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Has Michael Noonan lost his touch? The sure-footed Minister for Finance has become accident-prone in recent weeks. Instead of floating above the media scrum, Noonan has descended to political jousting. Not all of it has seen the avuncular Michael emerging in glory.
Do not be fooled by AIB’s tiny cut in rates last Friday. One cut does not kill a cartel.
Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams receives a pension from the Queen of England. The ghosts of nationalists past must be haunting his Donegal holiday home.
Willie Walsh never really left Ireland. Indeed, as a people we are proud that the current global predator hovering over Aer Lingus was once a local business hero.
Last Sunday morning the Gods smiled on the small village of Ballyhea, Co Cork.
After Mass, the residents gathered in the winter sun to protest – for the 200th time – against Ireland’s crippling bank debt. After a short, silent march – with banners galore – the crowd assembled at a hotel in nearby Charleville.
“Not me guv,” retorted Pontia the Central Banker.
Last week Michael Noonan caused ructions in the Irish stock market. The Finance Minister morphed into a financial adviser. He set himself up as a guardian of the small shareholder.
Give us a break. Stifle the phoney outrage. We all knew that certain Fianna Fail TDs were as crooked as bent nails in the Sixties and Seventies.
Margaret Thatcher would have been proud of Mario Draghi last Thursday.
Back in 1984 the Iron Lady famously dismissed all Irish proposals for a Northern Irish solution, rejecting each possible solution with the contemptuous words: “Out, out, out.”
At a press conference in Frankfurt on Thursday the long-winded ECB chief was equally dismissive of questions about Ireland and its relationship with the ECB.
It costs an arm and a leg to come within an ass’s roar of the National Transport Authority.
Try it. A call to the quango that rubber-stamped the bus and train fare increases last week put the fear of God into me.
The scene: tomorrow at the department of Public Expenditure and Reform. A meeting between Public Expenditure Minister Brendan Howlin and ace Central Banker Des Geraghty.
