Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
FINE GAEL TD John Deasy has been elected vice chairman of the Dáil’s powerful Public Accounts Committee this morning.
The Waterford deputy has been an outspoken critic of Taoiseach Enda Kenny for several years and most recently said that “people are becoming disgusted with the way Fine Gael is being run”.
Deasy launched the unprecendeted attack on Kenny’s leadership following the controversy over Seanad byelection candidate John McNulty earlier this year.
He said that there is an “atmosphere of total non-criticism” within the party and said that the Taoiseach was at the heart of Fine Gael’s problems.
On Kenny, Deasy said: “The Taoiseach, who likes to give his mobile phone number out to the world, doesn’t really engage or entertain criticism.”
This morning’s meeting of the PAC elected Deasy vice chair in the wake of Fine Gael colleague Kieran O’Donnell’s move to the committee investigating the banking collapse.
He was supported by his fellow Fine Gael TDs on the committee Patrick O’Donovan, John Perry, Paul Connaughton and Gabrielle McFadden and sources say the move will be seen as Kenny’s attempt to appease party backbenchers who have privately criticised his leadership.
The outspoken Deasy was first elected to the Dáil in 2002 but has had an uneasy relationship with the party leadership for over a decade.
He previously clashed with Kenny when he was sacked as frontbench spokesperson on justice in 2004 after lighting 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 and has been on the fringes of the party ever since.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Says it all really, ‘a dangerous criminal gets mugged in Dublin’, no wonder he went back north to turn himself in.
@Salvatore Mazzani: Not just Dublin . The last time someone tried to run people down on an Irish street , this happened .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhfgQOLSrTQ
I often wonder why these guys, who are on day release and coming towards the end of their sentences, throw it all away for a day or two on the lash. That’s another 5 years or more he’ll have to serve back in the high security wing. I wonder do these people just prefer being in prison to the uncertainties of life on the outside
@Paul Devlin: as Chris said it’s too dangerous outside
Comical Farce
@John Culhane: The gardaí had no power to hold him as there was no European arrest warrant in existence for him & there’s no charge on our books for absconding from a foreign prison.
@Donncha Ó Coileáin: Ah yes, common sense. Because, given all crap being being thrown at Gardai at the moment, the common sense thing would have been for Gardai to kidnap the man and illegally extradite him. This is the republic of Ireland, not the people’s republic of North Korea.
@Donncha Ó Coileáin: so you’d be happy with gardaí acting outside of the law, so long as you approve of it?
A nice big thank you to the “Citizen” who picked him up outside the court and drove him back over the border and had the PSNI waiting for him there.
@MyBrokenKnees: those bloody dublin taxi drivers, always taking the long route and overcharging…..
Doesn’t say much for the Garda when they release a know dangerous murderer on to our streets and I don’t by that they had to.
@Austin hickey: I wonder who gave him a lift to the border ?
@Austin hickey: so you’re complaining that the Gardai abided by the law?
@Austin hickey: The Gardai didn’t release him onto the streets, a Judge did. FFS, the Garda in court even objected to bail, hoping he would be in custody until the PSNI got off their holes and applied for an arrest warrant valid here. But don’t let any of that get in the way of your anti-garda agenda.
When the guards arrested that guy in Dublin they should of taken him up north and handed him in and forget about the courts.
I wonder did AGS give him a breathalyser test, just to add to their tally?
have your say