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Taoiseach Enda Kenny on the Today with Seán O’Rourke show this morning

This morning Taoiseach Enda Kenny was interviewed by RTÉ’s Seán O’Rourke.

They discussed, among other things, the reported comment from a key Government strategist that “we will scare the shit out of them in the last 10 days” and the FG/FF will they/won’t they.

They also talked about his election promise to abolish USC, and how both Finance Minister Michael Noonan and junior finance minister Simon Harris missed two days of meetings in Brussels about the global markets.

While discussing Minister Noonan, Mr Kenny wasn’t asked about the report in yesterday’s Irish Examiner about barrister Garry O’Halloran’s claims that Mr Noonan ran away from a meeting to discuss concerns about sex abuse involving children at the Fine Gael Ard Fheis in 1997.

Mr O’Halloran claimed Mr Noonan’s alleged actions prompted him to quit Fine Gael.

From the interview…

Enda Kenny: “I don’t take much notice of polls, I’m always an optimist. General elections are always about a real fight, a real challenge, I’m up for this. Obviously, the challenge for me and for the party, is to explain to people over the next nine days what is on offer here. And what is on offer is a Government of stability with a very clear plan, create the 200,000 jobs, reduce taxes and invest that back for the employment of people and things are around the country that people need: primary care centres, schools and so forth.”

Sean O’Rourke: “OK, we’ll come back to some of those details but Frank Flannery, for instance, said you’re not explaining your case properly. We saw Richard Bruton warning in the Independent today, we could end up like Greece, Leo Varadkar saying ye mightn’t even be the biggest party, warning of instability. It’s all in line with a quote from Government strategist in the [Sunday] Business Post – “we will scare the shit out of them in the last 10 days”. So, Taoiseach, what’s your scare story this morning?”

Kenny: “My story is reality because I’m a realist. Politics is the lifeblood of, elections is the lifeblood of politicians and they’re about choices and this was always going to be a dogfight, it was always going to be a challenge in every constituency, every seat is a battlefield, everybody knows that. Did anybody think that this was going to be a cakewalk or a doddle – maybe some people did. Not from me. So my proposition…”

O’Rourke: “But this slump, the slump?”

Kenny: “My proposition, Seán, is that for the last five years, we were given a mandate, handed a pretty tough card, we’ve moved the country in the right direction, we still have to complete that job. So what I want to say to people all over the country is there’s a proposition on the table here for a clear, stable Government that will deliver on a costed plan, that will create benefits for everybody. I think, I think the weakness that I’ve had in the argument to date is to translate the recovery into what it means in every part of the country in people’s lives. And I can see that beginning to emerge with, the people have come back from Australia, and the Christening was at home, not away, but he said it’s not about monetary value, it’s about emotional reunification…and they’re coming home, Seán.”

O’Rourke: “But at the same time, the papers today are full of these scare stories being put out by your colleagues in Cabinet. Now how much of that is due to the Tory influence? Because we know your people spend time in London, studying their methods…”

Enda Kenny laughs

O’Rourke: “… and they succeeded by warning the people that a vote for Labour was a vote for the Scottish nationals.”

Kenny: “Oh for god’s sake, you study elections all over the world and who does what. I mean people are clued into American television and American elections. Also you’ve had elections in Britain, you’ve had referenda in Britain, and all, people who are interested in politics and these things. Our challenge here is on the 26th, there will be a general election. The people are making a choice, what do they want? My proposition is for a stable Government to that recovery to translate it into benefit for everybody.”

O’Rourke: “Yes, but the difficulty is maybe what really scares people is the idea that you will not do all in your power to give the Irish people a stable government with the results that they give you on the 26th.”

Kenny: “I intend to give them every opportunity to have a stable government. That’s why my proposition is for a return of the existing government because in order to have a stable government, obviously, you’ve got to have the numbers but, more importantly, is that you have the plan and the programme and the capacity to implement it.”

O’Rourke: “But the numbers, they’re not pointing that way…”

Kenny: “It’s not just a list of promises, this is a costed plan. Because the more, when you reduce taxes, you take in more. So therefore you create more jobs. All of the parties are talking about spending money in the future. The only way you can have that is to have a process, is to have a programme that you can create the jobs, reduce the level of taxes and the USC abolition is a central feature of that and thereby invest that in…”

Talk over each other

O’Rourke: “Yeah but you’re basic contention seems to be that, you know, you reduce taxes and you take in more. Now what’s that based on? Because maybe this explains why people are not swinging around and supporting you and why there has been a slump because Fine Gael traditionally is associated with prudence, with sound finance, with stability and at the same time you’re offering people and this has more echoes really with the election campaign of 2007, you’re offering them, effectively, tax cuts, you’re offering them extra services and people see, look, this doesn’t really add up.”

Kenny: “Sean, we set out five years ago to create 100,000 jobs. Everybody said you can’t do this, it won’t work, you’ll never achieve it. But that’s what did happen. A central feature of the next programme, to create 200,000 jobs is to abolish the universal social charge because that creates more jobs, when you lessen the range of tax that are there. You then have more coming into the economy from those jobs that you invest in, in employing teachers, primary care centres, doctors, gardai, nurses and so on.”

O’Rourke: “You honestly think we can afford this? Because again, all, well I won’t say all, a lot of very wise economists, varying from the Fiscal Advisory Council to people like Colm McCarthy, are warning you and your colleagues that public debt in Ireland remains at a very high level. It could compromise our access to the markets, given the jitters that are there. It wouldn’t take a whole lot, Karl Whelan is saying that fiscal space, that can change very very quickly.”

Kenny: “I love the economists, even Joseph Stiglitz said out to me in Davos, Ireland was the best of the lot. If we moved in a different direction, we’re further down the road than we should be. Still a long journey to compete. But the point is that, in order, to have the 200,000 jobs, a central feature is abolish the USC, you reduce the level of ta-, you create more jobs and reduce the level of taxation paid in those. That’s why we’ve had the 100,000 jobs created…

Later

O’Rourke: “As recently as last week, and again amidst all of this uncertainty, there was a meeting of the Ecofin ministers, the European finance and economic ministers in Brussels, two days, it was to address the global markets meltdown. No Michael Noonan, no Simon Harris. Why?”

Kenny: “I don’t know. Obviously, the issue that was, the issue may have been finalised before anybody attended, I don’t know, I can’t answer that for you. I’ll speak to Michael later on.”

O’Rourke: “This is the kind of thing that you used to remonstrate Fianna Fáil for…”

Talk over each other

Kenny: “I’m going out, I’m going out, I’m going to Brussels on Thursday and Friday to defend the interests of this country and Britain…”

Talk over each other

O’Rourke: “Is it acceptable to you that neither the minister nor the junior minister attends a meeting of that importance?”

Kenny: “I much prefer all ministers to attend all meetings. There must have been a reason for this, I’m sure somebody else…it is true to say that I did remonstrate before with Fianna Fáil for missing numerous meetings over the years. This is not a situation that I like. But I do make the point, I’m going out myself on Thursday and Friday, if you like, to defend the situation that we’re in now here where the proposals for Brexit are being put on the table but the British Prime Minister. I support this very strongly. That Britain should remain a central part of the European Union and I’m going out there to defend our interest and put our case very strongly to the colleagues around the table at the European Council.”

Listen back here

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Oireachtas Retort’s new election website is live.

From their first despatch…

During this past government term Galway merits special distinction for making headlines around the world after Savita Halappanavar, a local dentist, was left to die. When the news broke that November morning I brought coffee to a solitary protester who made a dignified and defiant stand at the entrance throughout the day. We exchanged few words having few of comprehension but understood well enough. We will never forget Savita in Galway.

Another woman was buried just this week, having been found in Merlin Woods after a seven day search. This follows a young woman who was recovered from the docks two weeks ago having met the river the night before. The sound of the RNLI helicopter has become grimly familiar to everyone. Its drone heard all hours of the night and day.

“Tragic circumstances” have become so routine as to soften traditionally austere hearts. We have reached the point when burly pub security men sincerely bid you “safe home” as you pass their door into the night. They are very often the last ones to see people alive. The back of a bouncer’s head now a regular cameo on desperate grainy CCTV footage.

The decent generosity and cooperation of community in these agonising moments is unrecognisable from a world that leaves people feeling so isolated to begin with. It is difficult for me to reconcile the two.

Galway has always been a town of blow-ins and transients but behind the statistics we are familiar with, it is frightening to see how the place has been hollowed out.

…Welcome to the new Oireachtas Retort site. A gloomy start perhaps but we might find something to cheer about soon.

All Politics Is Local (Oireachtas Retort)

Previously: ‘I Have Six Years Of Extensive Notes’

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From top: Regency Hotel shooters; Weapons seized during 2014/2015 from ‘dissident Republicans’ displayed at Garda HQ last month

‘Paul Michael Glazer’ writes:

Perhaps your excellent firearms contributor (Mark Dennehy) can help me? I was struck by the age and state of the machine guns used by the gunmen [dressed in Garda uniforms] during the Regency Hotel shooting. Why would wealthy gangsters use ancient, clapped out machine guns?

Then [Crime journalist] Paul Williams said Garda were investigating whether the weapons were “brought in from Libya for the Provisional IRA because it looks like one of the 1970s versions of the AK47. “

And then I recalled your post last month on the dissident Republican weapons put on display at Garda HQ featuring weapons as part of Garda “efforts to disrupt the activities of dissident republicans”.

As I say, I’m no expert but they look very similar and I am wondering if the gangsters stole the guns from Phoenix Park along with the uniforms?

Anyone?

Update:

Paul Michael Glazer adds:

Re: comments (below). I didn’t pose any theories it was a serious question. I am also genuinely interested in what the firearms guy has to say. Why not see if the guards are missing any weapons?

Previously: I Want My MP7

They Seemed Very Calm And Collected

Getting The Shot

Rollingnews

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September Girls – Love No One

What you may need to know…

01. Dublin-based shoegaze/psychedelia specialists take off the gloves with upcoming album Age of Indignation: bolstering their increasingly raw, garagey sound, the five-piece tackle everything from feminism, to religion, to Irish life as we know it at present. Heavyweight stuff, to say the very least.

02. Named for a Big Star song, the band came together in 2011, and immediately proceeded on a number of single and split releases via various labels, before settling with UK indie pillar Fortuna POP! for debut album Cursing the Sea. The band signed with Brooklyn indie label Kanine Records for their subsequent Veneer EP, co-released with Fortuna.

03. The British press are all over the quintet. From the Guardian and the Sunday Times, to the NME and the sadly-departed The Fly, praise was everywhere for their debut LP. Time magazine, no less, deigned them among the 11 best new bands in the world in 2014. Lofty expectations to exceed a second time around, especially off the back of appearances at SXSW and Liverpool Psych Fest.

04. Jaw on the Floor, inspired both by the 1916 Rising and early feminism in Ireland, features the album’s only big vocal cameo: Oliver Ackermann, of the equally excellent A Place to Bury Strangers.

05. The album, released April 8 and followed by an upcoming Irish tour, continues in this vein, taking aim at social media, modernity and the legacy of the Catholic church in Ireland. Love No-One (above), deals with narcissism in the modern day.

Verdict: Their upward trajectory has been frightening, and they look set to provide the tempestuous, confrontational agit-pop that our generation has been sorely lacking, hopefully opening up as many conversations about the issues at hand in Ireland as their reverbed-up, boxcutter noise.

September Girls

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Sinéad O’Loghlin took the words out of my mouth. Her point about the great majority of published contributors to your Letters page being male had struck me very forcibly in recent months. For my own amusement, I have been keeping a running check on letters published.

From February 3rd to February 15th, inclusive, a total of 196 letters have appeared. Five signatories might have been either gender; of the other 191 letters, 155 (over 81 per cent) were from men and 36 (under 19 per cent) from women.

Do these figures really reflect the contributions received? If so, I can only echo Ms O’Loghlin’s appeal to women to get writing.

Colette Ní Mhoitleigh,
Baile Átha Cliath 6.

Women and ‘Letters to the Editor’ (Irish Times)

Pic: True North Quest

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From top: Leaders; debate, University of Limerick; Stephen Donnelly; Anne Marie Mcnally

Laugh about it, shout about it when you’ve got to choose

But not every way you look at this you lose.

Anne-Marie McNally writes:

‘Tis the season. Though in this season the only ones who are jolly are the political nerds who enjoy watching our political leaders go toe to toe in what passes for debate on our national airwaves.

They’re ubiquitous; you can’t swing a canvass leaflet without hitting an angry leader shouting at another angry leader. These ‘debates’ will help you make up your mind you see.

Apparently traditional political party strategists think that the best way to showcase what their respective leaders have to offer the country is to pitch them in a shouting match against each other while they loudly decry the failings of each other.

Nobody questioned that strategy, it seems nobody said, hang-on, wouldn’t I be better laying out a vision rather than an indictment of others failings? What about those in glass houses etc? But no, each puppet leader went out and done as advised…”attack them on this, attack the others on that then attack him on the other..” and so it went.

Last Thursday evening’s TV3 debate was a row. There’s no other way to describe it. A noisy off-putting row. I canvassed a mature estate the next day. Almost every house said something along the lines of ‘Did you watch that farce last night?’

Not one person told me they felt informed by it or in any way had their vote been swayed or their position solidified. If anything it had served to reinforce the far too commonly held complaint that politics is ‘a load of guff’.

Roll forward to Monday night in the University of Limerick and the RTÉ Leaders’ Debate where the floor was opened up to 7 party leaders to include the traditional four as well as Renua, PBPAAA and my own party the Social Democrats.

We were clear in our focus. Irish people do not need to hear 7 people in a ‘he said, she said’ Punch and Judy show. Stephen Donnelly was the nominated leader for the night and his brief was to do what we have set out to do since we launched; lay out an alternative vision based on hope and ambition and impress upon people who have become so disillusioned with politics that another way is possible. We can do things differently. He did that and then some.

Dublin Central Soc Dem candidate Gary Gannon, (he of that tracking shot) and myself had driven to Limerick for various media events surrounding the main event and we sat in the press room watching the debate alongside the country’s most prominent political journalists (It would have been an awfully embarrassing position to be in had Stephen crashed and burned!).

We sat there with pride. Stephen nailed it, in a debate which once again descended into a cacophony of pointed fingers (quite literally in Joan Burton’s case). Stephen stood tall and offered our vision.

The online reaction shows just how badly Irish people needed relief from the shouting. Stephen Donnelly was the most googled Leader during the debate. He was also the most mentioned leader on twitter during the debate. the ADAPT data also shows that Stephen generated the strongest positive reaction on twitter during the debate.

The Social Democrats website crashed briefly twice during the debate due to the traffic it generated. In particular when Stephen closed with a rallying statement to Vote Social Democrats, the Candidate information page on the website came under siege as people tried to find who they could vote for in their area.

Stephen himself gained over 1500 twitter followers in the time period from 9:30 to 11:30pm. Each of the candidates, myself included, had people message us looking to get involved or to donate. In other words people got excited.

My point here is to outline what should have been a very simple message for other parties. People want honesty. They want someone to speak to THEM, not shout at each other and try and score points.

Let’s be honest, unless you’re a nerd like me, politics can be boring but in the first instance that somebody stood up and offered them a credible and hopeful vision they paid attention and they reacted. That fills me with hope.

Anne-Marie McNally is a political and media strategist working with Catherine Murphy TD and is a General Election candidate for the Social Democrats in the Dublin West constituency. Follow Anne-Marie on Twitter: @amomcnally