Daniel McConnell

Thank you very much for doing this.

You're a busy man.

Talk to me at the start, being a minister, what's your day like?

Okay.

But talk to me then about like, you say no day is ever the same, but I mean, do they tend to be up early in the morning, working late at night?

Yeah.

And I suppose the real question I'm trying to get to, are you as minister really in charge or in control of your department?

Because I always invite, and again, given my time in Leinster House and my experience with ministries,

And I remember Michael Noonan saying it to me as well when he went into finance was, no, I kind of laid down the law early with my officials as to when I want my diary full or free to let me be in control.

So it's more about are you in control of the bounce of the ball?

Because I can understand from, say, even reading Owen Murphy's book about how the game can almost run away from you.

Because again, I suppose to kind of reveal, like you have your team that works to you and then you have the civil service who probably... Supposed to work for me.

But I'm thinking of the, like we all grew up on, those of us who are into politics, we were grown up on Yes Minister, we would have seen the sort of the games that can be played and we all know how the system itself works.

And, I mean, your own government, I suppose, has acknowledged that the system can slow everything down, can be bureaucratic, can be... I mean, talk to me about those tensions and when they arise.

Like, how do you just manage, how do you make things move forward if you're meeting that sort of institutional resistance?

The Darragh gets it done.

How does that testing manifest itself?

Is it around numbers?

Is it around budgets?

Is it around the policy?