Ministers go global as St Patrick’s Day nears

TWENTY-EIGHT Government Ministers are jetting off to 22 different countries for the annual St Patrick’s Day exodus as the Dáil shuts down for almost two weeks.

From Britain to Bahrain, ministers and, in many cases, their wives and husbands will spend up to a week “promoting modern Ireland overseas” - as a Government press release put it yesterday.

Even Attorney General Rory Brady is being dispatched to Russia as part of a worldwide goodwill junket designed to promote enterprise and science back home.