IT’S A LOOSE arrangement, there are no formal meetings and no collective policy positions. But the Fine Gael ‘five-a-side club’ has been the subject of much discussion in political circles over the past three years.
‘Five-a-side’ was the term applied to the group of first-time TDs by the Irish Times political sketch writer Miriam Lord three years ago and it’s stuck ever since, but there are no actual five-a-side football matches.
Its loose membership includes FG backbenchers Anthony Lawlor, Pat Deering, Brendan Griffin, Noel Harrington, Paul Connaughton, Sean Kyne, Sean Conlan and Eoghan Murphy. All of them were elected to the Dáil for the first time in 2011.
They talk, sometimes publicly, about the lack of political reform and the need for restraint on public sector pay. Their push for greater austerity has led to them being dubbed the ‘Bullingdon Club’ by some mischievous Labour TDs.
Murphy has sometimes been reported as being the group’s ringleader, orchestrating a series of moves designed to undermine the party leadership. But it’s not like that at all, he insisted in an interview with TheJournal.ie earlier this month.
Is the group anti-Enda? Did it draw-up a ‘hit list’ of Fine Gael ministers it wanted to take out? Here’s what Murphy had to say:
Video: Dan McGuill/TheJournal.ie
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