Oh wait… it is an enormous crisis… and there truly is no alternative… at least not from our main opposition party January 29, 2009
Posted by WorldbyStorm in Economics, Economy, Irish Politics.trackback
Yesterday one might be forgiven for getting the distinct impression that John Gormley was understating the crisis, particularly when he said…
…speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland , Mr Gormley, whose Green Party is in Government with Fianna Fáil, appeared to signal he was against [a public address to the nation by the Taoiseach] saying “a state of the nation address has echoes of Charles J Haughey”.
Yet curiously I read today that in the Dáil yesterday:
Mr Gormley said that Ireland faced a challenge equal to the greatest the State had faced since its foundation some 90 years ago.
Isn’t it time they made their minds up?
Meanwhile should one hope that our beloved opposition would be willing to step up to the plate and offer an alternative analysis… well, I fear that that hope would be short-lived;
“Some €20 billion per year [on public sector wages] is not affordable and there is simply no getting away from that fact,’’ he said.
“We have either to cut jobs or cut pay. There is no ducking this issue, despite the understandable anger of many good public servants, who did not cause the crisis.’’ Mr Coveney said that the market was already forcing salary reductions and had forced 120,000 redundancies in the private sector in the past year.
The Cedar Lounge Revolution 
As lukewarm as I’m going on this whole government thing, I don’t think that those two statements carry any contradiction. I’m guessing, but I imagine John G’s point was less to understate the crisis, and more that the sincerity of “addresses to the nation” in times of economic woe has been massively undermined by Haughey. (Mainly down to his lifestyle during economically tough times and his being, well, y’know, Haughey.)
Any straight-to-camera statement now would only conjure up the 80s and Haughey’s style of politics, which isn’t politically or economically smart.
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Perhaps the fact that we have to interpret the remarks points to their lack of utility in the current context.
People who are in positions of power should speak very clearly indeed at the moment.
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Driving to work half hearing that interview with Coveney, I was left with the strong impression that his particular brand of Fine Gael medicine would rule out any consultation with social partners. And of course, Simple Simon owes his current position of influence totally to hard work and innovative thinking, not his last name, just like Mssrs Lenihan, Coughlan and Cowen. Get out the knife, cut quick, and don’t worry about those pesky unions, eh Simon? The old Blueshirt blood still boils beneath!
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