He’s not great at being interviewed by the media, he doesn’t do the pieces to camera on the FF youtube very well. So what does the Taoiseach do next? He gets his own deputy press officer from the Government Press Office to interview him instead and shies away from press conferences. Hardly any hard questions there.

The MerrionStreet.ie initiative was all about transparency and open government or something wasn’t it? Message controlled and Taoiseach spun morelike? FineGael have FG TV where staff interview FG members about different issues but this Government initiative is being used to replace open questioning by the media.

Last night I spoke at a meeting in Galway about Politics and the Media and a cosy cartel that might exist – this latest development shows that if at first the Taoiseach messes up he takes his own cameras out for a spin. Surely not punishment for the press in asking some hard questions? Ah no surely not.