THE GOVERNMENT survived a crucial Dáil vote to ban stag hunting last night but one Fianna Fáil TD defied the whip and was immediately expelled from the parliamentary party while another abstained in a crucial division.
Tipperary South TD Mattie McGrath voted against the Government in the final division on the Wildlife (Amendment) Bill 2010 and became the fifth member of the parliamentary party to lose the whip since the last election.
The Bill was passed by 75 votes to 72 in an electronic vote with Mr McGrath voting with the Opposition and then by 75 to 71 in a walk-through vote in which the Tipperary TD abstained.
Another Fianna Fáil TD, Christy O’Sullivan from Cork South West, abstained on an earlier division but voted with the Government on the final stage. His fate will be decided today after a meeting with Government Chief Whip John Curran.
During a meeting of the parliamentary party shortly before the vote at 7pm Clare TD Timmy Dooley suggested that Taoiseach Brian Cowen should go to a side room with Mr McGrath, Mr O’Sullivan and deputies from Meath to discuss the issue privately.
This was immediately rejected by the Taoiseach, who reportedly said he was not getting into a “huddle”. One TD quoted Mr Cowen as saying: “We are going down to vote and I expect people to vote for the party.”
Green Party leader and Minister for the Environment John Gormley agreed yesterday to further amend the Dog Breeding Establishments Bill, due to be voted on next week, in an effort to persuade wavering TDs to back the stag hunting ban.
An unrepentant Mr McGrath said he would vote against the dogs legislation next week. “It should be shredded. It’s in no programme for government,” he said. “Green [Party] people want to close the zoo, want to stop horseracing, they want to stop the pussycat going after the mouse.”
Apart from Mr McGrath the other six Fianna Fáil TDs who spoke against the Bill in the Dáil last week voted in favour of it last night.
Fianna Fáil was not the only party to have problems on the Bill. Labour TD Tommy Broughan, a longtime opponent of blood sports, absented himself from the final vote on the measure.
Labour chief whip Emmet Stagg wrote to Mr Broughan last night, telling him he had lost the party whip as a result of his abstention.
Arthur Morgan of Sinn Féin was also absent from the vote as he was expelled from the Dáil earlier in the day but said he could not have voted against the ban if he was present.
Two Independent TDs Michael Lowry and Jackie Healy Rae, who have consistently backed the Government since 2007, voted against the Bill and both claimed it was an attack on country pursuits and rural life.
There were dramatic scenes in the Dáil before the final vote as Fianna Fáil TDs clustered around Mr McGrath and Mr O’Sullivan in an attempt to persuade them to vote for the Bill.
Fine Gael withdrew two of the pairs it had provided in earlier votes on the basis that the position had changed due to the Fianna Fáil abstentions.
Meath East TD Mary Wallace, one of the most vocal critics of the Bill, announced before the vote that in spite of her strong objections she would not vote against it as she did not want to be instrumental in the fall of the Government.
“But never again will I support an ideological sop to our minority partners, the Green Party, who blatantly don’t understand the realities of rural life,” she added.
In an attempt to persuade Fianna Fáil backbenchers to support the Bill, Mr Gormley amended it to ensure that there will be no interference with licensed hunters who are stalking deer on foot with the aid of dogs. Revealing that about 4,000 licences a year are issued to deer stalkers he said that it had never been his intention to restrict them.
