"Taoiseach: Am I worth €3,500 a week? Very much so!"

Nonoperational · 27-02-2015 2:21am #1

http://www.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/ireland/taoiseach-am-i-worth-3500-a-week-very-much-so-663873.html .... note the comments....

It seems to be the in thing now to criticise the government and Taoiseach at every given opportunity. If you do this you are cool, credible and in touch with the average man on the street.

However, If you look at it with an un-bias eye, on the face of it €3500 a week is a good salary, but is it excessive for the Taoiseach of Ireland? I would be of the opinion it is not.

If you look at Kenny's performance over the past few years, realistically is there much more he could have done? Sure he has made mistakes and handled some things poorly, but not so long ago the naysayers, backed by some prominent loud mouths such as Constantin Gurdgiev and Brian Lucey were telling all and sundry that we were doomed and going to default etc etc. In reality it is becoming clear that we took the road that was probably the only sensible option and now slowly things are coming around. It's very easy to sit on the fence and preach the alternatives without having to make the decisions and deal with the consequences of becoming a basket-case economy but the reality is very different. It's the easy option to shout from the opposition that nobody should earn more than 100k irrespective of the hard work they put into getting themselves the opportunity to earn a large salary, however I shudder to think of the kind of place this would be if the extreme lefties were put in charge of the recovery.

Thoughts? Is €185,000 too large a salary for the Taoiseach? Is Kenny the devil incarnate? Is it an offence to study hard, work hard and earn a good salary?

Sand · 27-02-2015 2:47am

Mario Draghi has had a lot more to do with the Eurozone aborting the death spiral Merkel and Sarkozy set it into than Enda Kenny has. The rooster thinks the sun rises because he crows...Kenny thinks Ireland can borrow at very low rates because of his policies.

And as for Kenny himself - the man worked three years as a teacher, before inheriting his fathers seat. He has since done little other than be a widely derided career politician famous only for his complete inability to look like a normal human being in a public setting. He only became Taoiseach due to a once in a century political shock that had nothing to do with Kenny. A goat in a tutu could have beaten FF in the last election. As it was, Kenny was thought of so highly by his colleagues that he had to endure a heave against his leadership by the best and brightest of his party.

The guy could only be described as a successful Taoiseach against the lowest of standards, even by Irish standards.