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Sunday 17 January 2021
Fact. We should look towards Canada where all ministers are qualified in their fields.
There is no wonder ministers make cock up after cock up, writes Vincent Browne for TheJournal.ie.
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Sunny intervals, a shower in the p.m.
Max: 8 °C
Min: 2 °C
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REPLIES
And 50% of the Cabinet are women.
30 Ministers for Education, the rest minister for brown envelopes
To think we’ve had fergal quinn in the seanad for years.. Yet in last gov minister for small business was failed business man john perry.
OK so if I’m interpreting the green and red thumbs correctly, we should definitely, absolutely, positively follow Canada’s example of only appointing people who are qualified as Ministers. Unless of course, those people happen to be women.
What, Brinster? The most qualified politician for a certain role should get the ministry, regardless of their gender.
The reason your comment about Canada’s 50% women ministers got bad feedback was presumably because that’s not how Trudeau picked his ministers. He pretty much used his own form of quota in order to make sure that there were as many women as men in the cabinet.
What does that mean?
Gary. I don’t know what it means to be qualified n your field. But we had Seamus O’Reilly and Leo as ministers for health – both doctors and both useless if not downright harmful.
However, this cabinet is just bizarre. As Vincent pointed out Mary Mitchell O’Connor – a primary school teacher is going to be negotiating with huge multinationals to encourage them to bring jobs here. She has had one term in the dail, Her only impact was driving down the steps. Harris – a 29 year old with a degree in journalism and just 4 years’ experience in the dail is minister for health. I suppose we can thank our lucky stars that Lowry was not made minister for corporate affairs. Katharine Zappone – first time in the dail and minister for children and youth affairs and of course our glorious primary school teacher Enda as minster for defence. He’ll be great at tackling all those paper planes directed at him.
Noonan looks like someone who should be pushing a wheelbarrow full of horse manure or digging a ditch not in a highly responsible government position.
Classic!
Well put Anne Marie..
@ Malachi
Trudeau had a very definite and very deliberate policy – a gender balanced cabinet.
Gary’s comment has been very well received. And rightly so. I like the Canadian model
I’m just pointing out that if you want to follow the Canadian model, this involves not only picking someone who is qualified, it also involves picking 50% women.
It really, really, really shouldn’t be difficult to find several outstanding candidates for Ministries of both genders.
They just might not all be politicians.
There needs to be more problem solvers in government. Scientists, mathematicians, engineers, people who are literally trained to find answers, not rehash old ideas.
But Brinster, the part people like about Canada’s system isn’t the gender quotas – it’s the fact that their ministers are educated.
I completely and utterly reject the notion that you should bypass potentially better qualified people in search of a 50/50 cabinet. That is a looney idea in my opinion and I’m fairly sure most people wouldn’t support it over here.
We allow it.Regina Doherty owes tens of thousands,business goes bust so we let her give politics a shot-our system needs changing to stop these opportunists feeding off it.
This government does not solve problems. It subsidises them instead.
Unless of course its housing – in that case they make an obvious exception.
This motley crew of a gov are only capable of doing one thing to solve all the countrys problems, which is raising taxes, and even then they still eff up and squander the taxpayers money away.
@ Malachi
“I completely and utterly reject the notion that you should bypass potentially better qualified people in search of a 50/50 cabinet.”
Agreed.
But I’m not saying that.
I’m saying we should look beyond the relatively small pool of elected politicians.
Mr hepatitis you mean.
@Brinster
Are you suggesting that unelected people should be on the cabinet? I’d greet that with an emphatic “No thanks”.
Canada?
This liberal experiment in gender politics is already starting to unravel.
Justin Trudeau:
‘I’m an arms dealing feminist’
Hilarious really.
One of those ‘qualified’ ministers, the premier of Alberta, left the largest fire fighting aircraft, and several others sitting on the ground a short flight away at Sproat Lake while McMurray was burming, including the house of a minister who questioned her in their parliament why she was not taking appropriate action in protecting the region against fire
Titus, answers cost money to implement. No, the answer is not answers, its more questions, that need to be studied by committees to draw up expensive reports that do indeed contain some answers. However as these answers are contained in a report they can safely be set aside and left on a shelf in a dusty file room along with all the other similar reports, on whatever subject you may be concerned with, that have already been drawn up over the last 20, 30 or 50 years……thats how government works here. You must be new to this country not to have figured it out already. Never mind you will catch on.
You may need to read them articles a few more times…….
Incorrect Fact Gary. Been living in Canada for over 5 years now and involved in politics. The Canadians got their model from the British also and a lot of the current ministerial positions are filled with people with little to no experience in the portfolio they have. Admittedly they do try to leverage people’s experience but overall the MPs in the cabinet are the same as what we and the British have.
Seamus O’ Reilly???
When such people stand for election, maybe they will.
Sure didn’t we try that with having a doctor as minister for health . . . where did that get us :)
@Darren
I’d rather a Doctor messed Health up than a Journalist mess Health up.
I must say he is truly some langer
Yes. And 50% of buillding site labourers should also be women. It’s only fair.
you’re working off the assumption that there’s no gender biases in society. unless you’re going to push the idea that women are simply inherently worse at government/leading, then you can’t agree with that idea. so by default, you’re already not getting the best people for the job because of the various mechanisms that make it harder for women to succeed in politics.
Leighanna, do you think that less qualified women should be given preference over their male counterparts to implement a 50/50 cabinet/government?
I personally have no love for the idea that perfectly well qualified men should be undercut because they happened to be born in the ‘wrong’ gender.
PS, what is wrong with a meritocratic government though? There are women far better than me, if they get the job it makes sense, right? I do understand why the 50/50 thing is being suggested though. Unlike any other type of nob, you’re representing people of which 50%… are women.
Can’t think.
There is no such a thing as a Laborers.
How ever you can call them General Operator
It shouldn’t matter what sex they are as long as they are qualified to work in their appointed departments.
They all should at least have a third level education and be qualified in something. Heather got her education at home in Aghabog.
not true
Having bloggers who self-style themselves as “journalists” is an airhead absurdity we inherited from the EU.
and they pay for their water in canada
Anne nobody can fix the health service. We spend more on health than France. qed
and Canadians pay for water
and 50% of dustmen should be women sorry dustpersons
Maybe we spend more on health than France, but they don`t have vested interests like ours.
Just because your qualified doesn’t mean you’re any good. It also means that a significant section of society could be excluded.
But they have the dreaded NAFTA to deal with?
Gary
How to you determine that is a fact?
Can a woman TD dig a ditch and wheel barrows of horse-s**t? What about the false fingernails and the hair-do??
the only reason Enda appointed all the women and its not for their qualifications but so he wouldn’t be shafted in a few months , because Leo and Simon are coming after him
“They all should at least have a third level education and be qualified in something” why? Sounds like intellectual snobbery to me.