Irish Election - Coverage of Irish Politics, News and Current Affairs

Far from a ‘state of the nation address’ that showed any respect for our collective intelligence, what we were treated to last night was a long-winded, patronising, poorly constructed, badly drafted pre-Budget party political broadcast on behalf of the government. Granted, it was well delivered by the Taoiseach, Enda Kenny, but then that’s part of his job description.

Where substance was warranted , we got spin. Lots of it; particularly about jobs and this government’s record on job creation. Indeed the Taoiseach seemed a bit at cross purposes over the government’s exact role on the jobs front. At the top of the speech, he talked about creating the environment for job creation. By the middle, he was boasting that last summer’s damp squib ‘jobs initiative’ had created “ over 20,000 new jobs and training places.” Continue reading ‘Taoiseach’s ‘State of the Nation’ Address – “Difficult choices are never easy”’ »

From Bank of England’s Financial Stability Report.  Illustrated here is that when it comes to deleveraging — banks dumping loans to shrink their balance sheets — NAMA is up there with the biggest of the European banks.  Indeed, for this purpose, NAMA is best seen as being like a massively overextended large European bank, banks that are also trying to sell loans into the same market as NAMA.  Part of the argument for NAMA when it was being set up was that it could take all the devalued assets of actual Irish banks and be patient in developing or selling them.  But from a European perspective, we weren’t the only ones with that idea.  So now NAMA is just adding to the contraction coming from the EU banking sector as a whole.  Maybe that’s another way we could plead for concessions from our troika friends: the more we get squeezed, the more NAMA has to dump loans, which is not good for anybody.

The ECB has announced it is participating in a joint initiative with the Central Banks of UK, Japan, Canada, US and Switzerland to provide liquidity support, i.e. cash, to banks to avoid a new major credit crunch across the western world. The mechanism to provide dollar loans to banks will be in place by the end of next week

I have no idea how any of this banking stuff works or what, if any, implications this action has on the Irish front. But it seems that stock markets in London, New York and the major European capitals soared on this breaking news.

It would be nice to believe it’s all going to mean something positive, especially in the wake of the ESRI’s gloomy predictions for our economy next year and today’s worsening Live Register figures signalling the obvious failure of last summer’s so-called ‘Jobs Initiative’ and further slow downs in the real economy. Now, it’s back to the EU politicians and what decisions they’re going to make to further head off the collapse of the euro and the catastrophe that would unleash….far worse than anything that’s planned in next week’s Budget.

The full text of the ECB release is below the fold. Continue reading ‘Central Banks act to prevent credit crunch – glimmer of hope at last?’ »

Kite-flying of draconian budget measures and individual posturing by members of the Cabinet, either to protect their own departmental turf or demonstrate their pugnacity in defence of their own interests to party backbenchers and supporters, has provided a further episode, and an unedifying, cringmakingly awful one at that, in the political pantomime that’s been this season’s Budget process. The stars turns of the latest episode have been Minister for Health, James Reilly, and the Minister for Social Protection, Joan Burton.

Dr. Reilly’s ‘grandstanding’  was castigated in last Saturday’s Irish Independent, specifically his threat of an annual 50 euro charge on medical cards and an increase of five cents in prescription charges for medical card holders.

“Health Minister James Reilly’s campaign to put the fear of God into Fine Gael and Labour backbench TDs ahead of next Tuesday week’s Budget raises serious questions, both about his political methods and his ability to deliver meaningful reforms to the €15.5bn health service, “ the Independent editorial said. Continue reading ‘The Budget – Time to end the Cabinet ‘silly games’ season and reform the budget process’ »

It’s just one rum thing after another… A week ago, the Irish government was internationally humiliated when it emerged that a Committee of the German Bundestag was examining Michael Noonan’s Budget 2012 proposals for a 2% VAT increase which the rest of Ireland, including its parliament, had no prior inkling was in the works. Yesterday, further humiliation was heaped on Irish heads when the Budget Committee of the European Parliament gave the thumbs down, by 12 votes to 11, of the proposed appointment of the Secretary-General of the Department of Finance to the European Court of Auditors next March. Two Irish substitute MEPS to yesterday’s Committee Meeting, Pat the Cope Gallagher and Marian Harkin, had voted in Mr. Cardiff’s favour. The Taoiseach, Enda Kenny, is said to have lobbied the EPP group leadership in the Parliament to ensure EPP members of the Committee did the right thing and voted to approve Mr. Cardiff’s nomination.

Clearly, those pesky MEPs have no respect for the Fine Gael whip and prefer to make their own judgement, since all EPP members at the Committee meeting rejected Mr. Cardiff’s nomination. Continue reading ‘Time for a rethink on Cardiff appointment to European Court of Auditors?’ »

Remember that ‘magic beans economics ‘ moment before the 2011 General Election? Michael Noonan and Joan Burton having a very public row on RTE radio about…yes, you have it! … cuts to Child Benefit. Joan in the studio, Michael, as she put it, ‘shouting from Limerick’ as the now Minister for Social Protection lambasted Fine Gael for planning to cut the children’s allowance?

Burton: “Michael, there’s a lot of big houses all around the country where, inside those houses, there’s actually very little money because people are at the pin of their collar paying their mortgages and the child benefit is a critical income support to put food on the table. I’m just asking you, Michael, to think about this..” Continue reading ‘Burton: ‘Child Benefit is a critical income support to put food on the table’ – Labour faces difficult Welfare Budget Choices.’ »

Is the Labour Party beginning to buckle under the strains of being in government? Willie Penrose has today resigned from his post as the Super–Junior Minister and from the parliamentary LabourParty over the closure of Mullingar Army Barracks. Leinster MEP, Nessa Childers, told national radio this afternoon how she was threatened with expulsion from the Labour Party by a senior party politician for criticising the government’s nomination of Kevin Cardiff, Secretary General of the Department of Finance, to the European Court of Auditors . Meanwhile, the Sunday Business Post reported that a number of backbench Labour TDs met informally last week to discuss their concerns about the direction of education policy, specifically any possibility of the reintroduction of student fees, on which thousands of students are expected to take to the streets later in the week.

In light of the threatened implosion of the eurozone, and the economic and social catastrophe that would immediately follow, such issues seem more like surreal distractions than anything much to get excited about. Continue reading ‘Taoiseach get his priorities right? BIC wins out over Sarkozy’ »

On Monday last, Greek Prime Minister, George Papandreou, appears to have suffered a rush of blood to the head, of the kind that used to afflict Taoiseach Brian Cowen in the final days of the latter’s ill-fated regime, and now looks likely to hasten his own political demise.

Noon today and the Greek government appeared on the point of collapse, some forty eight hours after Prime Minister Papandreou made his ‘shock’ announcement to call a referendum to give the Greek people a say in whether or not to accept the bail-out package painstakingly carved out by the EU a few days earlier and on which the ink was barely dry.

Continue reading ‘The fate of Greece raises serious questions for all’ »

First, it was Enda Kenny who said it; then Michael Noonan repeated it on the News at One on RTE; followed by Leo Varadkar on Tonight with Vincent Brown on 26th October last: The payment of 700m euro of Irish taxpayers money to unsecured, unguaranteed senior bondholders of the former Anglo Irish Bank will not, in fact, cost the taxpayer a brass penny.

Anglo has the cash, courtesy of the sale of its US assets, they assured us, to meet the bond payment courtesy of its own resources.

Continue reading ‘Anglo Bond – ‘No taxpayers’ money’ Government spin in tatters’ »

The referendum on increased powers for Oireachtas Committees deserved to fail. Had the public debate that some members of the government this past weekend wistfully suggested might have made a difference to the final result taken place, the net result might have been failure by an even larger margin than a 53% ‘No’.

There was nothing wrong with Brendan Howlin’s initial preparations for the proposed amendment, except that he appears to have been badly advised on its terms, or else, that he and his Government colleagues decided to take their own advice instead. Continue reading ‘Oireachtas Powers Referendum deserved to be defeated’ »

With Sean Gallagher now taken out of his Presidential hopes, convicted fuel-smuggler and Gallagher-accuser Hugh Morgan has changed his story for a second time. He now says the invite to the FF fundraising event may not have been issued by Gallagher at all, but by former FF TD for Louth Seamus Kirk. Kirk himself says he ‘cannot recollect’ this but admits meeting Morgan ‘from time to time’. Morgan himself now claims he cannot recollect meeting Gallagher at his home, directly contradicting his claims in the final days of the campaign.

Has the Irish Presidential election been decided by a lie and the media’s unquestioning belief of it? Why did the Sunday Independent wait until after the election – when the media darling was safely ensconced in the Aras – before revealing what they knew?

What the Sunday Independent now calls SF’s “dirty tricks campaign” may yet end up backfiring on the party in the courts. Under “The Prevention of Electoral Abuses Act, 1923″:

Every person who, before or during any election and for the purpose of affecting the return of any candidate at that election, makes or publishes any false statement of fact in relation to the personal character or conduct of such candidate, and the directors of any body or association corporate which before or during any election and for the purpose aforesaid makes or publishes any such false statement as aforesaid, shall be guilty of an illegal practice.”

The Evening Herald has claimed that SF Presidential candidate Martin McGuinness is the main suspect in the murder of two policemen gunned down in an IRA ambush in Derry:

SINN Fein Presidential candidate Martin McGuinness is the main suspect in the brutal murder of two policemen, the Herald can reveal.

Sergeant Peter Gilgunn (26) and Constable David Montgomery (20), were gunned down in an IRA ambush as they travelled in an RUC patrol car in Derry.

They were the first police officers to lose their lives in a terrorist incident in the city for 50 years.

The ambush 40 years ago came just three days before Bloody Sunday sent shockwaves right across the Province.
….

The claims further calls SF’s credibility into question hours before the polls open in the Presidential Election. The revelation comes after McGuiness altered his account of Sean Gallagher’s alleged contacts with businessman and former convicted fuel-smuggler and former tax-evader Hugh Morgan.

Update: Gallagher on facebook denying he is man in a 1992 photo cited on David Cochrane (of politics.ie)’s twitter page.

Sinn Fein’s allegations linking Gallagher to a cheque for €5,000 for FF have been undermined following the revelations that the accuser has convictions for cross-border fuel-smuggling and tax-evasion and leased his General Election HQ to Gerry Adams. On Tonight with Vincent Brown it was reported that SF has now revealed his identity as Hugh Morgan. In February 2011, the Irish Mail on Sunday reported that Morgan plead guilty to fuel smuggling and tax-evasion in 1998, receiving an 18-month suspended sentence, and being required to pay €500,000 in excise duties and €25,000 in Prosecution costs.

SINN Féin president Gerry Adams is renting his election campaign HQ from the family firm of a convicted crossborder fuel smuggler, the Irish Mail on Sunday can reveal.
Festooned with posters of the Dáil hopeful, and flying the tricolour from the second storey, the office – above Gormley’s Pub in Park Street, Dundalk – is in a building belonging to Morgan Fuels Ireland Limited, owned by Hugh Morgan.

Newry businessman Morgan pleaded guilty to fuel smuggling and tax evasion at Belfast Crown Court in June 1998. He received a suspended 18-month jail sentence. He paid £500,000 in excise duties and VAT and was ordered to pay £25,000 prosecution costs.

But when Mr Adams was asked about Mr Morgan’s criminal convictions, he laughed them off, saying: ‘You’re great, great craic.’ He then claimed he didn’t know who Sinn Féin was renting the office space from and said he didn’t know Mr Morgan personally.

He said the lease was ‘a totally bona fide legal contract between Sinn Féin and the owner of the building… sin é, that’s it’.

When asked if Mr Morgan was any relation to departing Louth TD Arthur Morgan, Mr Adams said: ‘I wouldn’t say so,’ and joked: ‘But there’s Morgan’s rum now. It’s spice rum – especially, it’s very nice with Coca-Cola and a twist of lemon.’ Speaking during a canvass in mid-Louth, he then turned to his three aides and asked them: ‘Is Morgan’s Fuel any connection to wee Arthur?’

The revelations threaten to backfire on the McGuinness campaign just as false allegations against Mary Harney in relation to the Flood Tribunal did on Magill Magazine in 2002.

It’s ironic that in the run up to the referendum on De Valera’s draft Constitution in 1937, the proposed role of the President was one of the most contentious areas of political debate. Fine Gael feared that De Valera was ultimately planning for a Presidential dictatorship of sorts.
Such fears were misplaced. The Presidency, as it turned out, was an office designed to do not much about anything at all. It was to be a largely ceremonial, diplomatic and symbolic post; and at a political level, providing a contest by proxy between Fianna Fail and Fine Gael for a public endorsement of their respective political values. And so it remained until Mary Robinson smashed this model to bits in her surprise victory over Brian Lenihan twenty one years ago, a victory secured courtesy of Austin Currie’s Fine Gael transfers.

In the present campaign, there is a new dynamic at work.

Continue reading ‘The race for the Presidency – what do people really want? (2)’ »

Brendan Howlin didn’t turn up to reply to the Second Stage debate on the Constitutional Amendment to grant Oireachtas Committees new powers to investigate issues of public interest on the evening of September 15th. No doubt he had more weighty Ministerial matters to contend with. But his absence signalled a worrying complacency within this Government.

But why should he be bothered anyway? The proposed referendum commands all-party support; Second Stage was passed by 99 votes to 11, with the eleven dissenters comprising only those truculent, pesky Independents. The ‘spin message’ had already been successfully floated the previous week: this amendment will finally enable a proper investigation of what happened to our banks and why we’re being crushed under the debt they created – with appropriate public grilling, under full media glare, of the banking, regulatory, administrative and political bozos responsible. At last, they will be forced to give account of themselves and their actions and decisions, that have brought so much grief into the lives of all our citizens, before the elected representatives of the people. Continue reading ‘Constitutional Amendment on Oireachtas Inquiries – Is this Government simply lazy or just arrogant?’ »

I may have forgotten many days in between, but like many others, I remember precise details of where I was on 9/11. Late that morning, I had travelled to Manchester for a meeting. I was whisked off to the canteen for coffee with someone who wanted to talk to me, to share some news about what was going on in his life at that time, especially his excitement about a plan to go and work in the US for a couple of years. On our return, there was a small cluster of people gathered around a desk in the open plan office, watching internet TV footage of a plane crashing into the Twin Towers. The meeting never really happened. Everyone became distracted by the Sky News coverage on the screen on the wall chronicling, minute by minute, the unfolding horror in New York. Continue reading ‘Guns and Butter – the cost of 9/11’ »