Minister throws a hissy fit on live radio.

MagicMarker

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2011/0602/breaking55.html

Minister of State for Small Business John Perry hung up on a live radio interview today when asked about his election commitments to return cancer services to Sligo General Hospital.

The Minister was speaking on Ocean FM’s North West Today current affairs programme this morning.

During a discussion on the future of cancer services in the northwest, the Sligo-Leitrim TD was played a clip from an interview he gave during the election campaign.

“We’re very clear on this,” he said in the recording. “In the first programme for government, within the first 100 days, the satellite facility will be restored at Sligo General Hospital.”

Reacting to the clip, the Minister said all the facts would be made available at a press conference on June 17th. When pressed for clarification on the nature of the press conference, the Minster accused the presenter Niall Delaney of having “an agenda”.

“I’m not going to tell you this morning, to be honest, you can be assured of that,” Mr Perry said. “Because if I made one statement, you’ll interpret it quite differently.”

After Delaney again demanded a direct answer on whether cancer services would be restored or not, Mr Perry repeated that the details would be made available at a press conference in June before hanging up.

“You don’t expect anyone to hang up on you,” Delaney said afterwards. “If I’d said something personal or something you’d half understand it . . . but I was just pressing him.”

Speaking after the interview, Mr Perry said he had been making his point clearly on the show but wasn’t making any progress. “It was just the tone of it,” he said. “There was no point in it going any further.”

He also said that the station had introduced "another party" to the discussion with no prior notice, which he felt violated the “terms of the interview”.

The other party was Donegal Sinn Féin councillor Michael McMahon, who had claimed the Minister was typical of the politicians of the previous government and reneging on his promises.

On the future of cancer services at Sligo, the Minister said he was still committed to the issue. “It is a critical service,” he said. “It should never have been removed in the first place, and it was a mistake.”

I heard a snippet of this on the way home from work, it's incredible that a minister can't handle a situation like this and has to resort to acting like a child who doesn't get their own way. Why agree to go on the radio in the first place? As a Minister should you not be prepared for this kind of thing?

Duffy the Vampire Slayer

He'd have done better to give a straight answer and take the heat. Now he just looks childish.

later12

Pretty worrying to think that this guy is a Minister with a portfolio as responsible as getting SMEs up and delivering. Hope he doesn't behave like that with his colleagues.

Here is the clip

http://soundcloud.com/oceanfm/minister-john-perry-fg-hangs?utm_source=soundcloud&utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=twitter&utm_content=http://soundcloud.com/oceanfm/minister-john-perry-fg-hangs

RMD

Shouldn't have gone on the radio if he can't handle a pressing interview, pretty basic criteria for a person who will face media questioning. Shouldn't have made promises he couldn't fulfill either in his election campaign, especially something as serious as a promise relating to cancer treatment services.

Duffy the Vampire Slayer

Promising something the people of north Connacht and Donegal have been campaigning for for years within 100 days.. Is this mad or what?

imme

Is this news, gombeen-style junior Minister on a local radio station.

edanto

Groan. I guess it'll take a few more elections til we weed out the guys that make promises they can't deliver, nor can't handle the demands of the job.

dan_d

I think hanging up on someone is phenomenally rude - one of the rudest things you can do. And although I did not hear the interview, I will say that sometimes I listen to politicians (and others) being interviewed on talk shows, and honestly, I'd be tempted to hang up on some of the journalists the way they go sometimes.

I don't condone rudeness, and I do believe that you should be able for the hard questions. But seriously, if you listen to some shows (I've one in mind) the interviewer asks the same questions repeatedly, often in a fairly aggressive manner and interrupts constantly (which drives me nuts). Why would you keep ramming questions down someone's throat,only to interrupt them before they've finished their answer, to fling another question at them? You wouldn't behave like that in a conversation on the street, why behave like that on public radio? And it's nothing to do with cutting to ad breaks - they're actually quite polite about that.

I do think that while politicians should be able for all the hard questions, we should not just blindly accept that the behaviour of the journalists asking the questions is acceptable either.

Liam Byrne

dan_d wrote: »

I think hanging up on someone is phenomenally rude - one of the rudest things you can do. And although I did not hear the interview, I will say that sometimes I listen to politicians (and others) being interviewed on talk shows, and honestly, I'd be tempted to hang up on some of the journalists the way they go sometimes.

I don't condone rudeness, and I do believe that you should be able for the hard questions. But seriously, if you listen to some shows (I've one in mind) the interviewer asks the same questions repeatedly, often in a fairly aggressive manner and interrupts constantly (which drives me nuts). Why would you keep ramming questions down someone's throat,only to interrupt them before they've finished their answer, to fling another question at them? You wouldn't behave like that in a conversation on the street, why behave like that on public radio? And it's nothing to do with cutting to ad breaks - they're actually quite polite about that.

I do think that while politicians should be able for all the hard questions, we should not just blindly accept that the behaviour of the journalists asking the questions is acceptable either.

If a politician refuses to answer then the interviewer is entitled to repeat the question.

I do take your point - at times an interviewer can be as arrogant, with a case in point being Vinnie Brown - but the evasion of a question needs to be highlighted : they're OUR employees!

For all his faults Dunphy used to be genius at this, letting the idiot politician hang themselves.....I remember him letting Ferris claim that a bout of vigilantism in Kerry was SF supporting and helping the Gardaí; when he was pressed and started that he "respected and 100% supported the Gardaí", Dunphy calmly asked how that could possibly be consistent with collecting their murderers from jail.

Likewise I don't remember any journalist pointing out to Aherne that giving State jobs "because they were my friends" is nepotism, i.e. 100% corruption, so they misses the boat on that one.

So yeah, some interviewers do need to learn the "give 'em enough rope" approach.