Most competent minister

murphaph

Ok, so we know the government are a shower of you know whats but who is your most competent minister? Let's not restrict it to the present lot. Maybe state your most competent current minister and most competent of all?

My current minister would be Dermot Ahern. He seems (at least) professional and somewhat statesmanlike (more than can be said for a lot of them!). He's dealt with that NI place with tact as far as I can see, he seems to have kept his foot out of his mouth at least, and given the uber-sensitivity of northern politicians that takes some doing.

He can also string a coherent sentence together which is often more than his boss and namesake!

So, who's yours?

(Btw, I haven't decided my favourite of all).

The_Minister

murphaph wrote:

Ok, so we know the government are a shower of you know whats

No, we don't all know.

murphaph

Well now ya do, next!

murphaph

murphaph wrote:

My current minister would be Dermot Ahern.

Seems almost too nice, to the point of lacking the clout of a Biffo.

I'd go with Mary Hanafin. Not a shrinking violet, handling the portfolio well, speaks well, seems popular among teachers.

Ever? That's a tricky one...

mike65

I'll go for Minister Dick Roche




















Joking!

Nah I might give the nod the Seamus Brennan though, he's in a job he clearly did'nt want but seems to have taken to it well and has been using his famous energy to impliment quite a few long overdue reforms, he also seems to be willing to canvas opinion.

Mike.

transylman

Hard to pick out a single person but the politicians who have impressed me over the years would include Albert Reynolds, Seamus Brennan, Charlie MacCreevy, Dick Spring and Alan Dukes. All come across as being smart and genuinely passionate about politics.

Avns1s

In relation to the current shower, I'm surprised that anyone would even come up with a single sentence with the words "Minister" and "competent" included! They just don't fit well together!

kraggy

Current: Dermot Ahern

All time: Máire Geoghan-Quinn

daithimac

Brian Cowen seems to have done pretty well in health foreign affairs and now finance, he could be termed a safe pair of hands

NewDubliner

Yep, moving parts of his own department into the already-booming town of Tullamore in his own constituency was most competant of him.

Rock Climber

Dermot Ahern by a long shot.
Competent and an informed and elequent speaker.

Bob the Builder

Dermot Agern, very professional..

Copes well, given that Bertie Ahern throws a lot of his dirty work, onto Dermot Ahern....

*Not that any of them are sompletely competent, but I could say the same for Fine Gael and all them if they got into power....:/

Noel Dempsey at least follows though on a plan.

Hanafin? The Minister for Portocabin Education? She's released another pack of lies about school buildings and extensions in preparation for the election.

And Hanafin's plan of changing the grant system from the Councils & VECs to the VECs could cause havok next year. The Irish Times Education section swoons whenever her name pops up, it's quite annoying.

gurramok

Has to be Dermot Ahern who is a good speaker on issues.
Brian Cowen is down right arrogant, i remember his downright refusal to means test the €1k giveway for having children to prevent millionaires from benefiting, the man is outta touch.

The_Minister

Michael McDowell FTW.

Strong, vocal, elequent, refined.....I could go on.

Chakar

I would have to say Michael Martin is the best minister.He's a very nice guy and he did a great job with the smoking ban and the health portfolio.

murphaph

Chakar wrote:

I would have to say Michael Martin is the best minister.He's a very nice guy and he did a great job with the smoking ban and the health portfolio.

But not so great with the whole haemophiliacs business.

aidan24326

Could I safely assume that Martin Cullen won't be winning this award? In his case TD stands for total di...

...anyway to answer the OP's question, I'd go for Brian Cowen.

murphaph wrote:

But not so great with the whole haemophiliacs business (Michael Martin)

Tbf the health portfolio is an almost impossible job. There's a reason they call it the poison chalice.

DMC

First on my list.... Dermot Ahern. For a Louth TD to be in charge of NI affairs, and still hold sway with Big Ian and the Shinners..... thats pretty good imo.

Also, Mary Hanafin.

Biffo does live up to the "I" in his nickname, in my eyes. Confident; yes, good politician; yes... but part of me just makes me think I wouldn't like him to go up the next run of the ladder.

Famous Seamus has really surprised me since he went to the Dole office. He didn't like what he was dealt, but he has handled it very well, with dignity and has done a good job. Considering his ministerial career could've been over after his handling of the transport portfolio, he's done ok.

Mickey Martin has lost his sparkle since going to DoETE. I betcha he didn't begrudge swapping with Harney at the time, but it was a backward step, I feel. He needs a bigger job after the next election, for his own gains. But that solely depends on who FF go into power with, if they win the next election.

SeanW

Micheal Martin wasn't too bad he had the brass neck to stand up to the publicans (to whom FF is normally beholden) to implement the smoking ban. I give him credit for that. The smoking ban is probably one of the few good things this shower has done for the country. I would also give McDowell credit for trying to bring in cafe-bars, but that got decaffinated

I would autmatically exclude from this debate any of the nincompoops who have called themselves "Minister for Transport" at any time in the last 9 years.

Dr_Teeth

I'd pick Mary Hanafin, but then my Dad works for the dept. of Education and my Mum works for a VEC.

ninty9er

I'm in Ógra and I'd like to see Hanafin as the next party leader

1. Hanafin
2. Brennan
3. Ahern

Have to admire Mary Harney too.

walrusgumble

ahern has been really impressive as foreign minister so far, especially with ni and insisting on the isreali embassador to meet after that affair recently.

Biffo will probably be the next fianna fail leader. safe hands, but i have to laugh when brian crowly kissed his arse at the ard fheis recently calling him the most successfull finance minister, what 2 years and he is that already?

i have respect for maccreavy hopefully he will come back from europe.

to be honest i dislike the way many people feel embarrashed about the accents and the way certain politicians like berti and charlie talk. all you need to do is speak with direct effect and clearly (ok some of berties comments are mind boggling)

ninty9er

walrusgumble wrote:

i have respect for maccreavy hopefully he will come back from europe.

The man is one of the main reasons I joined. Great respect for him, but I cornered him on returning to Irish politicss and unfortunately he's not

walrusgumble wrote:

to be honest i dislike the way many people feel embarrashed about the accents and the way certain politicians like berti and charlie talk. all you need to do is speak with direct effect and clearly (ok some of berties comments are mind boggling)

Completely agree. Pat Rabbitte is very suave except some of the content lets him down. Enda Kenny is a perfect example of how elocution isn't everything. With much better diction than Bertie, his delivery lets him down every time.

SeanW

I'm in Ógra

I commend your honesty. If that were me I'd be ashamed to admit it.

I disagree. Some of Enda Kennys publicity has been cardboard-ish and some of it laughable but I saw him today watching leader's questions, and he spoke strongly, firmly and authoritatively in demanding answers for what the government had done (or not done) in the wake of the Leas Cross scandal.

Bertie answered these and other questions with his usual droning on for what seems like hours talking about this report and that report, how so and so had discussions with someone else and how legislation would be forthcoming at some point. Effectively, he used a lot of words but said almost nothing. As usual.

No wonder some people think politics is boring. Time for a change in gov't I think.

SeanW

SeanW wrote:

The smoking ban is probably one of the few good things this shower has done for the country.

I'd still rate it a bit behind the incredible changes in the economy and the Peace Process myself. Because of the former, McCreevey must come close to being the best ever, but he just completely lacked that statemanlike streak. Maybe if they had crossed Dukes and McCreevy...

Charlie McCreevy was a disaster as Minister for Finance. Those giveaway budgets overheated the economy, as predicted, and gave way to Rip-Off Ireland. When people complain that a family can't live on one income they should remember that it was McCreevey who decided to penalise single income families.

MontgomeryClift

MontgomeryClift wrote:

Charlie McCreevy was a disaster as Minister for Finance.

Yeah, that economic miracle stuff was terrible. Going from being one of the poorest to one of the richest countries in the EU? Unemployment rates collapsing? Inflation rates coming down from 10 and 15%? Emigration relegated to the history pages? A pure 'disaster' alright. So many people would be much more happy with a good old recession, like the mid 80s. Oh they were happy times, when living on one or two incomes was not as important as getting the fare together for the Slattery's bus to London...

Carb

Deleted User wrote:

Yeah, that economic miracle stuff was terrible. Going from being one of the poorest to one of the richest countries in the EU? Unemployment rates collapsing? Inflation rates coming down from 10 and 15%? Emigration relegated to the history pages? A pure 'disaster' alright. So many people would be much more happy with a good old recession, like the mid 80s. Oh they were happy times, when living on one or two incomes was not as important as getting the fare together for the Slattery's bus to London...

You'd wonder how we've managed to get by without him.:rolleyes:

McCreevy's right-wing, tax-slashing, price-rising, competitiveness-sapping policies were so unpopular he even had to leave the country. That Eurojob came at just the right time, especially for Bertie Ahern, who basically said 'Phew, yer man is gone. We're all socialists again now, tank God.'

MontgomeryClift

MontgomeryClift wrote:

McCreevy's right-wing, tax-slashing, price-rising, competitiveness-sapping policies were so unpopular he even had to leave the country.

Good one.

Tongue very firmly in cheek?

Sponge Bob

MontgomeryClift wrote:

Noel Dempsey at least follows though on a plan.

Hanafin? The Minister for Portocabin Education? She's released another pack of lies about school buildings and extensions in preparation for the election.

Lordy, Hanafin is so much more competent than that fool who was there before her, Dempsey. Most of the schools underprovisioning in the Pale was obvious on his watch after census 2002 .

Cowan and Dermot Ahern impress too , Mary Coughlan and Seamus Brennan and Eamonn O Cuiv and Willie O Dea and M Martin are the next tier for various reasons but only the top tier could run a country .

FF also has a few OK backbenchers who should be minister.

When Charlie McCreevy began as finance minister real GDP growth was 10.5%. This was the trend during the mid-90s. When he left in 2004 real GDP was at 5%.

Inflation in 1997 was very steady at under 1.5%. In 2000 it rose to 5.5%, and was only brought under control, by a slump, to 2% in 2004. It has since risen to 4.5% and holds precariously at 4%.

Even unemployment in this underpopulated country rose slightly in McCreevy's last two years as finance minister. His record is very poor.

FlutterinBantam

What really matters is the Ministry the incumbents have.

Some are much more difficult than others and bearing this in mind I would give my vote to Dermot Ahearne-never puts a foot wrong,always seems to take the right option,is not testy in relations to the media,seems to get on with all comers,is very well briefed on all matters.

Some observations... Hannafin , Mary Robinsons clone,down to the clipped staccato speech.Ever listen to her being interviewed on Morning Ireland?

Martin, a hero for putting through the smoking issue...downhill since
Dempsey..balls there,faced up to the shell for sea crowd.
Dick Roche.. Mister waffle,oily,unctious, ugh.. but knows his job
Cullen, expansive ,waffler, uses the office for his own furtherance
Brennan...good midfielder ..does the unsung things well
Cowan... good man to have on your side.. goes ferral now and again
Pat the Cope.. chickened out when the fisheries stuff got too hot
Coughlan... has run out of options.. will have to take the unpopular stand soon.
O'dea.. Does exactly what it says on the tin
O'donoghue...hard not to do well in that ministery,but is competent

Thats it for the mom

silverharp

I have been impressed by any of the ministers involved with the peace talks, but when it comes to running the economy they are no better then some pen pushers, very little vision, no backbone when dealing with the vested interests in this country. going back in time, Sean Lemass I guess

Seth Brundle

What about Coughlan, the Minister for liquid & creamery milk?

walrusgumble wrote:

i have respect for maccreavy hopefully he will come back from europe.

ninty9er wrote:

The man is one of the main reasons I joined. Great respect for him, but I cornered him on returning to Irish politicss and unfortunately he's not

Charlie? The minister who upped VRT just before heading off to Europe to look after the internal market?

ninty9er

Thing about Charlie is that he will stand by his decisions, is not afraid of changing his mind down the line and is straight talking.

IIRC he didn't raise VRT he reallocated 1901 to 2000 cc from 25% to 30% different fish of kettles. If you want to have this argument with the kind person who was complaining about inflation above I'm sure he's all in favour of this tax. I don't necessarily consider it a tax in the correct manner and in prionciple am against it,l but in practice one of the main economic inflators in this country is our new car sales.

You may notice that Finland is almost 30% more expensive than Ireland for the average small saloon and they don't even have the RHD excuse.

You may also notice that the Swedish pay 57% PAYE equivalent, and that the French have one of the most unstable labour markets in the EU15 along with Italy.

The big German giant is coming out of recession while we haven't hit one in almost 20 years.

See a theme


Back OT - TK Whittaker is the best minister there never was, While O'Malley and Lemass are to be commended for their contribution to Education. Lemass by making it clear to Dev that Education was actually important and O'Malley for making it free.

Fitzgerald was on par with Bertie for diplomacy, but Bruton was just brutal.