Wow
Some impact of brexit on the razor market.
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Iâve gotten lazy being off work and having a new born.
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You got off light, did they go in where I thought?
Over the ear, under the eye. Half right
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Under the eye, I wondered was that prior cut. Hopefully a full recovery. Your days of your puss being a moneymaker are probably gone anyway 
No, heâs done a tidy job on it in fairness.
That shipped sailed a long time ago This is just confirmation!
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Best of luck with the recovery mate.
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Declan is one of those yokes from game of thrones, surprised the hockey ball had any effect on him.
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Ohhhhhhhhfff buachaill dana
Embrace your time off with the new arrival
Work gets in the way sometimes
I assume when you responded âIâll give you facking Paddyâ, the other lad is in ICU?
Get well soon
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Missed that part,the cunt
It was a very civilised game. None of that shit uttered. Their goalie was from the North so we gave each other a bit of craic during it.
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Congratulations on the newborn lad 
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I enjoyed Jim OâCallaghan trying to take Robert Watt down a peg or two on radio this morning.
âHe has no executive powersâ
"He is a secretary general, his job is to do what he is told "
âNobody needs to know what his personal opinion is, he should just do his jobâ etc etc
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Miriam Lord.
A jaw-dropping performance from the prince of permanent government
SECRETARY GENERAL OF THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH ROBERT WATT LEAVING THE OIREACHTAS FINANCE COMMITTEE MEETING AT LEINSTER HOUSE YESTERDAY. PHOTOGRAPH: DARA MAC DĂNAILL
When presented with what, to most observers, looked like the obvious, Robert Watt begged to differ
Deputies, know your place!
Chairman, know your place!
Do you not realise you are in the presence of a prince of the permanent government?
The performance of Robert Watt at the Oireachtas finance committee yesterday afternoon was hard to credit in all its jaw-dropping swagger.
Doubtless, the exalted secretary general of the Department of Health never intended to come across as dismissive, cocky, combative and arrogant during his two hours of testimony. But unfortunately for Mr Watt, he did.
Doubtless, the controversial career civil servant never meant to sound so glib during some of his replies and never meant to smirk and shrug so much when answering questions put to him by mere TDs and senators. But unfortunately, he did.
As chairman John McGuinness remarked, having torn strips off him for his âarrogantly dismissiveâ attitude: âThe people listening in, who have an interest in this, will make up their own minds.â
It shouldnât be difficult for them.
His witness was highly affronted by the comments.
McGuinness didnât hold back, having sat through the secretary generalâs highly frustrating responses to questions from increasingly exasperated committee members. At every turn, when presented with what, to most observers, looked like the obvious, Robert Watt begged to differ.
âItâs here. Itâs here in black and white!â shouted Sinn FĂ©in finance spokesman Pearse Doherty at one point, brandishing a letter written by the mandarinâs own fair hand.
âI donât want to split hairs here, but, honest to God!â he gasped as the hearing drew to a close.
When members pointed out the contradictions in some of his answers, Watt fell back on the same, rather petulant defence. âWell, Iâm entitled to my views.â
Peadar TĂłibĂn rightly observed that disagreeing with a report does not grant immunity to accountability. âOtherwise, it is simply analysis. Itâs just meaningless opinion.â And the review is more than that.
The witness almost lost his rag with Peadar. âItâs not your job to summarise what I just said.â
Bet he wouldnât talk to Martin Fraser or Deirdre Gillane like that.
He also took the chair to task for what some might say was telling a few home truths. âYour answers fall way short of the standard I would expect of a senior civil servant,â said McGuinness, accusing him of setting a very bad example to young officials.
âI think now, chair, you are not in a position to personally criticise me ⊠Iâm not sure itâs appropriate for the chair to comment like that.â
McGuinness pounced. âWell, to quote yourself â Iâm entitled to my opinion, arenât I?â
The witness made it abundantly clear throughout that he does not accept the findings of the Government-commissioned review into last yearâs proposed open-ended secondment of the then chief medical officer to a specially created role in Trinity College Dublin, with a promise of up to âŹ2 million in annual research funding.
The least the politicians could have done was give Robert his due for being absolutely right in the way he handled the botched appointment of Dr Tony Holohan, while generously condescending that the review, which found he absolutely did not get it right, was wrong.
âI regret the way it panned out,â he confessed in a rare moment of mild contrition, conceding âweâ were a bit remiss when it came to âcommunicatingâ the detail around the creation of this prestigious job for the eminently deserving chief medical officer to the Minister for Health.
It didnât help that an email destined for hapless Minister Stephen Donnelly had gone astray as the Ministerâs system had been hacked. And then, said the stellar civil servant, they forgot to follow up as âit slipped our mind to give him the detailâ.
âIt all seems rather strange,â mused Sinn FĂ©inâs Rose Conway-Walsh.
âNo, itâs not,â snapped Robert.
Anyway, everyone who supported this new position for Dr Tony had been acting with the best of motives. âDoing the right thing in the public interest and that has to be recognised and that has to be accepted and it would be nice if that was recognised and that was accepted.â
Robert donât get no respect from this committee. He pushed back hard.
Maura Quinn, who conducted the review, concluded that the secondment seemed like âa very casual arrangementâ.
âI donât accept that,â said Watt to Fianna FĂĄilâs Jim OâCallaghan.
Jim read out the relevant part of the report.
âI agree with what she says there,â he said.
âNo. I donât agree with it.â
And that, in a nutshell, is how it went for the rest of the two hours. Robert Watt was âvery happyâ to conclude the secondment process had been conducted in an appropriate manner and would broach no criticism.
This is because he didnât seem to think there was any criticism. Protocols? What protocols? Did the reviewer even list any in her report? As for âbypassingâ accepted procedure, what does that even mean?
No, he agreed with nothing. Or almost nothing.
When the report emerged on Monday it emerged that there had been a major difference of opinion on who on high had known what about this thorny non-appointment. The people disputing Wattâs version are two very powerful, non-elected people: Fraser, the former Department of the Taoiseach secretary general who is now Irelandâs ambassador in London; and Gillane, TĂĄnaiste MicheĂĄl Martinâs chief of staff.
In the pecking order of the permanent government, they outrank the secretary general of the Department of Health. They say he did not supply them with the detail about the appointment. Does he agree?
Agree with what Martin and Deirdre â he referred to them by their first names â are saying, even though it contradicts him?
âI accept what people said they knew or didnât know. So thatâs fine.â
So he isnât disputing what Martin Fraser said? âHappy to accept it broadly, alright. Happy to accept his view, he has his view. Thatâs fine, absolutely.â
And Deirdre, who vehemently denied his version of who knew what? âOh yeah, I accept that. If Deirdre said she didnât know about it, thatâs fine.â
So what? As Robert breezily remarked: âAnyway, it is what it is.â
The secretary general had the committeeâs hackles up before he even entered the room. He hadnât provided a written opening statement, as is the norm. They took a dim view.
It didnât take Pearse Doherty long to remark that it was the first time they didnât have an opening statement. Two and a half hours later and Robert Watt didnât make a closing statement either.
John McGuinness gave him the option but seemed rather relieved, like everyone else, when his witness jumped up and muttered âThanksâ, grabbed his leather bag and hurried out.
A few minutes earlier he had told Watt, speaking as a committee chair of long experience, that he found some of the exchanges âreally bizarreâ.
He was right.
Lessons, of course, will be learned. Itâll be up to the Government to work out what they will be, said the prince of the permanent government.
Such was the tone and manner of Wattâs turn in front of the committee, he made it impossible for us to feel sorry for him when Marc MacSharry began interrogating him. Marc, every bit as self-possessed as the witness, thought he did a good job. When he finished, he triumphantly tucked his glasses into his top pocket and if the microphone hadnât been nailed to the desk he would have dropped it.
Robert and Marc, like two peas in a pod.
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Thatâs a brilliant article to be fair.
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