Area man calls on Fianna Fáil to reform. March 31, 2011
Posted by WorldbyStorm in Irish Politics.trackback
Read the Irish Times yesterday and you will be presented with the following proscriptions for the Fianna Fáil party…
Fianna Fáil needs urgent organisational reform and must prove itself as a competent Opposition,
It was a bad situation and no mistake in the last government.
“An atmosphere of permanent crisis and controversies pervaded Government Buildings throughout the term of the last government,”
And worse:
“The air of crisis in Government Buildings became worse when Brian Cowen became taoiseach in May 2008. Some of this was down to bad luck but a lot of it was self-inflicted damage,”
And that was a mistake because…
Mr Cowen’s elevation was premature: “The plan had been that [Bertie] Ahern would lead Fianna Fáil into the 2009 local elections and take the rap for the bad result by retiring.
“But the personal finances issue didn’t go away and Ahern was rushed off stage prematurely, leaving Cowen with little time to prepare for becoming taoiseach.”
And then there’s a list of right of centre gripes…
..opposition leader, Enda Kenny “caught the mood” by calling for a cut in TDs’ and ministerial pay, and outraged his own Senators by calling for the abolition of the chamber.
He says that “despite the criticism thrown at Kenny at the time, now nearly everyone is in favour of getting rid of the Senate”.
Except precious few can say why precisely. That’s the problem with ‘moods’.
The social partnership process also damaged the party in government, with “compulsory” membership on State boards and agencies for the social partners.
“In many of the departments where I served, senior civil servants were . . . fearful of taking a decision in case it might be received badly by the social partner nominees on these quangos,” he writes.
Yeah, that social partnership and those social partners… The government, unions and – er – employers organisations.
So, who is this man of mystery? Who is it who has seen all this, been close to the centres of power, and yet whose clear-headed forensic analysis was clearly not listened to during the past thirteen or so years.
Why step forward…
…former minister of state for science and technology, Conor Lenihan.
The Cedar Lounge Revolution 
so according to Vincent’s nemesis the plan was to manipulate Bertie into taking the fall in 2009 after dud results. Poor old goofy malleable Bertie.
You’d have to wonder who were the master minds who thought they were manipulating the devious one.
Did the puppets think they were the string masters.
Is Conor running for the seanad by the way?
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“Is Conor running for the seanad by the way?”
No.
See the lists of candidates for the vocational panels here and the lists of candidates for the NUI constituency here and the University of Dublin constituency here.
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‘Is Conor running for the seanad by the way?’
I don’t think so. But I’ve heard he is planning to walk barefoot from Malin Head to Mizen Head carrying a metre squared slab of Wicklow granite engraved with his brother’s famous words: ‘it’ll be the cheapest bailout in history!’. I think he also plans to spend some time finding out what this ‘science’ thing was that kept appearing in all those documents on his desk during his last junior ministry. Nobody explained it to him at the time and he’s been wondering about it since….
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🙂
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FF and their supporters should all go the route suggested for Lowry. I would be surprised if anyone worked for them who was not in receipt of a tangible benefit, eg place on a semi-state board whatever.
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