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

junkyard · 11-02-2009 11:06PM #1

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 · 11-02-2009 11:11PM

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 · 11-02-2009 11:13PM

No.

Húrin · 11-02-2009 11:14PM

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

anonymous_joe · 11-02-2009 11:15PM

Probably one of the smarter Faffers. Nice bloke too.

galwayrush · 11-02-2009 11:15PM

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 · 11-02-2009 11:15PM

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 · 11-02-2009 11:18PM

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 · 11-02-2009 11:20PM

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 · 11-02-2009 11:20PM

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 · 11-02-2009 11:24PM

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 · 11-02-2009 11:27PM

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 · 11-02-2009 11:28PM

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 · 11-02-2009 11:31PM

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 · 11-02-2009 11:41PM

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

junkyard · 11-02-2009 11:49PM

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 · 11-02-2009 11:51PM

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

maxwell smart · 12-02-2009 12:02AM

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 · 12-02-2009 12:17AM

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 · 12-02-2009 12:35AM

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

leeroybrown · 12-02-2009 12:43AM

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 · 12-02-2009 12:49AM

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 · 12-02-2009 10:56AM

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 · 12-02-2009 11:24AM

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

yoshytoshy · 12-02-2009 11:26AM

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 · 12-02-2009 11:41AM

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 · 12-02-2009 11:47AM

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 · 12-02-2009 11:54AM

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 · 12-02-2009 12:01PM

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 · 12-02-2009 12:07PM

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 · 12-02-2009 12:09PM

thebman wrote: »

This made me lol

Wrong person and saying they are clueless

doh

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

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