Leech appointment - Hard answers or Cullen must resign

THE position of Transport Minister Martin Cullen is becoming increasingly untenable amid growing disquiet over his employment of close friend and €1,200-a-day publicity consultant Monica Leech.

It is astonishing to think that Ms Leech, whose experience of the PR business is relatively limited, is earning more than the wage bill of Taoiseach Bertie Ahern’s entire press corps for a full year.

For the minister, during his tenure in the Department of Environment, to give a plumb job with an unprecedented salary rate to a political supporter and confidante smacks of cronyism of the most blatant kind.