Photo opportunity

EDUCATION Minister Mary Hanafin is, by all accounts, a competent minister. Given the scarcity of women representatives in the Dáil, her presence in cabinet is to be welcomed.

Her recent complaints about “increasing pressure on politicians to have their photographs taken” is, however, an example of the fact that competent women politicians can be just as hypocritical as the incompetent male of the species.

Ministers of all governments spend millions of taxpayers’ money with the sole objective of getting their photos into the media.