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Eamon Ryan was not a perfect politician — but he deserves credit for his work raising awareness about climate change

Former minister for transport Eamon Ryan. It says a lot about our politics that Ryan was, a few years ago, probably the most hated politician in the country. Picture: PA

There is a scene in a new documentary where Edel Hackett is on the phone to a colleague and just short of blowing a fuse. “I’m very annoyed,” she says. “I’m very annoyed.” Her annoyance is directed at her boss, Eamon Ryan, minister for communications, transport and climate in the last government. Hackett was his media advisor. On film she comes across as somebody who well knows her onions.

She is pacing around outside one of the Cop meetings that convene every few years to fashion a plan to arrest climate change. A deal has just been belatedly agreed between the nations on the next step. She had organised for Ryan to speak to the BBC but he changed his flight and is already en route home.