An NPR team on a reporting trip to Ireland was stood up by three Irish ministers in one day, for three separate interviews.Twitter

Reporters from National Public Radio (NPR), the main public broadcaster in the US, had some choice words for three of Ireland’s government ministers yesterday, calling them ‘incompetent’ and ‘unprofessional.’

International correspondent Ari Shapiro and producer Rich Preston are currently in Ireland for a week-long reporting trip. Yesterday (Wednesday), they had interviews set up with three different Irish government ministers, for three separate stories. All three flaked out – two by canceling at the last minute; one by failing to show up at all or respond to phone calls.

Shapiro and Preston took to Twitter to vent their frustration, as The Journal first spotted:

Preston ranked the experience as the most frustrating in his long list of interviews with politicians from around the world:

Shapiro put it simply – “Slainte, dudes”

It gets a little worse:

The Irish government’s official news service, MerrionStreet.ie, asked Shapiro for more information.

Speaking to The Journal he declined to name the ministers, as he is still apparently hoping to re-schedule the interviews for later this week.

The site also reported that the government is attempting to get to the bottom of what happened, indicating that “it was unacceptable if three ministers canceled scheduled interviews.”

Preston and Shapiro wasted no time getting back on track with their reporting, visiting a farm where dairy meets tech and taking in the dark sky preserve in Co. Kerry.