Nothing is certain except death and taxes but the polls do suggest that a Fine Gael-led government is a strong possibility if, as many currently expect, a general election is held in the next six or nine months.
Enda Kenny – not everyone’s cup of tea? (Photograph by David Sleator)
The row between the Government and Fine Gael over Nama is good old-fashioned toe-to-toe political pugilism. The subject matter of the debate is complicated (class exercise: explain the difference between senior, and subordinated, debt in one sentence) but the intensity and adversarial nature of it is unmistakable.
Eleven days to go – only nine days’ canvassing – and the battle-lines are becoming clearer. I spent an hour at a Sinn Féin press conference in a remote location on the Quays (sorra fear they’d have it somewhere convenient for the hardpressed Leinster House ‘meeja’) where the main issue raised by the journoes, including yours truly, was whether or not Mary Lou McDonald was going to run in the general election.
As in 2004, Mary Lou McDonald and Gerry Adams will be keeping their fingers crossed again (Photograph by Brenda Fitzsimons)
1. Statement issued by Fine Gael’s Richard Bruton this afternoon (first few paragraphs):
“Neither nationalisation nor NAMA – FG is only Party that will protect
taxpayers’ interests and get lending going again – Bruton
The ESRI’s first forecast pointing to any contraction in the Irish economy was made only at the end of June last year.
This morning’s reports on the institute’s spring quarterly economic commentary (see story here) makes for ghastly reading. A 9.2 per cent shrinkage this year. A 14 per cent contraction over the next three years. Unemployment to reach almost 17 per cent next year. That’s what it was like at the worst period in the 1980s. It’s even gloomier than that, says the ESRI. The landscape it paints is that of an arid dustbowl somewhere in California in the 1930s. (more…)
In these difficult times, everyone needs a good laugh now and then. They say it is the best medicine of all. In that spirit, I am offering the introductory paragraph of then-Taoiseach Bertie Ahern’s statement when he announced an increase in the number of junior ministers from 17 to 20 on 20 June 2007.
Brian Cowen in happier times with 18 of the 20 outgoing ministers of state (Photograph by Dara MacDonaill, 13 May 2008)
I dreamt about a visit to the fortune-teller last night. It wasn’t my love-life she was interested in, or indeed any other aspect of my personal situation. No, this was a political seer, looking to the future of the country. (more…)
At the end of a week in the most heavily-populated country in the world I am now heading back to one of the smallest. Meanwhile the front cover of the Economist has a representation of a wounded lion under the motto or headline, “Capitalism at bay”. These are indeed turbulent times. (more…)
The Government has now added non-Irish banks into the scheme, though it seems the rider about a “case-by-case” basis may just confine it to Ulster Bank, and possibly to NIB.
The excluded banks lobbied ferociously today and from mid afternoon it was clear that Ulster Bank was confident that it would be included. (more…)
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