When going is good ministers get going

AND they’re off ... obviously not to Dáil Éireann but to Cheltenham for the real business of government.

The few TDs who did choose the national parliament over the national hunt festival yawned their way through a heavy going meeting at the Leinster House racecourse yesterday.

Plenty of horsing around though for Minister for Betting Charlie McCreevy and his junior minister at the Office for Stallion Works, Tom Parlon, along with Minister for Racing John O’Donoghue and Minister for Equineculture Joe Walsh, who all headed to the Cotswolds rather than to work.