Tom Kelly, also in today’s Irish News, argues that it is not as tough down South as many commentators argue; there are still investment opportunities. He mentions Fianna Fáil leader and Taoiseach, Brian Cowen’s speech at his party’s ardfheis; Cowen was “serious, serious about doing whatever takes”. (For what it is worth, I thought Cowen gave a good speech.)
Kelly also highlights one of the difficulties of getting Fianna Fáil out of government – who to support amongst the opposition: “The polls suggest no bounce factor for Fianna Fáil as it slumbers but more importantly the polls also suggest that the Irish electorate has no appetite for Enda Kenny as taoiseach, despite his party’s strong showing. The electorate is not stupid. They know its all about leadership.”
(Indeed, were, say Alan Dukes, in charge of Fine Gael, would they be in a stronger or weaker position now? Stronger, I suspect.)
Kelly is also unimpressed by how Stormont is managing financial matters: “The handout mentality that dominates the thinking in the assembly is an economic liability.” Certainly, there have been some sour remarks amongst many in the North regarding the Republic’s economic difficulties of late. However, the fact remains that while Ireland Inc may be taking water, Brian Cowen is, at least, in charge of the bail-out bucket. That is not something anyone in our little regional assembly can boast of.
It might not be a great Republic at the moment – but it is still a Republic.
Monday, March 02, 2009
Yes, we Cowen!
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2 comments:
Could someone tell me why the First and Deputy First Minister are off on yet another beano to the USA - they would be better at home sorting out the problems instead of on a fools errand - all the jobs they said were in the pipeline appear to have come to nothing
Better not to even try then
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