Seven Junior Ministers sacked as two are promoted by Cowen

[kerrynorth]

Confirmation that is 7 dropped and two promoted.

The Ministers who have not been re-appointed to the reduced second-tier ministerial ranks of 15 are: Noel Ahern (Dublin North West); Sean Power (Kildare South); Maire Hoctor (Tipperary North); Mary Wallace (Meath East); Micheál Kitt (Galway East); Jimmy Devins (Sligo-North Leitrim) and John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny).
Aine Brady (Kildare North) and Dara Calleary (Mayo) have both been promoted, according to sources.

Cowen drops seven junior ministers as Dail resumes - The Irish Times - Wed, Apr 22, 2009

[FakeViking]

P must be gutted.

[dmc444]

I really hope Dara Callery has been appointed. Hes a very competent politician.

[BodyofEvidence]

hohum. In other news, Captain Smith is confident that the new Junior Cushion Fluffers will ensure that the deckchairs on RMS Titanic will provide an uninterrupted and comfortable journey...

[smitchy2]

Less on the personalities. What 15 positions does he still think require a junior minister with no power but all the expense?

[SPQR]

Aine Brady, Kildare North's own invisible woman!

[cyberianpan]

Hmmmmmm

One of Brian Cowen's greatest failings as Taoiseach is that he totally drinks the "partnership" kool aid:

The biggest surprise is the demotion of Mr McGuinness, who was the Minster of State for Trade and Commerce at the Department of Enterprise. Mr McGuinness was one of the junior ministers with the highest profile and was regarded as effective.
However, he had been outspoken in his criticism of the public service over pay and productivity and, in the past, was seen as a politician who did not always follow the party position.

And social partnership deserves a lot of the blame for this mess, we vastly over paid ourselves:

- Once off revenue windfalls from fake property bubble
- This is used to fund permanent current expenditure increases !

cYp

[mmrebel]

RTÉ Ireland's National Television and Radio Broadcaster


You can watch proceedings live on the above link

[scheister]

Fair play to aine brady for getting a junior minsiter spot but can ayone really tell me what she has done since been elected to the dail

[kerrynorth]

I remember Aine Brady very well from the by-election where she was shown to be totally incompetent in her interviews with the media. She only qualified for promotion purely for being female and not being Bev. Cowen had very few options if he was ditching Mary Wallace and Maire Hoctor. The Conlon one from Monaghan could not have been any worse, surely?