Kenny - is he up to the job?

whippet

Very interesting article here from yesterday's Sindo (pinch of salt required) .. but if there is a grain of truth in this we really should be worrying about our new leader.

http://www.independent.ie/opinion/analysis/kennys-grand-brussels-blunder-has-left-us-running-to-stand-still-2817614.html

What interests me is the part whereby reference is made to Varadkar's assertion last year that he wouldn't feel confident to have Enda Kenny receiving a '3 am' phonecall.

I think the electorates fears of Enda as a leader may be coming home to roost. His satisfaction ratings pre-election were terrible for a guy who was odds on to be leading the next government.

With performances like mentioned in the article on tops of Gay Mitchell's nomination and the shambolic nonsense surrounding Roscommon hospital will there be a new heave against Kenny?

I wouldn't be questioning EK's integrity, but watching him in action I think he is just not capable for the job that is expected of him.

eagle eye

You would have to wonder if he has any cop-on tbh?

Like he made the infamous racial remark in a 'joke' just after becoming leader of Fine Gael. He has done a lot of ill-timed things since then. Most recently he announced the cuts that were coming for Roscommon Hospital while opening Denis Naughten's office. And since the demonstration his comments regarding the hospital were made while opening a new wing at a hospital in Swinford Co. Mayo. I mean that is like sticking the boot in, making sure all the people of Roscommon are aware of the new wing opening in Swinford.

mikemac

eagle eye wrote: »

Like he made the infamous racial remark in a 'joke' just after becoming leader of Fine Gael.

2002, are people still going on about this?
It was one word in a joke!

'The fact is that I used the word, and no context can excuse it. I failed to exemplify my own standards and those of my party. I apologise for any offence this may have caused, particularly to the Lumumba family.'

And apologized, let it go

syklops

Back in March, days after becoming Taoiseach, Enda Kenny made a massive blunder at his first European Council meeting in Brussels. A blunder that will cost the Irish taxpayer many millions.

After three weeks of seeking clarity on this issue, it has been confirmed to me this weekend that at that meeting, a "cocky" Kenny missed a golden opportunity to return home with the much-talked-about interest rate reduction on our bailout package.

At that meeting, the Taoiseach made a plea for fairness in relation to Ireland's case, and that we deserved a rate reduction.

Indeed, other eurozone leaders agreed to a reduction to match those of the IMF. But Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy insisted Ireland should not get a discount without making a concession: their price, an increase in Ireland's 12.5 per cent corporation tax rate.

Mr Kenny, who, according to Channel 4 reporter Faisal Islam made a "terrible impact" at the meeting, refused to budge on the issue. So, the summit ended with Greece receiving a one per cent interest rate cut, while Ireland got nothing.

Am I reading this correctly that the indo is criticising EK for not budging on the corporation tax? And this is their way of saying he is not up to the job?

Had he budged on the corporation tax issue, they would have been the first ones calling him a coward and a liar for going back on his pre-election promises that the corporation tax would not be moved, and then you would have another article with the same title as this: "Enda Kenny - is he up for the Job?".

Aside from that, the only evidence of this so called intangible deal is an un-named source, simply "confirmed to me" to its author, Daniel McConnell. Im going to need a little more to go on.

dixiefly

To the question "is he up to the job?" I think he is as good an option as we have. On top of that he has performed infinitely better than the two previous incumbents and I would have a lot more confidence in him than the leader of the opposition.

He will never get it all right especially in these times but he is our best option so we should support him.

eagle eye

He has proven himself a liar already. He seems incredibly ignorant to people's feelings given the occasions he chose to speak about Roscommon Hospital.

Mayo play Roscommon in the Connacht final next Sunday in Hyde Park. Lets see if he turns up there. If he does he is an ignoramous of the highest order. Not only is the football pitch right next to the hospital and there will be lots of people there who don't want him there but there is a huge security issue if he does go there.

Just imagine what could happen. Some guys start shouting up at him and thats certain to happen. Then the Fine Gael supporting Mayo fans tell one of those people to shut up and before you know whats going on there could be a huge physical confrontation in the place.

syklops

eagle eye wrote: »

Mayo play Roscommon in the Connacht final next Sunday in Hyde Park. Lets see if he turns up there. If he does he is an ignoramous of the highest order. Not only is the football pitch right next to the hospital and there will be lots of people there who don't want him there but there is a huge security issue if he does go there.

So if he turns up he is an ignoramus. And if he doesn't what? He is a coward?
The original article may be a little bit out of date, if this is indeed correct.

If we do get better interest rate terms, then Enda Kenny was right in not budging on Corporation Tax back in March. Ignoramus? Nay, he is going further up in my estimations.

Nijmegen

syklops wrote: »

So if he turns up he is an ignoramus. And if he doesn't what? He is a coward?
The original article may be a little bit out of date, if this is indeed correct.

If we do get better interest rate terms, then Enda Kenny was right in not budging on Corporation Tax back in March. Ignoramus? Nay, he is going further up in my estimations.

The point of the article is that he would have got a specific action for a non-specific commitment, in political terms that's a face saving deal on all sides.

I think this government is having a more rocky time than it ought to, mostly through mismanagement and mostly within Fine Gael. They need to get their game faces on.

bleg

I think he is in over his head but seems to be ok with allowing ministers fly solo. Quinn has been excellent at education and has really hit the ground running.

blogga

Considering Cowen was out of his depth completely and Ahern was utterly incompetent and Haughey was a crook....

fraxineto

Enda is a poor-mans version of George Bush, and he will do a lot of damage to this state, before he's dispatched like cowan was, alas there is no Saviour, only fools waiting in the wings.

Guy:Incognito

blogga wrote: »

Considering Cowen was out of his depth completely and Ahern was utterly incompetent and Haughey was a crook....

Is this the way the whole term is going to be run? "It's ok that I'm crap because the last lot were crap too" ? Seriously, it's long past the time of childish finger pointing, lip curling and saying "its all their fault, leave me alone"

Stupid promises that didnt need to be made during the elcetion , a la Roscommon hospital. He was going to win the election, why did FG make stupid promises it couldnt fulill? It's cynical vote grabbing at its best.

As Eagle eye said, the timing of announcments too. Standing there opening a new wing in a hospital in your home county and announcing an A&E unit is to close in another county at the same time is monumentally stupid. It really just comes across as "I'm looking after my neighbours back home, **** the rest of you". No amount of Cowan this or Bertie that will change that crap.

hallelujajordan

syklops wrote: »

Am I reading this correctly that the indo is criticising EK for not budging on the corporation tax? And this is their way of saying he is not up to the job?

Had he budged on the corporation tax issue, they would have been the first ones calling him a coward and a liar for going back on his pre-election promises that the corporation tax would not be moved, and then you would have another article with the same title as this: "Enda Kenny - is he up for the Job?".

Aside from that, the only evidence of this so called intangible deal is an un-named source, simply "confirmed to me" to its author, Daniel McConnell. Im going to need a little more to go on.

He might not have named the source directly but he does refer pretty clearly to who his source is . .

A spokesman for Herman Van Rompuy, the president of the European Council who chaired the meeting, confirmed to me Ireland was offered a way out, which the Taoiseach either refused to take or didn't fully grasp.

If it is true that Kenny missed out on this deal because he just didn't understand it was on the table then his error has probably cost us several millions of Euros.. (probably enough to keep Roscommon hosp open for a while)

nesf

hallelujajordan wrote: »

(probably enough to keep Roscommon hosp open for a while)

This kind of logic annoys me. Whenever we would have some extra cash people always think about how that could help maintain spending at current levels rather than more quickly reduce our deficit which is crippling this country. We're utterly screwed with our deficit, we cannot afford to be taking extra cash and ploughing it into services right now.

nice_guy80

looks like FG lied about the HIQA report

HIQA never visited Roscommon Hospital, yet drew conclusions

the cardiac mortality rates quoted in the Dáil to justify the hospital being unsafe have also being disputed - Minister Reilly said it was 20%
looks like the actual rate is 5%

Nijmegen

nesf wrote: »

This kind of logic annoys me. Whenever we would have some extra cash people always think about how that could help maintain spending at current levels rather than more quickly reduce our deficit which is crippling this country. We're utterly screwed with our deficit, we cannot afford to be taking extra cash and ploughing it into services right now.

Well, one way or another:

1. Money is spent to avoid cuts today
2. Money is used to pay down deficit quicker, leading to resumption of services in a shorter period of time

Either way, it's a win.

Medu

This is news? This was reported weeks, possible months, ago. It's bash Enda week, which he deserves, so some lazy hack reporter is just recycling an old story. On the flip side even entering talks about our corp-tax rate could do damage to the economy. It's hard to sell the message that our c-tax rate is set in stone at 12.5% while our government is having discussions at a high level in Europe.

eagle eye

nice_guy80 wrote: »

looks like FG lied about the HIQA report

HIQA never visited Roscommon Hospital, yet drew conclusions

the cardiac mortality rates quoted in the Dáil to justify the hospital being unsafe have also being disputed - Minister Reilly said it was 20%
looks like the actual rate is 5%

Yeah more lies from Reilly again. The man is a disgrace.

Kenny of course just tries to brush over it again. The way he responded to the FF leader as 'pathetic' when it came up in the Dail a week ago was an awful move on his part too. I've no time for FF but you just don't do something like that if you are leader of a country. The man has no idea how to behave.

hallelujajordan

nesf wrote: »

This kind of logic annoys me. Whenever we would have some extra cash people always think about how that could help maintain spending at current levels rather than more quickly reduce our deficit which is crippling this country. We're utterly screwed with our deficit, we cannot afford to be taking extra cash and ploughing it into services right now.

Not sure why the logic of keeping Roscommon hospital open annoys you . . perhaps you don't live in Roscommon . . ?

For what its worth . . I entirely agree with you . . we should be reducing public expenditure and bringing down our deficit and we should be taking a huge machete to the public sector. Is Roscommon hospital a good starting point ? I'm not so sure !

astonaidan

Totally the guys a legend, p.s I'd love to see Bertie back reckon he could swindle us back to the top

nesf

hallelujajordan wrote: »

Not sure why the logic of keeping Roscommon hospital open annoys you . . perhaps you don't live in Roscommon . . ?

For what its worth . . I entirely agree with you . . we should be reducing public expenditure and bringing down our deficit and we should be taking a huge machete to the public sector. Is Roscommon hospital a good starting point ? I'm not so sure !

They're not closing Roscommon hospital they're removing its A&E the same as they're doing to Mallow hospital which I've been treated in in the past, so yes I've some idea what it's like and honestly I don't see it as much of a choice given the dire straights we are in financially and the unviability of small hospitals in rural areas when large hospitals in urban areas are relatively close by (within an hour and a bit travel in the case of Mallow for most of its catchment area, don't know the Roscommon area well enough to say). E.g. where I'm from, you wanted to go to CUH not Mallow even though it was around 3 times the journey away from you, because it was a much better hospital. You only went to Mallow if it was something relatively trivial like a broken arm or something.


Overall my point is that if we find extra money we shouldn't be undoing spending cuts but pushing that money towards reducing the deficit a bit more.

meditraitor

whippet wrote: »

Very interesting article here from yesterday's Sindo (pinch of salt required) .. but if there is a grain of truth in this we really should be worrying about our new leader.

http://www.independent.ie/opinion/analysis/kennys-grand-brussels-blunder-has-left-us-running-to-stand-still-2817614.html

What interests me is the part whereby reference is made to Varadkar's assertion last year that he wouldn't feel confident to have Enda Kenny receiving a '3 am' phonecall.

I think the electorates fears of Enda as a leader may be coming home to roost. His satisfaction ratings pre-election were terrible for a guy who was odds on to be leading the next government.

With performances like mentioned in the article on tops of Gay Mitchell's nomination and the shambolic nonsense surrounding Roscommon hospital will there be a new heave against Kenny?

I wouldn't be questioning EK's integrity, but watching him in action I think he is just not capable for the job that is expected of him.

The simple answer is no, he is a capable politician in the Irish sense, lick arse and a bit dumb but knows how to get votes. No real politicking skill.

As a leader he so far out of his dept that even his party wont be able to help him, I guarantee he will be gone within 12 months!