Stay away from Central Bank policies, minister

DOES a cabinet minister cease to be a cabinet minister when it suits them? No.

Is the ministerial seal of office left at the door when they go into a meeting as a TD? No.

Do they park up the ministerial car and take to their feet as an ordinary constituency deputy? No.

As long as they are in office, when a cabinet minister makes representations, they do so with the weight of government upon their shoulders.

Michael Creed thinks because he is the Agriculture Minister it allows him to seek to influence the actions of the independent Central Bank.

Mr Creed lobbied senior officials in the Central Bank in a bid to ensure there was no move to close Charleville Credit Union, which is based in his Cork North-West constituency.

However, it is understood to be unprecedented for a cabinet minister to lobby independent public officials in the Central Bank on a constituency matter. Political sources said they could not recall a previous occasion when this had occurred.

A spokesman for Mr Creed insisted he met the officials last week in the bank’s Dublin HQ in his capacity as a TD, and not in his capacity as a cabinet minister.

Sorry, minister, but when you received the seal of office from President Michael D Higgins in Áras an Uachtaráin a year ago, you ceased to be an ordinary TD.

A cabinet minister is supposed to be capable of taking his hand off the parish pump.