‘Big Phil’ Hogan back on top after very rocky years in Cabinet

From a minister who looked in danger of being washed away in a flood of Irish Water controversies to the brink of becoming Europe’s €60bn man, it has been quite a year for Phil Hogan.

His reputation as a slick fixer and deal-cutter was severely dented by clumsy handling of the property tax and water charge issue, but, as befits a keen member of the Kilkenny Archaeological Society, Mr Hogan knows where all the political bodies are buried in Fine Gael and was always going to get the plum European Commissionership’s one-way ticket out of an increasingly unpopular government.

Turning that into the golden ticket of the Agriculture portfolio with its influence over €60bn worth of spending is an added bonus and shows that ‘Big Phil’ could be back on top in Brussels after three and a half very rocky years in Cabinet. Well, that is if he survives scrutiny from the European Parliament’s agriculture committee, but then Mr Hogan has always been something of a survivor.