Bertie Ahern to announce his departure date!

mike65

You were telling a taxi driver?

Mike.

dlofnep

Good riddance!

Mr.Micro

He could'nt make it the 6th of April could he?. Best news of the day. All I heard in his speech was the inner gurrier growling as he has had to fall on his sword. Good riddance, we are now spoilt for choice with replacement candidates in the FF ranks, who all looked the other way. It should not be too hard to replace the tic tac man. Talk about self proclaimed praise in his speech, I did this, that etc ..... a great success up with the likes of Lemass and DeValera according to himself,...... delusion delusion.

HydeRoad

HydeRoad wrote: »

Padraig Flynn, who swung a sweet deal for the operators of the West Link toll bridge, which ushered in a decade of absolute and complete traffic mayhem and commuter dismay, adversely affecting traffic throughout the whole capital city of Ireland, and ultimately costing the state and the taxpayer a fortune to buy back.

I thought Flynn got his big promotion from Reynolds, and then he was reappointed by the Rainbow Coalition in 1995?

Heard some comments on the radio from the likes of Gerry Adams and David Trimble, and now Gordon Brown, and they were fulsome in their praise of his work. Sure what would they know about the North, and Berties work there, compared to us? David Trimble is clearly just another FF hack...

ianhobo

ha ha they are interviewing Brian Cowen on RTE news now (13:45) and all that can be heard in the back ground is a big street party taking place ha ha
Drums, whistles, and lots and lots a cheering

kaiser sauze

Maybe our next Taoiseach will be more capable?

It would be preferable if, firstly, the next Taoiseach could enunciate a simple speech like that properly.

'minutiae' as 'minutay[sic]'. *cringe*

It's such a shame that the definite article is such a major part of the English language.

Crash

Best. Early birthday present. EVER.

In any other contry that has a clue on how to deal with ministerial scandals etc., he would have had pressure put on him by both the opposition AND his own party to step down long before this. Simple fact is, public representatives should have to hold themselves to very high ethical standards, and Bertie didn't.

P_ONeil

...and so ends the reign of Dirty Bertie.

Lets hope the Tribunal now follows through.

I mean seriously, would an innocent man have resigned? Would an innocent man brought high court action to protect the very documents the tribunal is suppose to be investigating? Would an innocent man have any of the current problems Dirty Bertie is having?

The answer really doesn't matter how you answer those questions, mainly because he quit. Good riddance to bad rubbish I say.

He'll join the ranks of his mate Ray Burke in Irish history.

oscarBravo

I noted something Charlie Bird said: while all Bertie's cabinet colleagues were vocally supportive of him in public, many of them had privately voiced their concerns off the record.

Not exactly a model of integrity, that.

HydeRoad

Mr.Micro wrote: »

...Talk about self proclaimed praise in his speech, I did this, that etc ..... a great success up with the likes of Lemass and DeValera according to himself,...... delusion delusion.

Correction:

"I did dis, dat, etc..."

_feedback_

This thread and the one in After Hours remind me of the Bono thread in Celeb & Showbiz .. somebody in there mentioned that i is "cool" to not like Bono.

The same as it is "cool" to say good riddance to Bertie.

I didn't even vote for the guy last year, but everyone saying that everything was going to happen anyway without him, and he had no input, is completely ridiculous.

Do you remember the cold dark nights leading up to the Good Friday agreement, when hoards of journalists would wait outside stormont, or wherever for the multiple hour long meetings to end, for some word.
Nevermind the days leading up to it... try months .. try years..

Saying that Bertie Ahern had no influence on the better things that have happened here over his term, is like saying all of those same things would have happened if there were no Taoiseach in office.

Complete. Utter. Rubbish.

kaiser sauze

HydeRoad wrote: »

Correction:

"I did dis, dat, etc..."

*cringe*

leninbenjamin

elviscostello wrote: »

Saying that Bertie Ahern had no influence on the better things that have happened here over his term, is like saying all of those same things would have happened if there were no Taoiseach in office.

Complete. Utter. Rubbish.

well seeing as the country had endured decades of economic policy lunacy from primarily Fianna Fail led governments which had placed the country in the mess it was in in the first place, i think it's quite a decent argument that the country would have been better off (economically only mind, completely ignoring the welfare aspects) without a government.

LostinBlanch

Anyone made the link between Mugabe getting turfed out of Power and Bertie announcing his resignation?

CptSternn

elviscostello wrote: »

Do you remember the cold dark nights leading up to the Good Friday agreement, when hoards of journalists would wait outside stormont, or wherever for the multiple hour long meetings to end, for some word.
Nevermind the days leading up to it... try months .. try years..

Bertie and FF are scared of the GFA for the same reason they don't like the idea of reuniting Ireland. When Ireland reunifies, that means more voters that aren't FF. Currently, there is no FF in the North. What does exist is a large number of SF supporters/voters who will offset the majority currently held by FF in the Republic.

But all of that is beside the point. Bertie is gone! Woohoo! Off for pint to celebrate!

Liam Byrne

elviscostello wrote: »

Saying that Bertie Ahern had no influence on the better things that have happened here over his term, is like saying all of those same things would have happened if there were no Taoiseach in office.

Complete. Utter. Rubbish.

Fair point, and 100% accurate.

Unfortunately, when it comes to Fianna Fail under Bertie's "leadership", it is equally valid to say that all of the BAD things that have happened - ridiculous inflation, costs of doing business affecting our competitiveness and causing companies to relocate, ridiculous house prices, poor infrastructure, rising crime, the Aer Lingus/Shannon fiasco, wasting money on e-voting machines, crap broadband options, etc, etc.

And if we want to look at Bertie's legacy, we have to look at it in it's entirety.

If Bertie & his worshippers refuse to accept responsibility for loads of areas of inaction and bad decisions, then they can't selectively take credit for the good things.......they can't have it both ways.....

And while progress WAS made in some areas of infrastructure, etc, it's still ridiculously bad considering the level of prosperity that the country has just gone through.

Credit where credit's due, but we should never forget the "we can't do anything" attitude when it comes to certain areas either.

Bertie & Co inherited a growing economy, and improved on it in some areas; but they also buried their head in the sand and washed their hands of many issues, and also contributed [in a bad way] and proceeded to waste a rake of OUR money by throwing money at problems instead of managing them properly.

_feedback_

Liam Byrne wrote: »

Fair point, and 100% accurate.

Unfortunately, when it comes to Fianna Fail under Bertie's "leadership", it is equally valid to say that all of the BAD things that have happened - ridiculous inflation, costs of doing business affecting our competitiveness and causing companies to relocate, ridiculous house prices, poor infrastructure, rising crime, the Aer Lingus/Shannon fiasco, wasting money on e-voting machines, crap broadband options, etc, etc.

And if we want to look at Bertie's legacy, we have to look at it in it's entirety.

If Bertie & his worshippers refuse to accept responsibility for loads of areas of inaction and bad decisions, then they can't selectively take credit for the good things.......they can't have it both ways.....

And while progress WAS made in some areas of infrastructure, etc, it's still ridiculously bad considering the level of prosperity that the country has just gone through.

Credit where credit's due, but we should never forget the "we can't do anything" attitude when it comes to certain areas either.

Bertie & Co inherited a growing economy, and improved on it in some areas; but they also buried their head in the sand and washed their hands of many issues, and also contributed [in a bad way] and proceeded to waste a rake of OUR money by throwing money at problems instead of managing them properly.

Agree with you almost entirely Liam.. My point (in a long winded fashion )
was merely, the jump on the bandwagon attitude to good riddance to bad rubbish. We all know too well.. there have been a lot of bad results for us over the past number of years (and no doubt before and in future).

Simply put: He should be given credit where it is due.

BaZmO*

elviscostello wrote: »

Simply put: He should be given credit where it is due.

And stick where stick is due.

Dave!

elviscostello wrote: »

Simply put: He should be given credit where it is due.

And he usually is; you won't find many people saying he did a bad job on Northern Ireland. The opposition regularly commend him on it.

Liam Byrne

BaZmO* wrote: »

And stick where stick is due.

+1 (BaZmO, if I had your talent of brevity I'd save myself a lot of typing )

Mr.Micro

An appropriate song , " Goodbye Mr. A" by the Hoosiers:D

Liam Byrne

Liam Byrne wrote:

the Aer Lingus/Shannon fiasco

Did a plane crash?

I think it was Billy the Squid that made me laugh in relation to that Imby protest when he said,and I paraphrase.."Enda Kenny would be in favour of moving the heathrow slots from Shannon.............. to Knock"

Besides haven't ye a perfectly goood link now to an even better hub - CDG and less chance of losing your bags

_feedback_

BaZmO* wrote: »

And stick where stick is due.

I'll *baaaate you with a stick ! ! !




*(just getting in to the flow of cowen talk)

Liam Byrne

Deleted User wrote: »

Did a plane crash?

I think it was Billy the Squid that made me laugh in relation to that Imby protest when he said,and I paraphrase.."Enda Kenny would be in favour of moving the heathrow slots from Shannon.............. to Knock"

At least Knock would mean that it'd still be in THIS country, and in the West, which badly needs investment and planning so that the entire population won't have to move east in order to have access to infrastructure, jobs and services.

Deleted User wrote: »

Besides haven't ye a perfectly goood link now to an even better hub - CDG and less chance of losing your bags

Fair point on the bags.

Fact is, though, that it's how FF dealt [or , more accurately, didn't deal] with the issue that was a fiasco.

1) They oversaw the privatisation of Aer Lingus, supposedly including the protection of slots
2) When the issue came up, the FF councillors and ministers said that they would represent their constituents and back them all the way
3) When it came to a vote, they copped out, saying there was nothing they could do
4) FF waxed lyrical about how Aer Lingus needed to do "what was in the interests of its shareholders", but refused - AS A SHAREHOLDER ON OUR BEHALF - to do anything, despite the requirement for the link in their regional development plans and tourism in general.

As for the "imby" rubbish - I would LOVE to be in the parallel universe where the slot was taken from Dublin....just to see the reaction of people who say that - despite the fact that Belfast is only an hour or so up one of the best served corridors in the country via road or rail......

Colonel Sanders

Liam Byrne wrote: »

At least Knock would mean that it'd still be in THIS country, and in the West, which badly needs investment and planning so that the entire population won't have to move east in order to have access to infrastructure, jobs and services.



Fair point on the bags.

Fact is, though, that it's how FF dealt [or , more accurately, didn't deal] with the issue that was a fiasco.

1) They oversaw the privatisation of Aer Lingus, supposedly including the protection of slots
2) When the issue came up, the FF councillors and ministers said that they would represent their constituents and back them all the way
3) When it came to a vote, they copped out, saying there was nothing they could do
4) FF waxed lyrical about how Aer Lingus needed to do "what was in the interests of its shareholders", but refused - AS A SHAREHOLDER ON OUR BEHALF - to do anything, despite the requirement for the link in their regional development plans and tourism in general.

As for the "imby" rubbish - I would LOVE to be in the parallel universe where the slot was taken from Dublin....just to see the reaction of people who say that - despite the fact that Belfast is only an hour or so up one of the best served corridors in the country via road or rail......

and sold for 2.20 a share, well on the low side accorrding to most analysts forecasts and spread betting companies predictions. Within a week Ryanair had offered 2.80 a share in a hostile take over bid. Fair enough the share price has subsequently dropped (ISEQ moved to free float weightings, airline stocks have become less attractive due to rising oil prices among other factors) but the bottom line is at the time the airline seemed seriously undervalued (proved by the fact that a man not known for wasting money weas automatically prepared to pay shareholders a 27% premium on the issue price).

As soon as i saw the minimm investment was 10k i was pretty sure it would be undervalued. Can't have middle class people losing money the year before a general election now can we?

MarkN

LostinBlanch wrote: »

Anyone made the link between Mugabe getting turfed out of Power and Bertie announcing his resignation?

Scruff

LostinBlanch wrote: »

Anyone made the link between Mugabe getting turfed out of Power and Bertie announcing his resignation?

yeah, one of them though it was a good day to bury the news behind the bigger story. not sure which one it was though.....

serfboard

MarkN wrote: »

Don't you just love the internet and people's creativity - absolute classic, MarkN

cm2000

Liam Byrne wrote: »

Fair point, and 100% accurate.

Unfortunately, when it comes to Fianna Fail under Bertie's "leadership", it is equally valid to say that all of the BAD things that have happened - ridiculous inflation

Inflation has hardly been "ridiculous now lets be fair. when a government loses control of interest rates its ability to control inflation becomes more limited because the monetary policy isn't tailored to our specific needs. the one way he could have reduced this would have been to cut spending on health education etc.which you would have loved im sure,

Liam Byrne wrote: »

costs of doing business affecting our competitiveness and causing companies to relocate

well we have had the same position on the global competitvness index for the last few years. 22nd in the world.

Liam Byrne wrote: »

ridiculous house prices, poor infrastructure

, Fair enough house prices haven't been controled properly but infrastructure is improving. transport 21 is the single most ambitious infrastructure scheme in the history of the state.

Liam Byrne wrote: »

rising crime

, not true crime has been down

IRLConor

Bertie's stepping down as Taoiseach and head of FF but is he also stepping down as a TD? I can't see him as a backbencher, but who would replace him in Dublin Central?