Morning Ireland - Overkill on Taxi Dispute

fricatus

I was listening to Morning Ireland this morning, and the coverage of the taxi dispute seemed to be bordering on the obsessive. They even had the union representative read out their interim agreement with the airport management live on air. I almost expected him to declare "peace in our time".

Meanwhile they had another reporter standing at a taxi rank, breathlessly telling us that taxis were now beginning to arrive at the rank (!!!).

This is on a morning when the German Finance Minister is objecting to Ireland being relieved of its obligations around the Anglo promissory notes (which are worth €30 billion), and the day after figures were released showing that over 10% of mortgages are in arrears of three months or more.

I really think they've got their priorities all wrong on what is supposed to be Ireland's flagship morning radio programme. In the grand scheme of Ireland's problems, the taxi dispute is little more than a hissy fit which will soon be forgotten. Sure it deserves a certain amount of coverage on account of the disruption it causes to tourists and the travelling public, but as Karl Brophy of INM tweeted this morning, it's not the Good Friday agreement, and we only need to hear the final score, not watch the whole match.

Bits_n_Bobs

Couldn't agree more. The coverage unions get in this country is bizarre. We also obsess over air transport, maybe due to our island status or something. Total non-story hyped up beyond belief by lazy reporters.