Quoted in The Irish Times today, junior minister Martin Mansergh said ” I am the most junior of the junior ministers,” he said. “I am the last. I am obviously prepared to place my office at the disposition of the Taoiseach if the decision was to reduce [numbers]. I would go without fuss or protest.”

In other words, openly admitting that junior ministers are appointed not by skill or talent or policy knowledge (And let’s be honest: Mansergh is smarter than two thirds of the cabinet combined.) but on the principle of last in, first out?