Kenny’s party still shooting itself in both feet

WHO said it couldn’t get worse? It seems the antics of the inebriated Fine Gael TD PJ Sheehan in the confines of the Dáil car park last September were not embarrassment enough for Fine Gael.

You will recall how the deputy from Cork south-west advised a garda who prevented him from driving his car onto a public road that he “would damage her career” and that “you will get nothing when we are in power”.

In more recent times, four TDs – three of them from Fine Gael and one from Fianna Fáil – applied for, and were granted, a derogation for registering their Dáil attendance records between April 16 and April 23 despite being absent due to restrictions imposed by airlines as a result of the volcanic ash in Irish airspace. Deputies must attend Leinster House for a minimum number of days to qualify for allowances. During the farcical putsch against party leader Enda Kenny earlier this year, we discovered that the then FG spokesperson on finance was unable to count. And lately we had the embarrassing farce of the FG shadow spokesperson on social protection, Michael Ring, tell the Dáil that when Queen Elizabeth II visits Ireland, possibly next year, she should be handed back control of the country along with an apology for the mess that has been made during her absence.