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LAST NIGHT’S MEETING of the Fine Gael parliamentary party meeting saw the Taoiseach Enda Kenny involved in a tense encounter with one of his backbenchers with whom he has previously clashed with.
Waterford-based TD John Deasy, who publicly criticised Kenny over the Senaad referendum defeat, raised the matter towards the end of the parliamentary party meeting in Leinster House last night, leading to the pair ‘having a go at each other’, according to one source.
Deasy’s main gripes were with the party’s overall campaign - criticised by many within the party – and Kenny’s refusal to engage in a debate or publicly advocate for abolition in a set-piece interview.
One TD said it would be an “understatement” to say people in the party were unhappy with the campaign and the €20 million saving that was advocated on literature and posters.
Kenny is reported to have pointed out that Deasy himself had not attended any of the public meetings organised during the referendum in his constituency and was therefore not in a position to criticise.
The pair have previously clashed when Deasy was sacked as frontbench spokesperson on justice in 2004 after he lit a cigarette in the Dáil bar just days after the smoking ban came into effect.
He was later appointed deputy spokesperson on foreign affairs but Deasy did not back Kenny in the attempted heave by Richard Bruton in 2010.
The TD sits on the Dáil’s powerful Public Accounts Committee and has previously suggested that there were “political undertones” to controversies surrounding its chairman, John McGuinness’s expenses claims when he was a Minister of State.
Deasy declined to comment when contacted this morning.
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The knives are out, his own party are currently scheming against him. There is a coup a brewin. Watch your back Kenny.
I thought the same thing… Does Mr Deasy ever wear a brown shirt?
wake up people FG FF LAB are self serving and are in politics for them selves and are un democratic.
Every great opinion ever starts with ‘wake up people’
maybe thats true Bill,
might be the very reason Kenny gets the knife in the back too
@PaulRoche
Do you mean Ernst Róhm, Nazi Brown Shirts, Night of the Long Knives and all that?
If so, why, pray tell.
I’m sure I am missing something here!!
Exactly Connaghtabú
I have commented earlier on this site that fascist comparisons to the current FG leadership will become more common.
I see the trend towards centralising power at a time of economic crisis to be extremely worrying. Thankfully, we have voted to retain the Seanad, but my fears will continue while Enda remains at the helm.
no that would be SF, same leader and deputy leader for the past 30 years and no sign of an election
Conor,
If a political party does not have an elected leader that is something that should be investigated. I hope for your sake you are right, because otherwise you’d look a little silly. The people of Louth gave Adams a seat, which is an indication of an election, and I understand that SF have been elected to some positions in the Northern Irish government.
What confuses me most is when people who claim to be pro democracy, misrepresent what happens when it occurs.
sf , ff , fg , lab . vote for any of these and you will get more of the same , ,
ddi is the way forward
“The knives are out, his own party are currently scheming against him. There is a coup a brewin. Watch your back Kenny.”
In fairness the ‘schemer’ is John Deasy who has been scheming against Enda Kenny since 2004.
DDT for you, Ben (Brown boy).
Poor old Deasy savaged by a wet sheep.
Poor old Deasy savaged by a wet sheep Kenny
More like two wet sheep so close to each other that no one can tell if they are fighting or hugging and no one wants to find out.
Like most sheep soon to be lamb chops in the locals.
More power to Deasy.this Kenny lad becoming something of a bullying dictator
Deasy fell out with nearly everyone in his party when he decided to light up in the Dail bar the day after the smoking ban came in. His attitude to being told put it out was not very nice. He fell out with everyone because of that.
The man is a grade A plonker.
Deasy is the Timmy Dooley/Dara Calleary of Fine Gael. Anyone who takes him serious is only an on par fool.
Kenny again seeking publicity for himself. Would you ever shut up and resign.
Don’t worry enda will whip him back in line
its hardly surprising that they fall out with him they didnt even want him as party leader going into the general election
The cracks are beginning to show….publicly. Kenny’s fall will be epic. #Wallop
I am being pedantic again, I see a spelling mistake on the 10th line. :)
…………and too many “with” in the para under the ‘photo’. Do jounos’ no longer take English ?
hahahaha
If we’re going to be pedantic:
1. What’s with the 12 full stops at the start of your post? Do you not realise that the country is in recession, tighten your belt and use a more conservative 3 (2 after the budget)
2. You start a sentence with a lower case conjunction, this is wrong on precisely 2 levels
3. Why are there single quotes on the photo, is it in fact not a photo? (The photo is a lie)
4. What’s a jouno and why did you use a possessive plural?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=9YoN9mkyctI#t=130
Sean, mea culpa. Trying to rush a post when I should have been in my car heading for a meeting. Will restrict the full stops in future; wouldn’t want to use up the whole of Ireland’s 2013 quota in one go. A jouno is mis-spelt journo – see above. ‘photo’ is merely how I was taught, (more years ago than I care to remember), to style the diminutive of photograph.Thank you for caring.
Just so we’re clear, I was joking… You got that, right? :)
I hoped I’d detected a certain tongue-in-cheek attitude and glad I was correct, (“Thank you for caring” was my contribution).
Kinda hard to tell humour from deranged on Journal.ie sometimes
Have a great weekend when it arrives – or you arrive at it, whichever is more appropriate.
I voted to keep the senate. But last night watching a report from the senate I wondered why. A Tipperary senator took to his feet for some time to complain about RTE not reporting the results of GAA county finals on the main evening news !!
What is “Senaad” ?
“Seanad” is the new upper house. It will be run by Clannad so at least it will be entertaining.
Deasy would fight with himself! Does he do anything other than argue? Record in Dail not up to much I’d say
now people of ireland your next referendum is to vote to get us out of europe demand a general election get rid of hitler kenny dum and dumber gilmore and get dictator merkel out of ireland as well imagine the amount of relieve taken of the irish people shoulders it would be a 21 centuary reliefe so send your letters to hitler kenny for these demands stand firm they are on the ledge now just push
In fairness to Deasy – his was the only action resulting in a conviction for the scandals of planning in the last decade … all hail Fred Forsey
direct democracy is the way to go
have your say