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THE RUMOURS STARTED over the weekend and the story goes that a tabloid newspaper was prepared to break the news this morning.
But by releasing a short but detailed statement last night, Michael Noonan got ahead of the story, ensuring he can get on with the important work of the Minister for Finance.
It was classic Noonan. Understated, clear, concise, no panic, no big speech, no extravagant adjectives – just all the information that was needed to confirm what had happened, what was done and what happens next.
Now, if everyone’s happy enough, Noonan appears more than willing to get on with the job for as long as the Taoiseach thinks he’s up to it. And indications are that Enda Kenny is well disposed to leaving his predecessor as Fine Gael leader in situ when he reshuffles the Cabinet next month.
The handling of the story is in contrast to that of Noonan’s predecessor Brian Lenihan. Yesterday’s revelation brought back memories of December 2009 when news of the Fianna Fáil TD’s cancer diagnosis became public. However, from the outset it was clear that the then-Finance Minister’s illness was more serious. And the way in which the news broke was much more distressing for him and his family.
In that case Lenihan’s diagnosis of pancreatic cancer in December 2009 involved a drip drip of information over the Christmas and New Year period that culminated in him making a personal statement on the morning of 4 January 2010 – over a week after the story was first broken by TV3′s Ursula Halligan in controversial circumstances on St Stephen’s Day.
The obvious concern for Lenihan, as well the controversy over how the story was reported, caused distraction from the serious economic issues facing the country at the time for more than seven days. Once Lenihan had commented, the story went away and his health was rarely, if ever, discussed again before he sadly passed in June 2011.
In Noonan’s case the prognosis appears to be better than it was for Lenihan.
The 71-year-old Fine Gael TD for Limerick City received five weeks of radiotherapy to shrink the cancerous tissue earlier this year and the sarcoma was removed last Wednesday before he was discharged from hospital three days later.
“My medical team believe the treatment has gone very well and are upbeat about the prognosis,” he said in a statement last night. “There is no damage to my shoulder muscle and my risk of recurrence is low.”
In acting quickly and decisively to respond to the speculation with a statement last night – and a press conference due later today – Noonan seized the initiative and will now focus on the significant body of work facing him in the months ahead.
These include finding a new secretary general for his department and the October Budget.
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‘You’ll be at their graveside with your hand out’ ne’er a truer word spoken, but what joe forgot to mention is that the system is also pushing some of them into their graves. Sad, desolate times.
Bank shares are up this week. Just about says it all…
Pure pantomime.
Peter Mathews “rant” was great. He’s one of the few who are sticking it to these bastards. And fu#k the chairman for his snide remark, it simply shows his ignorance. Mathews simplified much of this crisis in that statement and people should hear that.
I’d like to grill a few bankers, face down in a fire pit!
Not those nice staff who do their best at work every day like you or I but these high 5 slapping gangsta rudeboys in disguise as bob dobolinas! Hardest part would be waiting for the coals to turn fully white before dunking them d!cks.
This “we sent letters out” child like answer to meeting targets should be rubbished by noonan next week and they should be back in next month to answer again about what real work they have done. No ?
The real truth here is they won’t write debts down because they are waiting for the market to rebound a bit. No chief exec wants to accept that debt on his shift. It will affect his job, his bonus, and as important the shares they privately own which are up since the collapse.
Sadly the fact that these banks are state owned would appear to mean sweet f**k all….,
So after the “grilling” what happens? Do the committee make any recommendations on maybe those in the banking sector not performing loosing their jobs or is that the end of the pantomime until next time they are called? Otherwise it is a waste of time and money.
What? No Little Stevie Donnelly? The master of populist rhetoric must be losing his touch. The Fan Club will be very disappointed.
I don’t agree with that comment about Steven Donnelly. He’s not my local Td but anytime I hear him speak he comes accross as a decent hardworking Td with good morals and values. If half of the people in government were like him we might not be in this mess.
Yup, Little Stevie is on the radio now using his favourite words “horrendous” and “horrific” and saying things like “There’s something wrong with the country …….”, then he pauses like he’s waiting for applause.
But he has no solutions. He’s just a waffler.
Surely the soloution is everyone that bought a house between 2003-2008 gets there mortgage reduced by 20% Thus making people’s mortgages affordable again and for those who are paying there mortgage they will have money to put into the local and national economy.
Boucher and Co will continue to treat law makers with disdain and arrogance as long as law makers continue to permit these bankers to receive salaries that are multiples of the salary of the highest ranked law maker in the state. These bankers must, understandably, feel superior and invincible and it must be undignifying for them to have to be accountable to a committee, where the aggregate salaries of any 7 or 8 members would only approximate to that of the highest paid banker. Cut their salaries to sensible levels and observe how cooperative they will suddenly become. Not a problem if they don’t want to work for less, others can be hired.
Political hypocrisy! This state, yet again, faces an existential crisis and the politicians expect bankers (no less) to get them off the hook and to make the decisions that they themselves will not. Bankers will do their job, which in this case is to get as much of the money they imprudently lent out back. To expect otherwise is extremely naive. Politicians are once again ducking the hard decisions. Why? Because to fix this problem we need money and that is already being shipped back to Frankfurt by the tonne. If politicians want the mortgage issue fixed then they need to fix it, not hope for others to fix it for them.
This was a show for the proles. The TDs knew it, the bankers knew it and the proles knew it.
Grilling,hardly
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