Cantillon: Mary Mitchell O’Connor must shine on US trade mission

As the Government limps along, weakened and unsteady and dependent upon the support of the Opposition to survive, playing it safe should be the name of the game. So why, then, did Enda Kenny give the Enterprise and Jobs portfolio to Mary Mitchell O'Connor (above), one of the most unpredictable TDs in Government?

O’Connor’s performance has come under the spotlight in recent weeks. But it isn’t a normal media spotlight. It’s more akin to watching a cabaret act in a darkened theatre. As the performer stands on stage alone, spotlight glaring down on her from above, the audience holds their breath and wonders what she is going to do next.

The Minister has spent the past week fending off concerns – including from her own party colleagues – about her ability to lead one of the most critical parts of the Government machine: the department devoted to keeping us all in work.

Soon, she will jet off to Silicon Valley to lead a trade mission to Ireland’s most critical source market for investment. She will be pressed for detail by the cream of the US tech sector on what the State is doing to fight the disastrous Apple tax ruling. Will she have adequate answers?

Scrutiny

Maybe she will. There is a suspicion in some quarters that O’Connor faces such scrutiny only because she is a woman. People remember her accidentally driving her car on to the Dáil plinth, or Mick Wallace’s “Miss Piggy” put-down.

Frances Fitzgerald, however, doesn't get the same criticisms as O'Connor in her role as Minister for Justice.

Mary Hanafin, when she was in Government, was never written off as a poor minister because she was a woman. Nor was Mary Harney.

It is possible to draw comparisons with Mary Coughlan, one of O'Connor's predecessors at the department. Coughlan was generally seen as a poor minister for enterprise, and invited similar scrutiny.

But this was because of questions about her competence, not her gender.

O’Connor might bemoan the scrutiny. But she could make it all go away simply by performing better.