‘Are you listening minister?’

AFTER taking a tentative step onto union turf for the second day running and reaching the podium intact, Mary Coughlan was getting used to facing down crowds seething with rage.

A full 24-hours after surviving placard-waving INTO fury, the country’s second-in-command was welcomed with an eerie silence by the TUI.

After leaving the safe confines of the nearby Boru’s Porterhouse, where she was informed of the likely welcome awaiting her, Ms Coughlan stepped into the echoing hall where 450 TUI delegates were discussing, of all things, cutbacks.

Surrounded by an entourage which included at least three gardaí, the minister appeared able to cope with the utterly silent protest facing her.

For a moment, she seemed set to avoid a second humiliating scene in two days. But then a familiar face rose from the front row.

Wearing a cardboard replica face of Ireland’s economic collapse pin-up Sean FitzPatrick, Jimmy Gollogly cut through the spin. Ireland has been ransacked by certain bankers, he said, and the public sector is being “robbed” to pay for their mistakes.

The one-man protest ended the silence, filling the room with the fury TUI general secretary Peter MacMenamin had earlier pleaded to keep under control for “pragmatic” purposes.

First the chorus “out! out! out!” rose from the masses, the political bloodlust clear in every syllable spat towards the podium. Then 10 eardrum-bursting standing ovations as the union’s leader, Don Ryan, verbally chastised Ms Coughlan as only a teacher could.

“You cannot cut your way out of recession, minister,” he yelled into the microphone at the Tánaiste.

“You are trying to prop up schools with matchsticks Your Government’s a failure minister. You’re a failure. Minister! Minister? Are you listening minister?”

The Tánaiste could have been forgiven for allowing her mind to wander like a disinterested schoolchild. Watch the clock. Just a few minutes to home time.

Members of her entourage, however, were wide awake to the claims. Grumbling in the corner, one member of Ms Coughlan’s backroom team tut-tutted: “These are teachers? I wouldn’t want my kids going to some of their schools. If I was the minister I’d just walk out.”

He had more reason to complain moments later as Ms Coughlan was swamped by ‘No to NAMA’ protesters. A scuffle involving the group and two backroom officials ensued, forcing her to escape behind a large TUI sign.

She insisted afterwards the protests hadn’t bothered her, that the photographers scattering in her wake posed more of a problem.

For all the carefully worded claims, public sector anger is what people will remember from this week, with the symbol for Ireland’s economic collapse taking centre stage.