Silent majority needed for heave to succeed

OUSTED Fine Gael finance spokesman, Richard Bruton, will need a silent majority to sing for him in unison if he is to topple his friend, Enda Kenny, as party leader.

So far members of the parliamentary party who have made their allegiance known have almost all leant support to the current leader.

By the time he sacked Mr Bruton 30 TDs, senators and MEPs had backed Mr Kenny.

Throughout the afternoon his communications’ team released a stream of statements from his backers as his tally crept closer to the 36 votes needed to secure an outright majority in the parliamentary party.

In contrast just one person, the party’s transport spokesman Fergus O’Dowd, was quoted as supporting Mr Bruton’s move.

Others spoke in an off-the-record capacity of their desire to remain silent until the party leadership could meet, to give time for Mr Kenny to step down in a dignified way. Now this silent hand is all Mr Bruton has got.

And without as much as a ring around of back benchers he will need to have his maths spot on if it is successful in forcing change at the top.

The early evidence suggests there is enough of a stoic silence across the parliamentary for him to be successful, but only just.

Invariably where one constituency TD has spoken out another has yet to declare.

In Roscommon-south Leitrim Frank Feighan told Shannonside Radio he was in the Kenny Camp.

However, his more senior constituency colleague, Denis Naughten, said he would wait until the parliamentary party met.

In Meath Shane McEntee was one of the first to rush behind Mr Kenny, but in the west of the county Damien English did not reveal his intentions.

Clare’s Joe Carey released a statement supporting Mr Kenny, fellow Banner-man Pat Breen said nothing.

In Cork South West PJ Sheehan dismissed the Richard Bruton bid, but Jim O’Keeffe offered a very cautious call for reflection in the party.

Party whip, Paul Kehoe, in Wexford demanded Mr Bruton back down, but his compatriot in the south east Michael D’Arcy kept his head down.

Senior figures in the party, Sean Barrett, Paul Connaughton and David Stanton supported Enda Kenny.

But crucially health spokesman James Reilly cut a lonely front bench figure carrying the national media interviews in defence of Mr Kenny. Mr Flanagan, Jimmy Deenihan and Michael Ring publicly backed their leader but did not beat a path to the microphones.

Bernard Allen and Ireland West MEP, Jim Higgins, labelled the rebellion as “stupid”.