Are French workers called croques messieurs?

What does it take to produce a resignation of an Irish government minister? So far, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern's approach has been that there's safety in numbers in having a Cabinet of incompetent liars, by which we mean that they're incompetent at everything, not just lying. But barely was the ink dry on Kevin Myers' complaint (see previous post) about sanctimonious lectures from government ministers that one such minister went in for a bit of closing-time-worthy repartee in the Dail today.

Under discussion was the government's incompetent approach to Aer Lingus, and speaking on the issue was Socialist TD Joe Higgins who has led the battle against Turkey's answer to Halliburton, Gama Construction. Its underpayment of Turkish workers and other breaches of Irish labour law have been in the news for weeks. So step forward junior Foreign Affairs minister Conor Lenihan with the following bit of parliamentary wit aimed at Higgins:

"stick with the kebabs, will you?".

Which everyone took to be a reference to the Turkish workers. Adding to the weirdness was that Higgins had just attacked Fianna Fail's backbenchers over their "silence of the lambs" on the airport and airline issues, so we wonder if the mention of "lambs" prompted a "Mmmm... lamb kebabs" thought process in Lenihan's mind, leading to the outburst.

Unfortunately, showing that Oirland is not on the cutting edge when it comes to apologies, Lenihan's first attempt is the dreaded conditional apology which places the burden on the insulted and not the insulter:

"During the Order of Business this morning I made remarks that I now regret having made. I regret the remarks made and regret sincerely if any offence was caused."

He said he wanted to make his apology as soon as possible, "given the interpretation that may be put on those remarks".

And what would a blog post be without a ramble into broader issues. Remember that there's an active debate in Europe over the EU Constitution and a presumption by Europe's elite that Turkish admission is coming sometime down the road. Interesting therefore to know what one current Irish minister thinks of the Turks. Also, today's Irish Times (subs. req'd) had another revelation about Gama:

A Turkish construction company accused of exploiting migrant workers has been the major beneficiary of a scheme exempting employers from paying social insurance for employees from abroad.

Just over 70 per cent of the exemptions granted under the scheme since the start of 2003 were to Gama Construction, figures supplied to The Irish Times reveal.

If you were trying to find an angle that could crystallise the public's fear of job losses due to globalisation, this would be it. Note that the issue here is not even the low wages of Turkish workers, which the firm wasn't disbursing anyway, but its exemption from taxes which Irish firms have to pay. It also shows, in fairness to the European Commission, that the botched thinking underlying the Bolkestein Directive was not just a product of a Brussels mentality. It's just as well the Republic doesn't have the EU referendum coming any time soon, although the French may yet render the process moot anyway.