Cowen seems to feel that the criticism of the government has been unfair. The logic seems to be that since the government cannot govern properly, the opposition should not oppose.Mr Cowen was outlining plans for a new €70 million investment package in the sheep and beef processing sectors which he said would create an additional 800 jobs between now and 2012.
Makes a certain amount of sense. The scary thing is that I think there's a real chance FF will successfully counter attack in the next few weeks and manager a better than expected result.
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#NeverStopNotGivingUp
I think FF will still be given a bloody nose in the upcoming elections but we all know it would be a lot different if it was a General Election.Originally Posted by Mr A
I do think though that FF have possibly hit the bottom. Its hard to think that after all the bad news we have had already any more bad news but reduce their support.
The opposition can only point to the past for so long. At some stage people will look for solutions instead of blame.
Given all the negativity amongst the general public, we're lucky Fianna Fáil consents to govern us at all.
A leading authority on League of Ireland football since 2003. You're probably wrong.
Elections force us to pick our favourite politician but remember that it's perfectly possible for both FF and the opposition to be in the wrong.
I would think so too, but then it's been a bit like bank share prices - at several stages there's been calling it as the rock bottom already.
To do otherwise is to just concede the "international factors" arguement, which would be very wrong when even the Government concede they have a "structual" deficit which is their fault. Of course the Government want people to get fed up of people highlighting their failures. However, the type of call cowen is making feeds off people's ignorance of the policies that the opposition are producing.
If you attack me with stupidity, I'll be forced to defend myself with sarcasm.
The minister for finance just said on newstalk that it is the opposition's fault that the goverment wasted all that money in the boom because they didnt oppose enough !!!!
That sounds like a feasible FF statement to me.
BTW the comments by Cowan last week about returning to strong growth next year would be funny if not so serious. Shameful electioneering.
This is a government that is set to rob public sector workers of €2bn every year until 2013 to plug the gap, the collapse of the construction industry caused.
They are in no position to make any accurate forecasts to when recovery will take shape, as the deficit figures are spiralling out of all control. Still we're told that passing Lisbon is the solution to all our economic woes.
Last edited by mypost; 26/05/2009 at 9:38 PM.
At least they have jobs. The alternative is to make them redundant like companies all across the country.
Public spending is still increasing so pension levy & other tax increases are only ensuring the budget deficit does not increase.
Most people still have jobs, and people are being let go in the public sector and numbers are down. In fact there's been cases where state companies have even tried to get away without paying redundancy (by claiming fixed term contracts were fixed purpose - they lost in the labour court though).
Last edited by Macy; 27/05/2009 at 8:02 AM.
If you attack me with stupidity, I'll be forced to defend myself with sarcasm.
While the Institutional Revolutionary Party have been an atrocious government party, they have been aided and abetted by The National Opposition failing to counter them in a genuine way. At the last general election, there was no question in FG's mind of calling the government on failing to set aside a portion of the supposedly vast wealth that only they could be trusted to manage for the possibility of a rainy day; failing that there was no demand for an answer to the question of why was it not being used to develop the infrastructure of the country beyond a privately run two legged public transport system in South Dublin, a leaky swimming pool, and the usual EU sponsored road programmes.
Enda Kenny has failed to ask the questions properly or publically enough, and has failed to source solutions, and effectively as a result has failed to provide a major opposition. Unfortunately, despite the FF sponsored "End of Civil War Politics" headlines in 2002, the reality is that the majority of the Irish electorate see only two parties on any given ballot sheet, despite Labour possibly being a more political party than either tweedle-dee or tweedle-dum.
I put it down to a lack of political imagination that has gripped the governing classes in Ireland. Neither of the chief parties have a particular policy other than "Them other boys have no idea what they are at - we'll do exactly the same thing, but we'll do it better". The only signs I can recall of positive political imagination from the top in the Republic since Garret and Charlie's time (i.e. the end of the Whitaker influence) seem to be inextricably tied up with the North, unless you wish to count certain imaginative ploys to win votes or maintain personal fortunes. To be honest, from my understanding, the most imagination used in the Dáil lately has tended to be in finding ways of winding up the other side of the house. I know that an element of this has always been the case, but it seems to me that the whole process has become the chief purpose of the Dáil. Has it become a reality TV show? Are they competing for ratings? Have I missed the toll call lines to vote in at the bottom of the screen in Orieachtas Report?
Unfortunately, I also suspect that this problem is not simply endemic in the two major parties, but has somehow become print-borne and appears to have affected the bulk of Irish journalists too, which has led me to quit buying Irish papers. It would appear from what details I still get that they are still failing to report much of what is happening - perhaps this is an editorial issue, as I am well aware that the various papers are, by their nature, politically tied, but one would expect some greater breadth of exploration of the other side's shortcomings.
That question was less stupid, though you asked it in a profoundly stupid way.
Help me, Arthur Murphy, you're my only hope!
The Dáil is becoming less important under the current regime - they annouce most legislation in press conference rather than the floor of the house, and they don't give adequate time to debate the important matters. Hopefully that'll change in the next Dáil.
btw going back to the original post, the people obviously aren't that fed up with the opposition judging by the latest poll.
If you attack me with stupidity, I'll be forced to defend myself with sarcasm.
No parties raised that in the last GE as we the people did not want to hear it.
A lot of money was put into reduceing the National Debt but the real problem now is the gap between tax revenue & expenditure.
Sure, the Dail sits for 23 hours per week most of the time. 2.30-9.15 on Tuesday, 10.30-9.15 on Wednesday, and 10.30-5.15 on Thursday. That's less than a full day of the week in the chamber, of which individual TD's sit for about 5 hours a week. And the Senate sits for about 20 hours. They aren't there long enough to initiate legislation, and are off for 11 weeks again this summer, as the country continues to crumble around them.
There's lots of time, it just doesn't suit the Government to have to defend it or hold it up to scrutinity, when they can launch it in a press conference and dictate how it'll be covered in the media.
And anyway, I'm sure at least one of the opposition parties will propose a shorter break, but FF/Greens will vote it down. Only thing to do is to remember that in the polling booth.
If you attack me with stupidity, I'll be forced to defend myself with sarcasm.
The Labour party voted to reduce the number of times the Taoiseach has to answer questions in the Dail in exchange for an increased profile for themselves. They're each as bad as the other on that score.
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