Cowen misses chance to put actions behind words on reform

IF BRIAN COWEN was a sports coach and the junior ministerial line-up his team, yesterday’s changes would probably rank as fairly substantial. Three players were kicked off the panel and five faces brought in.

But Mr Cowen’s proper team is his cabinet — the senior ministers who run government departments. The junior ministers are, in effect, the reserves, and the question yesterday was whether Mr Cowen would acknowledge that he did not need quite so many of them.

When Bertie Ahern was re-elected taoiseach last year, he pulled a political stroke by increasing the number of junior ministers from 17 to 20.