All hail Enda, the toast of Berlin

I am certainly not the first, and I hope I am not the last, to congratulate our Taoiseach Enda Kenny for being nominated European of the Year by the German Magazine Publishers’ Association.

 

I am going to try and not be cynical about this. Just because I never heard of this association before doesn’t mean it is a nobody group. This honour has come in the wake of Enda’s photograph appearing on the cover of Time magazine. I understand copies were sold out within days at bookshops from Bohola to Balla.

Don’t pay any heed to Enda Kenny’s opponents who are claiming that the Magazine Publishers’ Association is merely a Fine Gael branch in Berlin. That’s jealousy for you. We should be happy with every crumb that falls from the German dinner table and God knows they are not giving us much these days.

They are promising us the sun, moon and stars when all we want is relief on the massive bank debt that is crippling us.

We had the German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schauble in Dublin this week telling us that his country will be as supportive to Ireland “as it has been in the past” when he was asked by reporters about the chance of securing a deal on Irish bank debt.

This, of course, is the same man who caused consternation last week when he announced that Ireland could not expect a retrospective bank debt deal. He also said last week the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) could be used only for future bank recapitalisation.

Angela Merkel has also said the same thing on a number of occasions, as has anybody else that counts in Germany.

But in German eyes we are good boys. We might have made mistakes in the past but, under Enda’s management, we are correcting those mistakes and taking our medicine.

What if there are no jobs for an increasing number of our people? What if some of the brightest and best of our young people are leaving for the US, Australia, Canada and England because there is nothing for them at home? What if more and more people are finding it impossible to put food on the table to feed their families? What if the burden is falling heaviest on those sections of the people least able to bear it? What if? What if? What if?

What if those who caused the collapse of our economy are laughing all the way to the bank?

I doubt if I have to spell out what I think of Mr Schauble’s statement that Germany will be as supportive to Ireland as it has been in the past. If I ever meet Mr Schauble I hope I have the neck to tell him what he can do with his support.

It was obvious that neither of our cabinet ministers, Michael Noonan and Brendan Howlin, had either the neck or the balls to tell Herr Schauble where to shove his support. They had a 40-minute meeting with him on Monday and they came away telling us nothing we didn’t know already.

Mr Noonan said they had “a very good exchange of views” and spoke about “Ireland’s close relationship with Germany” and about how helpful Wolfgang had been.

Mr Howlin said the meeting was “very useful and helpful” and that the ministers had “a very clear understanding of each other’s position”.

Certainly shades of Neville Chamberlain there, waving a little piece of paper in the air guaranteeing peace after a meeting with Hitler just before the Second World War broke out.

I do not believe, however, that any German minister would have the ability to pull the wool over the eyes of the wily Noonan whatever about little Howlin

They tell us that these negotiations are on-going. So far we have got nothing from the Germans except empty promises. Oh, and that award for Enda for being good little Europeans.

Let me remind you that, in their time, Jimmy Saville and Lance Armstrong were regarded as being among the best in Europe. That’s not to compare Enda Kenny with either of those two gentlemen but to point out that most political careers end in failure.

I remember congratulating our former taoiseach Bertie Ahern, after he had been invited to address both Houses of Parliament in London and before he spoke at a joint meeting of the United States Congress in Washington a few years ago. Bertie was top European then, having brought peace in our time to Northern Ireland.

Fat lot of good it did for him. If Enda Kenny can get a good deal for Ireland on the bank debt issue, however, he will be entitled to the award of Irishman of the Year, no matter what his opponents might say.
That should be far more important than any award some group of publishers in Germany might come up with.

Meanwhile, he and all Fine Gael supporters are entitled to be happy with this week’s Red C opinion poll in the Sunday Business Post which confirmed what all the polls have been showing for a long time now: Fine Gael is still by far the most popular political party in this country.

It is a fantastic achievement for a party that has introduced some really harsh cut-backs in government spending since they came into power some 18 months ago.

It is not easy to explain. Fianna Fáil were annihilated at the polls for trying the same thing. Perhaps it is that while they might not like Fine Gael too much,p the electorate do not see any alternative. They still blame Fianna Fáil for the economic mess we are in, they still don’t trust Sinn Féin and they are taking their dislike for the Government out on Labour rather than on Fine Gael.