Siteserv controversy: Noonan has some neck

POLITICIANS are generally accused of having necks as tough as certain unmentionable parts of a jockey’s anatomy. 

That description apparently applies to Finance Minister Michael Noonan judging by his no-holds-barred reaction to RTÉ’s Seán O’Rourke during their customary interview in the wake of budgets or the Coalition’s self-congratulatory spring statement.

As night follows day, the discussion turned to Siteserv and, predictably, O’Rourke grilled the minister on why it required 19 freedom of information requests before independent TD Catherine Murphy received the necessary information on the company now in the eye of the storm over its sale by Irish Bank Resolution Corporation, at considerable losses to the taxpayer, to the plutocrat Denis O’Brien.