Dissent will not be tolerated

FIANNA FÁIL backbench revolts are a little bit like sightings of UFOs. When you go looking for them, you invariably find that they are merely a trick of the light.

Once every couple of years, our Oireachtas plebeians threaten a riot against the patricians. The private briefings from individual TDs are often dynamite, bristling with fury and righteous indignation.

When Charlie McCreevy and Mary Harney announced swingeing cutbacks in the Community Employment Schemes in the Budget cycle 18 months ago, there were mutinous soundings from the Fianna Fáil room in Leinster House. But in the end McCreevy’s and Harney’s cuts went ahead as planned. The backbenchers got a weedy little sop. The revolution did what all revolutions do ... it revolved until it spun itself out.