Amid scenes reminiscent of a Christmas pantomime, Fine Gael's education spokesman Brian Hayes was excluded from a special Budget press conference given by the Minister for Education Mary Hanafin yesterday.
When Mr Hayes surprisingly took a seat in the press room at Government Buildings, it prompted much commotion among senior department official and led to the press conference being delayed. After a 20-minute stand-off, the Minister refused to begin the briefing while the deputy was present.
After behind-the-scenes discussions with other officials, the secretary general of the department Brigid McManus emerged.
She asked Mr Hayes politely to leave the press conference, which she explained was intended solely for members of the media.
At this stage, Mr Hayes, who was already attracting the attention of an RTÉ News camera crew launched a broadside against the "broken promises" in the Budget.
He had no intention, he said of putting questions to the Minister in such a forum. But he wanted to hear the questions posed to her by the education correspondents.
He explained how his party colleague on health, Dr James Reilly had been able to attend a similar ministerial briefing without difficulty. He then left the press briefing, accompanied by a TV crew, some reporters and some of the Minister's officials.
Asked about the "Hayes incident" during her press conference, Ms Hanafin said he could only attract publicity by "gate-crashing someone else's party".
Later in a Fine Gael statement, Mr Hayes said: "This was the first opportunity I had to hear announcements under the education Budget. Unfortunately, the Minister did not want me to see the substance of her proposals and did not want me to hear the questions that were being posed by members of the press."
