Callan gets his kicks in the Dáil bar

Enda Kenny was hugely popular in the Dáil bar on Wednesday night.

He was surrounded by admirers in the members’ restaurant too.

In a very difficult week, this might have come as some small consolation to the Taoiseach. Except for one thing: Enda wasn’t actually there. He was in the Red Cow Inn trying to motivate the troops at a Fine Gael Dublin rally.

But impressionist Oliver Callan was in Leinster House, dining with a group of friends as a guest of former Fine Gael TD for Clare Madeleine Taylor-Quinn. And when a visiting party of ICA ladies were disappointed to hear they wouldn’t get to meet the Taoiseach, Callan stepped into the breach.

The women were with Kildare deputy Tony Lawlor, who spotted the comedian and asked him if he might do his famous Kenny take-off for his guests. Callan duly obliged, earning a cross-party round of applause for his efforts.

Politicians are attracted to celebrity and there was a steady stream of TDs and Senators over to Taylor-Quinn’s table as the night wore on.

Lucinda Creighton, Paul Bradford, Fidelma Healy-Eames and Peter Mathews mounted a Reform Alliance onslaught before members of the Fine Gael parliamentary party drifted in after their weekly meeting.

Pat Rabbitte and Jan O’Sullivan were also keen to meet the mimic, while David Norris came over for a chat with Callan, who replied in his Norris voice.

Madeleine Taylor-Quinn’s choice of dining companions will have set the antennae twitching in FG headquarters. Her other guests included restaurateur Shay Gardiner of the popular La Réserve Brasserie in Ranelagh in Dublin 6, the formidable Anne Strain, Fine Gael’s former chief fundraiser, and leading businessman James Osborne and his partner, Patricia Devine.

The group moved on to the Dáil bar after their meal, where Callan was in demand yet again. He did another Enda turn, this time for a group of Tipperary farmers who were in for the day with Mattie McGrath. Mattie challenged the impressionist: “You won’t be able to do me.”

Oliver rose to the challenge. Mattie in stereo – not for the fainthearted.

Leinster House submerged in rising tide of panic

Mayor’s water revolt in a crowded constituency

Little faith, less hope and no clarity. No wonder the public is annoyed and the Government worried.

In the wake of the budget and with the latest rise in employment and economic growth figures, signs of optimism began creeping in among Government deputies.

It didn’t last long.

They are seriously concerned now about losing their seats and can’t quite understand how the Government has made such an unholy mess of rolling out the water charges.

Leinster House was submerged all week in the rising crisis, with just the news of Gerry Adams’s luxury $500-a-plate shindig in Manhattan providing some light relief. The Government is in a state of panic over the continuing loss of public confidence in their handling of this issue and it now seems unlikely they will have a solution next week.

Meanwhile, the day-to-day business of politics goes on, with the pressing business of preparing for the election continuing apace.

At Labour’s parliamentary party meeting this week, Tánaiste Joan Burton announced that David Leach, who was Eamon Gilmore’s policy director, had been appointed party general secretary, in addition to his job as party organiser.

There wasn’t a warm welcome for the news, which was greeted with silence. Leach was very close to the former leader and is credited with the unsuccessful “Gilmore for Taoiseach” strategy and the infamous “Tesco” advert cautioning against Fine Gael cuts. Now he’s back planning another election.

Burton explained that, with 70 weeks at most left in the Government’s term, it would be very difficult to hire a new general secretary, hence Leach’s additional role.

“David is still in the loop and still playing a central role,” said one disgruntled party member. “People are very concerned at the way the job was filled without the usual interview process, followed by ratification by the national executive. This is outlined in the Labour constitution.”

Labour Youth, which is holding its conference this weekend, is also said to be unhappy with the appointment.

There are indications that at least one parliamentary party member is considering his position and may cut ties with the mothership next week.

Mayor’s water revolt in a crowded constituency

Coincidence corner: the Mayor of Drogheda resigned from Fine Gael last Sunday in protest at the Government’s handling of the water charges issue.

Barrister Kevin Callan left the party after 8,000 people marched through the town to express their opposition to the charges.

“The project that is Irish Water is toxic politically,” he said, calling on those politicians involved in it to consider their position. He included his erstwhile Louth constituency colleague, former minister of state Fergus O’Dowd, who helped to establish Irish Water. O’Dowd has since called the undertaking “an unmitigated disaster”.

However, waspish tongues have been wagging in Fine Gael over Mayor Callan’s sudden departure to the ranks of the Independents. They are wondering if a training session held for potential general election candidates in Dublin last month might have had a bearing on his decision.

Headquarters convened a meeting of about two dozen handpicked councillors from around the country. Areas such as communications were addressed, with Fine Gael’s favourite PR company on hand with tips. With an eye to gender quotas, the majority of councillors in attendance were female.

The group included Cllr Sharon Tolan from East Meath, who is being spoken of as a possible candidate in Louth – a development that will not have gone unnoticed by Mayor Callan.

Sharon’s popularity with headquarters, allied to what looks like O’Dowd’s renewed political appetite, makes it a very crowded constituency.

Meanwhile, at the other end of the country, Kerry South TD Brendan Griffin has been muttering darkly for some time now about his dissatisfaction with the leadership.

Earlier this week, a reportedly emotional Griffin said he might not be able to support the party in the Dáil in future unless the Government began listening to backbenchers.

Griffin’s mood may not have been helped by the knowledge that a party colleague in Kerry, Cllr Patrick Connor-Scarteen from Kenmare, was also at the training meeting for potential candidates.

We hear there was some surprise in the party when his name was mentioned, as he didn’t perform particularly well at the local elections and is from the same area as sitting TD Griffin.

Perhaps the inclusion of Connor-Scarteen was a warning shot across the bows for Deputy Griffin - a signal that nobody is indispensable?

Limerick TD welcomes water baby

Congratulations are in order for Fine Gael backbencher Patrick O’Donovan and wife Eileen on the birth of their first child last Saturday. John O’Donovan weighed in at 8lb 7oz at Limerick Regional Hospital and was born when the water protest march was in full swing in the city.