Taoiseach goes all Marie Antoinette in Choppergate

OH, the petty bourgeoisie can be so damn... petty.

That’s the view of Brian Cowen who insists he does not live in a gilded bunker, yet still gives a good impression of the patronising tone of Marie Antoinette.

You say the recession peasantry can’t afford transport for a GAA game in Castlebar? Simple – let them use helicopters.

But, obviously, the little people won’t actually be allowed on the choppers, they just pay for the ones used by dignitaries rushing to important state functions – like the Connacht final. Mayo deputy Michael Ring is thought to have been referring to President Mary McAleese when he told TDs: “At the Connacht final last year I saw a Government helicopter arriving. The state car goes around the back and brings the person in to attend a football match. I heard the hissing and booing and people giving out that this was their money.”

However, the Taoiseach did not see the problem: “We can get quite petty about it. If people are on official business in the morning and the helicopter is returning to base and someone wants to be dropped off at a match I do not see that as outrageous,” he told TDs.

Quite right Taoiseach, the Air Corps must be a flying taxi for ministers, what could possibly be outrageous about that?

But then the taxpayer did fork out €2,000 to fly Mr Cowen and ministerial mates to Limerick for a rugby game during a six-month period when they spent €1.6m on air travel. The same attitude problem dominates Áras an Uachtaráin, which even refused to say if the President feels she is above explaining how taxpayers’ money is spent transporting her around the country.

Ms Antoinette never said “let them eat cake”, but that didn’t stop the chopper cutting off her head at the guillotine. Mr Cowen’s views on how to use a different kind of chopper shows how he is cutting himself off from voters.