Katherine Zappone Envoy Gig

Simon Harris, was the Icing on the cake, a gift that just keeps giving. I think he'll be avoiding journalists microphones for a while which will be probably more Traumatic for him than being caught rapid. More to come on the angle of the story 😏

"Coalition in chaos amid Simon Harris leak claims and Fianna Fáil TD’s resignation - Independent.ie" https://m.independent.ie/irish-news/politics/coalition-in-chaos-amid-simon-harris-leak-claims-and-fianna-fail-tds-resignation-40855760.html

Might be wise if he looks in the Back Bone section also, I believe there's a Political Sale on at the moment, quite a crowd outside this morning 😁😂

It would have been interesting with a free vote for his party. If the government did collapse after it then he could point to FG being the ones responsible. It's highly unlikely he'll be very be Taoiseach again either way but he's damaged his own party something terrible this past few months.

MM showed his true colours over this past few weeks. Stood firmly behind am opposition TD who was caught bang to rights giving a buddy a nice cushy job and deleting government communications from his phone.

Looks at how differently MM reacted when he sacked Cowen

The Taoiseach said:"He accepted what he did was absolutely wrong and he apologised to all members. I accepted that his remorse was genuine and I accepted his apology."The challenges facing this government are unprecedented. It is in everyone's interest that the government not be distracted in any way."

Yet, we are to believe this nonsense hasn't distracted government over the past few weeks, with the lies, coverups, misleading statements that needed "clarifications", phone hacking, destroying government correspondence against the law.

Coveney survived but what damage to the coalition partners will receive is only going to be known at the next election.

And how else do Fine Gael suggest we achieve below because Martin did nothing for 50 days...

Fine Gael New Politics document 2011

Fine Gael is convinced that public confidence in government can be restored – but only if there is real tangible change in the political system. The New Politics is designed to tackle head-on the major weaknesses in our archaic system of government, so that the huge policy mistakes of the last few years will not be repeated. It will:

End “Crony Government” in Ireland by opening up government and giving the Dáil, for the first time in its history, real power to hold ministers and public bodies to account;

Getting Coveney would have been a nice bonus for them but they now have the government parties on record defending cronyism, lies, and possible breaches of the law. It was a classic opposition party move and it worked.

Coveny isnt an opposition TD, hes a member of MMs Government and Cabinet. Im not saying what he did was right but trying to twist the reality to suit your own agenda and bias is a bit pathetic.

The Green misogynist will fill the papers next,

Must ministers of a department follow the same rules as civil servants in the department, specifically circulars relating to data handling, codes of conduct, and official secrets? Or are there different rules for non-CS in a department?

Im wondering what was Harris' angle in all this? Like he is supposed to be a Coveney ally and you would have thought that he would be loyal on the basis that doing so would land him a plum Ministry when Coveney does take over from Varadkar, something like Justice or Foreign Affairs that would then position him well to eventually take over from Coveney himself.

It seems bizarre that Harris instead leaked information from Cabinet that has now wounded Coveney badly. I know Harris is ambitious but he is getting a bit ahead of himself if he thinks he can take out Coveney first and then Varadkar to land the top job for himself. If that is his line of thinking he is delusional and he must have been watching too much Game of Thrones.

Either way what has come out of this whole mess is Harris trying to shaft Coveney by leaking details of the Zappone appointment and then Varadkar shafting Coveney by releasing the texts that Coveney handily deleted. FG is at war with itself, trust in the party has to be at an all time low. No doubt factions are going to seek revenge for whats happened so the events of the last few weeks are set to rumble on.

Looks like Darragh O'Brien misleading the Dail is next on the list.

Bad enough Colm Brophy attempting "to put others" under the bus, he's now suggesting it's up to the Taoiseach to investigate leaks, I somehow recall that being suggested recently on another matter.

Harris can of course request the Dail Record be corrected, that ain't going to happen as it will open up a can of worms. His next excuse (sorry move) will be intriguing, perhaps we might her from the named Junior minister named who attempted a sting operation.

You insisting he is an opposition TD is a blatant show of a bias agenda. He's part of the same Government and a member of his cabinet look up the definition and tell me how that makes him an opponent or member of the opposition.

Im just pointing out bias when i see it, trying to hide it and pretend it doesn't exist doesn't earn you any respect.