Brexit: Ireland waltzes while UK pushes legislation through in jig-time

Making a song and dance of Brexit

So what tickles your fancy this morning? Donald Trump's latest alternative? Or Dessie Cahill turning a foxtrot into a bogtrot on Dancing with the Stars? Or maybe the identity of the person who won €88 million in the euromillions draw?

No? None of the above? You want it edgy and exciting. Oh, you daredevil you! What you are really yearning for is another searing analysis of Brexit, another treatise on whether it is going to be a hard Brexit or a soft Brexit or just a mediocre old middling Brexit.

Yep, Brexit is kind of inescapable, like drizzle in Galway in November.

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Not to be undone by Twinkletoes Cahill, British prime minister Theresa May did her own paso doble this week when she declined an invitation by Enda Kenny to address the Dáil during her visit to Ireland next week.

The British Supreme Court has ruled this week that the triggering of the Article 50 mechanism must be approved by parliament (but not the regional assemblies in the Celtic countries).

We ourselves in The Irish Times held our own conference on Brexit on Tuesday. Addressing the conference, EU Commissioner Pierre Moscovici agreed Ireland was a unique case.

He also said Britain’s post-Brexit relationship with the EU must be “inferior” to EU membership.

Both of those assertions are open to divergent interpretations.

Meanwhile Michael Noonan showed why he favoured the leisurely old-time waltz to any of these pacy highfaluting dances. A Brexit will take six years, he said.

Meanwhile, our main story reports that the British will get the Brexit legislation through parliament in jig-time.

As the pace quickens, it is all getting a little messy. Yesterday the two main opposition parties were accusing the Government of not doing enough and being unprepared. Enda Kenny was having none of it in the Dáil. He spoke like a man who had been up every tree in North Europe to press home Ireland's special status.

Meanwhile, Sinn Féin has to surpass a tricky self-definition puzzle to argue this one. It has never been a fan of the EU but now finds itself in a position where it has to defend it because the alternative is worse.

The main piece of advice we can dispense is to put a few bob on Dessie Cahill. He might not have the full skill set but like a certain political leader he is a born survivor.

Independent Alliance and little reliance

Fine Gael was hoping the Independent Alliance's qualms of conscience would become as infrequent an occurrence in 2017 as Shane Ross's commutes on the 44 bus.

Alas it did not account for the fact there are some issues which the motley crew of Independents will not waver on.

Ross's obsession is with judicial appointments. John Halligan's political future has been channelled into cardiac services in Waterford. With Finian McGrath it is those close-to-the-heart issues such as disability rights and the Stardust tragedy.

The fire which killed 48 people happened in his constituency and McGrath has been a consistent supporter of the survivors and relatives over three decades.

When the other Independent TD in the constituency Tommy Broughan brought a private members motion on it the Dáíl, McGrath was never likely to vote against it.

It has led to the latest procedural difficulty for Fine Gael. McGrath has insisted on a free vote and has let it be known that he is not persuadable.

As Sarah Bardon reports, he has always supported an inquiry. That view was reinforced by a meeting with the families of those who were killed in the fire last night. They have insisted there is new evidence.

Talks were ongoing over night with Fine Gael offering a compromise whereby an “independent person” conducts a review. Any new evidence can trigger a statutory inquiry.

(A Tribunal of Inquiry was held into the tragedy in the 1980s at enormous cost, primarily in legal fees. Its finding that the fire was started deliberately was always rejected by families).

The issue is another reminder of the thin green line of Government survival.

Yet more disagreement within Cabinet emerged yesterday, this time over a Sinn Féin motion demanding that compensation be given to people wrongly denied tracker mortgages.

There is sympathy within government for the plight of those affected but Fine Gael cannot countenance the criticism in the motion of the Central Bank.

With Fianna Fáil either supporting or abstaining on the two motions, it is going to be another tough week for chief whip Regina Doherty as she attempts to make up the numbers.