“Government isn’t a rolling seminar; its function is executive, not discursive…”

In the Inside Politics digest from the Irish Times this morning, Pat Leahy had this to say about cabinet responsibility:

The reason there is a requirement for government to act collectively is that it defines the executive will of the state. Government isn’t a rolling seminar; its function is executive, not discursive. A cabinet must make decisions; to govern is to choose. Inevitably, in our imperfect world, those decisions will often be between unpleasant alternatives.

He’s talking  about the tough life ahead of those (four?) independents with cabinet seats to get Enda a second term. Yet it can apply to the institutions in Northern Ireland, where there is little choice but to make decisions, without meaningful public discourse.

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