Search Results for 'backbencher'

The shock decision to walk away from the Cabinet table this week, which will cost him an estimated €1,000 a week in wages, was based on principled rather than parish pump politics, according to the now former Minister for Housing and Planning, Deputy Willie Penrose.

He was Fine Gael’s ‘Chosen One’, the heir apparent to Pádraic McCormack’s seat and party HQ were expecting him to retain it and deliver a running mate. He did, but it took a long time and it was nail-biting stuff to the very end.

A backbench Government TD asks his not very bright 10-year-old daughter what she wants to be when she grows up. I want to be a politician like you, I want to be Taoiseach some day, she says. Her father was delighted. Political life had been good to him. Most especially so considering he had failed in everything else he had tried his hand at. He knew that it paid people disproportionately to their abilities. Where else could an absolute oaf get such a salary and associated benefits? To be elected would secure his daughter’s future and that of all belonging to her. Oh yes, becoming a politician was a very good idea indeed. After all, it’s not as if you need any qualifications or ability.