Poll: Will this Dáil see a full term? - Support for FF falls 15% (Joe Behan Resigns from the Party)

Slim Buddha wrote:

Parish pumpery will have to be eliminated in the national interest.

And who best to do that than the 2 parties who invest the most time in the parish pump process.

Have FG made noises about cutting public servant's pay yet?

I think you're all putting too rosy a picture on it.

Cowen, as I said back before Christmas, has abandoned any attempt at government from the first jolly old song back in Offally onwards and is clearly hoping that he can hand it on to the IMF and blame it all on them when our assets are stripped and our economy terminally wrecked.
His politics have no substance, he is imo a spin merchant and an archetypal bully/coward. It appears to me that he is telling us to get ready for him to hand over to the IMF, not showing any signs of life was suggested here.

Brian Lenihan is a younger man, and the dispute appears to be that he is at least prepared to make some kind of fight of it, even if he doesn't know what the f he's doing.

Enda Kenny has said he doesn't want a General Election i.e. he doesn't want to govern and is prepared to leave us in a boat with no skipper crashing against the quay wall in a storm. It could well be that his vision is also hand over the the IMF and stay clear of government as long as possible.

Cowen is sitting back. It was pointed out that he had no engagements in his diary last week and this week he is in Japan.

For whatever reason, the Greens and Labour appear to be the only parties that want to Govern.

eoin

didn't Varadkar say it on the news last night that pay cuts should start with them - TDs, ministers ? Haven't they already taken cuts? Maybe they should go on the dole for a couple of weeks a year during the summer especially the new TDs who haven't got fully enculturated yet.

cactus flower wrote:

Enda Kenny has said he doesn't want a General Election i.e. he doesn't want to govern and is prepared to leave us in a boat with no skipper crashing against the quay wall in a storm. It could well be that his vision is also hand over the the IMF and stay clear of government as long as possible.

Why do people call Kenny a fool/idiot etc. ?

Auditor #9 wrote:

eoin
didn't Varadkar say it on the news last night that pay cuts should start with them - TDs, ministers ?

Glad to hear that. I like Varadakar. He's not afraid to stick his neck out.

We have people who don't want to govern in tough times. Their plan is to sell us down the river to the IMF, and then blame the IMF for what happens to the country. They are probably still giving their ear the whole time to the chancers who got us into this, and spending their time stitching up the golden parachutes for the buddies.

If we don't want to end up with some freaky "strong man/woman" of the type Respvblica warns against, we need to find some sane, decent people who actually want to form a government and are prepared to stick up for the country as a whole. I don't include Varadker - the deportation thing and the right wing politics generally are not for me.

Enda Kenny the other day said that cutting public service pay appeared to be on the government's agenda. But he gave no indication whether he supported that agenda or not.

cactus flower wrote:

We have people who don't want to govern in tough times. Their plan is to sell us down the river to the IMF, and then blame the IMF for what happens to the country. They are probably still giving their ear the whole time to the chancers who got us into this, and spending their time stitching up the golden parachutes for the buddies.

I think FF, or Brian Lenihan anyway, have decided to ditch their old buddies the builders, along with Anglo. Fitzpatrick's departure was the start of this.

cactus flower wrote:

If we don't want to end up with some freaky "strong man/woman" of the type Respvblica warns against, we need to find some sane, decent people who actually want to form a government and are prepared to stick up for the country as a whole. I don't include Varadker - the deportation thing and the right wing politics generally are not for me.

Perhaps what we need is a government of Labour, the Greens, and some new party made up of like minded people from FF, FG and the PDs. With Brian Lenihan in the top job?

Breaking News

Quote :

A second junior minister has indicated that he is willing to give up his job as part of efforts to address the huge imbalance in Ireland's public finances.

Kildare TD Sean Power says he would be willing to give up his role as a Minister of State at the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources for the good of the country.

Mr Power says the Government needs to lead by example when asking the people of Ireland to make sacrifices during the recession.

Yesterday, Martin Mansergh, Minister of State at the Department of Finance, made a similar offer to relinquish his role if the Government decides to reduce the number of junior ministers.

Mr Power says he believes the current number of 20 junior ministers could be cut to 12 without affecting the workings of the Government.

Not surprising, they're all holding themselves up as acting in the national interest now.

Cowen has subsequently denied making any reference to the IMF.
http://www.reuters.com/article/usDollarRpt/idUSLE13743420090114

A lot done, a lot more to undo

cactus flower wrote:

Breaking News

Oooops! I made reference to Peter Power when I meant Sean Power.

eoinmn wrote:

Perhaps what we need is a government of Labour, the Greens, and some new party made up of like minded people from FF, FG and the PDs. With Brian Lenihan in the top job?

Well... if the Greens could rediscover their long-lost enthusiasm for consensus decision-making... who knows? Perhaps. Maybe.

What looks more doable is a FF-FG coalition. A strong, stable government. Surely?

soubresauts wrote:

eoinmn wrote:

Perhaps what we need is a government of Labour, the Greens, and some new party made up of like minded people from FF, FG and the PDs. With Brian Lenihan in the top job?

Well... if the Greens could rediscover their long-lost enthusiasm for consensus decision-making... who knows? Perhaps. Maybe.

I think the idea of creating a new party from FF and FG is a bit more far fetched, but whatever. Never let the oppurtunity to make a dig at the Greens go by sure, Soubresauts.

soubresauts wrote:

What looks more doable is a FF-FG coalition. A strong, stable government. Surely?

A Populist-Populist government, sure what can go wrong?
Perhaps if they were in government together they'd suddenly have the ability to make hard decisions, since there would be less of an opposition, but I'm unsure.

johnfás wrote:

Not surprising, they're all holding themselves up as acting in the national interest now.

Cowen has subsequently denied making any reference to the IMF.
http://www.reuters.com/article/usDollarRpt/idUSLE13743420090114

He hasn’t denied many any reference to the IMF, he has denied saying he may call in the IMF.
It was The Government who put it to the unions that if we don’t get a hold of this ourselves now the IMF would come in and do it for us, with all the unpleasant consequences that would entail, particularly for public sector workers.

Quote :

LONDON, Jan 14 (Reuters) - The euro stabilised from early losses on Wednesday after Ireland denied reports that its prime minister had said he may ask the International Monetary Fund for help if the economic downturn worsens.

But Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen, speaking in an interview with Irish broadcaster RTE, endorsed the view of the country's unions that public finances are unsustainable [ID:nDUB000777]. The Irish Embassy in Tokyo, where Cowen is visiting, denied earlier reports that he said he may call in the IMF if the economic situation deteriorates [ID:nTKU003243].

The euro rose to around $1.3240 after the comments, pulling back from around $1.3200 hit earlier in the day.

Against sterling, the euro rose to a session high of 91.25 pence, having fallen to 90.15 pence in early trade.

Analysts said euro gains were limited due to lingering worries about the Irish economy.

"Even with the denial, I think the markets are likely to conclude that there's no smoke without fire," said Derek Halpenny, European head of global currency sresearch at BTM UFJ in London.

"It's a well known fact that of any country within the euro zone that Ireland has the most fragile banking sector because of the degree of leverage in the property market."

(Reporting by Veronica Brown and Naomi Tajitsu)

The discussion we had last year about the threat to the Euro posed by the Irish economy is more relevant than ever.

eoinmn wrote:

Auditor #9 wrote:

eoin
didn't Varadkar say it on the news last night that pay cuts should start with them - TDs, ministers ?

Glad to hear that. I like Varadakar. He's not afraid to stick his neck out.

When your neck is as hard as his, you’re not taking much of a risk.

cactus flower wrote:

Quote :

LONDON, Jan 14 (Reuters) - The euro stabilised from early losses on Wednesday after Ireland denied reports that its prime minister had said he may ask the International Monetary Fund for help if the economic downturn worsens.

But Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen, speaking in an interview with Irish broadcaster RTE, endorsed the view of the country's unions that public finances are unsustainable [ID:nDUB000777]. The Irish Embassy in Tokyo, where Cowen is visiting, denied earlier reports that he said he may call in the IMF if the economic situation deteriorates [ID:nTKU003243].

The euro rose to around $1.3240 after the comments, pulling back from around $1.3200 hit earlier in the day.

Against sterling, the euro rose to a session high of 91.25 pence, having fallen to 90.15 pence in early trade.

Analysts said euro gains were limited due to lingering worries about the Irish economy.

"Even with the denial, I think the markets are likely to conclude that there's no smoke without fire," said Derek Halpenny, European head of global currency sresearch at BTM UFJ in London.

"It's a well known fact that of any country within the euro zone that Ireland has the most fragile banking sector because of the degree of leverage in the property market."

(Reporting by Veronica Brown and Naomi Tajitsu)

The discussion we had last year about the threat to the Euro posed by the Irish economy is more relevant than ever.

That quote from London on the state of the Irish banking system, is an opinion, not a “well known” fact as stated and would be coloured by their general view of a) the Euro and b) Ireland.

The Euro is in no danger from the Irish banking system which is miniscule in the Euro zone context.

The Irish economy doesn't really pose that much threat to the €uro which dropped marginally on a concern of the IMF having an involvement in Ireland. Had it been a concern about somewhere like France the €uro would have plummeted. I presume the real concerns about the €uro was an IMF involvement in the €urozone rather than Ireland in particular - 'If Ireland, then who next?'.

I wonder would Europe step in with emergency funding to stave off IMF involvement within the €urozone.

johnfás wrote:

The Irish economy doesn't really pose that much threat to the €uro which dropped marginally on a concern of the IMF having an involvement in Ireland. Had it been a concern about somewhere like France the €uro would have plummeted. I presume the real concerns about the €uro was an IMF involvement in the €urozone rather than Ireland in particular - 'If Ireland, then who next?'.

I wonder would Europe step in with emergency funding to stave off IMF involvement within the €urozone.

I'll try to find a link later, to show you why it is a concern.

If you are referring to Hugh Hendry's piece on how Ireland will destroy the €uro which was posted here several months ago I don't particularly buy his argument. His argument was based on Ireland's decision to guarantee deposits which at the time Ireland was the only €urozone member to do so. This is a policy which has been subsequently been adopted, in a like manner or in part, by many other members of the €urozone, including Germany.

Hendry has been predicting the demise of the €uro for quite a while from a variety of angles.

johnfás wrote:

If you are referring to Hugh Hendry's piece on how Ireland will destroy the €uro which was posted here several months ago I don't particularly buy his argument. His argument was based on Ireland's decision to guarantee deposits which at the time Ireland was the only €urozone member to do so. This is a policy which has been subsequently been adopted, in a like manner or in part, by many other members of the €urozone, including Germany.

Hendry has been predicting the demise of the €uro for quite a while from a variety of angles.

I'm suprised you think that. No other country in the world has guaranteed deposits in the Irish manner.

This John Moloney incident - anyone know anything about it ? I'm very suspicious of it myself - I reckon they're engineering a bit of an incident so as to throw in the towel.

Quote :

Unions dig in heels on pay as Cowen prepares for talks

Meanwhile, one of Mr Cowen's closest political associates was forced yesterday to pledge his full support to the Taoiseach.

Junior Minister John Moloney was responding to reports that he privately expressed dismay at Mr Cowen's performance, reportedly saying: "No-one knows what's gone wrong with him. This is not the man we know."

Mr Moloney appeared to neither confirm nor deny that he made the comments at a private lunch in Portlaoise. Disputing the account of his remarks, Mr Moloney nonetheless came out on national radio to express total loyalty to Mr Cowen.

Moloney souned very caught out on the radio yesterday. The journo caught him out fair and square and then hung him out to dry. I felt sorry for Moloney. I can't imagine he would make such an eejit of himself on purpose.

The McKevitt story about Dermot Ahern smacks of the first skirmish in a leadership battle. A bad day at the office for Ahern.

I don't like Dermot Ahern one bit. There was a comment that Varadkar of Fine Gael is arrogant earlier today, and I agree, but Ahern is several multiples of that arrogance. He is a man who annoys me.

FG are going to move a motion to call for a General Election this week (?) - did I just hear that on Morning Ireland ?

Richard Bruton on there now. He's saying that the idea of National Government is cak because in this season it's time for quick decision making and that wouldn't happen in a National Government as there would be too much consensus-seeking. Can't argue with that really.

Would any Government members vote for such a motion ????