Left shattered yet again by toxic behaviour in corridors of power

REMEMBER that crowd with the new broom and how they promised sweeping changes? It’s beginning to look like they could teach the old crowd how to suck eggs.

Fine Gael may have been rusty when it came back to government in 2011, but nobody can accuse them of being slow learners. When Taoiseach Enda Kenny kept repeating his mantra that Ireland is the best small country in the world in which to do business in, little did we suspect he was, in part, referring to the corridors of Leinster House and the lobbying business involving his political right-hand man.

Frank Flannery was regarded as too politically toxic this week to continue in his role as Fine Gael’s chief strategist, while elsewhere, regardless of his toxic capacity to attract controversy, Justice Minister Alan Shatter continued about his business.