The Verona Murphy fiasco - Don’t shut down debate

Those who see the Taoiseach as a politician with a tendency to make stuff up as he goes along could do worse than point to his responses before and after the Wexford by-election, now notorious for Verona Murphy’s remarks about migrants.

Before the ballot, he said he thought her comment was “wrong”, “misinformed”, and “ill-advised”, but she had his “confidence. Now, he says selecting her as a Fine Gael candidate was a “mistake”, but the consoling news was she hadn’t been elected.