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COMMUNICATIONS MINISTER PAT Rabbitte has admitted that the Taoiseach “probably should have done” a television debate during the Seanad referendum campaign but others were not as certain this morning.
Fine Gael party chairman Charlie Flanagan said this morning he did not agree with Rabbitte and insisted there were “many reasons why people voted No”.
Enda Kenny’s refusal to take part in TV debates on RTÉ and TV3 in the last week of the campaign is seen as one of the reasons why the government loss the referendum to abolish the upper house.
Speaking on The Week in Politics yesterday, Rabbitte said that though Kenny debated the issue in the Dáil it was his view that he should have participated in TV debates.
“I think my own view is that he probably should have done it,” Rabbitte told the programme.
Former minister and Reform Alliance TD Lucinda Creighton said that not debating was “a matter for Enda” but it was her view that if you are passionate about something you argue for it.
“If I were in those shoes I certainly would have been out debating it,” she told Newstalk’s Breakfast programme.
RTÉ quotes Waterford Fine Gael TD John Deasy as saying it was a mistake for Kenny not to debate the issue during the campaign.
But on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, Flanagan said: “I was with the Taoiseach for a full day at the ploughing championships, the matter was discussed, the Taoiseach was there, he debated with anybody.”
He insisted that Kenny “did engage up and down the country” and in the Dáil and said he did not agree with Rabbitte’s view.
He pointed to the assertion by Fine Gael throughout the campaign that abolition would save €20 million a year as being “more controversial”.
“I am not convinced that it was the best argument to put forward,” he said at it was a “bone of contention” throughout the campaign.”
In the immediate aftermath of referendum defeat, Fine Gael’s director of elections Richard Bruton said that the decision for Kenny not to debate was “absolutely the correct decision”:
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Yes Charlie- the most appropriate place for the Taoiseach to discuss the single greatest change to the constitution since the foundation of the State is the National Ploughing Championships…
The leader of a country who won’t debate…
The leader of this country who is not a leader…..this government is full of arrogance…..they need a wake up call! We begged for change and got very much the same type of government!
Can’t debate more likely..
how right u are. here in Wicklow we have 3 f/g Doyle, Harris,Timmons and we never had 1 call so not sure what the were afarid of.
There’s no “probably” about it. Should have done it.
“You say it best, when you say nothing at all”
It proved the arrogance of kenny. Sadly fg are now spinning about our no culture in referendums ! Just admit you made a balls of another straight forward item ala property tax,water charges etc..
sack kenny now he wasted 14 million euro while we have people in proverty and now this i***t will inflict more pain on the irish people
sack him now
He can bang the drum, but doesn’t have a clue how to play the flute.
They just don’t get it, do they? Hey…we voted NO and that’s that !!
Better to keep your mouth shut and be thought the fool, than open it and confirm the rumours.
There’s a shock. Charlie Flanagan and Richard Bruton say it was an ‘Absolute correct decision’…. What else would they say?! Everyone else, including FG members outside the fold think he should have debated…… Wonder what his excuse will be next time
The advice Kenny was (probably) given was that he should stay quiet – because the NO vote would have been overwhelming if he had interjected himself into any debate.
Yellow.
I don’t know why he didn’t do it.
He’s a very good debater, in fact many would say he’s a master debater….
And here comes the fallout. Two lame duck party leaders in government that come May will be put out to pasture post local election results. If they make it that long.
Of course he should have done it! Then more people would have voted no. Fine Gael love their quick fixes and that it why people voted no. Their sole argument was that it would save money while they continue to live on onerous salaries and they debased the Seanad as a defunct waste of space but didn’t offer the option of reform. Unfortunately, over 48% of people fell for the money argument.
The D4 political and media types are gung ho for Lucinda & her like minded Tories to start up a new Right Wing Party. But we ALL know this is just a ruse to put up a blocker to Sinn Fein. We saw the nonsense engaged in last week by the D4 types on #rtept in response to SF overtaking Labour in the polls.
In relation to Michael McDowells newly refound so called political dominence poeple of a certain age remember and younger people need to study the damage his PD Party and their Thatcherite economic policies did to our Country! He talks of Endas ego and arrogance, well that IS laughable. Ireland might need a new political party what it doesn’t need is a party that could and probably would be even more right wing more dictatorial and even more arrogant then the cruel and callous shower walking the corridor of power at the moment. Lucinda and her cohorts need to remind themselves of the birth, life and death of the PDs.
Man you really don’t like D4. What happened? Did they hose you out of Donnybrook?
What a leader we have in Ireland! A man who wont debate an issue of national importance in public, an issue that was forefronted by him. I also hear that his advisors requested that his face not be shown on screen in Croke park on All-Ireland hurling final replay day. What does that tell us? It says to me that the least we see and hear him the better!
The No vote has nothing to do with the Fianna Fail campaign, they are the most corrupt political party in the state.
FG propaganda machine is in overdrive watch it water down this or possibly deflect this away with another problem
What a stupid thing to say that Enda debated the issue at the ploughing championship……. and these are the people running our country. Why is it that politicians undermine the people when they lose a vote and try to tell us we were wrong, people voted NO mr Kenny because they do not agree with this governments policy on the Seanad so they voted to keep it.
Belle Enda the pantomime dame!
This government should call a general election now and face the music for ineptitude at their work and for bringing undue hardships on the Irish people with austerity and unfair taxes.
we all know the real reform we need is to go after the banksters jail put them in jail cease their assets and to use it to pay off their debt.
Jeez. John deasy? Is he still around? You would never guess
Yeah, I think the last we heard of him was when he lit up a cigarette in the Dail Bar in protest of the smoking ban!
Havent you got broadband to sort out rabbite?if you expect me to pay a digital licence I’m going to be expecting 24 mb as the bare minimum for my.money
In my book, keeping FF from looking anything like an alternative government was more important than the Seanad referendum.
Enda Kenny, is no fool, he set-up Richard Bruton as the fall guy, to sell the yes vote to a skeptical if not hostile public, and thus at a stroke undermined yet another one of his main rivals within Fine Gael, with 38 years in and around government he is the piper and is streets ahead of his would be challengers. Long Live our precious ‘Ard Ri’ !!
People did not need Enda Kenny to debate anything; we think for ourselves and vote accordingly.
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