Enda hardly heralds a brave new dawn

Special Correspondent Michael Clifford casts a cold eye on Enda Kenny’s Cabinet reshuffle.

TO be elevated to high office during one’s first term in the Dáil is a great achievement. It indicates that this politician is somebody of serious potential, a person of major substance, who is en route to making a big splash in public life.

Yesterday’s Cabinet reshuffle saw four first-termers make it into the Cabinet. Labour’s Alan Kelly and Alex White, and Fine Gael’s Pascal Donohue were promoted from their respective junior portfolios. Heather Humphreys, who is a Fine Gael TD, was a backbencher about whom not much was known prior to her elevation yesterday.