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ENDA KENNY has told the Dáil that the “Europe Train is leaving the station” on the first of January next year – and that it is imperative that Ireland be on board by ratifying the fiscal compact treaty.
Speaking during leaders’ questions in the Dáil this morning, Kenny told the technical group’s Joe Higgins that Ireland is not being bullied into ratifying the fiscal compact, but that Ireland would be left out of European decision making if it did not sign up.
In the special sitting conducted entirely through Irish, to mark Lá na Gaeilge in the Oireachtas, Kenny said the compact was not driving an “austerity agenda”, but a deal which hoped to return levels of exports and trade to where they had been in the 1990s.
Higgins had asked Kenny why Ireland was simultaneously sending Central Bank governor Patrick Honohan to seek a deal on the Anglo Irish Bank promissory note when it was also set to campaign in favour of austerity for the people of Ireland and Europe.
Higgins accused Kenny of signing off on an amended treaty creating a permanent European bailout fund, the European Stability Mechanism, which can only be accessed by countries accepting the fiscal compact, “in secret”.
He also queried whether the Dáil, when ratifying that amended treaty, could amend it to remove this requirement. ”Your ministers are saying it’s been decided that the ESM can’t be gotten without ratification,” he said. “Why did you accept this blackmail?”
Kenny retorted that because the fiscal compact was not an EU treaty, Ireland did not have the power to veto it or place any conditions on its approval.
Earlier during the special session, Kenny accused Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams of “going around the country lying about the government’s education policy”, when Adams suggested the government was seeking to close small schools.
“There won’t be a single school closed as a result of an order or policy from this government,” Kenny said, rebutting comments that the government was pursuing an anti-rural agenda.
The only reason why a local schooling setup might change, he said, was if local parents and community organisers came together and actively sought to set up a new institution.
Kenny also told the Dáil that new legislation for a state-backed loan scheme for small enterprises would be published in “five or six weeks”, after Micheál Martin suggested the government had failed in its pledge to increase credit for small companies.
Members on all sides welcomed the opportunity to converse in Irish for the session, though Joe Higgins complained that the Dáil appeared not to have enough sets of headphones to provide simultaneous translations for members without sufficient Irish.
Higgins remarked that the silence from some TDs on his comments about the fiscal compact suggested many of them did not understand the proceedings going on in front of them.
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Let the train leave. Europe is a sinking ship that we should abandon now!
Does the railway line extend onto the ferry? And if so is there going to be an issue with incompatible railway lines on the continent?
Eurozone nations sell €1 Billion worth of military equipment to ‘insolvent’ Greece.
http://euobserver.com/13/115513
I read your link Sean. Saw one recently re “insolvent” Greece spending millions on tanks. Wtf do they need them for? It’s a rhetorical question…
More like cattle carts of debt slaves going to god only knows were. I have visions of WW2. Enda, do me favour and tie yourself to the teacks
This one Reada.
http://articles.businessinsider.com/2011-10-05/markets/30245456_1_greece-european-debt-crisis-greek-comedy
Either Greece is expecting to go to war with one of it’s neighbours or become the next Syria.
That’s the one Sean. What the hell do Greece need them for?
Aren’t us Paddies lucky we’re so white. Not like the other poor gobsh!tes in PIIGS! Did you see the EU ad that was pulled on another thread this morning? Where the pasty faced white girl banishes the Asian, Arab and African “baddies”? Not quite the triple AAA the EU are looking for.
It might be funny if the writing on the wall wasn’t so flucking obvious. Let me off this train. I’m pulling the emergency brake.
Gov spent €40k on research for defeated enhanced gov powers referendum. How much will research for enhanced EU powers cost?
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2012/0307/1224312916888.html
Seán, if I was a country in the same geographic area as Greece, I would be bulking up my military equipment.
1) America and Britain have pulled out of Iraq. Just a matter of time until that country implodes.
2) Syria’s imploding. Just a matter of time until there’s UN approval for intervention there.
3) Signs of an impending war with Iran.
4) Libya’s new regime is unstable.
5) Egypt’s still a test case – things could go very wrong there.
Greece isn’t far enough away from any of those countries not to be looking to its borders.
Fiachra, Iran, Iraq, Libya & Syria would all have to pass through through Turkey to get to Greece.
Turkey has the second largest army in world after China. So, I can’t see Greece being overrun by Arabs anytime soon. I suspect if most of these nations were intent on a campaign of conquest Israel would be their preferred target.
Could be an effort to keep the colonels happy. Did to the last PM elected by the Greek people suddenly dismiss a number of officers in 2010?
fiachra
ive no doubt that you
“would be bulking up my military equipment”
tho i doubt you would be volunteering for pulling any triggers.
A bit like politicians, always prepared to talk about
sharing the pain,
but we all know they don’t feel it.
bunch of iceholes
What? We sold CIE now too?
Shut up Kenny.
I just left Dublin airport and I seen loads of young people kissing their mums and dads and children good bye.Its a sad time and I bet they are all off seeking jobs,So Enda Kenny wake up.
The problem is that the more people that leave, the bigger the share of the burden is left for those that stay to pay. Feck the train , I never fancied scuttling anyway. I have a bike.
Enda’s gravy train has left? Doubt that somehow.
Can’t believe we pay this gobshite €200,000 to come out with stupid statements like that. What a nob head :)
Think he meant the European Gravy Train for politicians coz it seems to be doing feck all for the common people
If you knew a train was going to crash, would you get on it?
What would you think of some jumped up little schoolteacher telling you you had to get on it?
Stephen
He is a school teacher , and all the little children must do what teacher says…..
Did you not know that .
200 lines for you , I must do as teacher says
I must do as teacher says
I must do as teacher says…………………
Now get on that train like a good lad !
Life maybe hard now and for the next few years, but I have still plenty of fight left in me. NOT thinking of throwing in the hat, so bye bye train will be glad to miss you. PS please take our so called government with you, we wont begrudge them their first class tickets this time.
Hi Breda
I was being facetious….
Sorry
I think the entire FG/ Lab government should get on the train and we can wave them off and you never know it might just fall into the Irish sea…
I like your profile pic. :)
There is plenty of fight yet, in me too.
Onwards and upwards
No, I’d want to miss that train by a miracle cause it ends in a train wreck.
spot on karl ,this goverment lied to get into power,while in power its continued to lie through its teeth ,they just have no credability left ,if they were to tell us that it was no good to approve this referendum i would vote yes,
How condescending is that! He speaks like he’s talking to 6 year-olds!
The Castlebar train is leaving too Enda…make sure your on it.
@Kenny
But.. can we afford the ticket?
We’re already on the train. We have been for many years. All we want is to have a word with the driver to check that the destination printed on your tickets is the same as the one that’s in his/her head.
the delusion continues and the lies and deceit increases. wait til you hear the tripe the government is going to spill out over the coming weeks and months.
Don’t worry Enda, trains have a habit of being late or even cancelled ! Twat!
Scare tactics ahead of the yet undated Fiscal treaty. Sign of a confident government?
You said it .
I will continue to vote NO.
That sentence alone was worth €134,000. Thank god for those advisors.
Well it is not leaving Tuam it left many years ago when our station closed.Despite all promises from different goverment parties we have no station . i will go gladly to Castlebar to wave Mr Kenny and friends off on his train to nowhere.
All about your station then Eileen.. Country can go to pot as long as we keep a station open in Tuam….and maybe a load of schools with 8 pupils and Garda stations in villages the length and breath of the country… You and Jackie Heally would get on great..
How concerned about the stations in Greece Declan. Seeing as you’re one of these “we’re all in this together” guys? Because we are Declan. Yet the EU is planning a 2 tiered Europe.
Same old political rhetoric from Enda. The European boogieman is coming…hide your children!
And how is that statement “The Europe train is leaving the station we have to be on it” is not a Threat,
It is blatantly a Warning if Ireland don’t vote yes?
It is a threat Oskar, “we won’t be bribed”, but it’s alright to threaten us.
i’d rather walk
Europe doesn’t want us on the train, they want us on the tracks as it rolls over us.
What do the gates say on the trains destination? ‘Sparmaßnahmen Macht Frei’? They’ll have us wearing green shamrocks next, with ‘scheiss irisch’ written on them. Five euros each.
Sure, Enda, whatever you say…
More bull from kenny when will he ever shut up…
More bull on here than Enda could ever dream of….
Surely he is referring to the Ghost train that would scare the crap out of you at amusement parks when you were a kid. Cos the Europe train is doing the same.
How are we all going to fit on this train?
The Venga bus is coming though*
*It’s just as serious a statement as his one!.
It makes even more sense to me 8) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Zbi0XmGtMw&feature=youtube_gdata_player
lets take a step back.
is our elected leader addressing his elected peers using the phrase ‘ the train is leaving’ because his elected peers do not understand the treaty or is it because he does not understand it enough to explain it. Maybe he’s trying to be cool?
Maybe we should be more like the greeks and burn stuff. Maybe thats where we’re headed. We are in trouble and rudderless.
The fact that no government rep has come out with an explanation of one positive result of ratifying this treaty..says it all really!
All Bully and threatening tactics thus far and probably until polling day.. With umpteen more analogies of being left out if the EU. People surely can see what is going on here and what way to vote as a consequence !!?
Will someone tell this guy he needs to talk facts, not all this emotional stuff. Voters won’t buy doom and gloom and marketing doublespeak. It needs to be a list of what will have if we vote ‘yes. and what will happen if we vote ‘no’….and I don’t mean that in the sense of…if we vote yes, there will be more jobs, because I can’t see how the two equate. Voters need to understand the impacts. The yes campaign feels a bit flat and weak.
Lamb
He will not do that . He will only play up the vote yes campaign.
I will be voting no , because I do not trust him or his government.
@Frankie,
When I heard that a lot of young people were having to leave I was wishing them well, in my head. ‘It’s not the end of the world’. Ah sure, it’ll be a great experience in their young lives’, something I dreamed of when I was younger. But the difference between them and myself, back in 1980 (I was 19 then!) was, that it would have been MY choice back then. Today, it’s not really their choice. The decision was made for them. My own lovely daughter is heading to Canada in May. My heart is so sad and I’ll miss her so much, but …. I’m trying to think positive that it’ll be an adventure for her, hopefully a great experience and hopefully she will come home some day.
Let the train go…. Tell the blood suckers in europe to feck off and look after our people … Go back to the punt , leave the austerity zone….. Time to tell europe where to go
Is this the train with the exploding detonators that crashes the train, killing everyone on board?
detonarors do not explode really. tut tut
Referenda in this country are very poorly argued. That said there are a lot of double standards. People object to every word the government says about this Fiscal compact but the same people have no objection to the obvious scaremongering that is posted each and every day by commeters in places like the Journal. Either scaremongering is bad across the board or it’s okay across the board. I for one want to see it stopped across the board.
There are posters up around Dublin now that say “Say No to EU Austerity treaty”. This isn’t an EU treaty (Fiscal Compact), it’s an intergovernmental one and there nothing in it about austerity good or bad. I hope you’ll join me in condemning these posters as they are blatant lies.
Gosh I’m all surprised with the down votes… not.
So should we only criticise scaremongering when it doesn’t suit us?
I hope you will join me in condemning the government because they are blatant liars. Hell will freeze over before you will do that gary.
another unthinking YES man
You should be reading what I’ve been saying then. I have said at least three times (this will be at least the fourth time) that I condemn the government for it’s misleading comments. I’m am making the point though that the misleading comments are far worse from many people criticising the government. I’m amused you guys think because I don’t support a lot of what you say that I automatically support the government.
Oh those bendy twisty words gary…..or should that be slippery? You have commented at least three or four times that you support the treaty….the government support the treaty even as other countries begin to wake up and question it….but yet you continue to support it. ur entitled to ur opinion gary, as is everyone else no matter how unwashed they are. We can all make up our own minds.
sigh… there’s nothing bendy about my words Niamh. I support the treaty. It’s not perfect but then again anyone who thinks a treaty between so many countries will ever be perfect is nuts. However I do not support *anyone* who exaggerates and lies about it. It’s simple for me, the government exaggerating or the opposition lying doesn’t effect how I will vote in the slightest. I will vote on the contents, doing otherwise would be stupid.
Gary this is going to sounds mad so brace urself….I AGREE WITH YOU with regards to the opposition and the government spin….wow……never thought id say that! But surely that is more reason to question it rather thank simply supporting it?
It makes me question our system rather than the treaty. In our system anyone can pretty much say anything about any referendum. That leads to a sea of bull. I hated our government saying Yes for Job on the Lisbon treaty, the same way I hated the 1.84 minimum wage crap, though 1.84 is a downright lie. Sadly though that is the system as it stands.
We have an independent referendum commission and all submissions for posters and info on this referendum should have to go through them, then we would have a chance of getting the real information. Of course I seem to recall people claiming there was a conspiracy when the referendum commission didn’t agree with their view of the Lisbon treaty, so maybe we can’t win.
This compact is already in the water. The Govt. should stretch it out till Summer as it will be thrown out by then. Spain has ignored the cuts that Brussels called for, pointing out that their depth would just further collapse the economy.
Ur right ross, its a lame duck. I don’t know if it will even get as far as a referendum, its already on shaky ground.
So Spain has some issues and one of the people running for the French presidency is saying he’d renegotiate it. And now it’s a lame duck. Please… yet more exaggeration.
And Niamh it’s amazing how you believe a man in France trying to get elected but you never seemed to believe Sarkosy or any of our politicians. The only difference I can see is that Hollande guy is saying what you want to hear.
Ah gary, you had to go and spoil it. I don’t care about what hollande says, I am saying (as I have already explained to you) that if he gets in and the treaty has to be renegotiated, then our referendum will be null and void. The spanish have already said that they are setting their own targets so the the treaty hasnt even been implemented yet and already its falling apart. Now gary….hope that doesn’t make ur head explode.
I think he means “Euro” train.
Maybe the gravy train even!
does the europe train stop off in bray so i can catch the ghost train
“There won’t be a single school closed as a result of an order or policy from this government,” Kenny said
Join the campaign to Save our National Schools online at http://www.sons.ie or sign the online petition.
Done.
Joan will be round with a trolly serving tea and hang sandwiches. You may redeem any butter vouchers or old irish money for bowls of soup. We do suggest that during your journey if at any time you would like to use a wc not to do so while the train is stationary. Paper world people…..
endaand his cronies in the seanad and the dail have been riding the gravy train for years, i for one dont want to be on the eurotrain when it goes, any more austerity and i’ll be under the bleedin thing!
Too late…..the train’s already left the station along with thousands of emigrants.
Could passengers at the rear of the train Please move forward in order to REACH the Plattform safely.
Next stop Europe. For those passengers unable to secure seats we suggest to remain standing until we REACH our destination.
That’s not a train Enda, it’s a ship! And her name is Titanic…..
“Kenny retorted that because the fiscal compact was not an EU treaty, Ireland did not have the power to veto it or place any conditions on its approval.”
Not an EU treaty??? WTH is it then???
have your say