JIM MCGINTY HAS DONE WELL for himself. The ex-Christian Brother picked himself up by the bootstraps, swanned through the antics of university life, slid into the political excitement of becoming a union secretary, picking up a second, mature age degree in law and until recently was the incumbent Attorney General with a second office as Health Minister.
Now, with all that education you would have to presume he is a clever man which is no better illustrated than in his acquisition of his lawyering papers. It gave him entrée to Cabinet as the top legal officer in the State. But in actual fact, he is not very far up the legal ladder in the sense that he has never practiced as a lawyer, never donned the wig and gown. He has never defended a soul in trouble nor taken up the cudgel as a fearless prosecuting attorney laying waste to the baddies at the top end of town.
In his other political persona, Health Minister, Jimbo has spent his awesome academic talent into converting with a papal passion perfectly good hospitals into what are now widely regarded as ‘departure lounges’. Great places to visit but you wouldn’t want to stay there even if there was a vacant place.