Shredded by the Greens and stripped of powers: it’s nothing personal Brian

THE opposition are now in charge in Dáil Éireann. That’s the immediate outcome of the Green Party action yesterday afternoon. Without the junior partner in Government, Fianna Fáil does not have the numbers to do anything without prior opposition permission.

That’s the blunt reality facing the minority government now in what we’ll laughingly call “power”.

In the immediate aftermath of the Green press conference, what didn’t seem clear to what’s left of the Government is that Fine Gael, Labour and the other opposition parties now have the numbers to effectively dictate what happens during the coming week — and to decide what happens at the end of the coming week. They have Fianna Fáil by the short and curlies, and one must hope that they control the triumphalism that must bubble within each opposition chest.