World of Politics with Harry McGee

The 1937 Constitution limits the number of senior Ministers in any Cabinet to 15 – and if that wasn’t set in stone, I’d say we could have well over 20 senior Ministers, and possibly more.

There was a time it was all about Mercs and half-Mercs; the prestige that went with being a Government Minister went with having a sleek black limousine. We reached peak-excess in that regard during the Celtic Tiger years.

That all turned was when the economy began to nosedive. There was a Government meeting in Farmleigh at which the black Mercedes and BMWs arrived, almost in funereal procession.

It was a PR disaster for a Government forced to push through austerity measures – so there was no choice but to trim the excess fats.

The number of junior ministers had bloated to 20; that was cut to 13.

And when the Fine Gael and Labour coalition came to power in 2011, it got rid of the State cars and Garda drivers for all but a handful of Ministers. Ministers of State had to use their own cars, albeit they could employ two civilian drivers.

Over the course of the past decade, as the economy has recovered, so have the numbers crept up again. There were 16 junior ministers in the 2016 government.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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