Galway fares well – but junior reshuffle hardly creates waves
Harry McGeeConnacht Tribune
World of Politics with Harry McGee – harrymcgee@gmail.com
So first the good news. Leo Varadkar’s line-up of second-tier Ministers was revolutionary and far-reaching – but only if you were a TD who happened to represent a Galway constituency. Seán Kyne had a bad week last week. He was one of those mentioned for possible promotion to the senior ranks. But that was always a bit of a long shot, especially after Michael Ring asserted himself into the senior ranks.
It was true that Enda Kenny being in the same constituency had kept Ring back so this Ministry will be a swansong for him. If Varadkar returns to power after the next election, I’d say Ring may have to retreat.
What made it a truly awful week for Kyne was the bombshell Varadkar dropped when he announced his senior Cabinet. Joe McHugh was named as the chief whip but then Varadkar put an extra feather in his cap. McHugh, he declared, would also be Minister of State for Gaeilge and the Islands, effectively taking Kyne’s job.
Nobody had bothered to tell Kyne about any of that, and the Moycullen man was naturally very upset that he had learned about it in such a way. A simple phone call, said a colleague, would have at least eased the pain.
And so this week, Kyne found out that he was being retained – no great surprise – and that he will be in charge of Community Affairs and Natural Resources.
He will have two masters effectively. One will be Ring in his new Department of Rural Affairs and the other will be Denis Naughten in Communications, Climate Action and Environment.
The role will suit Kyne in that it has a big west coast dimension and will play to his own strengths and instincts. One slight difficulty for him is geographical. Both Ministers are in neighbouring constituencies and neither will be slow off the mark when announcing good news for the west. There might be a bit of marking of territory to be done at the start.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.