Deputy Butler does his job, I will do mine.”

The new TD though was far from finished.

“We will be here for the next five years listening to waffle from Deputy McDonald,” he said.

He elaborated further after Socialist Party TD Joe Higgins asked if Labour would be part of this “neoliberal hucksters deal which will involve pawning the assets of the people to pay off moneylenders”.

Higgins retorted: “Perhaps we should invite the Deputy opposite, whose name escapes me, to take the chair in place of the Ceann Comhairle.”

Introducing himself, the Meath West TD said: “It is Deputy Butler.”

Higgins had no time for introductions.

“We want to encourage everyone to have their say, but newer members should not attempt to silence those of us who have been here previously,” he said.

Waving a copy of the McCarthy report, Independent Richard Boyd Barrett said he had read most of it and found it terrifying.

Addressing his Dún Laoghaire constituency colleague, Gilmore said: “I thank Deputy Boyd Barrett for the partial opinion he has expressed, which is based on his partial reading of the report.”

Historical events were on the mind of Independent Finian McGrath when he evoked the 1962 Bay of Pigs crisis and sought an emergency debate on the need to build and develop Ireland’s relationship with Cuba.

He extended a welcome here to Victor Dreke Cruz, a veteran of the crisis and chairman of the association of combatants of the Cuban revolution.

When the Ceann Comhairle ruled out a debate, Gilmore and McGrath wore broad smiles.

The Tánaiste seemed more interested in contemporary events.

Gilmore, meanwhile, announced a slashing of the Dáil’s Easter holidays operated by the previous government. The House would take one week rather than two and return on Tuesday rather than the traditional Wednesday after the May bank holiday weekend.

With an energised Dáil, it is little wonder that Government backbenchers are eager to make their maiden heckles.