Kenny administration is conservative, old and predominantly male

AMERICA’S Republican Party was often deplored as a ruling elite of WASPs — White Anglo Saxon Protestants. Enda Kenny’s coalition cabinet could lay claim to a tweaked version of the same acronym — Worn, Affluent, Suburban and Pacified.

These 15 Wasps do not reflect the appetite for wholesale change demanded by voters when 74 new deputies were elected from a younger and more diverse demographic.

Instead, Mr Kenny’s and Eamon Gilmore’s selections appear to be a reward for those who walked the hard yards for their respective parties during times of Fianna Fáil dominance.