Harney's hairdo has us in knots
Sunday November 30 2008
THERE was only one word that saved Mary Harney's Salongate from becoming an actual scandal. And that was the word dry.
Change one word in there and the sentence 'Fas paid for a young woman from a local salon to come to the minister's hotel room and administer an expert blow dry each morning to prepare the minister for the day's events', and you get a very different story. And given that this story was about Fas, the word 'job' could easily have slipped in there by accident.
But no one really begrudged poor Mary Harney her do given that she was out there representing us and we all know how frizzy and unmanageable one's hair can get in hot humid weather.
There are some senior members of government who seem happy to roll up at events looking as if they may have been out drinking all night prior to being dragged backwards through a hedge fund, but Mary Harney is not that man.
Furthermore, there seems to have been a degree of sniggering about the idea of Mary Harney, of all people, being keen to look smart and groomed. Let's just get this one out in the open.
If I may say on behalf of the two-thirds of Irish people who are a little overweight -- just because we're not size zero doesn't mean we're not as vain as the next person, and just because we're not Eva Longoria doesn't mean we don't like to look smart and sleek and groomed, particularly when we're doing a bit of business.
I'll tell you something else as well. Every day we are all paying much more money than that for the grooming of people who aren't a tenth as important to the state of the nation as Mary Harney.
A male colleague of mine at one point had his own hairdresser of choice present at every significant TV appearance to administer exactly what Mary Harney got in that hotel room in Florida. It was ultimately paid for by the taxpayer and, trust me, it didn't contribute a whole lot to the state of the nation.
And that is only a drop in the ocean of the state-funded grooming bill.
Did you know, for example, that in RTE they have a whole room staffed by several people whose sole job is to apply make-up to and brush the hair of everyone from Bryan Dobson to Pat Kenny? It is quite blatantly known as "make-up" and I'd say it costs more than $400.
They also apparently have something called "wardrobe" -- again no attempt to hide what goes on there -- which is a group of people with a huge selection of clothes which they loan to TV presenters so they look smart on TV. Presumably there will be demands that they all resign as well now.
Harney will prevail for now but there are truly sad stories coming out of this whole debacle too.
The Editor related yesterday the story (possibly owing something to the seanchai tradition) of a fellow Kerryman who was let go last week after 20 years of sterling service to Fas with no package or benefits. As the man walked out the door, he turned back with one last bitter look and said: "Is this all I get, after fiche bliain ag Fas?"
- Brendan O'Connor
