Fine Gael photocall - Gimmick was bad idea

Pat Rabbitte, the communications minister, has never been backward about coming up with an appropriate soundbite.

He saved the Government from considerable embarrassment with his warning that Fine Gael’s plans to celebrate a year in office with a photocall were “silly” and inappropriate.

It was planned that Fine Gael TDs and senators would hold up coloured stars detailing their achievements in government. School beginners are often awarded a star on the forehead as encouragement, but these Fine Gael stars would have amounted to an inane self-promotional stunt. “Everybody is far too busy and focused on their work to be celebrating anything,” Health Minister James Reilly declared.

In the midst of the news of massive layoffs at AIB, people would have been asking what they were celebrating. The Government was elected to revive the economy and should be concentrating on it. Celebrating a year in office would have been not just silly and inappropriate, but an affront to the electorate.

Let us hope that there will be a time when we can all celebrate this government’s tenure in office, but only after it has tackled our economic problems effectively.

The professional competence of those responsible for trying to organise such an inappropriate stunt should be seriously questioned. If those people are in the public pay, it is incumbent on the Government to ensure that they are removed, because there should be no room for such incompetence in the public service.

We need real solutions, not empty promotional gimmicks.