Imagine getting a new, well paid job, and then being told that you may have to wait a few years before you can do it. That’s pretty much what FG did to George Lee, despite the fact that that is not what they told the electors of Dublin South they’d do with his talents.

But what is most telling about this affair is the response given by young FG TDs: That George should have been willing to pretty much waste years of his life before FG get into government, and even then there was no guarantee that he’d actually get any sort of job in government worthy of the skills that FG told us he had in the byelection.

That’s the crux: That there are people in FG willing to squander years of their lives doing little of real use in opposition, leading empty lives of frustration. They say that it’s not their fault, they are, after all, not in government. But this just goes to show the mediocre thinking in FG. FG could get parliamentary reform, with powerful committees and open votes on issues and a huge increase in private members bills if they wished? How? By telling FF that they will refuse to cooperate in pairing arrangements, and effectively ending the ability of government to pass bills. But FG won’t do that, because that is not “the way things are done”, the defence of the mediocre throughout the ages. Instead, talented people like George Lee, who wish to lead a useful life now, leave the Dail to the cud-chewing peaceful bovines of FG, lolling around in their peaceful opposition pasture. Moooooo!