Quote :

THE TAOISEACH has still not received a formal invitation to the White House for St Patrick’s Day with just a month to go to the national holiday.

Brian Cowen told Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny the Irish Embassy in Washington was in contact with the White House “as is normal at this time of year”.

Mr Kenny referred to the Taoiseach’s plan to visit Washington and New York next month.

“Have you received an official invitation to the White House to meet President Obama?” he asked. “Are the officials in the Department of Foreign Affairs working with their counterparts in the US to make this a reality given its importance in terms of the relationship between Ireland and the United States and the circumstances in which we find ourselves at present?”

The Taoiseach said that “final arrangements have not been agreed”.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2009/0218/1224241331931.html

I'm guessing Enda has heard this from John Bruton?

Obama would be kind of a shit not to do the Patrick's Day thing, even in a slimmed down format like Bush.

Happy to see Ednas focusing on the important matters at hand.

Annual personal access to the American administration is an important thing which very few States of comparable size have managed to achieve. It is something worthy of comment and, even as someone who is not a FG supporter, I have noticed Kenny seems quite capable of attacking the Government on its possible links to dodgy deals in Anglo at the same time as raising this issue.

johnfás wrote:

Annual personal access to the American administration is an important thing which very few States of comparable size have managed to achieve. It is something worthy of comment and, even as someone who is not a FG supporter, I have noticed Kenny seems quite capable of attacking the Government on its possible links to dodgy deals in Anglo at the same time as raising this issue.

Well thanks be to God for that, I thought he was just trying to use a titbit of information to embarrass Cowen.
You might have noticed that while he was asking about links to dodgy deals, he didn't specify what those links might be, it's known as throw enough muck and hope some of it sticks, a not unknown tactic in FG politics.

As opposed to current FF policy which seems to consist of blindfolding themselves and running across motorways hoping that they won't get hit by any traffic in the world of international finance... or opposed to giving tax incentives for their friends and funders to build things that we didn't need.

johnfás wrote:

As opposed to current FF policy which seems to consist of blindfolding themselves and running across motorways hoping that they won't get hit by any traffic in the world of international finance... or opposed to giving tax incentives for their friends and funders to build things that we didn't need.

The first part is your opinion, you're welcome to it.
For the second part you'll have to supply some details, if you have any.

tonys wrote:

You might have noticed that while he was asking about links to dodgy deals, he didn't specify what those links might be, it's known as throw enough muck and hope some of it sticks, a not unknown tactic in FG politics.

Firstly, let's not pretend it is above Fianna Fail to sling mud.

Secondly, Fianna Fail should focus on who's fault it is: John Bruton.

But seriously, Cowen's from North Offaly, Obama's people are from South Offaly. Sure that feud is worse than the bloods and crypts.

Section 23 developments empty all over Tallaght and vast parts of Meath and West Meath.

Section 50 developments empty surrounding Universities such as Galway and Limerick. I see one of the Student Accommodations built in Limerick under Section 50 is now open to anyone to rent a room in.

Tax relief for unnecessary hotels... I believe there are now six large hotels in Tallaght. Two have gone bust so far this year, expect more to follow. Most of these hotels should never have got planning permission... lucky (or unlucky now) for the developers they managed to get planning permission for designs which were more conjusive to apartment blocks than they were to hotels thus readily convertible when the hotel goes bust. The latter situation is one which local authorities should have been concerned with, but the tax breaks were Government ones.

Of course all of this to the backdrop of the cosy relationship between Fianna Fáil and major developers. A simple Google search of "Fianna Fáil Tent" will provide you with a link to a story (one of many) in the Sunday Business Post from August 2003 mentioning several major developers rubbing shoulders at the Fianna Fáil fundraiser.

It is incumbent upon a Government to engage in proper planning. This Government did not, they created tax breaks to speed up and feed unnecessary developments up and down this country in order to keep the bubble inflating all the time hoping they would get out before it burst.

These were bad policies tonys and history will judge them so.

eoinmn wrote:

tonys wrote:

You might have noticed that while he was asking about links to dodgy deals, he didn't specify what those links might be, it's known as throw enough muck and hope some of it sticks, a not unknown tactic in FG politics.

Firstly, let's not pretend it is above Fianna Fail to sling mud.

FF don't as a rule do mudslinging, they do go after you and tear you to bits for next to nothing while pretending whatever it is matters or if it does actually matter, they pretend you should have been able to do something about it before it happened.

johnfás wrote:

Section 23 developments empty all over Tallaght and vast parts of Meath and West Meath.

Section 50 developments empty surrounding Universities such as Galway and Limerick. I see one of the Student Accommodations built in Limerick under Section 50 is now open to anyone to rent a room in.

Tax relief for unnecessary hotels... I believe there are now six large hotels in Tallaght. Two have gone bust so far this year, expect more to follow.

Of course all of this to the backdrop of the cosy relationship between Fianna Fáil and major developers. A simple Google search of "Fianna Fáil Tent" will provide you with a link to a story (one of many) in the Sunday Business Post from August 2003 mentioning several major developers rubbing shoulders at the Fianna Fáil fundraiser. Of course some of these include the two brothers from Bovale who are now subject to an application for disqualification due to improprietry in the manner that they ran their companies.

It is incumbent upon a Government to engage in proper planning. This Government did not, they created tax breaks to speed up and feed unnecessary developments up and down this country in order to keep the bubble inflating all the time hoping they would get out before it burst.

All very relevant I'm sure, apart from one detail, it wasn't FF who introduced tax incentives for builders/building, on the other hand it was FF who brought them to an end, in 2004 I believe.

A simple search should uncover who did introduce the building tax incentives.

There are still reliefs on nursing homes, hospitals and clinics, including sports injuries clinics.
Town and rural reliefs I think ended one or two years ago.

When tax incentives were introduced they kickstarted development in derelict areas. Fianna Fail continued to pump money into these schemes when the construction industry was already at boiling point.

One of the worst aspects of the whole thing was the lack of planning. Holiday homes all over the coastline and unwanted houses in quiet rural counties, with no sewerage and no roads. Standing empty most of the year now. It pushed building costs up too. If people had paid their taxes instead we might all have had better infrastructure and services.