Party bosses lack leadership and are also clueless

ATOP a sewage plant with the wind swirling around him, Environment Minister Alan Kelly was speaking, but it was difficult to make out exactly what he was trying to say as the enveloping stench threatened to become overwhelming.

The photo-op in Dublin’s Ringsend was intended to show a thrusting minister in command of the situation, but instead acted as a telling metaphor for how the Government flushed what little credibility it had left down the toilet with the easily avoidable Irish Water calamity.

Across town Fianna Fáil’s Micheál Martin was at a “Lessons In Leadership” seminar. This initially delighted his party colleagues who have long felt Mr Martin needs an education in effective politics.