The appointment of the team of Ministers of State by the Government yesterday raises a few questions. What are the criteria adopted in choosing the individuals? Are junior ministers meant to be of the up-and-coming sort or of the going-no-further brigade? How many junior ministers does the Government actually need and is their appointment so insignificant that it can be put off for nearly three weeks?
When the last government increased the number of Ministers of State to 17, Fianna Fail condemned the increase as unnecessary and expensive and pledged, on return to office, to reduce the number. The condemnation was valid but the pledge has bitten the dust. The opposition parties can hardly complain and so the State is to be saddled with 17 junior ministers (two more than there are Cabinet members, if one excludes the Attorney General) and a few of them will find it difficult indeed to fill their day with meaningful departmental business.
The Taoiseach produced a good Cabinet last month. While the actual allocation of portfolios defied rational explanation in some cases, the team is a commendable mix of old and new containing persons of experience and energy. Would that the same could be said of the team announced yesterday. It is, in great part, unadventurous, uninspired and old. Its average age is two years older than that of the Cabinet. It seems to be an exercise in rewarding old favourites to the exclusion of new blood.
Mr Ahern said yesterday that geographical consideration was a main determining factor in team selection. That doesn't entirely stack up when one sees that three of the chosen come from Galway West and a further three from Dublin South. But to suggest that the team must be chosen, not on merit, but on the basis of appeasing various constituencies means that conservatism has won out over courage. Mr Ahern is by no means the first Taoiseach to knuckle under to geographic pressures but he would have deserved much commendation had he stood up to them.
That said, there are members of the team who clearly deserve to be there, people who might reasonably have hoped to make Cabinet office. Seamus Brennan, Bobby Molloy and Michael Smith (average age: 56) will, no doubt, be keen to prove that disappointment at failing to make the top rung will not diminish their contribution and Mr Smith's courage in tackling drunk driving when last in office was particularly courageous. Liz O'Donnell, undoubtedly, will bring talent and tenacity to overseas aid and human rights. Of those whose inclusion was not revealed until yesterday, Tom Kitt, Martin Cullen and Eamon O Cuiv for example - can be expected to make the most of their promotion. But it is a pity that the likes of Mary Coughlan, Brian Lenihan, Eoin Ryan and Mary Hanafin did not also get the opportunity and, in particular, that the Taoiseach rejected his chance to give greater presence in government to women.
A good Cabinet, a disappointing second string. It is to be hoped that yesterday's appointments will be constantly under the Taoiseach's scrutiny and that he will have the courage in mid-term to make some changes. It is also to be hoped that the delay in announcing the appointments purely to get a Fianna Fail body into Dublin's Mansion House, it would seem will not be repeated.