Katherine Zappone Envoy Gig

Wouldnt agree its not a resigning matter from what we've seen so far. Coveney tried to pull a stroke with a crony appointment on the last day Cabinet sat before the summer break, he completely blindsided his coalition partners in doing so. If Martin had any balls he would demand Coveneys head in the same way the heads of Dara Calleary and Barry Cowen were scalped. But Martin doesnt have balls, its clear he just wants the easy life.

Whats more interesting here to me anyway is that Fine Gael are eating themselves alive. There is an internal struggle between Varadkar and Coveney which has come about because Varadkar consistently loses elections, the most recent being the DBS by elections and how he ended the political career of Coveney ally Kate o'Connell. Its clear some within FG see him as an electoral liability and want to see him replaced before the next GE. Thats facing push back from the Varadkar camp who are eyeing up a cabinet reshuffle when he gets to be the Taoiseach again, Leo is literally their ticket to a plum job so they are fighting for him now. That explains why Charlie Flanagan openly criticised Coveney at the Comittee during the week and also why Patrick 'Donovan was acting as a gopher to find out the source of Cabinet leaks

What is driving much of this debacle is Varadkars attempt to wound Coveney to ensure he doesnt face a leadership challenge, he is trying to head him off at the pass. Thats why Varadkar released those text messages, it was designed to wound Coveney for any upcoming leadership contest. The timing of the text message release was also classic FG schoolboy stuff, Varadkar did it at the moment he knew Coveney was flying in the Government jet. Imagine the scene of Simon enjoying the cream leather seats of a private jet along with a nice glass of red wine and suddenly his advisor comes down to tell him the news Varadkar is after completely shafting him and they need to get their spin story ready. This is classic FG student politics, they get off on this type of stuff. It was the same with Kate o'Connell and the bale of turf they planned to present her at a FG meeting and the M50 sign they placed outside her pharmacy in Rathgar. They really are some bunch of children.

This Varadkar Coveney battle is set to continue. All the while Paschal is sitting there making sure not to interrupt his enemies while they are making mistakes. Simon Harris also has his eyes on the top prize as does Helen McEntee who said as much in a fluff piece with the Indo in June. We're really only getting started on the internal power struggle within FG and they are already eating each other alive.

You misinterpret what I said. I was saying that in more normal times all this might have been privately talked about over a cup of coffee. I can't see how that could be subject to FOI barring really Orwellian surveillance. Just because the pandemic forces ordinary conversation into electronic mode the whole thing becomes an FOI matter. Personally I think this is a bit OTT, but if you don't then, fine.

Absolutely correct. The text exchange has the clear implication that Varadkar didn't know what she was talking about so asked Coveney what is this, so the first time he knew what is was about was the text response from Coveney.

Anyone who can't see that is acting the idiot.

She texted him about it, he didn't know what she was talking about, so he asked Coveney, so Coveney told him what it was all about, on July 19, the same date that Varadkar says he became aware of what it was.

There is no lie there. You guys really need to get Leo out of your heads.

She asked had he heard anything about 'her appointment'.

Varadkar says 'nope', he hasn't heard anything.

That does not for a second mean 'he didn't know what she was talking about'.

It just means he didn't know anything about the status of 'her appointment'.

If she hadn't already been given the job she wouldn't be referring to it that way.

If it tumbles out, in the hapless way the truth about this has so far, that the party was, in fact, a celebration of that appointment Leo will be deeper in the dooda than he already is.

Would also be good to find out what the 'speech' was about. She was very keen Varadkar was there to hear and says she would delay until he arrived.

Really lads, your posts are getting even more disingenuous than ever. Did you read the texts?

"I was expecting to hear from Simon C about my appointment.......Have you heard anything?"

You both left that bit in bold out to create another false narrative. The obvious answer to that if he knew nothing about the appointment was "Nope". Guess what, that is exactly what he answered.

The obvious next action if he knew nothing about the appointment was to ask Coveney about it. Guess what, that is exactly what he did.

The webs you weave in your conspiracy theories fall away with simple examination using Occam's Razor.

Pivot again blanch?

At least you are now using her actual words.

She was expecting to be updated by Coveney with further details, as he outlined later to Varadkar.

His natural reply to that, if he 'knew nothing' would be 'I didn't know you had gotten an appointment, congratulations'. But he didn't say that, he just said 'nope' and the conversation moved on to the 'reminder' about the party, showing they had previous contact in some way, either by text or email or post.

These are friends having a text session.

Stop trying to sledgehammer something into this exchange that simply isn't there.

If Leo did not know anything about it, surely he would said What appointment?