Updated 4.30pm
GOVERNMENT CHIEF WHIP Paul Kehoe has been doing the media rounds in the last 24 hours – no doubt sent out to fill a void for political journalists stuck for something to write about while the Dáil’s on its summer recess.
The comment that’s been attracting most attention? His assertion that the Taoiseach hopes to lead the country into the next decade.
“I believe Enda Kenny, if he is returned as Taoiseach after the next general election, will serve another five years and more,” he told the Examiner.
His comments have been picked up by most other major Irish outlets – and this morning, Kehoe turned up on Radio 1 to expand on that interview, and discuss plans for the next election.
Asked by Keelin Shanley* about a possible electoral pact with Labour, he talked up the idea, saying he believed Joan Burton and the Taoiseach wanted to see the coalition returned “for the next five years and beyond”.
He wouldn’t speculate at all on the timing of the next general election – and said that if he knew the date, he’d be heading to the nearest betting shop and “running to them straight away with my €20 note”.
Why such interest?
If the level of attention Kehoe’s comments are generating signals anything, it’s that the annual news drought of the political silly season has well and truly arrived.
It would have been a lot more newsworthy if he had said the Taoiseach didn’t intend to serve a full-term.
Speaking to TheJournal.ie just a few months ago, Kenny said he fully intended to serve a full second stint as Taoiseach, if elected.
I would of course.
Whether the likes of Leo Varadkar and Simon Coveney allow him to is another matter altogether.
It’s worth pondering though (or perhaps it’s not – it’s a free country)… if he’s still in power by 2021, Enda Kenny will have been a member of the Dáil for as long as Ant n’ Dec have been alive.
The presenting pair both have birthdays in late 1975. Enda was elected TD to the Dáil in November of that year.
*See… Silly season – everyone’s on holidays (not that we don’t love Keelin).
Originally published 12.24pm
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