Mary Coughlan. Irish Politics a family business

Sceala Clann T.D. Location: Wicklow

Michael O'Leary the very successful businessman and Chief of Ryanair ....has been a longstanding critic of traditional Irish Politics ...and the systemic incompetence of most Irish Politicians.
In Ireland ....Politics is all too often a family business ...seats in Dail Eireann are treated as a birthright of the family business.
What we have in Ireland ...is effectively dynasty politics ...and not as Politics should ideally be ...careers for our brightest and most able.
How else can one explain Mary Coughlans high office at such a tender age ...with no real experience.
At the tender age of 21 years and 9 months Mary Coughlan became the youngest member of the 25th Dail. Mary Coughlan in 2008 becomes the Tanaiste ....The deputy prime minister of Ireland.
Previous experience of Mary Coughlan ....She worked as a social worker for a brief period before becoming involved in politics.
Having both a Father and a Uncle ...who were both Fianna Fail TD's ...must have been a real plus-point.

RTE
O'Leary offers to meet Tánaiste on jobs
Ryanair chief Michael O'Leary has offered to meet Tánaiste Mary Coughlan, who has been defending her handling of the airline's offer to create 500 jobs on the former SR Technics site in North Dublin.

Ryanair had claimed she did not adequately deal with the matter. 200 of the proposed jobs are now going to Glasgow.

Ryanair claimed over the weekend that it had offered to create 500 jobs on the SR Technics site after it closed last year with the loss of 1,000 jobs. But the airline said it did not want to deal directly with the Dublin Airport Authority.

Correspondence released by the airline after it made the initial offer to the Tánaiste shows that Mary Coughlan replied that direct discussion with the airline and the DAA was needed to progress the plans. In response, six months later Ryanair announced that 200 of the jobs were to go to Glasgow.

The airline has criticised Ms Coughlan and said the Tánaiste fobbed it off. But the Minister said every effort was made by her and IDA Ireland to secure the Ryanair investment and urged the airline to continue its dialogue with her.

In response, Ryanair has released a letter sent by chief executive Michael O'Leary which calls for a meeting with her to 'explain the one or two simple steps' which could be taken to secure the jobs. The airline claims a small part of Hangar 6 has been rented by Aer Lingus, but the DAA could move Aer Lingus to another empty hangar, making it available for sale to Ryanair.

A spokesperson for IDA Ireland said it did not discuss ongoing negotiations, but its offices were available to try to resolve the issue, and the IDA had been in regular contact with Ryanair and the Dublin Airport Authority.

Quoting direct from Wikipedia ...does not inspire.

Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment
Following Bertie Ahern's resignation on 6 May 2008, Coughlan, in a cabinet re-shuffle, became Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment on 7 May 2008 by newly appointed Taoiseach Brian Cowen. She is the third person from Ulster to serve as Tánaiste since that office was created in 1937, the others being Seán MacEntee from Belfast and John Wilson from County Cavan.

Her performance as Tánaiste in defence of the October 2008 budget was criticised by opposition politicians and the media,[24][25] with Fine Gael's Leo Varadkar publicly comparing Coughlan to gaffe-prone Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin.[26][27] Varadkar's comments were challenged by broadcaster John Bowman and Sunday Tribune journalist Justine McCarthy, as well as by Coughlan herself.[25][28]

Coughlan announced a third change in the budgetary position, in her local constituency, prior to Cabinet agreement and five days before the responsible Minister for Social and Family Affairs announced it to the nation, via RTÉ Radio.[29]

Coughlan acted to clean up years of wasteful spending by executives at the state training and employment agency, FÁS, and was considered to have taken a tough line with Director General, Rody Molloy, who was forced to resign in November 2008.[30] Later it was discovered that Mr Molloy had received a payoff of a million eurus and the retention of his company car, destroying the earlier view of a tough line being taken by Coughlan, who approved the payment without reference to either the Cabinet or official guidelines.

The 2008 fall in the value of sterling against the euro saw the price gap between North and South widen and shoppers cross to the north of Ireland to the detriment of businesses in the South. Coughlan asked[31] multiple retailers to reduce their margins south of the border and provide better value to consumers in the South. Research from Forfás,[32][33] concluded that only a five per cent difference in the cost of goods between North and South was justifiable. The findings highlighted retailers' larger margins in the South in relation to their operations in the North and Coughlan queried why the price differential in many identical goods was substantially in excess of 5%. Coughlan said: "I don't own a shop. The Government doesn't own a shop. It's up to Tesco, it's up to Superquinn, it's up to Aldi, it's up to Lidl; it's up to them to cut their prices. They need to ensure that that happens; they have to do something about it."[34] When retailers continued to remain silent on the price differential, Coughlan sent in the Competition Authority to investigate supply chains in the retail sector.[35]

Coughlan has been condemned for doing "too little too late" in relation to large scale loss of employment in a Dell facility in Limerick.[36][37][38]

Coughlan has been accused by an opposition spokesperson of being unable to debate exchequer figures.[39][40]

Coughlan acted to close loopholes in company law that made it possible for bank directors not to have to disclose the full extent of their indebtedness to the bank in its published accounts. She also strengthened the powers of the Director of Corporate Enforcement to enforce company law provisions.[41]

On 24 April 2009, one of Coughlan's demoted junior ministers, John McGuinness, criticised Coughlan and Cowen for their lack of leadership being given to the country. He said: "She's not equipped to deal with the complex issues of dealing with enterprise and business within the department. And neither is the department".[42][43] McGuinness' later rejected suggestions he campaigned to undermine Coughlan, when it was revealed that he had hired external PR advice in an effort to enhance his own profile as a Minister of State within the Department.[44]

Coughlan has been described as Calamity Coughlan after the gaffe-prone minister was left red-faced after she erroneously referred to the theory of evolution as having been formulated by Einstein.[45]

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Mary Coughlan. Irish Politics a family business