The thing about Catherine Martin is that barely anybody even pretends, any more, to argue that she’s up to the job. Over the weekend, the political reaction to the latest mess – this time, effectively but at the same time somewhat accidentally sacking the RTÉ chairwoman on live television – was one of resignation on the Government benches. Resignation to the Minister being who she is, that is, rather than demands for her resignation.
The Taoiseach does, of course, as a matter of constitutional prerogative, have the right to sack or dismiss any member of his cabinet. In practice, being in a coalition Government means giving up that right. Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil Ministers depend on Green Party votes to keep them in power, which means that Eamon Ryan and Eamon Ryan alone gets to decide who represents the Greens in cabinet. The nature of a coalition government is that you may not hang separately. If the Taoiseach were to sack her, he’d be at grave risk of sacking himself in the process if the Greens decided to leave the Government in protest. Incompetence, as Irish Independent columnist Eoin O’Malley noted over the weekend, is no bar to keeping your job in the Irish cabinet.
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