Cookie Monster Barry Andrews!

‘A love in’ – that is how one political wag described the launch of the final report into the proposed constitutional amendment on the rights of the child earlier this week.

For those in the dark, it is basically the final wording for a proposed referendum which will acknowledge and protect the rights of children.

The Joint Committee on the Constitutional Amendment on Children was headed up by Ireland’s national treasure, Deputy Mary O’Rourke.

It seems for the few minutes that this report was being launched, there was all-party unity, with everyone of all political hues gushing on how there was agreement across the board.

And the love-in was even represented in the refreshments available – chocolate chip cookies (a far cry from the digestives and custard creams we have become accustomed to!)

Some just couldn’t get enough of the cookies – Children’s Minister Barry Andrews was spotted leaving the launch munching his way through one!

The only way is Up for Bertie!

Former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern is taking his grandfather duties a bit too seriously after morphing into a new cartoon character that is melting hearts across the country.

When The Bert turned up at his local, Fagans, to watch the special 3D game featuring his beloved Man Utd, he was handed a special pair of 3D glasses.

And with one gesture, he magically turned into Carl Fredricksen – the heart-broken former balloon salesman and star of the cartoon movie Up.

In the movie, Carl is forced to leave the house that he and his late wife built together. But instead of moving into an old folks home, he ties thousands of balloons to the roof of the house, lifts it up into the air and sets off towards South Africa.

In Bertie’s case, maybe he is planning a similar escape if he doesn’t get the nod for the Mayor of Dublin job!

Vanquished Opponents Left Fuming over Lee

Whatever about the nation being shocked with George Lee’s shock resignation on Monday, spare a thought for the candidates who contested the by-election against him - they are fuming.

First and foremost there is Cllr Jim O’Leary - who was elected for Fine Gael to Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council as far back as 2004.

He was the favourite to run for Fine Gael in an era that has now become BG (before George). He ran for the party in the 2007 general election and acquitted himself relatively well considering that the Dublin South constituency saw two Fine Gaelers elected that time.

When the by-election came around, most people in the constituency believed that Jim would run as he was well-known for his council work over the previous years. Even Jim believed he would be running.

But George Lee’s star was simply too bright and Jim was asked to put his ambitions aside for a while to make room for the RTE star.

Needless to say, Jim was very disappointed by loyally stood aside for the sake of the party.

Then there was Labour’s Alex White - a shoe-in to win the seat BG (before George) thanks to Labour riding high in opinion polls.

But even a combination of his popularity and the popularity of the Labour party couldn’t tarnish the shine coming from Lee’s halo.

And then there was the youngest of the group - Sinn Fein’s Shaun Tracey, who this week pointed out the level of frustration in Dublin South at the fact that they will have to go to the polls again in the near future.

“This fiasco amounts to a further waste of the public’s money by Fine Gael as there will now have to be a re-run of the Dublin South by-election,” he said.

And then there is Shay Brennan - son of the late and well-respected Seamus Brennan whose death prompted the by-election in the first place.

On a pre-election debate on Tonight with Vincent Browne on TV3, he actually asked Lee if he would be sticking to politics and if he would contest the next general election - to which Lee said he would.

When asked this week, Shay said he was disappointed in Lee’s decision to resign after just eight months in the Dail.

But he added a sting in the tail when commenting about his future political ambitions.

“I am not a quitter. I will run again,” he said.

The Joke's On You, George!

Georgie Porgie pudding and pie, kissed the girls and made them cry.
When the boys came out to play, Georgie Porgie ran away!

Expect the jokes about George Lee fleeing the blueshirts to start flying about quicker than Charlie Bird’s stint in Washington.

Here’s a few to get you started:

RTE have created a new Reality Show starring Charlie Bird and George Lee – it’s called ‘Celebrity Big Baby’!

Charlie Bird and George Lee are to guest star in the blockbusting TV series ‘Lost’ – playing themselves!

George Lee is returning to RTE and has already been given a primetime TV slot juggling numbers – he will be the new host of Telly Bingo!

The Fine Gael party now know what it is like to live in Cork during bad weather – they know how it feels when the Lee bursts its banks.

For Peter's Sake, RTE!

Hell hath no fury like a Fianna Fail TD irked – well such is the case
with Longford TD Peter Kelly.

It seems that Peter is annoyed that George Lee will be able to ‘step straight back into a plum job in RTE’ after just eight months as a TD.

“I find this completely unbelievable, particularly in the current economic climate,” he said.

“The system whereby other people like teachers, barristers, etc return to their jobs after their time on a career break is over is well established and there are good reasons for it.

"But it is different with RTE. They are supposed to be imparting the news in an independent, dispassionate and detached fashion. To have a revolving door, as seems to be the case for some individuals, is hardly right.

“If people leave RTE to enter politics they should not be able to flit back in the door if they cannot cope,” the Longford legend said.

Dublin South Up For Grabs

So now that the Glee Club ceases to exist, just who will take the seat in Dublin South?

Paddy Power have installed Fine Gael and Labour as 5/6 joint-favourites to win the seat in Dublin South which became vacant earlier today after the shock resignation of George Lee.

Success for Fianna Fail in Dublin South is considered less likely according to the bookies odds of 14/1 with both the Green Party and Sinn Fein complete outsiders in the betting at odds of 50/1 and 100/1 respectively.

“This could be an excellent opportunity for Labour to get a foothold in Dublin South and early betting trends suggest that punters believe that’s the case,” Paddy Power said.

Facebooking the Clinics!

First it was the politicians taking over Facebook and now it seems one of the younger TDs is experimenting with holding a special weekly clinic via the popular social networking site.

Meath East Fianna Fail TD Thomas Byrne has announced to all that he is starting a Facebook clinic every Wednesday morning between 10am and 10.30am - or anytime he is online.

“Just open a chatbox, email or write on my wall,” the innovative young Soldier of Destiny says.

Sean Saves Our Duty Free

The next time you are sitting back with a glass of 10-year-old whiskey bought in the duty free, raise a toast to MEP and former GAA supremo Sean Kelly.

For if it were not for his dogged determination, duty free could be a thing of the past given the direction that the World Health Organisation was heading.

OK – so Duty Free doesn’t exist within Europe. But to the people travelling to and from the US and farther a field, it is a boom business.

Even the thought of banning it completely would have sent a serious economic shiver down Ireland’s backbone.

This week, the World Health Organisation decided to drop its proposal to ban sales of duty free alcohol. Sean Kelly had previously contacted the European Commission and asked them to oppose the proposal.

The duty free sector is worth €2 billion in sales annually in the EU.

"I was concerned about the effect such a proposal could have had on jobs, especially for airports such as Shannon, Cork and Kerry in my constituency who rely heavily on duty free sales,” Kelly said.

“Aer Rianta International would have experienced a huge drop in its profits worldwide network of duty free shops. And Irish producers of leading brands of whisky and other alcohol products would also have suffered significant financial loss.”

So rather than sitting in a grey room in Brussels, it seems that new MEP Sean Kelly is actually doing something substantial for not just his constituents – who like a tipple every now and then – but for the people of Ireland as a whole who are sick of the Political Correctness coming from Europe.

Thanks Sean – I raise my glass of single malt to you!

Going Mad About Politics

Happy Birthday to politics.ie – the well-known website that we now definitively know is home to a certain number of loons!

The political discussion site was set up by entrepreneur David Cochrane seven years ago and has mushroomed into an anonymous who’s who of all in the political world.

TDs and Ministers are known to read the site (and contribute, anonymously of course) and it is the front line of defence, spin and rumour mongering for many political parties.

But it seems the site is now preventing new users from registering.

“The simple truth is that there are a handful of people who are registering account after account after account in order to troll, send abusive private messages and game the site in any way they can,” Cochrane wrote on the site.

“As with all political discourse, we’ve attracted our fair share of loons who just don’t want to play nice.”

Loons abusively writing about politics? Who’d have thought!!

Poll Work Underway

The date still hasn’t been set but work is getting way on the ground in Donegal for the Donegal South West by-election, which is due to be held later this year.

The by-election is being held to fill the vacancy left by Fianna Fail’s Pat ‘The Cope’ Gallagher, who was elected to the European Parliament last year.

The latest candidate to be given a seal of approval by his party to contest the by-election is Labour’s Frank McBrearty, who is due to be formally selected this weekend.

McBrearty was one of two Labour Party councillors elected for the first time to Donegal County Council in the 2009 local elections.

Batt Spells It Out For Fine Gael

Saucer of milk for Education Minister Batt O' Keeffe who has told Fine Gael that they must try harder when it comes to spelling!!!

To be fair to Fine Gael, they are a more than capable tag-team when it comes to all matters educational – just as the Minister is when Fine Gael starts criticising them!

So the claws were well and truly out earlier this week when Fine Gael’s Brian Hayes issued a press release giving out about the slow rate of school building last year.

The only problem with the release was – the Minister’s name was spelled incorrectly, O’Keefe as opposed the correct O’Keeffe.

And that was all the ammunition that Batt needed in his statement on the issue.

“Finally, Minister O’Keeffe urged Deputy Hayes to show example by taking more care with spelling, pointing out that his press office consistently spells his name with one ‘f’,” the statement read.

There’s only one ‘f’ in Fine Gael but two in O’Keeffe!!

Speaking Up for Donegal

Teaching Irish online is all fine and dandy but it is a bit silly to omit one of the most popular dialects in the language – that from Donegal.

Or so says Sinn Fein Senator Pearse Doherty in response to the launch of the ‘Abair Leat’ pilot project launched in schools this week.

“Although I welcome any initiative which promotes Gaeilge as a spoken language I am concerned at the absence of the Donegal dialect in this new programme,” he said.

“The Donegal dialect must not be discriminated against and it is important that the student has experience of all three dialects in preparation for the Scrúdú Béil at leaving cert level.”

Aye, Senator, Aye!