Cathal Mac Coille: Donnelly finds not all publicity is good publicity in tiff over tweets

The health minister is not alone in his concern for self-promotion but he didn‘t help his case with his handling of the issue

Minister of Heath Stephen Donnelly’s self-confident style may not be to everyone’s taste, but his concern for self-promotion is shared by most ministers. Photo: Rollingnews.ie

The timing of the complaint made on Stephen Donnelly’s behalf about his lack of “mentions” on the Department of Health‘s Twitter account could hardly have been worse.

The third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic caused the death of more than 1,000 people last January. It was in the middle of that month that Páraic Gallagher, Donnelly‘s new press adviser, raised the Twitter issue with Robert Watt, the department’s interim secretary general.

An email from Watt ...