From top: Miriam O’Callaghan (left) and Katherine Zappone; Fergus Finlay
Re the funding of UN SDSN, its annual accounts show $10m of funding, with some coming from unnamed govts. There’s no reference to it in DFA/Irish Aid’s reports, but it has a threshold for reporting funding. Katherine Zappone spoke at UNSDSN-linked events while minister.
— nwl (@nwl88444048) August 11, 2021
This morning.
Further to Merriongate…
…via Fergus Finlay in the Irish Examiner:
On July 18, I heard Katherine tell Miriam O’Callaghan on the radio that she would probably live in the US for the rest of her life. She’d visit Ireland, of course, but she had put her house on the market and was severing her connections with her adopted country. (The house is indeed on the market, with lots of promotional material about the work done by Dermot Bannon to modernise it, and an asking price of €750,000.)
She wasn’t asked hard questions in that interview and, as far as I know, it was the last interview she gave. She certainly didn’t mention that she was in conversation with senior ministers about work she might do for Ireland in the US. I wonder what kind of an interview it would have been if Miriam knew then what she knows know.
Then suddenly it was announced, unknown to most of the Cabinet, that she was to be appointed as “special envoy on freedom of opinion and expression” to the UN. No advertisement, no competition, no interview. She wanted it and she got it.
…If it was needed, there should have been a competition for it [the UN envoy role]. We have a large number of men and women in Ireland who would have made excellent candidates. If she was the best, the competition would have established that.
The proof of her sense of entitlement, sadly, lies in the fact that she never gave a single interview about the controversy. This was compounded by the fact that, when the next controversy arose — about her party in the grounds of the Merrion Hotel — all she could do was issue a terse one-liner telling the media to contact the hotel….
Did her party comply with the guidelines? You’d have to be there to know (I wasn’t)…
Fergus Finlay: Ireland deserves better from arrogant Government ministers (Irish Examiner)
Earlier: Cash For Cronies
Who paid for the merrion hotel shindig?
Fergus being a quango king himself, is rightly annoyed that he didn’t get offered the gig
The ultimate insider!
not far off I’d say
I’m particularly taken by this line
The proof of her sense of entitlement, sadly, lies in the fact that she never gave a single interview about the controversy.
but shur she’s not the only one not talking – and tbf – she’s exempt from any Party or Government Whip
there’s a whole Labour Party not talking either
And I’m not convinced that the walking living proof of self entitlement herself – Mary Robinson didn’t have anything to do with Zappone’s swanning around UN circles
Just saying
Ugly auld mess. When one views the output and achievements of cabinet ministers over the last few years there’s little to impress. Nothing that wouldn’t have been achieved by administrators. No big vision, no noble horizon to which we can look and progress towards. Everything is reactionary or keeping a lid on things. What would any of them say about their portfolios were they at a job interview to discuss their previous experience in their respective roles?
They say leaders are born, not made. They also say men and women of this stature come along rarely, not even once in a generation. All said we’re due someone surely whose motivation transcends the small, the mediocre and self-aggrandisement. I don’t want to have to do it meself but if things don’t improve I might have to. That’s a warning….
Good man
:)
Shes a private citizen now. Dont know why she would need to be giving interviews if she doesn’t want to.
Fergus is great fella for the cushy quango/government jobs.