FG Front Bench

[Rocky]

Sadly FG won’t be getting an overall majority so it’s not a case of comparing our front bench with the government. You’d have to compare basically a potential Rainbow government with the current government for it to make sense. People like Allen, Timmins, and Durkan won’t be Ministers and yeah that will probably be for the best because I don’t think they’d be up to it.

Also why would we put people on the national media who don’t have a hope of being Ministers like the 3 I listed above? All the FG frontbench people who are in the running for the cabinet have been on the national media i.e Bruton, Twoney, O’Keefe, McGuinness, Hogan, Mitchell etc. and the same is true with Labour and Greens so the comparison with FF attempts to hide Cullen and Roche doesn’t stand up.

[Biffo]

Sadly FG won’t be getting an overall majority so it’s not a case of comparing our front bench with the government. You’d have to compare basically a potential Rainbow government with the current government for it to make sense. People like Allen, Timmins, and Durkan won’t be Ministers and yeah that will probably be for the best because I don’t think they’d be up to it.
Also why would we put people on the national media who don’t have a hope of being Ministers like the 3 I listed above? All the FG frontbench people who are in the running for the cabinet have been on the national media i.e Bruton, Twoney, O’Keefe, McGuinness, Hogan, Mitchell etc. and the same is true with Labour and Greens so the comparison with FF attempts to hide Cullen and Roche doesn’t stand up.

So we are in agreement the FG frontbench isnt up to the job of running the country. As for those you did mention well Twomey and McGuinness are not guranteed to be elected and Jim O'Keefe is going senile.

[meriwether]

Why dont you address the issues I brought up regarding the competence of the FF front bench Biffo?
I feel left out.

[Biffo]

Experience does not equal competence Biffo.
Cullen and Roche (remember them Biffo?) have lots of experience.
Sadly they are criminally incompetent.
Further incompetents include Joe Jacob and Noel Dempsy. Other incompetents include John O Donoghue, who was demoted from justice into the ministry that FFers take great glee in saying Kenny was in, and Michael Martin, who ranks as one of the worst health ministers ever. He is so bad, Brian Lenihan Jr went so far as to defend Mary Harneys record in health, by stating on the week in politics that she was left a mess of a service.
Then we have Brian Cowen, Deputy leader of FF, and finance minister.
Cowen is so competent and in control, that he cannot even take control of the direction of his own partys economic manifesto for this years election. Its been a little picked up on fact, but Cowen wanted a thrifty manifesto. What we got was the current 1977 re-incarnation.
Which begs the question- if he cant control his own party's policies, how can he control the country?
And what other FF ministers of Health contributed to the 'mess' inhereted by Harney?
Err........Brian Cowen was also a health minister.
Oops.

Well this amounts to nothing more than slagging, your calling somebody criminally incompetent doesn’t make it so. The only thing resembling a point is about Cowen not controlling the economic direction of the election manifesto but that’s heresay. Compared to what the Rainbow came out with Brian Cowen’s and FF’s manifesto is a monument to prudence. Nowhere is Brian Cowen’s manifesto is there an amount of money ring-fenced and then spent twice as there is in the collective promises of the Real alternative.
As to Cowen’s record as minister for health it is worth remembering the circumstances at the time and how they resulted in Cowen facing down the nurses and brought them back to the table and in turn negotiated a deal well below what the nurses had hoped for. Given the finances available to health at the time this was crucial as a failure to reach such an agreement would have resulted in massive cut-backs in other areas of the department. It was the first high profile example of how public pay was beginning to spiral out of control and Cowen stood up to the nurses (who had huge public support) to negotiate a deal in the national interest, soon after he was promoted.

[Rocky]

Sadly FG won’t be getting an overall majority so it’s not a case of comparing our front bench with the government. You’d have to compare basically a potential Rainbow government with the current government for it to make sense. People like Allen, Timmins, and Durkan won’t be Ministers and yeah that will probably be for the best because I don’t think they’d be up to it.
Also why would we put people on the national media who don’t have a hope of being Ministers like the 3 I listed above? All the FG frontbench people who are in the running for the cabinet have been on the national media i.e Bruton, Twoney, O’Keefe, McGuinness, Hogan, Mitchell etc. and the same is true with Labour and Greens so the comparison with FF attempts to hide Cullen and Roche doesn’t stand up.

So we are in agreement the FG frontbench isnt up to the job of running the country. As for those you did mention well Twomey and McGuinness are not guranteed to be elected and Jim O'Keefe is going senile.

I agree that certain members of the FG frontbench wouldn't be up to being Ministers, yeah. Thankfully it isn’t a case of the current FG frontbench forming the next government because we’re going into government with Labour and probably the Greens and even if FG did get a majority Coveney, McGuinness, Shatter, Barrett and Brian Hayes would get ministries above some members of our frontbench.

If FG get what they are getting in the polls and get into government then Twoney and McGuinnss will get into government. Naughton another potential Minister was on the news at one there and I thought he did well.

I will add that I don't think anyone in the current government except for maybe Cowen and Harney who are both in the wrong positions are up to the job of running the country.