Itâs time for Fianna FĂIL to pull the plug on this guy.
Shocked to hear his favourite film is Love, Actually. Shocked.
Mary Mitchell OâConnor shooting her mouth off about diversity and criticising Varadkar. She is totally incompetent but clearly was hoping âgender diversityâ would keep here there. Maybe if she performed well in the roles sheâs had so far then she wouldnât have been demoted.
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DJEI under MMOC performed infinitely better than either justice or DYCA under fitzgerald yet MMOC got the boot
It strikes me that Opinion columnists ranting about gender equality etc pick their targets incorrectly. Surely if they appealed to women voters (who at a guess make up a not insubstantial 50% of the electorate) to vote more for women candidates then it would result in more women TDâs and as sure as night follows day more women ministers.
Probably true but itâs politics really. Varadkar needed Fitzgeralds endorsement and clearly doesnât fear MMOC. I canât imagine gender plays into it much either way.
Where is she venting?
So what? Externally and internally, MMOC was viewed as incompetent when she was running a fun and easy department.
MMOC was totally incompetent. Because she was in a less high profile role this got ignored, but read the local stuff she was up to and how she ran her departmental team the whole time. The Sunday Business Post ran a piece on her a short while ago, it wouldnât get major attention, but on the basics things of running a team she just wasnât up to it. She couldnât even organise a local paper article.
âHi guys does ticket touting come under our dept? Consumer act???â
âKey business people, who are they?â
âconfirm receipt of every one of MY emails please send me a confirmation for same and response if required. I WANT to know what exactly is going on and what isnâtâ
âat the end of each day. can you send me an email report of days work pleaseâ
With other TDs;
Having spoken to ministers and TDs alike, there is no question that OâConnor got a right pasting from TDs.
âAt the PP meeting, the week of the budget, as a minister, you do not go in unprepared. And she appeared to be so, in comparison to Leo (Varadkar) and Simon (Coveney), who both gave comprehensive briefings as to what they were doing,â one senior Cabinet minister told me.
Varadkar firstly gave the parliamentary party a powerpoint presentation on the budget, which was described as âsophisticatedâ and well-delivered. Coveney followed up by giving a detailed handout to TDs about his help-to-buy scheme â and, typically of the aspirant leader, it was comprehensive and thorough.
The temperature in the room rose significantly when the rookie minister stood up to give hers.
âIt was embarrassing, to be honest. She managed to get up everyoneâs nose so quickly because her phone wouldnât work. The gulf in class from the two lads was incredible,â one veteran TD informs me.
âShe stood up, reading from her phone. It kept crashing, in need of a password⊠She spoke about how brilliant her department was. That really annoyed people,â another said.
Externally she was rarely wheeled out for interviews because she just couldnât hack it.
You can say what you want about Francis Fitzgerald but thatâs a separate issue.
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Thereâs a noted briefing against MMOC, on evidence of how their depts are performing. Fitz is woefully inadequate yet doesnât get anywhere near the bad press or asides to Miriam lord.
Thatâs not to say MMOC is fantastic but hardly a fair fight
Sheâs a blithering idiot art ffs.
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The initial âin the knowâ pieces about MMOC from last year with accompanying quotes from unnamed âinsidersâ and âsourcesâ were quite amusing. Aside from those emails to staff / advisers, they implied that she was thick as shit and a complete embarrassment. Going to announce new jobs in companies and not knowing how to pronounce the company name or key personnel. Not reading any of the briefing material in advance and not knowing what they produced / did and bumbling her way through speeches etc etc. Not sure if this is true though.
The episode with the car on the plinth would suggest that a lot of it is probably true.
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Link Me In
MMOC was promoted because;
a) she is a woman and was banging on about gender quotas for a couple of years before
b) DĂșn Laoghaire has 3 FG TDs and feel they needed more cabinet representation in Dublin where they are strong. Barrett is just holding to one as he was automatically reelected and FG needed numbers and because Bailey is a rookie TD
c) she was Enda loyal
I see the McEntee wan hanging on tight to Leo over in Brussels,sitting beside him on the news,that auld boot Doherty must be raging.
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Yep, real behaviour unbecoming for minister of state for EU affairs 
I noticed she was with him right throughout the leadership race. Every clip on tv and she was there beside him.
Maybe she thinks she can turn him hetro