Speaking Out Of Both sides Of Your Mouth

It's an essential political skill.

One of the most underrated skills in Irish politics is speaking out of both sides of your mouth. If you want to be a successful politician it’s a requisite skill. Being able to articulate your support for an issue and lack of it in the same breath will show you’re ready to take your seat in the hallowed Dáil chamber of Leinster House.

Spare a thought for the residents of a privately built housing estate in Cork who voiced their opposition to a recently built adjacent housing estate that is to be 100% social housing. Of course, their opposition has nothing to do with the development impacting the price of their homes. That wasn’t the interesting thing.

Every single Cllr that represents the area said something very similar. We support social housing but we’re sure a compromise can be reached with the developer. Or a variant of. All 5 of them are too long-winded to…