ANALYSIS:The Labour leader's dramatic intervention in the Dáil swamped all other alternatives, writes HARRY McGEE,Political Staff
JOHN O’DONOGHUE’S fate may well have been sealed hours, and perhaps many days, before he sat in the Ceann Comhairle’s chair at 2.30pm yesterday.
Until Sunday evening, it seemed that O’Donoghue, the TD for Kerry South, had somehow managed to survive the severe damage to his political reputation – and to his standing as the independent chairman of the House – caused by two months of revelations about his lavish foreign travel expenses.
It was the gradual nature of the disclosures that ultimately proved his undoing. Having been forced to apologise twice in September, it was clear that further damaging revelations would force the issue.
And when the details of €90,000 expenses incurred for foreign travel in his present position were made public at the weekend, what had looked likely for months became inevitable.
Labour leader Eamon Gilmore said yesterday that when he read the reports in Sunday’s newspapers, he was left with only one conclusion, that John O’Donoghue would have to resign or be sacked.
Gilmore’s carefully phrased statement on Sunday calling for a meeting of party leaders was quickly followed by a statement from Enda Kenny which upped the ante even further. It set out three demands relating to reductions of staff and repayment of monies for flights taken by Kate Ann O’Donoghue. He said if O’Donoghue were not to agree to them at this evening’s meeting of the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission, he should consider his position.
Green leader John Gormley added his voice to the concerns, saying that the saga had become a “running sore”. The interventions by both leaders transformed the situation. Until teatime on Monday, a great deal of uncertainty surrounded the controversy. Rumours were rife in Leinster House that O’Donoghue was about to resign. The Ceann Comhairle travelled from Kerry to Dublin to meet with his advisers. Gilmore wrote to all party leaders requesting the meeting.
It caused more than a smidgen of surprise when O’Donoghue released a statement shortly before 6pm on Monday saying he would present “detailed proposals” to the commission meeting that would address the concerns of party leaders. The consensus was that he was buying time until Wednesday at least.
That was the backdrop to yesterday’s dramatic events. The first fusillade was struck by the smallest Opposition party, Sinn Féin. Its Dáil leader, Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin, came out on to the plinth at the front of Leinster House at midday to say that he would be calling for O’Donoghue’s resignation during the Order of Business.
However, behind the scenes, Gilmore was privately considering what a Fine Gael source described as the “nuclear option”. Taoiseach Brian Cowen had replied to his letter and rejected a meeting of party leaders, saying that the commission was the most appropriate forum to deal with the matter. Between 1.30pm and 2.30pm Gilmore arranged a meeting with O’Donoghue which, according to sources close to Gilmore, left the Ceann Comhairle in no doubt about his view that he should resign.
The Government spokesman said he had no knowledge of any contact between the Taoiseach or senior Ministers and O’Donoghue at any stage yesterday. Gilmore did not specifically inform O’Donoghue he would raise the matter during Leaders’ Questions but effectively put him on notice.
At 2.30pm O’Donoghue sat in the speaker’s chair and opened the session with prayers, before taking Taoiseach’s Questions. There was some speculation – given the sensitivity surrounding his position – that he might vacate the chair during Leaders’ Questions. But at 4.15pm he returned to the chamber.
Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny raised the question of Fás and the enhanced severance package paid to Rody Molloy. It seemed the deliberation on the Ceann Comhairle’s future might be delayed a further day.
However, Gilmore changed all that. When he got to his feet, it became immediately apparent he was about to deliver his bombshell. The Ceann Comhairle, with a grave expression on his face, looked shaken.
“I regret to say this, but your position is no longer tenable. I think you will either have to resign or remove from office,” he told O’Donoghue. This dramatic intervention swamped all other alternatives.
Cowen, in a brief response, said he regretted that Gilmore had brought up the issue in the Dáil rather than at the commission.
Late last evening, there were intensive discussions involving O’Donoghue’s office and the whips of all parties. The Ceann Comhairle offered to resign next week but Fine Gael resisted that solution, insisting he resign today. The saga ended at 10.25pm, when O’Donoghue announced he would resign next week and would make a statement to the Dáil.