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LABOUR has confirmed that it will nominate Alex White for the vacant junior ministerial position at the Department of Health.
A statement issued this afternoon by Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore said White, a TD for Dublin South, would be proposed to fill the ministerial role left by Róisín Shortall after her resignation as the Minister of State with responsibility for Primary Care.
White will be formally nominated to fill the vacancy at the next Cabinet meeting on Tuesday morning.
In his statement, Gilmore said he looked forward to working with White in his role as Minister for State “in implementing the commitments in the Programme for Government on health service reforms”.
White is currently the chairman of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform – a position he will now give up following his promotion to the ministerial ranks.
The split of Cabinet and Oireachtas positions among the government parties means Labour will now be given the right to pick a new chairperson for that committee, which is likely to be given the task of holding a full inquiry into the banking collapse next year.
White is a former member of South Dublin County Council and was elected to the Seanad in 2007 before being promoted to the Dáil in the 2011 general election. He is a senior counsel, though he has not practised as a barrister since his election to the Dáil.
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So LAB’s replacement for a woman with a bit of backbone, is to put a man with no balls in her place!!!
Nice one, Must be up there for comment of the week!
A new member of the Labour Boys Club. I wonder why Ivanna Bacik is sooooo quiet. Maybe she’s too busy lecturing everyone else about gender quotas.
Or maybe because she’s not a TD.
When did that stop her from sharing her views with us?
Kathleen Lynch, who is spearheading “gender quota” legislation to ensure that at least 30% of all general election candidates are women, couldn’t help but point out during her very “spirited” performance in the no confidence motion against James Reilly last week, that all 19 Fianna Failers were men. Not their fault that they were elected by their constituents, just as Lynch was, and not their fault that women like Mary Hanafin lost her seat in the last election. The public vote for whom they see as the best candidate, regardless of gender, orientation, creed, etc. Being a woman does not automatically make one a better politician and decision maker, as Lynch herself has so often implied: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/09/world/europe/09iht-letter09.html?_r=0 and http://www.labour.ie/press/listing/13487573048316460.html
Roisin Shortall was seemingly the only woman with the “liathroidi” to tell it like it is and call Reilly out for the parish pump stroke “politician” that he is. She has clocked up more years in the Dail than Reilly and Lynch combined. She has shown great integrity and courage in standing up to the “old boys club”, but ends up being completely shafted by her own party. While encouraging more women to enter politics is something I agree with, I do not believe that quotas are the way to do it. It is a purely tokenistic gesture and women will still end up entering Government on a less than equal footing, as the “old boys club” would still reign supreme. Kathleen Lynch complained that this was the second time that Fine Gael/ Labour “had to clean up FF’s mess”, but personally if I ever ran for political office, I would much rather “clean up FF’s mess” (ie: do the job I was elected to do), than “kiss up” to Reilly – “beard rash” is rather unappealing.
A sad case. Yet another one-time lefty who sold it all out and abandoned his principles.
For a guy who opposed the old Official Sinn Fein/Democratic Left gangsters, he has become very close to their politburo which now runs the Labour Party.
From Trotskyist firebrand to Gilmore’s poodle — what a depressing trajectory.
Surprise surprise, the uppity principled woman is replaced by a government apologist and ‘yes’ man. Hopefully he now won’t have enough spare time to be appearing on vincent browne excusing the governments deplorable actions.
He’d want to keep his back close to the wall if Gilmore offers him his full support.
I’d say Mr Reilly is glad that FG told Labour to give one of their gombeen yes men the job.
Best of luck to him, I hope he does a good job.
Another eunuch joins O’Reilly’s court of patronage.
Looks rather like a cynical move to help protect White’s seat at the next election, given that the constituency boundary changes will impact heavily on him.
That’s not to say that White won’t do a good job, of course. Just an observation.
Hurrah! You can never have too many men about the place.
All a bit ‘moving the deck chairs around on the Titanic’….
Gilmore’s reaction to Roisin Shortall resignation ” she is somebody I ave the height of regard for and is an outstanding public representative and she had his full support”. Well then why did he hang her out to dry. Turncoat, R.I.P labour
Eamon Gilmore, where did u leave your liathroidi? Hang your head in shame.
He would have to have balls first in order to leave them some where !!!! Cannot wait for next election !!!!! Bet shortfall tops the poll in her area .
an observation that implies that his apporoach will be tempered by both his financial needs (his own seat) and a cynical political pragmatism (everybody else)
sounds about right to me!
Whitey’s big break! He never did quite get over that “George Lee has entered the by-election race” sucker punch…
Have any of the labour party any moral compass? I wonder why the Garda will arrest Oisin Quinn after his hearing on the planning breaches of ethics? It would be great to set an example to anybody in future trying to corrupt our councils. It would also be good to see him locked up with the other Quinn in Mountjoy( not related I hope).
How long will it take him to come up to speed. Dr Reilly will have no problem with Alex. As far as I know he was elected for the first time in 2011. Bet Roisin is sorry for resigning now. What she wanted to achieve is further away than ever.
Or maybe she just resigned herself to the fact that the main party in government want a two tier healthcare system to match the two tier society they’re working so tirelessly to create, and could not achieve anything under those circumstances.
Another “Yes” man….
He’s a yes man always was and always will b.
Appointment going to a man !!! Surprise Surprise !!!!
Everything will be all white
Another PLEB to add to the Confusion and Delay, Why not get Mrs Brown to run the Country at least we know she
has the BALLS and maybe we could realy have a laugh
have your say