Dishing out the medals to west’s political Olympians

I’d say there has hardly been a year since I started writing about politics that I was not asked to do an end-of-year scorecard on Government ministers.

This is where you use your skill, judgment and a whole lot of hunch and instinct to deliver a verdict on how each and every Minister has performed, giving them marks out of ten.

It’s not the words that have the impact. It’s the scoring. Readers just love getting a definitive verdict, expressed as a score. We know this from the world of sport where player ratings have become standard after big matches.

On a more local level, we would never be as vulgar to start marking the hard-working and diligent politicians from Galway, south Mayo and Roscommon.

Rather we will give a quick summary of the kind of impact they have made. Being based in Dublin – and no longer being able to view the world from a desk in Market Street, Galway – this view is a Dublin-centric one, looking at how the politicians have performed nationally.

So instead in deference to the Olympics we will employ the Corinthian spirit and offer gold, silver and bronze medals. Note that a bronze medal is still a podium finish and doesn’t denote disapproval.

It should also be said that this Dáil has been like no other – it had taken months for it to find its feet.  There has been scant legislation, and because of the convoluted arithmetic, most committees are not really up and running yet.

So here goes. We will award a bronze medal to Noel Grealish. Given the fact there was a second strong Independent candidate in Galway West he did well to hold on. He did get involved with the Rural Alliance but you could never see him being committed to entering a government arrangement. A constituency TD to his fingertips.

Bronze too to Hildegarde Naughton. She saw off a powerful party rival in John O’Mahony in a constituency where Fine Gael was not guaranteed two seats.

She has been quiet on a national level. She is new but that has not prevented others from leading on issues. She is a member of the committee on the future of the health services and may take a prominent role there.

The third bronze goes to Ciaran Cannon who did really well winning reelection in a reduced constituency. He seems to be out of favour with the party leadership at the moment and does not have a prominent role. Has been quiet since the election.

The final bronze goes to Eugene Murphy. Fianna Fáil messed around finding a candidate. They finally settled on Murphy, a nice guy and a hard worker, although low key. There were clearly nerves judging by the late addition of Shane ‘Cake’ Curran to the ticket. But Murphy came through. He has settled and even taken on Paul Murphy but has yet to make a major mark.

To find out who gets silver and who gets gold – if anyone – see this week’s Tribune here.

■ Harry McGee is political correspondent of The Irish Times. You can find him on Twitter: @harrymcgee