It’s deja vu all over again — except for the Green ‘slugs’

AS TDs huddled together in the chamber waiting to vote, the shifting scene was reminiscent of a playground on the first day of term.

Overawed newcomers excitedly took in the surroundings as fresh gangs and alliances emerged and vied for supremacy.

The unfolding drama was thrown into vivid sharpness by the election of John O’Donoghue as head boy — or ceann comhairle to give the full title to his role as impartial and non-partisan speaker of the lower chamber — a strange position for one of the most verbally aggressive FF ministers now slumming it after his sudden ejection from the cabinet.