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Enda Kenny wanted to show leadership today, so at his party’s pre-budget announcement he let it be known he has asked the Dail to cut his pay by 5% for next year. Bold. Decisive. Leading.
Only that on Wednesday he was speaking on that very topic on Today FM’s The Last Word. Paul Gogarty suggested that all TDs get 8% cut, Enda dismissed the idea as “popuilist nonsense”.
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As even the most basic numerology textbooks tell us; five is the noble number, eight is the populist number and three - of course - is the magic number.
Ah yes Enda Kenny the decisive leader. Imagine if he became taoiseach.
Is he Irelands Sarah Palin
Thing is, there was Richard Bruton on RTE Radio 1 news at lunchtime making some interesting points about the forthcoming budget and what FG would like to see in it. Ideas that may merit consideration even if some of them were off the wall and wouldn’t work. But at least making a stab at a reasonable critique of our economic situation and advancing some desirable reforms from FG’s perspective. In other words, here was a man doing his job. Rendered completely irrelevant because he was totally undermined by the ridiculous intervention of his leader.
Kenny’s 5% pay cut is the only thing that anyone is going to remember about FG’s contribution to Ireland’s public finance crisis debate 2008. No wonder we’re all now holding our sides for fear of splitting them, chortling: “5%! I don’t believe it! How do we elect them? They’re priceless! They should be paid a lot more!”
What have we to look forward to? The Labour Party proposing a 10% pay cut? Or Sinn Fein demanding their wages be cut by 20%? Or some other daft idiot from the Dail or Seanad inadvertently stumbling on the obvious truth of it: “Sure, we’re worth nothing at all!”
If Enda was working in the private sector, he would have been handed a double digit pay cut whether he liked it or not.
What he has done in effect is asked for a pay rise. Leadership indeed…