Is Brian Lenihan really up to the job as minister for finance?

junkyard

It strikes me that he's a bit sloppy at his job to say the least considering he's a barrister by profession, I wouldn't fancy having him as my legal defence. To not read all the facts that were available to him and to be making decisions that will make, or more than likely break, the country is just downright scarey to be honest.:eek:

galwayrush

He's a throwback to the Bertie era, only used to dealing in good news stories, can't handle the tough times. His advisors must be brutally bad.

dr.bollocko

No.

Húrin

No. Swiftly underwriting the banks in October is the only good act I can think of.

anonymous_joe

Probably one of the smarter Faffers. Nice bloke too.

galwayrush

Húrin wrote: »

No. Swiftly underwriting the banks in October is the only good act I can think of.

And that might not turn out too good , only time will tell.

Biggins

O' jeeze. Talk about an obvious answer!
He's letting Cowen run roughshod over good economic thinking with the mad leaders "I'm sticking to my own philosophy".

galwayrush

Biggins wrote: »

O' jeeze. Talk about an obvious answer!

OK, a much tougher question, who is worse with their performance in Goverment, Lenihan or Coughlan?:D

junkyard

Húrin wrote: »

No. Swiftly underwriting the banks in October is the only good act I can think of.

I'm not too sure about that either, as some economists were saying recently it's pouring good money after bad and this money will probably never be seen again.

Senna

Out of his depth, really need someone with financial experience when dealing with a crisis. Its fine when its compiling budgets but he need to be innovating ideas not just fire fighting problems, he will always be behind the curve until he admits the situation the country is in. At the moment they're trying to play down statistics and constantly under-estimating for the public benefit.

junkyard

galwayrush wrote: »

OK, a much tougher question, who is worse with their performance in Goverment, Lenihan or Coughlan?:D

Well there's no doubt Coughlan is clueless and totally out of her depth but Lenihan appears to be very sloppy with the real facts. Where does O'Dea feature, I find it incredible to believe the guy is a solicitor, maybe they've gone to the same collage as Bertie did or got their degrees on e-bay.:D

missingtime

I've heard him a lot at to be fair he is one of the few irish politicians that can articulate themselves without resorting to umming and eh eh ehing.

He's getting some god awful press at the moment and I wonder is it because he is stuck with the mess left by cowen and bertie

galwayrush

junkyard wrote: »

Well there's no doubt Coughlan is clueless and totally out of her depth but Lenihan appears to be very sloppy with the real facts. Where does O'Dea feature, I find it incredible to believe the guy is a solicitor, maybe they've gone to the same collage as Bertie did or got their degrees on e-bay.:D

O'Dea is the Irish Chemical Ali.:D
Idiot is still obsessed with civil war politics.:(

Dob74

BL was given the MOF at the toughest time in 70 years. So it is to early to tell. Cowen seems to be out his dept

meditraitor

I doubt there is anyone in the country or alive up to the job of finance Minister at the present time

junkyard

meditraitor wrote: »

I doubt there is anyone in the country or alive up to the job of finance Minister at the present time

Well I know I wouldn't want it, but neither would I want to be remembered as the one who was in charge when the country went down the tube. He'll be quick enough to accept the wages and the pension though.

mcwhirter

Brian Lenihan makes the village idiot more worthy of the job as the finance minister.

maxwell smart

Lenihan (a nice guy I'm sure) is not up to being Finance Minister. He should have stayed in Justice. Coughlan is just a disaster, really is jobs for the boys (girls) there.
Who should be in Finance? Well looking at Cowen's judgement so far, I'm surprised its not Jackie Healy Rae!!

junkyard

The whole state of affairs would be hilarious if it were't for the fact that our future lies in their hands and they seem to be doing very little to sort things out, you'd wonder sometimes what some of these ministers have done to get into power. Brassnecks allround by the looks of things.:o

ejmaztec

A barrister running the economy is like an alcoholic Dublin bus-driver piloting a mission to Alpha Centauri with no spaceship.

leeroybrown

What I find funny is that I rarely hear anyone question the quality of the senior civil servants in the Dept. of Finance. The Minister for Finance is supposed to make political agreements and decisions based on expert advice and costing from the senior civil servants in the Dept. Quite clearly the quality of advice coming from these people hasn't been sufficiently high over the last number of years.

I'm certainly no fan of the current government or the indecisiveness they've displayed in recent times but I don't think that the blame can be fully dumped on Brian Lenihan's feet.

Biggins

leeroybrown wrote: »

...I'm certainly no fan of the current government or the indecisiveness they've displayed in recent times but I don't think that the blame can be fully dumped on Brian Lenihan's feet.

It could be argued that at the end of the day, he's the head of his department and if those "advisor's" are not doing him any favours, why the hell are they still there and why won't he fire them? Especially at the mad money they are getting!
Its just more incompetent and clear indecisive, spineless examples of it!

leeroybrown

Biggins wrote: »

It could be argued that at the end of the day, he's the head of his department and if those "advisor's" are not doing him any favours, why the hell are they still there and why won't he fire them? Especially at the mad money they are getting!
Its just more incompetent and clear indecisive, spineless examples of it!

Unfortunately, I don't think it's quite as simple as that. I'd love to see a minister try to get rid of their senior civil servants. Their entire department would grind to a halt and the minister would end up being the one falling on their own sword for it. The advisors outlive every government and will have run plenty of policies they don't want into the ground over the years. Don't get me wrong - I'm not admonishing the guy from blame, I'm just saying that this isn't something that someone can fix in the short term.

cornbb

He's on Radio 1 right now being pwned by Richard Bruton. Lenihan strikes me as being completely clueless.

yoshytoshy

D'yknow whats really sickening about all the problems at the moment ?

The fact that all these shams took a months holidays at christmas ,when things were getting worse.
That is without question ,the most selfish thing they could have done ,especially considering the "ANNUAL" salary they get.
If anarchy isn't next ,then at least we can say good bye to them.

Rovi

cornbb wrote: »

He's on Radio 1 right now being pwned by Richard Bruton. Lenihan strikes me as being completely clueless.

That's Dermot Ahern, our beloved Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform.

niceirishfella

Someone made a good point on the radio yesterday (think it was Richard Curran) that when the banks are recapitalised, they'll go to the internal market looking for cash - and the international investment community woun't touch a bank from Ireland with a bargepole.

This Gov has no credibility and what they are doing will lead us down the path to the IMF, with our cap in our hand.

ART6

Since the situation we are in is one that is so severe and fast moving that no-one alive today has previously experienced or even dreamed of such a thing, I doubt that any minister or senior civil servant would have any real idea about what to do, decisively or otherwise. However, it does concern me deeply that critical information seems to be continuously kept from the Dail or simply not passed up the chain of command in departments. "I didn't know" and "No one told me" seem to be the common escape clause. Sorry lads, but you are the management. You are paid (handsomely) to know, and to take the rap if you didn't.

niceirishfella

One thing to do is to ensure you read the PWC report in full personally as Minister for Finance, and not rely on doapey advisors to do it for you.

thebman

Rovi wrote: »

That's Dermot Ahern, our beloved Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform.

This made me lol

Wrong person and saying they are clueless

cornbb

thebman wrote: »

This made me lol

Wrong person and saying they are clueless

doh

thebigcheese22

I know everyones saying it but I'd much rather see Richard Bruton as Finance Minister, it looks like he knows his stuff (and I'm a Labour man!)

Lenihan should have stayed in Justice

ejmaztec

ART6 wrote: »

Since the situation we are in is one that is so severe and fast moving that no-one alive today has previously experienced or even dreamed of such a thing, I doubt that any minister or senior civil servant would have any real idea about what to do, decisively or otherwise. However, it does concern me deeply that critical information seems to be continuously kept from the Dail or simply not passed up the chain of command in departments. "I didn't know" and "No one told me" seem to be the common escape clause. Sorry lads, but you are the management. You are paid (handsomely) to know, and to take the rap if you didn't.

It seems that many economists could see this situation happening but they were all regarded as nut-cases by their contemporaries.

Ireland was one of the countries where the government was fannying around for longer than was necessary, before actually deciding to try something. How many weeks had passed between the problem arising and the "emergency" budget? They've dragged their heels every step of the way, and are still dragging them now!

So far it's been a sh1t job of persuading foreign investors that someone competent is in control of the purse-strings, and that Ireland is the place to do business.

holly1

The whole lot of them put together,they dont give me any confidence in them ever getting the country out of this mess.In fact Im afraid they dont realy know what they are doing,a bit out of their depth(headles chickens spring to mind).

yoshytoshy

An election should be on the cards ,because of this. Before the country falls apart completely.

The last election was based on lies ,which have continued to support the current situation. Thats why they are making mistakes like this ,they just don't care anymore.

therewillbe

Useless & Thick !mmnnn Read the full report not bits & pieces. Get rid of him ? Who will replace him ?Another one of the BOYS.:mad:

holly1

thebigcheese22 wrote: »

I know everyones saying it but I'd much rather see Richard Bruton as Finance Minister, it looks like he knows his stuff (and I'm a Labour man!)

Lenihan should have stayed in Justice

I knew Richard Bruton years ago and he is a very straight guy,and yes he knows what he is talking about.Would have great convidence in him:)

2busy

thebigcheese22 wrote: »

I know everyones saying it but I'd much rather see Richard Bruton as Finance Minister, it looks like he knows his stuff (and I'm a Labour man!)

Lenihan should have stayed in Justice

+1


+1 we need change please please ....... the fist step in anything is to look at what you did and learn from it? not saying its not my fault its was created by "global factors" thats what really gets me

We have all this talk about up skilling ? There is high skill jobs going to China and Poland ....do we think that the Chinese and the rest of the planet are not able to up skill too and have a skill based economy?

You see I am not anti-FF they have done well in somethings I think that the smoking ban was very good idea and while it hurt a lot of people at the time I think in the long run people saw the benefit!

What we need is to get Ireland back to being competitive just like the smoking ban it will require hard choices and yes salary cuts but in the long run it will pay off no gain without pain.

but plz gov stop the "hiding in the sand" I will support hard choices but please some action!

but I can understand how hard it is for the government I am a student and I think bringing back fees is a good thing in that the you "the student" would have to pay them back when you earn over a certain wage I would not have a problem with that ! but you see if the gov says anything hard then you have folks marching up and down the country "oh no not on my patch you don't" ....

How can we become more competitive if we don't bring down wage costs ?
This comes with accepting hard choices and not going on strike !

I just don't believe in Lenihan I think fresh blood is what we need now!

Some action soon even hard ones ?

I want a hard budget (stop the waiting game) we might even get deflation and more money in our pockets I know you have the problem where house prices go down too but if you bought your house to live in then that shouldn't be a problem in the long term...paying it might be harder with less money or did the banks when they look at ones ablity to pay back the loan always assumed that each year one would get a pay rise or a bonus or the possibility to getting a tennent? Did anyone complain about 100% loans ?
Banks gave the people what they wanted and sure if the gov said oh you you can't do this would people say "nanny state"

you see I would love to blame the gov. too but you see maybe I need to look at the ppl that live here too ? Maybe my faith my be retored when I see that we as a nation say "I have a job and a secure one" and yes I see that it is hard to take a salary cut or pay my fee but hay I have the chance to work!

sorry for the rant very depressed student ! I want to build this country again NOT run away from it!
Mods feel free to move this to the rant section

billy the squid

well we have deflation for the first time in nearly fifty years, so i guess not.

Ardent

I think the real question is: is Fianna Fail up to the job of Govt?

Had to laugh at Lenihen defending himself again and again on Radio 1 this morning with the following line - "But I work really hard..."

Blazer

2busy wrote: »

+1


+1 we need change please please ....... the fist step in anything is to look at what you did and learn from it? not saying its not my fault its was created by "global factors" thats what really gets me

We have all this talk about up skilling ? There is high skill jobs going to China and Poland ....do we think that the Chinese and the rest of the planet are not able to up skill too and have a skill based economy?

You see I am not anti-FF they have done well in somethings I think that the smoking ban was very good idea and while it hurt a lot of people at the time I think in the long run people saw the benefit!

What we need is to get Ireland back to being competitive just like the smoking ban it will require hard choices and yes salary cuts but in the long run it will pay off no gain without pain.

but plz gov stop the "hiding in the sand" I will support hard choices but please some action!

but I can understand how hard it is for the government I am a student and I think bringing back fees is a good thing in that the you "the student" would have to pay them back when you earn over a certain wage I would not have a problem with that ! but you see if the gov says anything hard then you have folks marching up and down the country "oh no not on my patch you don't" ....

How can we become more competitive if we don't bring down wage costs ?
This comes with accepting hard choices and not going on strike !

I just don't believe in Lenihan I think fresh blood is what we need now!

Some action soon even hard ones ?

I want a hard budget (stop the waiting game) we might even get deflation and more money in our pockets I know you have the problem where house prices go down too but if you bought your house to live in then that shouldn't be a problem in the long term...paying it might be harder with less money or did the banks when they look at ones ablity to pay back the loan always assumed that each year one would get a pay rise or a bonus or the possibility to getting a tennent? Did anyone complain about 100% loans ?
Banks gave the people what they wanted and sure if the gov said oh you you can't do this would people say "nanny state"

you see I would love to blame the gov. too but you see maybe I need to look at the ppl that live here too ? Maybe my faith my be retored when I see that we as a nation say "I have a job and a secure one" and yes I see that it is hard to take a salary cut or pay my fee but hay I have the chance to work!

sorry for the rant very depressed student ! I want to build this country again NOT run away from it!
Mods feel free to move this to the rant section

How the hell can you compare running the country to bringing in the smoking ban.
I could have given the job to a monkey and he'd have brought in the smoking ban..it didn't require any brains whatsoever...hmmm...what kind of iq is needed to think "let's ban smoking in all public places such as hotels/bars/restaurants etc". not bloody much ,that's for sure.

The problem now with the government is the amount of corruption and embezzlement that is going on.
For anyone thinking that embezzlement is too harsh a word look at the case of the Financial regulator and his payoff.
FF were too busy the last few years looking after their banker buddies, their developer buddies etc and completely closed their eyes to the wheeling and dealing that was done or worse was involved in it and now that we're up ****'s creek without a paddle it's the world economy's fault, the public sector's fault, the taxpayer's fault for not spending his money in Ireland to help support the irish economy regardless of the factory that they were being ripped off by everybody.
Oh no..it's everyone else's fault bar FF.
I could still forgive them if they held their hands up and said "listen lads...we made complete pricks of ourselves and screwed up the country..give us a chance to fix it.."
Nope...brazenly they try and bull**** their way out of it.
I can't get over the arrogance of Lenihan and the fact he admitted that he didn't read the full report. This man is about to blow 7 BILLION of our money and he didn't read the full report? Mindboggling.

Also this.

"Mr Lenihan said he had told the Taoiseach of concerns, but justified not revealing to him the scale of the deposit in Anglo Irish bank by Irish Life and Permanent because "this other issue was not in the public domain", and he had learned it under a form of privilege.

"There was an obligation on me not to disclose matters," he insisted"



I'm pretty sure that as Minister for Finance he's obliged to report all issues to Cowen and Cowen should rip him a new one for this stance.
All TD's report to the Dail who in turn report to the people of this country who voted them in. For someone to say that a deal with a buddy of his etc takes preference over the country is absolutely disgraceful and he should be sacked on the spot.

BennyLava

Leinhan and Cowen coundn't organise a roide in a whore house, let alone run a country.

FF don't inspire confidence in anyone at the moment, this country needs a general election, we need a change, we need some leaders who are willing to take charge and get this country moving again

All we are getting at the moment is incompetence, and from the revelations coming out all the time, they have been incompetent for a long time

you wouldn't leave inmates in charge of a prison, why in God's name are we leaving the people who got us into this mess (FF, their developer backers and the current crop of banker crooks), in charge of our future:mad:

road_2_damascus

HE SHOULD RESIGN NOW...and the rest of the FF bluffers with him, before they take our country for a final hour-long doggy style session

road_2_damascus

road_2_damascus wrote: »

HE SHOULD RESIGN NOW...and the rest of the FF bluffers with him, before they take our country for a final hour-long doggy style session

*take whats left of our country..

niceirishfella

I hope this house of cards falls shortly and we have a general election - this FF/Green gov are incompetent and have zero credibility.
Micheal O'Leary was on the news @ 1 on radio 1 saying the reason why they are letting 200 people go is because of the €10 tourist levy starting April 1st.
If the gov drop the levy, he'll be able to save the 200 jobs.
This Gov just don't get it............completely out of touch.

Pub07

Its so stupid the way anybody can be given the role of minister for finance without any knowledge of economics, just because they are a buddy of the taoiseach. For a job of that magnitude you should have a guy who has worked in financial/economic areas for 30 years.

Gosh

He's as (in)competent as the rest of the cabinet. No matter what he'll stick like sh*ite. No amount of lipstick on those pigs will make them anything else other than the same bunch of w@nkers.