Ministerial career threatens to go down the drain

Like 40% of the water supply, he had simply disappeared, but Environment Minister Phil Hogan still dominated the Dáil — for all the wrong reasons. From Big Phil to Feck-It-Up Phil in the space of a couple of months, few ministerial careers have threatened to disappear down the drain so quickly.

An air of unending fiasco is gathering around Feck-It-Up Phil, not helped by his increasingly desperate attempts to pretend there is not a problem, such as when he boasted he had “won a few quid” in bets because an “overwhelming majority” had paid the household tax he introduced in a manner reminiscent of the golden era of slapstick comedy.

But the reality is that “Hogan: We Have A Problem” when only 56% of people comply with the law and pay the flat-rate charge.