Dempsey: 'three strikes and you're out' rule for Ministers?

[Apparatchik]

The weekend public outcry over provisional driver regulations in the Road Safety Strategy forced Noel Dempsey to do a U turn: initially allowing a three-month lead-in period before he postponed the introduction of the regulations until the end of June, 2008.The Taoiseach said he would not sack Mr Dempsey. "I'll let him get on with the job. He'll try to do the job to the best of his ability and he's doing that," Mr Ahern said.
Previous controversies that have dogged the minister include his Department not informing him about Shannon losing the Heathrow slots and electronic voting. There should be a 'three strikes and you're out' rule for Ministers.

[ibis]

The weekend public outcry over provisional driver regulations in the Road Safety Strategy forced Noel Dempsey to do a U turn: initially allowing a three-month lead-in period before he postponed the introduction of the regulations until the end of June, 2008.The Taoiseach said he would not sack Mr Dempsey. "I'll let him get on with the job. He'll try to do the job to the best of his ability and he's doing that," Mr Ahern said.
Previous controversies that have dogged the minister include his Department not informing him about Shannon losing the Heathrow slots and electronic voting. There should be a 'three strikes and you're out' rule for Ministers.

That would force us to be able to tell the difference between genuine cock-ups, FF press management, and silly opposition spins.

Mind you, I'd love to see secret ballot votes of no confidence in Ministers.

[Rocky]

No because the stupidity or whatever of mistakes are different and have to be judged in that light. However it is better then our current situation, in which Ministers can do anything and still retain their job. I don’t think there is a decent private company in the world where a member of staff could make a cock up as bad as Dempsey’s and not be at the very least demoted.

He should have been sacked by Bertie after this, but then he should have been sacked by Bertie years ago. Our current situation is a disgrace and invites things like what happened last week. In any body people people have to be held accountable for their actions and punished if they perform terribly, never mind in the government.

[ibis]

No because the stupidity or whatever of mistakes are different and have to be judged in that light. However it is better then our current situation, in which Ministers can do anything and still retain their job. I don’t think there is a decent private company in the world where a member of staff could make a cock up as bad as Dempsey’s and not be at the very least demoted.

He should have been sacked by Bertie after this, but then he should have been sacked by Bertie years ago. Our current situation is a disgrace and invites things like what happened last week. In any body people people have to be held accountable for their actions and punished if they perform terribly, never mind in the government.

I still think this one was FF press management. It has exactly the same fingerprints as the smoking ban.

[Rocky]

No because the stupidity or whatever of mistakes are different and have to be judged in that light. However it is better then our current situation, in which Ministers can do anything and still retain their job. I don’t think there is a decent private company in the world where a member of staff could make a cock up as bad as Dempsey’s and not be at the very least demoted.

He should have been sacked by Bertie after this, but then he should have been sacked by Bertie years ago. Our current situation is a disgrace and invites things like what happened last week. In any body people people have to be held accountable for their actions and punished if they perform terribly, never mind in the government.

I still think this one was FF press management. It has exactly the same fingerprints as the smoking ban.

I don't get you. Can you explain what you mean in more detail.

[Joe Ryan]

CJH saw throught the genius of Noel when he sent him paking with the rest of the gang of 4. What ever happened to the other 3?
Did we really have to wait for teh provo license issue? Should he not have been given his cards when he wanted to re-introduce colege fees, or decide to bring in postal codes and forced an ailing An Post (of which he is the main shareholder) to budget an extra €20m for its introduction,or when he washed his hands as the Energy Regulator upped ESB prices so embarrasingly that they are being reduced from tomorrow, or when he did a U-turn on the committment to build primary schools in 2002, some of the letters sent to school boards he oversaw himself?
If he visualises himself as the next FF leader what does that say bout the party?

[hiding behind a poster]

CJH saw throught the genius of Noel when he sent him paking with the rest of the gang of 4.

Sean Power's still a TD. McCreevy's in Brussels. Forget who the other one was.

[ibis]

No because the stupidity or whatever of mistakes are different and have to be judged in that light. However it is better then our current situation, in which Ministers can do anything and still retain their job. I don’t think there is a decent private company in the world where a member of staff could make a cock up as bad as Dempsey’s and not be at the very least demoted.

He should have been sacked by Bertie after this, but then he should have been sacked by Bertie years ago. Our current situation is a disgrace and invites things like what happened last week. In any body people people have to be held accountable for their actions and punished if they perform terribly, never mind in the government.

I still think this one was FF press management. It has exactly the same fingerprints as the smoking ban.

I don't get you. Can you explain what you mean in more detail.

Well, this was always going to be unpopular legislation - not unlike the smoking ban. As far as I recall, that was announced with an original date of January 1st, the (quite high) level of opposition was monitored, and the Minister did a 'U-turn' by promising it would be brought in later, with various exemptions - March eventually, and the enforcement was softly softly for the first while. Even more importantly, it was brought in early in the new term, and by the time the election rolled round people only remembered that the legislation had been brought in and they hadn't felt too much pain.

This follows almost exactly the same pattern. The level of opposition was huge, but it's blown over very sharply (how many front page threads on it now?), and now everyone accepts that it's a sensible piece of legislation that they're just going to have to adapt to - with Dempsey's name on it. The furore was too short to be memorable, and if anyone wants to protest next year, they'll be seen as both self-serving and un-newsworthy. Had it simply been announced now for next year, we'd have seen a huge build-up of opposition close to the launch date. I'd say the planned date was next year all along - clearly the Gardai hadn't been told they would be enforcing it from this week.

Sure, one can claim it's a "U-turn", but it's a morally irreproachable law in itself, so there's very little capital to be made there - and FF don't care very much what the opposition say, but they do care what the commuter belt thinks.

One can of course assume that FF know nothing whatsoever about how to introduce contentious legislation or manage the press, and were genuinely clueless about the effects of this legislation...

[Apparatchik]

I still think this one was FF press management. It has exactly the same fingerprints as the smoking ban.

I don't get you. Can you explain what you mean in more detail.

I'd say the planned date was next year all along - clearly the Gardai hadn't been told they would be enforcing it from this week.

I don't buy this notion of Dempsey as a genius of media management. Ahern saw another disaster looming and made Dempsey eat humble pie. He should have put him to the sword...

[Victor Meldrew]

I think IBIS is right, it's too gormless otherwise. FF are kleptocratic unprincipled gombeens, but on the whole, they are not so stupid to have been sincere about this one.