Murphy censured over Croke Park deal comments

Fine Gael TD Eoghan Murphy has been hauled in for a reprimand by his party’s chief whip over critical comments about the Croke Park agreement, but he has escaped sanction by the party.

The Dublin South East TD was among eight TDs from the party who recently put their names to a letter in the Irish Examiner challenging the Government’s stance on the agreement with trade unions.

The other seven first-time TDs had talks with party chief whip Paul Kehoe one by one last week after the letter was printed.

Both Taoiseach Enda Kenny and Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore said at the time they would have preferred that the “gang of eight”, as they became known, expressed their opinion at party meetings.

Many speculated that Mr Murphy had been the ringleader of the rebel TDs.

The eight had called for fresh scrutiny over the Croke Park agreement and the level of pay hikes and allowances for high-earning public servants.

Mr Kehoe yesterday morning held talks with Mr Murphy, after calling the TD into his office.

Weekend reports had suggested that Mr Murphy could be hauled into Taoiseach Enda Kenny’s office for an early reprimand, but this was not the case yesterday.

A party source said: “It was more of the same, as what the others [the seven] got. The chief whip wanted a chat. There were no sanctions.

“It was put clearly though that their actions were not helping relations within the partners [the coalition].”

The article penned by the eight TDs illustrated the growing doubts among some Fine Gael backbenchers about the Croke Park deal and sparked tensions with Coalition partners Labour.