Forget all about Garglegate in Galway — it’s the economy, stupid

BRIAN Cowen’s interview on Tuesday’s Morning Ireland lasted little over nine minutes, but it had enormous reverberations, even though he essentially said nothing. He just fobbed off all the hard questions.

When asked about holding the necessary by-elections, for instance, he managed to avoid the issue completely by talking about the possible popular election of the lord mayor of Dublin. After listening to what he actually said, you were none the wiser about whether the lord mayor will be popularly elected.

The interview was a massive non-event. “God, what an uninspiring interview by the Taoiseach this morning,” Simon Coveney reportedly tweeted. “He sounded halfway between drunk and hung-over, and totally disinterested.”