Fast-food politics and awful soundbites: Meet the new Dáil

ONCE centre stage of national life, the supposedly new-look Dáil felt more like an amateur fringe production as the curtain lifted for the new political season.

The Oireachtas re-opened early for business, but energy was already draining away from it both physically and metaphorically as a chunk of the ESB became the first of the family silver to be hived off to please our Euromasters, and the major decision of the day — to slightly ease our bailout shackles — was taken by financial technocrats in another country.

Natural Resources Minister Pat Rabbitte did not try to hide his distaste for the sell-off of a large chunk of the energy supplier, noting sardonically: “Not that we are going to put it up on eBay next week.” But the announcement merely telegraphed the impotence of an Oireachtas whose economic orders are barked from Brussels.