This afternoon.
In the Dáil, during Leaders’ Questions…
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar told Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin that he has “absolute, total and full confidence” in Fine Gael TD and Junior Minister for Defence Paul Kehoe.
It follows calls for Mr Kehoe to resign, following his comments at the weekend in which he said two Irish Naval Service vessels, LE Eithne and LE Orla, are in the dock for “planned maintenance” and not crew shortages.
This was despite the Navy’s most senior officer Cmdr Mick Malone saying they were tied up because of manpower issues.
Mr Varadkar told Mr Martin that Mr Kehoe had been briefed at the Irish Naval Service base in Haulbouline, Cork, last Friday and “the remarks he made to the media reflect the briefing he was given in Haulbouline with officials and senior Navy staff present”.
Previously: Which Is It?
We’re Gonna Need A Smaller Boat
The Dail is in a holiday mood as they depart tomorrow for a well-earned 2-month break. Kehoe is saved by the bell even though 20% of our naval capacity is out of commission.
Yep. 4 months to a possible hard Brexit and the boys take 50% of that time for holidays. Varadkar has been absent from the podiums. Cowardly fellow.
I hope Kehoe feels secure in the knowledge that Varadkar has confidence in him.
Of course he has full confidence in him. The only thing we can be confident in is Kehoes ability to continue to be the bumbling, inept, incompetent, incapable daw jawed fool he has always been.
Meanwhile the jaded Michael Martin continues what he considers a pantomime, but in reality it’s a freak show where he walks into that chamber evert day and does his best to try and feign the act of appearing like an opposition party leader. Talk about milking the public service money trough. how many years has this bufoon had his snot in the trough and he has delivered nothing of note in his entire time that he has been making an absolute fool of the electorate. He absolute must be a fellow of the Political Sugar Candy Mountain Society at this stage of his elderly life.
And the dimmer than Varadkar electorate just sit back and let it all happen. What a pathetic state of affairs the electorate has directly allowed to happen
did he not bring in the smoking ban in 2004?
Thats what most people think. Michael Martin was merely the ego that carried it to the cabinet table.The real people behind the smoking ban were people like Prof Luke Clancy, Prof Shane Allwright,Jeffrey Wigand. Michael Martin at the time was the inept Minister for Health only interested in further inflating his ego. The idea was sold to him on the basis that it would be his ‘legacy’ in the health department. Egotistical bufoons like Martin love to hear the word ‘legacy’. They see it as a symptom of success for the overinflated salaries, expenses and pensions that they happily pig out on from the taxpayer money trough.
I had a good long laugh at that.
Freudian slip?
“After seven years in the Dail, there is no-one who understands offence as much [as Paul Kehoe] having spent so much time therein”
Leo probably meant “defence” but you have to wonder given the calls by the navy for Kehoe to go.
These people sometimes choose their phrases intentionally. as well as using their hands to make points. Think Noonan and his two finger salute, and Reilly with his ‘spin on it’ finger gesture. Images readily available on the web.
But just now, Varadkar re-iterated his ‘apology’ regarding priests, saying that he insulted people he didn’t intend to insult. Same as he said last week. Leaving the question as to who did he intend to insult? If it wasn’t the priests, it was Michael Martin. ‘I apologize if the deputy was offended’. Now, say Micheal Martin wasn’t offended, does that mean that Varadkar doesn’t apologize to him then? FG mealy mouthed loaded apologies are par for the course.
Isn’t Kehoe also a former Government whip?
Maybe now that Big Phil’s on a good run he can put in a kind word for the beleaguered Kehoe. It looks like he owes him one.
https://www.independent.ie/business/irish/nationwides-soft-loan-to-hogan-26873373.html