If only confident Enda Kenny would take notes

First day back from a two-month holiday and, as ever, the Dáil was dominated by confidence tricksters.

The Government expressed confidence in itself, which is just as wel,l as the vast majority of the rest of the country has none, in order to pull off a procedural sleight of hand to thwart the opposition’s attempts to brand Enda Kenny a liar.

They say he fired Garda commissioner Martin Callinan. Kenny insists that, after ordering the secretary general of the Department of Justice to go to the top cop’s house under cover of darkness to express the Taoiseach’s displeasure and inability to declare confidence in him, he was shocked by a resignation within hours.