Maybe it's me but when I was watching the election special on RTE the day after the local and european elections I was less than impressed by Brian Lenihan (Minister for Finance/FF) and Eamon Ryan (Minister for Communications, Energy & Natural Resources/Green) as they blustered and bluffed their way through Miriam O'Callaghans questions.
I'm afraid that Mr Lenihan does not stand up to much scrutiny. This is the guy who whined mercilessly when he got the job as finance minister in the 1st place. He complained about how "unlucky" he was that the finances were in such a state as soon as he walked in the door. If only he was capable of putting the finances back as he found them. That would be something. I can only ponder at what his reaction would be today if he were offered the job today. Would he scream and run? Safe to say that if we knew what he was about to do to the country at the time he was whinging about his misfortune at landing the job there'd be upwards of 1,000,000 people outside Leinster House brandishing pitchforks and demanding an alternative. Any alternative.
Indeed Brian Lenihan was at pains to point out that the local election was not a referendum on the government and that FF/Green still had a mandate and were going to carry on regardless fullfilling that mandate. For this, is it not, what the people of Ireland have voted for? Lenihan would have you believe that the worst result in the history of FF wasn't actually because FF were making a mess of things but for some other reason that he could not elaborate on. He would have you believe that the people of Ireland are delighted with the "performance" of the government. In fact Lenihan claimed that all of Europe were looking over in awe at the wonder of the "plan" that Lenihan was putting into action to deal with the economic crisis in Ireland. A crisis created by himself and Brian Cowen. He boasted that Europe were heavily endorsing his strategies. Of course, Pronsias De Rossa, via satellite link, laughed at this. He told Lenihan that the officials in Europe were satisfied only that his "plan" wasn't breaking any European laws or regulations. They certainly were not in any way endorsing what he was doing. They were merely telling him that they weren't going to haul his sorry ass to Brussels over it. As to whether it would make things any better in Ireland was not a question that the Europeans were going to answer.
While this utter nonsense was going on, Eamon Ryan was beating his breast and lamenting the future of the Irish childrens children if we didn't listen to him about the future of the planet and his various green issues. He wailed and preached and got quite angry while Joan Burton (also taking part in the program) looked to Miriam with an expression on her face that clearly indicated that she thought it was time to have security drag this raver out into the carpark. She looked worried. Interestingly, no-one asked Ryan, practically drooling with rage at this point, why, if he cared about children so much, he stood firmly behind Lenihan and propped up his shabby budget which cut resources in childrens health, welfare, and education. I felt it was far too little much too late by the Greens.
Let's be clear. The local elections were a referendum on the goverment. The government can dig massive holes in the sand and insert their heads all the way in and convince each other that they're a great bunch of lads doing a great job in a difficult time but that won't change the fact that the Irish people are tired of them and want them out. The proof of this lies with the election results.
Lenihan commands a significant salary at the expense of the tax payer and it's both surreal and unacceptable for him to be so out of touch with reality.
