O’Keeffe lines up Fianna Fáil return
The maverick Cork East deputy resigned the whip in November in fury at the government’s health policies. However, Mr O’Keeffe has encountered opposition from some of his estranged colleagues after writing to Government Chief Whip Tom Kitt last week asking to return to the fold.
Mr O’Keefe’s bid to rejoin the Dáil ranks sparked a heated debate at the FF parliamentary party meeting where Meath West TD Johnny Brady argued against an early readmission.
Mr Kitt is to meet with Mr O’Keeffe to iron out the best way forward.
However, a return to the FF fold was never much in doubt for the Cork TD as Taoiseach Bertie Ahern went out of his way to speak warmly of Mr O’Keeffe the day after he quit the whip as PD Health Minister Mary Harney faced a confidence vote in the Dáil.
Mr Kitt said he could see no barrier to swift re-admission to the ranks for Mr O’Keeffe as he had continued to strongly support the party line since November.
However, relations between the two were less cordial in the autumn when Mr O’Keeffe appeared on a collision course with the party leadership which saw him miss two crucial Dáil votes. The first of which was a vote of confidence in the Taoiseach prompted by Mr Ahern’s evidence to the Mahon corruption probe and the other being on the removal of Heathrow slots from Shannon, a Dáil vote in which FF scraped home by a majority of just one.
Then Amgen announced it was postponing plans to locate its European headquarters in Mr O’Keeffe’s constituency.
The deputy accused his own government of painting an overly rosy pre-election picture of Amgen proceeding with the plant whenall available evidence said otherwise.
Then Mr O’Keeffe was as the only FF TD prepared to say Ms Harney should go after the cancer misdiagnosis scandal which became apparent through November.
