Deputies manoeuvre for brownie points

PROOF, if it were needed, that the decentralisation programme was politically motivated emerged yesterday as Fianna Fáil fought a propaganda war against the PDs to claim credit for delivering jobs to rural constituencies.

Within minutes of Charlie McCreevy’s announcement of the decentralisation of 10,400 public service jobs on Wednesday, Coalition party ministers and TDs tripped over each other to be the first to be associated with the surprise coup.

Aside from a flurry of decentralisation press releases going out as soon as the minister for finance finished his speech, the intense competition for political advantage was particularly well illustrated in Laois-Offaly.