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Updated 4.30pm
GOVERNMENT CHIEF WHIP Paul Kehoe has been doing the media rounds in the last 24 hours – no doubt sent out to fill a void for political journalists stuck for something to write about while the Dáil’s on its summer recess.
The comment that’s been attracting most attention? His assertion that the Taoiseach hopes to lead the country into the next decade.
“I believe Enda Kenny, if he is returned as Taoiseach after the next general election, will serve another five years and more,” he told the Examiner.
His comments have been picked up by most other major Irish outlets – and this morning, Kehoe turned up on Radio 1 to expand on that interview, and discuss plans for the next election.
Asked by Keelin Shanley* about a possible electoral pact with Labour, he talked up the idea, saying he believed Joan Burton and the Taoiseach wanted to see the coalition returned “for the next five years and beyond”.
He wouldn’t speculate at all on the timing of the next general election – and said that if he knew the date, he’d be heading to the nearest betting shop and “running to them straight away with my €20 note”.
Why such interest?
If the level of attention Kehoe’s comments are generating signals anything, it’s that the annual news drought of the political silly season has well and truly arrived.
It would have been a lot more newsworthy if he had said the Taoiseach didn’t intend to serve a full-term.
Speaking to TheJournal.ie just a few months ago, Kenny said he fully intended to serve a full second stint as Taoiseach, if elected.
I would of course.
Whether the likes of Leo Varadkar and Simon Coveney allow him to is another matter altogether.
It’s worth pondering though (or perhaps it’s not – it’s a free country)… if he’s still in power by 2021, Enda Kenny will have been a member of the Dáil for as long as Ant n’ Dec have been alive.
The presenting pair both have birthdays in late 1975. Enda was elected TD to the Dáil in November of that year.
*See… Silly season – everyone’s on holidays (not that we don’t love Keelin).
Originally published 12.24pm
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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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