Tag Archives: Enda Kenny

This morning.

Former Taoiseach Enda Kenny pays tribute to Chancellor Angela Merkel, who is stepping down as Chancellor of Germany, a role she has held since 2005.

German election 2021: Who’s who in the race to replace Angela Merkel as chancellor? (EuroNews)

RollingNews

Joe Biden. then American Vice President, Joe Biden with Taoiseach Enda Kenny at Government Buildings in Dublin, June 21, 2016

This afternoon.

In an interview on Midwest Radio….

….the former Taoiseach said he was filled with excitement, joy and gratitude at Mr Biden’s victory. He expects him to have a “massive agenda of restoring some sort of respect for the United States around the world”.

Mr Kenny remarked on the fact that there had been an enormous vote in the US election and suggested this “probably related to the fact that Trump had been very provocative on a number of issues”, which really brought out the “polarised peoples of America to vote”

Good times:

Former Taoiseach Enda Kenny welcomes Joe Biden victory (RTÉ)

Earlier: Two Realites Diverged

RollingNews

Meanwhile…

THis afternoon.

Enda Kenny will present a programme on Irish railways

This morning.

Via Independent.ie:

Later this year the former Taoiseach and Fine Gael leader will front a television series on RTÉ 1 about old Irish railways from times past. Mr Kenny, a fluent Irish speaker, will present the series in Irish.

Mr Kenny is understood to be enjoying revisiting the old railways in Mayo and adjoining counties, as well as throughout the country.

Always a keen student of history, he is developing a new-found interest in railway history.

Meanwhile…

….The evisceration of Irish railways mainly occurred in the decades Enda’s father, Henry Kenny, served as a TD and eventually a junior government minister.

Luckily some railways survived in his native Co Mayo, unlike other counties.

Good times.

Full steam ahead as Enda Kenny to present RTÉ show (Independent.ie)

Previously: A New Age Of The Train

Rollingnews

Former Taoiseach Enda Kenny (centre) with Kieran McLoughlin (left) and John Fitzpatrick of the Ireland Funds at a gala in Washington DC in 2017

Enda Kenny will be the chairman of an advisory council for a private equity group that will invest in Ireland.

The announcement was made in recent days by Kieran McLoughlin, who was previously president and chief executive of The Ireland Funds, a philanthropic organisation

Enda Kenny to be adviser to private equity group that will invest in Ireland (Irish Times)

Meanwhile…

Last year, Mr McLoughlin left the €569,573-a-year post after an audit prompted by the alleged embezzlement of up to $1 million in the Ireland Funds’ Dallas offfice was critical of his governance of the funds.  Mr McLoughlin said a review of the matter “crystallised” his decision to leave.

Good times.

Previously: WTAIF?

Pic: Ireland Funds

Taoiseach Enda Kenny

At the weekend.

Internal Facebook] documents reveal a secretive global lobbying operation targeting hundreds of legislators and regulators in an attempt to procure influence across the world.

Carole Cadwalladr and Duncan Campbell, in The Observer, report:

…Most revealingly, it includes details of the company’s “great relationship” with Enda Kenny, the Irish prime minister at the time, one of a number of people it describes as “friends of Facebook”.

Ireland plays a key role in regulating technology companies in Europe because its data protection commissioner acts for all 28 member states.

The memo has inflamed data protection advocates, who have long complained about the company’s “cosy” relationship with the Irish government.

The memo notes Kenny’s “appreciation” for Facebook’s decision to locate its headquarters in Dublin and points out that the new proposed data protection legislation was a “threat to jobs, innovation and economic growth in Europe”.

It then goes on to say that Ireland is poised to take on the presidency of the EU and therefore has the “opportunity to influence the European Data Directive decisions”.

It makes the extraordinary claim that Kenny offered to use the “significant influence” of the EU presidency as a means of influencing other EU member states “even though technically Ireland is supposed to remain neutral in this role”.

It goes on: “The prime minister committed to using their EU presidency to achieve a positive outcome on the directive.” Kenny, who resigned from office in 2017, did not respond to the Observer’s request for comment.

Last night…

Simon Carswell, in The Irish Times, reported:

The State’s current and former data watchdogs have said former taoiseach Enda Kenny did not lobby them to take a softer approach on regulating internet privacy covering personal data on behalf of Facebook.

Helen Dixon, the Data Protection Commissioner since 2014, and her predecessor Billy Hawkes said that neither Mr Kenny nor his officials while he was taoiseach from 2011 to 2017 sought to influence the regulation of data protection rules to the benefit of the social media giant.

The current and former data regulator were responding to reports in the Observer and Computer Weekly that Mr Kenny helped the web company influence EU data protection laws.

Revealed: Facebook’s global lobbying against data privacy laws (Carole Cadwalladr and Duncan Campbell, The Observer)

Enda Kenny did not lobby for Facebook on internet privacy, watchdogs say (Simon Carswell, The Irish Times)

Rollingnews