Political parties in Ireland are very slow to do that in Ireland. It rarely happens.
It is of course cynical but a political party that claims to be pro business should not be seen to accept this sort of thing, so in that sense it’s a good thing. The halfway house afforded to Lowry of late is the most frustrating FG thing.
Kate O’Connell is a fine looking woman to be fair to her
She looks permanently too pleased with herself to be genuinely attractive.
She’ll rout Eoghan Murphy in Dublin Bay South next time
Nothing is gonna happen to her, this will drag on. FG only had a problem with her doing a poor interview that she never cleared with the politburo, which says it all
All that will happen is that Varadkar will give her a stern talking too and tell her not to do it again. Maria will then just disappear into Leinster house not to be seen again till the next Election.
The only way any more serious action would be taken against her would be if Mehole Martin grew a spine and told Leo he will bring down the government unless she resigns her seat. We know that wont happen and with a few by-elections on the cards the government can’t really afford to lose seats.
They can afford to lose seats and it would be ridiculous to bring down a government over what is ultimately a trivial matter
But it should certainly be used as a stick to beat them with
Is it trivial though? A sitting TD making a spurious claim against a businesses insurance as many other businesses are closing their doors due the high cost of insurance and all the other stuff like saying she couldn’t run for 3 months and yet was out doing a 10k 3 weeks later. Remember poor Wee Willie having to resign over a affidavit where he gave wrong information. FG were hopping up and down about that at the time.
I think Bailey may have done some good though, not by choice but by accident. She may have forced FG to now act on this insurance shit show, something they had been brushing off for a while.
If you’re talking about issues over which a government should be brought down, it definitely is
I think it showcases a culture of entitlement and arrogance in Fine Gael but when you get down to brass tacks the issue itself doesn’t really go beyond Bailey and Madigan
This is a classic example of one of the umpteen controversies a Government faces in a Dáil cycle that wagging tongues try to frame as perilous to the governments survival. The collapse never materializes because these matters are never serious enough to bring a Government down, and even where they are, there’s still the drawback of being the one to stick the knife.
The populace love moaning about their government, but they prefer moaning about having to pick one.
You are right in terms of bringing down a government it is trivial and this government with not fall on this issue.
However it has the potential to do damage to the FG party if they are not seen to act in disciplining Bailey and acting on this insurance issue that is forcing Businesses to close, something they didn’t want to do but now to save some face will have to do.
The problem for FG is that this is near the end of the cycle so shit that happens now might actually stick in the public’s mind.
On that point how many TD’s have been elected/ or are likely to be elected to Europe chaps? There was some talks that if there was a lot of by-elections they may as well go to the polls altogether.
The main problem for Fine Gael is that they’ve been in power for 8 years and have lost the common touch as a result. The blunders are beginning to add up. Happens to most governments in power that long.
It will damage Fine Gael’s image in the immediate term and has stopped the possibility of an election being called by the end of June, which was all the talk early on Monday morning - that talk had stopped by 10:30am and Bailey’s interview
It will damage Bailey personally and she will likely lose her seat
It could damage Madigan by association
But FG as a whole will have long ridden it out by next February
Of course if Bailey had a rural accent and was a rural TD, this would benefit her and she’d increase her vote at the next election
Dun Laoighaire is a much less forgiving environment - there’s a sort of straightlacedness to a lot of the urban soft FG vote and they will desert her
To be fair to Fine Gael they never had the common touch. 
They had it grand for the first term, just blamed everything on FF. After 8 years the tactic is running out of road.
Getting rid of that clownshoe Enda has prolonged their reign too.
While your certainly right about the moaning thus still has potential especially as josephas involvement or non involvement has yet to be revealed. If madigan advised in the first place then all bets are off.