Kenny: St Patrick’s Day trips ‘cynical swansong’

ST PATRICK’S DAY trips abroad by the Taoiseach and ministers would amount to “the most cynical swansong imaginable,” Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny last night warned.

Mr Kenny insisted it would not be acceptable for the Cabinet to try and use the annual ministerial exodus as a boost to Fianna Fáil’s election campaign.

Tension ahead of the looming poll heightened as Green minister Eamon Ryan indicated his party would back the Dáil showdown being held in March — despite the Greens insisting they wanted the election in late January when they announced their decision to collapse the coalition in the wake of the IMF bailout last November.

Mr Kenny accused the Greens of “propping-up” Fianna Fáil in its attempts to “drag-out” the election date for as long as possible.

The clash came as Fine Gael and its most likely post-election government partner, Labour, down-played differences over how to deal with the European Court ruling on the X Case. Mr Kenny said he wanted an all-party group in the next Dáil to deal with any changes to the abortion laws resulting from the judgment, while Labour’s Eamon Gilmore said his party had already tabled legislation which should now be put before the Oireachtas.

Mr Gilmore was speaking as Labour launched their programme to reform Irish political and public life.

The plan would increase Dáil sitting days by half, abolish the Seanad, make ministers more accountable and create a “people’s forum” to decide on major constitutional reforms.

This proposed Constitutional Convention would have 90 members and would be tasked with drawing up a new document within a year. Members of the public would be selected for the convention along the lines of jury service.

As the political temperature rose ahead of the election, Mr Kenny launched Fine Gael’s bid to boost tourism — a vital area of the economy he said the present Government had neglected.