Renegade backbenchers fail to put up much of a battle

A SMALL group of isolated deputies made the most decisive votes of their Oireachtas career as the Government squeezed out a majority for its budget and social welfare cuts.

Three independent deputies, the Green Party and renegade Fianna Fáil backbenchers all ignored the bluster of previous weeks and marched in step with the Government whip.

The trend began on Tuesday night and began for the early stages of the Social Welfare bill, which was introduced into the Dáil last night.

Tipperary South’s Mattie McGrath, who claimed his decision was still in the balance on the morning of the budget, said he did not want to play politics with the national interest. And, after losing the party whip because of his opposition to the dog breeding bill, he voted for €6bn worth of budget cuts.

His former colleague, Joe Behan, left the party two years earlier because of cuts to the education budget. But, after voting against Fianna Fáil since then, supported his former party as it introduced measures to make even more devastating cuts to health and education spending. He supported the budget on all measures put to the Dáil on Tuesday night.

In contrast Noel Grealish, the Galway East TD who was elected as a Progressive Democrat and supported the Government until recently, voted with the opposition on the first procedural measure, which set the stage for the evening.

Later, when the decision was taken to increase the price of petrol he abstained. He returned to the cover of the opposition for the other key decisions.

After the summer he first raised concerns with the Government when the Health Service Executive threatened to scale back services for Portuincula Hospital.

However, along with the backing of Jackie Healy Rae and Michael Lowry the decisions of the unwhipped deputies meant that the Government passed the key budget votes by 82 to 78 and by 82 to 77 in the case of the excise measures.

The proposals to end tax reliefs were the final ballot of the night, taken shortly before midnight.

Rather than blocking the measures which it supported, Fine Gael abstained en masse and handed the Government a majority of 83 to 27.

Finance Minister Brian Lenihan, who had been paired with a Fine Gael member for the rest of the evening, returned to the chamber for this tally and accounted for the extra vote for the coalition.

Sinn Féin, the Labour Party and the independent deputies Maureen O’Sullivan and Finian McGrath still voted no.