What a stupid poll. Ministers may annoy us, particularly when they seem out of touch with the people they are supposed to represent, but they are still private citizens albeit working in a public position. If this line of thinking were followed then the private phone numbers of everybody in the public sector should be made available. Ministers are still entitled to a private life and I think we have yet to cross that line to the same degree as the trashy UK tabloids do.

Secondly having their private phone numbers publicly available would block up their phones with abusive messages and could make it difficult to organise a cabinet meeting, for example, at short notice.

Thirdly Ministers can be contacted through their offices and these numbers are easily accessible on the relevant department websites.

Presumably we’re talking about mobile phones paid for by the state? Totally should be public. If they want a private number, they can pay for it themselves, like everyone else in the world.

Certainly the mobile numbers of ministers should be available to the public but the various vested interests that decided to publish them online are acting childishly. Ringing up to abuse any democratically elected TD is not going to solve the problem.

I’m not a fan of the current administration but when we elect representatives to govern us we empower them to take the decisions that they are taking now. Not only that, we’ve elected a FF dominated government 3 times in a row so “we the majority” were quite happy with the policies that got us here – at least there was no public demand for Ministers numbers.

I think it’s time that the Irish electorate grow up, educate themselves and approach politics with more maturity. TDs aren’t there to fix pot holes, get your aunt into a hospital bed or accept an earful from disgruntled members of the public (who may or may not have voted at all). Next time get out and vote and make an educated and informed opinion on who and what you are voting for!

Minister’s would have nothing interesting to say – unless it was to say ” I got it wrong, so I’m resigning and foregoing my ‘Goodbye money’ and my Ministerial pension. I intend to spend the rest of my life doing remedial work in some part of the Third World – Galway looks interesting.

A question for you all, just to stir the pot a little. Why do we think it’s almost out of order for a local councillor not to have their number made public, and yet we treat TDs so differently? And why should ministers, hypothetically, be treated any differently to ‘ordinary’ TDs?

Yes, they should be public, but only if every other mobile phone paid for through the state is also made public.
Every mobile number for every teacher, traffic warden, refuse collector, transport manager, police constable etc etc.

While the argument that ministers are public property, maybe we shouldn’t forget that so is everyone else who is paid for by the state!

Of course they shouldn’t be public. Despite working in the public sector, they do deserve a separate private and public life.