Norma Foley has to go [MOD WARNING IN 1ST POST]

Smacruairi

After yet another few days of leaks about the reopening of schools, it transpires that she again hadn't informed her cabinet colleagues.

Why has she not been replaced? Has there ever been a minister who has been repeatedly making a bags of this and lasted this long? Like the dept of health is bad, but this is on another level it seems, particularly around communication. Do FF realise that their most public ministers are Donnelly and Foley, who surely have approvement ratings in the single digits, while FG have paschal and Coveney who are quietly keeping things moving along?

Is there a plan, even a political one?!


Mod: We're not going to have another iteration of the "Schools closed thread', with teacher bashing and histrionics couched as 'opinion'. Any posting that strays into that territory will be met with a card and immediate threadban.

Wanderer2010

Useless tool but....shes up against the might of a public service union, with all the resistance and red tape which that entails.

Im not sure anyone else could do much better.

Smacruairi

Wanderer2010 wrote: »

Useless tool but....shes up against the might of a public service union, with all the resistance and red tape which that entails.

Im not sure anyone else could do much better.

Ah it's a cop out to blame public service, unions and all the other bogeymen. They invented a ministry for Harris and he immediately magiced up extra places in University as far as I can remember. Pup came in overnight, no redtape there.

The level of kite flying is unparalleled with her and her cronies it seems though.

Cee-Jay-Cee

She is a first time TD and was catapulted into a ministerial position purely to make up gender quota figures. She’s completely incompetent and way in over her head and I’d say (and hope) will not last the distance and will hopefully be sacked.

A lot of teachers thought when she was made minister for Ed that she would at least understand their position being a teacher herself however she completely fcuked that up for herself when turned against them over the last few months and I’d imagine not many schools would want her anywhere near them if she tries to go back to teaching once FF realise how utterly useless she actually is.

I dislike plenty of politicians but she’s on a different level completely. She’s ignorant and condescending and clearly not that intelligent either. She pushed her ‘schools are safe’ nonsense and was still trying to push the same line in the new year when the reopening was delayed until the 11th January. Numbers were through the roof, the new highly transmissible variant was the dominant virus but because she was told schools were safe (which they relatively were when numbers were very low) she couldn’t see further than that despite NPHET saying different.

She will go down as the most utterly incompetent TD/Minister ever.

LasersGoPewPew

Smacruairi wrote: »

Ah it's a cop out to blame public service, unions and all the other bogeymen. They invented a ministry for Harris and he immediately magiced up extra places in University as far as I can remember. Pup came in overnight, no redtape there.

The level of kite flying is unparalleled with her and her cronies it seems though.

Would you care to enlighten us as to how you would sort this mess? The unions are holding children's education to ransom. It doesn't matter who's in the minister's position, they will still get shat on by the laypeople for supposedly mishandling the situation or not doing enough to kiss the union's ass.

For Forks Sake

Cee-Jay-Cee wrote: »

She will go down as the most utterly incompetent TD/Minister ever.

Shane Ross would like a word

freshpopcorn

Firstly to a hairdressers!

SouthWesterly

freshpopcorn wrote: »

Firstly to a hairdressers!

Don't you know they're all closed. A pot is the best they can do in kilflynn.

freshpopcorn

SouthWesterly wrote: »

Don't you know they're all closed. A pot is the best they can do in kilflynn.

Altight, Michael Healy might offer her a hat then!

banie01

She is a clown, she is making a nonsense of any orderly return to school.
The limbo of exam year students is torture IMO.

The excuse can be made that she is a 1st time TD however, her delay in planing, in planning any alternatives, any mitigation and then constantly parroting a line that the plan is imminent?
It's outright incompetence, and deserves more censure than just a demotion.

When the next GE comes, she can hardly stand on her record.

SouthWesterly

freshpopcorn wrote: »

Altight, Michael Healy might offer her a hat then!

Would that be an essential journey:)

Irishphotodesk

Cee-Jay-Cee wrote: »

She is a first time TD and was catapulted into a ministerial position purely to make up gender quota figures. She’s completely incompetent and way in over her head and I’d say (and hope) will not last the distance and will hopefully be sacked.

A lot of teachers thought when she was made minister for Ed that she would at least understand their position being a teacher herself however she completely fcuked that up for herself when turned against them over the last few months and I’d imagine not many schools would want her anywhere near them if she tries to go back to teaching once FF realise how utterly useless she actually is.

I dislike plenty of politicians but she’s on a different level completely. She’s ignorant and condescending and clearly not that intelligent either. She pushed her ‘schools are safe’ nonsense and was still trying to push the same line in the new year when the reopening was delayed until the 11th January. Numbers were through the roof, the new highly transmissible variant was the dominant virus but because she was told schools were safe (which they relatively were when numbers were very low) she couldn’t see further than that despite NPHET saying different.

She will go down as the most utterly incompetent TD/Minister ever.

not sure you are aware of this but most teachers that leave the profession to become a politician has their job kept for them to return to (assuming they were in a permanent role prior to their running for election), a temporary role/substitute role is made for the person that fills the politicians teacher role.

or maybe I'm wrong and they stopped doing that - it certainly was this way when I last cared about politicians and where they came from.

EDIT: for anyone having a go at her for incompetencies .... a politician is surrounded by advisors/civil servants feeding them information and telling them the best course of action to take - politicians are no more than an extremely well paid mouthpiece who won a popularity contest.

P2C

She should be sacked for not having a plan B. The idea that they only got around to talking about a contingency when the **** hit the fan is mind boggling

enricoh

The creches are working away no bother, that's because the unions don't run the show there. I wish her luck, the unions should have been told long ago to strike away. They even rejected the new public service wage increases last week as not good enough!

Ish66

No, Unions have to go, End Of

Wanderer2010

Id love to hear how some people would propose solving the issue with the unions holding education to ransom? Easy to say shes this and shes that but does anyone actually have a viable alternative around opening schools that wouldnt involve these powerful unions?

dirkmeister

enricoh wrote: »

The creches are working away no bother, that's because the unions don't run the show there. I wish her luck, the unions should have been told long ago to strike away. They even rejected the new public service wage increases last week as not good enough!

The INTO accepted the pay proposals?

Fann Linn

Ish66 wrote: »

No, Unions have to go, End Of

Well that ain't gonna happen.

kona

Wanderer2010 wrote: »

Id love to hear how some people would propose solving the issue with the unions holding education to ransom? Easy to say shes this and shes that but does anyone actually have a viable alternative around opening schools that wouldnt involve these powerful unions?

A few months ago would have been a good excuse/time for a lockout.

enricoh

Here's a 41year old primary school teacher on 52k a year, and they're still crying about pay and rejecting new pay increases. Cry me a river, with half a million people out of work at the mo! Let them strike away for more n ignore them.

https://www.thejournal.ie/readme/money-diaries-21-5350675-Feb2021/

enricoh

dirkmeister wrote: »

The INTO accepted the pay proposals?

True that, the asti didn't, absolute whingers.

What's the consensus, are unions a good are bad thing?

They seem to be the cause of all our public service woes.

Irishphotodesk

enricoh wrote: »

Here's a 41year old primary school teacher on 52k a year, and they're still crying about pay and rejecting new pay increases. Cry me a river, with half a million people out of work at the mo! Let them strike away for more n ignore them.

https://www.thejournal.ie/readme/money-diaries-21-5350675-Feb2021/

I'm sure you mean half a million people with fresh experience in schooling kids.

kona

Northernlily wrote: »

What's the consensus, are unions a good are bad thing?

They seem to be the cause of all our public service woes.

Unions are useless in private sector and a nuisance in public sector , that's just my own personal experience of them.
No doubt they did great work decades ago.

Yurt2

Unions or no unions, the ASTI have long been recognized as being occupied by people on the loopier end of the spectrum at the executive level. The other education unions are fine. I'm glad our teachers have good conditions unlike some parts of the US where they are treated like dirt and have to take second jobs to make rent. Teachers are nation builders and often function as surrogate social workers, mopping up the social problems that government preside over.

That being said, Foley's handling of the Leaving Cert and the covid situation has been abominable. Let's be honest, she's clueless in her role. First-time TD in cabinet and dynasty politician (father was one of the FF crowd with an Ansbacher account). We all know how this works out.

James Brown

LasersGoPewPew wrote: »

Would you care to enlighten us as to how you would sort this mess? The unions are holding children's education to ransom. It doesn't matter who's in the minister's position, they will still get shat on by the laypeople for supposedly mishandling the situation or not doing enough to kiss the union's ass.

Ah, it's like health so. Can't be tackled, best left as is. Don't want to disturb things...so why do we bother with ministers at all?

ruwithme

She's fianna fail,what else would we expect. Suppose our so called opposition party's don't look like much good either.

Her party leader allowing her to drown all the while says it all really about them.

God help us with them.

James Brown

Wanderer2010 wrote: »

Id love to hear how some people would propose solving the issue with the unions holding education to ransom? Easy to say shes this and shes that but does anyone actually have a viable alternative around opening schools that wouldnt involve these powerful unions?

If a mechanic makes a balls of your car do you bring it back to him because you're not a mechanic?

James Brown

Northernlily wrote: »

What's the consensus, are unions a good are bad thing?

They seem to be the cause of all our public service woes.

Unions are member driven whose remit is to look after it's membership.
They don't and shouldn't give two ****s about anything outside of looking after their membership.
Unions are necessary.

Irishphotodesk

James Brown wrote: »

If a mechanic makes a balls of your car do you bring it back to him because you're not a mechanic?

if all the mechanics worked for the same company - would you trust the company ?

Fann Linn

James Brown wrote: »

Unions are member driven whose remit is to look after it's membership.
They don't and shouldn't give two ****s about anything outside of looking after their membership.
Unions are necessary.

So many people cannot grasp that fact.