The Official (State of the nation, enda kenny speech thread)

Silvio.Dante

Eliot Rosewater wrote: »

"Let me say this to you all: you are not responsible for the crisis."

Did Mr Kenny miss the part where the Irish population voted in Fianna Fail three times?

Here we go again...:rolleyes:

hollingr

what I wanted to hear:

"Next week we will be introducing new legislation to tackle existing public service pension contracts, so that they may be revised downwards drastically. You will no longer be able to claim multiple public service pensions and some semblance of fairness will be restored between the public and private pension imbalance."

what actually happened:
"look how far I can get this EU flag pole up me arse"

thebouldwhacker

Hollow and empty of any meaningful content. I must admit I thought he would lay out a credible 4 year plan instead he delivered a party political broadcast akin to one before an election, how much time was spent talking about himself?
State of the nation should be neutral, about the country, about the specifics. it wasn't a state of the nation, it was an apology for the budget to come...
Waste of time imo.

steelcityblues

Summary: "if you are young and hard working, get out, because we can't really be arsed in standing up for the country."

laoch na mona

you are not responsible but your gona pay

Xenophile

flutered wrote: »

he is just after announcing a new bank note will be in circulation within 40 days ( or sooner if they can regig the printing presses ) it is to be named the merkosey .

I was relieved to see the European flag, as reading the papers today it would appear that many journalists and columnists want Kenny to declare war on France and Germany.


Please let's get friendy or intimate even with the new currency, lets call it the "Nican".

All and all a very good pre budget speech. Stating reality which showed he is in touch with the public perception as to how we really are as a nation.

bmaxi

Doesn't matter what he said, we can't believe a word anyway.

thebman

steelcityblues wrote: »

Summary: "if you are young and hard working, get out, because we can't really be arsed in standing up for the country."

I can't remember that part :P

But if you are young, hard working and have qualifications, looking elsewhere as opposed to starting a career in a country that isn't going to take about 60% if not more of everything you earn and spend might not be a bad idea presuming the opportunities are available elsewhere.

meglome

Deminiman wrote: »

'You are not responsible for this crisis"

Were we ever blaming ourselves Enda?

I think not!

I believe a lot of people were blaming the Germans for some reason. They seem to have forgotten we voted for the policies that led us into the mess repeatedly.

K-9

Eliot Rosewater wrote: »

Did Mr Kenny miss the part where the Irish population voted in Fianna Fail three times? Did he miss the part where the same population consistently demanded unsustainable increased spending and lower taxes from their representatives? Did he miss the part where FG and Labour, pandering to those demands, produced manifestos in 2007 offering many freebies (including laptops for kids) and less tax?

Well he can't also blame FG & Labour voters but what you are saying is pretty correct.

Silvio.Dante wrote: »

Here we go again...:rolleyes:

When 80% of the electorate vote for FF, FG and Labour as they did from 97-07, she's pretty correct.

Liam Byrne

Xenophile wrote: »

All and all a very good pre budget speech. Stating reality which showed he is in touch with the public perception as to how we really are as a nation.

Yeah - comparing what he's doing to what households do was really "in touch"; a household cuts spending and doesn't get to manufacture extra income by screwing people.

Plus the claims re reform were a joke considering the news of him breaching caps.

Make the cuts FIRST and THEN if there's still a deficit we'll consider contributing more.

rodento

Who got voted off the X factor:D

steelcityblues

rodento wrote: »

Who got voted off the X factor:D

Enda Kenny, yet again.

MadYaker

Jobs? Lol. You can't create jobs and take that much money out of the economy at the same time. Our economy is going to contract further next year and there is still the huge variable that is the euro crisis. No growth in economy = no new jobs.

Drumpot

Har0ld x9 wrote: »

To be honest, i think Enda spoke well and echoing the comments of any earlier poster at least we are now getting some communication from those in the know!

Maybe the 40% pay increase for his mate was worth it!

Xenophile

Eliot Rosewater wrote: »

"Let me say this to you all: you are not responsible for the crisis."

Did Mr Kenny miss the part where the Irish population voted in Fianna Fail three times? Did he miss the part where the same population consistently demanded unsustainable increased spending and lower taxes from their representatives? Did he miss the part where FG and Labour, pandering to those demands, produced manifestos in 2007 offering many freebies (including laptops for kids) and less tax?

On another thread I criticised the unwillingness of Irish parties to stand up to the electorate. Here we have it again. Kenny tells a population that desired unsustainable economic policies and that now stubbornly resists all kind of spending rationalisation that they've no responsibility for the budget crisis at all.

Are we going to learn from our mistakes? If Kenny's opinion is widespread then the answer to that is a definite no.

True,but at this time a little soft soaping is better for a people who are fragile and bruised.

Drumpot

Just watching the speech now on tv3.

It's gone over its allocated time so when I click on my sky button it says "the bone collector" as kenny speaks !

Sir Oxman

Absolutely nothing new and no inspiration given.
This was a waste of a national address and as others have said it smacks of a pre-budget apology, which is simply not good enough.

PRAF

Who'd be a politician right now, you are damned if you do and damned if you don't.

Trying to create jobs - not enough and not quickly enough
Trying to reform politics - not enough and not quickly enough
Trying to cut the excesses at the top of the public sector - not enough and not quickly enough
Trying to get a better deal for Ireland - not enough and not quickly enough
Trying to communicate to the people - don't believe you and don't like you

Ok, it wasn't a life changing speech but give the guy a break. What do people really expect? The unfortunate truth is that FF signed us up to a very austere multi year deal with the EU / ECB / IMF, there is very little wriggle room from that, and there is huge uncertainty around the future of the Euro.

Drumpot

When kenny said "the truth is our economy is broken" I honestly thought for a second that he was going to say "the truth is our economy is f##ked"

moceri

Enda, I am down to the last notch of my belt, it won't tighten anymore.:eek:

Mr.Micro

gambiaman wrote: »

Absolutely nothing new and no inspiration given.
This was a waste of a national address and as others have said it smacks of a pre-budget apology, which is simply not good enough.

The country is broke well and truly. Kenny can only deliver the bad news from decisions made by the IMF/EU. There is no easy way out of this I fear.

Seth Brundle

Full text of speech on Irish Times site

meoklmrk91

In fairness I thought he did quite well, I honestly don't think any politician anywhere can take the feeling of depression that has been settled over the country for the last few years and will probably be there for a long while yet.

However it is nice to feel like we are actually being kept in the loop which is more than Bertie or Cowen ever had the guts to do. He sat there and laid it out like it is, no BS, no lying. And that to me is refreshing. I grew up in a country that was all Fianna Fail all the time, their style of governing seemed to be more in the grain of, let us do our jobs and be quiet, this does not concern you. I feel cautiously optimistic.

whippet

At first I thought it sounded like a party political broadcast and now after digesting it it feels more like he is using it as an alternative to having to debate the announcement of the next few days.

Kenny is a great man to hide under questioning and I would be certain that he will run for the hills and have Noonan and Gilmore do all the talking this week.

I just hope that any production costs and the cost of the prime time advertising slot comes out of FG coffers rather than the taxpayers money as it was quite clearly not a state of the nation address.

PRAF

meoklmrk91 wrote: »

In fairness I thought he did quite well, I honestly don't think any politician anywhere can take the feeling of depression that has been settled over the country for the last few years and will probably be there for a long while yet.

However it is nice to feel like we are actually being kept in the loop which is more than Bertie or Cowen ever had the guts to do. He sat there and laid it out like it is, no BS, no lying. And that to me is refreshing. I grew up in a country that was all Fianna Fail all the time, their style of governing seemed to be more in the grain of, let us do our jobs and be quiet, this does not concern you. I feel cautiously optimistic.

From reading Matt Coopers book (still not finished yet), I get the sense that a lack of open & honest communication was one of the biggest faults of the last govt. We were getting bullied by the EU and ECB (and probably still are). If only we had proper leadership back then who had the balls to take on the ECB and call their bluff, maybe we wouldn't be in such a mess. The only reason FF couldn't burn the bondholders was because the ECB threatened (totally un democratically) to withdraw liquidity support from our banks and effectively nuke our economy. It's too late to change all of that, however, I like what I hear from Enda and his calls for the ECB to take a bigger role in the Euro crisis. To be quite honest, until the ECB cops itself on, this economy as well as the Euro and World economy is probably f***ed.

We will likely be asked to permanently surrender at least part of our sovereignty in return for this - ECB / EU oversight of our budgets to satisfy the Germans, eventual rise in our corp tax rate to satisfy France etc.

EnoughIsEnough

I agree with the view that this was not a State of the Nation Address.

Not sure what it really was. An apology for the forthcoming Budget perhaps.

How could anyone take this man seriously when HE himself orders - and I use those words advisedly - a €35,000 increase for a buddy when many unemployed men and women would gladly take a job just for that €35,000 not to mention the original €92,000 offered to his buddy who like all special advisors do not have to compete for such jobs.

This smacks so much of Charlie Haughey telling us - the little people - to tighten our belts while he was living like a Lord of the Manor.

How long will it take the people to figure out that this Govermnment is continuing as the others did - looking after their friends etc.

Who will stand up for decent people of ireland who deserve better than these "politicians"

Fergus_Nash

Fine Gael did a great job is upholding the impression that Enda Kenny was a terrible speaker during the election, and then at the couple of debates that were had, he didn't mess up and the people liked him. This is accepted analysis.

But when he gave a wonderful speech on College Green when Obama was over, his mask fell and that should be the Enda Kenny we hear from every day, not the lame, boring, monotone man of tonight. He can actually inspire when he wants to.

K-9

PRAF wrote: »

From reading Matt Coopers book (still not finished yet), I get the sense that a lack of open & honest communication was one of the biggest faults of the last govt. We were getting bullied by the EU and ECB (and probably still are). If only we had proper leadership back then who had the balls to take on the ECB and call their bluff, maybe we wouldn't be in such a mess. The only reason FF couldn't burn the bondholders was because the ECB threatened (totally un democratically) to withdraw liquidity support from our banks and effectively nuke our economy. It's too late to change all of that, however, I like what I hear from Enda and his calls for the ECB to take a bigger role in the Euro crisis. To be quite honest, until the ECB cops itself on, this economy as well as the Euro and World economy is probably f***ed.

We will likely be asked to permanently surrender at least part of our sovereignty in return for this - ECB / EU oversight of our budgets to satisfy the Germans, eventual rise in our corp tax rate to satisfy France etc.

That sounds like a FF party political broadcast funnily enough.

Lenihan couldn't be contacted by EU Commissioners worried about the state of the banks pre the guarantee. A total joke, it turned out he was musing over advice from McWilliams and went against all the advice from his civil servants and expensively commissioned reports.

The Commissioner knew nothing about it until after it was announced. The ECB was funding Irish banks to the tune of €150/160 Billion at one stage and that couldn't go on.

This is typical blame anybody else but the Government line, and FG and Labour are just the same.

Basically not alone did FF f*ck up the country during the bubble, they also f*cked it up in response to the crisis. Once a Government uses its sovereignty to guarantee debts and bondholders it becomes very difficult to renege on them.

funnyname

We implemented a jobs initiative that cut taxes on tourism and employment, and that created over 20,000 new job and training placements.

Is this true?