The least bad choice for Finance?

The most dificult chore for me will be to come up with a name for Magic Arse's replacement. I don't know anything about Mary Coughlin but her name could be Fantasy something or other, I am trying to think of a suitable 2nd word to go with Fastasy but I am stuck. It must start with F so that it will rhyme. Any ideas.

I was thinking about this today... Will Cowen still be Magic Arse or Chief something ? Chief Magic Arse?

Couglan is Minister for Agriculture and Food


Handsome enough eh?
http://www.agriculture.gov.ie/index.jsp?file=aboutus/cv_mc.xml

youngdan wrote:

The most dificult chore for me will be to come up with a name for Magic Arse's replacement. I don't know anything about Mary Coughlin but her name could be Fantasy something or other, I am trying to think of a suitable 2nd word to go with Fastasy but I am stuck. It must start with F so that it will rhyme. Any ideas.

Did you say it has to rhyme with stuck?
And begin with F ?

I misspoke it must begin with an F for alliteration. Back here the slang for arse is fanny so we could have Magic Arse being replaced by Fantasy Fanny. In her case the reqiured gold nuggets would be coming from this body part.

'Sweet Fanny Adams' if you could cos that's all she has to spend this year. The odds are fairly long on her getting the purse strings - Micheál Martin is the first (just listening to RTE morning Ireland now http://www.rte.ie/radio/index.html )

fukc my link just died

There's no way the Taoiseach could still be finance minister too .. ?

Kate P wrote:

Ard-Taoiseach wrote:

EvotingMachine0197 wrote:

<>Moved to B&F<>

I'd have no problem with Mary Coughlan.

Thanks!

Why do you think Mary Coughlan should be Minister for Finance? She has run only the soft Departments like Social Welfare and Agriculture. I feel you should be Minister for a harder Department like Health or Justice before you can be Minister for Finance. You have to have a mean auld scrounger in you to excel. I feel Coughlan is too nice for the position.

Bertie's second ministry was Finance, no reason why Mary Coughlan shouldn't be able for that.

Really? I was under the impression that he might have had a tenure as Minister for Industry and Commerce as well. He was Minister for State at the Department of the Taoiseach(Chief Whip) as well. That's effectively 3 briefs served. He was Mayor of Dublin as well. He did have a significant career going into leadership of Fianna Fáil that few others would have.

Minister for Labour in 1987
Minister for Finance in 1991

Our constitution allows for 15 ministers afaik - and afaik gvt chief whip isn't one of them. Neither is Lord Mayor.

But that's not to say that Ahern wasn't more experienced than Mary Coughlan when he took over as Minister for Finance.

That said, Coughlan was a junior minister for a short while before she went into social welfare and latterly into agriculture.

Coughlan's not well liked by the farmers. It comes as some surprise to me that anyone likes her. Her accent wreaks my head, it's like everything she says requires an enormous effort on her part.

If Charlie McCreevy comes back then I'm holding Cheltenham hostage (Munich style) till he backs out. That man was an idiot and worse, an ideologue.

Has everyone forgotten Dermo? I'll back him for finance. I know Cowen said he wouldn't be shaking things up much around the cabinet but I think a few changes are needed. If nothing it'll throw off the stagnant palour of Bertie that hangs over the present system.

Had forgotten about McCreevy - don't know how it would work exactly if he had to come back but didn't the current clique not have him removed so he wouldn't get the chance to come back?

Dermot Ahern ... hmm

Won't Cowen give it to someone who is fresh enough with ministries or shouldn't he, more like? If he gives it to Martin then Martin will have had about four ministries in as many years ... he's going to look like a cabinet nomad and possibly it may well reflect on him that he is less able than others because this could turn out to be a bad year for public finance..

Auditor #9 wrote:

Won't Cowen give it to someone who is fresh enough with ministries or shouldn't he, more like? If he gives it to Martin then Martin will have had about four ministries in as many years ... he's going to look like a cabinet nomad and possibly it may well reflect on him that he is less able than others because this could turn out to be a bad year for public finance..

What are you talking about, Martin's had three ministries in eleven years. He's been in the same ministry (enterprise, trade and employment) for three years now. Nothing remarkable there.

Talking of of someone fresh, are you thinking of Lenihen?

905 wrote:

What are you talking about, Martin's had three ministries in eleven years. He's been in the same ministry (enterprise, trade and employment) for three years now. Nothing remarkable there.

Talking of of someone fresh, are you thinking of Lenihen?

You're right - his ministerial career is stable enough but he has been changed around a lot recently - Health seems bad for all their health but he stuck it out for 4 years. If he's made minister for Finance now then he will have seen 3 ministries in 4 years - not as bad as I thought since he will have been industry trade employment minister for most of those 4 years. Yep, I was thinking of Lenihan - what are his chances do you think? I really believe Martin will get it though.

Ministerial Career
Mr. Micheál Martin, T.D., was appointed Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment in September 2004 (having taken over from Tánaiste Mary Harney, T.D. who is now Minister for Health). Minister Martin served as Minister for Health from January 2000 to September 2004 and prior to this was Minister for Education and Science from June 1997 to January 2000.

http://www.entemp.ie/corporate/ministersoffice/martin.htm

I think Lenihen is too inexperienced for finance, or indeed for justice though he seems to be managing. Not much has happened in justice though, and finance is going to be very busy.

Martin won't have been shuffled around more than any other potential finance minister.

It may be that FF has people with the personal ability needed for a Finance Minister, however their party political alignment on recent form: self-enrichment of a minority for little productive input, social division and lack of understanding of what creates wealth, would handicap any individual politician trying to steer us through the current choppy waters.

I think Mary Hanafin would be a good choice for a number of reasons:
1. It would show FF are willing to put women in the top jobs.
2. She is a hard ass and would be willing to make the hard decisions.
3. She is not well liked by all in the party so she would not risk her power base by saying no.
4. She has been a competent Minister in two departments.
5. She has good experience of the commercial sector though the department of communications.
6. She has good experience of a civil service behemoth in the department of education.

I don't rate Dempsey because he is too disater prone.
I don't rate Martin because of PPARs, his love of reports and I think his over-weening ambition means he would not take hard decisions at the risk of alienating back-benchers.
I don't think Dermot Ahern is creative even if he is competent. I think he will get the job though.
Lenihan is happy in Justice and is doing a good job.
Coughlan has not held a tough enough post yet.

I read Dempsey's profile in Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noel_Dempsey#Political_career

Never mind finance minister, that man should be Taoiseach!

On a more serious note, has anyone considered Seamus Brennan? You know, small fella, used to be a bigwig back in the day. He has become largely invisible. But my oul' lad's convinced he's the best man in there.

Brennan is the nearest thing to McCreevy in the cabinet. He is seen by many as a PD that didn't leave. I think he would be a good minister for finance. He has loads of smarts and he has seen how near financial ruin was caused in the past and how the situation was rescued. He is open-minded, willing to listen to the opposition and is behoven to nobody. He is also an honest straight talker who people can have confidence in when he speaks about the economy. He is also likely to retire next time around and is unlikely to work against a leader who has given him his best post ever. Bring it on.

I've always had good time for Brennan - though his seems to be one of the names that's bandied around for demotion rather than promotion. Cowen might leave him where he is - he's an electoral genius and a rock of continuity if not of innovation. He had a pretty uneventful run in Social Welfare and I take that as a good sign. Liveline was relatively quiet in his days.

On the face of it Hanafin would seem to be a good choice - but how is her relationship with Cowen? She's quite abrasive whereas Coughlan is a woman after his own heart, I'd say. I think relationships will be important in this decision. Hanafin will work better in a 'stand-alone' ministry where her social skills won't be called on too much.

Martin would be more likely to get the job than Ahern, I think. Being Minister for Finance during a downturn would kill Martin politically - and it's not like he's unaccustomed to getting it disastrously wrong. And I don't see Brian Lenihan moving either. He needs time to settle.

Geographically it would look good if Martin had Finance, Coughlan had T&E - and was made Tánaiste, Lenihan stays in Justice. Not sure who would take over ag though.... unless someone like John Mc Guinness or

I like reading these Irish political threads and there are some interesting charactors in the political mix. Over here most candidates morph into what a pollster tells them is most likely to get elected. The reason I post here is to enquire if this Seamus Brennan is a grandson of the Seamus Brennan who was the architect of the 1977 Election Manifesto which led to hugh increases in the countries debt going into the 80's. I left Ireland at that time and often wondered what became of this fool.

I think he's actually the same Seamus Brennan...

Kate, now I know that you are pulling my leg. I might be green but I am not cabbage.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seamus_Brennan

My memories of 1977 are pretty vague - having been a toddler at the time.

But joining the dots above led me to conclude that he is one and the same man.

His case is the opposite to Gone but not forgotten, he is forgotten but not gone