Brian Farrell’s 1971 book Chairman or Chief was one of the first major political works to analyse the role of Taoiseach. It categorised the holders of the office as either consensus-building chairmen or more autocratic chiefs. Published just four years before Enda Kenny entered the

WHATEVER else you might say about Michael Noonan, he knows how to catch the headline. He even knows how to stealthily take it away from his own Taoiseach, which is no mean feat. He was at it again last Wednesday. Speaking at Bloomberg’s Ireland Economic

Last Tuesday, the Communications Minister spent two hours with the RTE Authority discussing the serious breaches of the Broadcasting Act made by the infamous Mission to Prey programme. The Chair of the RTE Authority later described the encounter with the minister as “candid”. I can

THE referendum campaign is barely one week old and already it seems that not all is well in the Government and the Vote ‘No’ camps. Both have displayed moments of incoherence and inconsistency that does nothing to help debate. This was in evidence on last

IT IS rare enough that you find yourself mentioning Simon Coveney, Conor Cruise O’Brien and Jean-Marie Le Pen in the same sentence, but it happened last Monday. The trigger was Minister Coveney’s appearance on last Monday’s Six One News on RTE. He was there is

IT IS possible to categorise ministers into three distinct groups. The first are the high-flyers. These are the top performers who the public recognise and even like: the ones who party members hope may one day lead the party. The second group, the passengers, counterbalance