Irish Environment Minister John Gormley
Irish Minister for Environment John Gormley has said we “have a type of civil war in this country between the private and public sectors”.
Minister Gormley also asked public service unions “do we take cuts, or is it a case of having your cheques bounce because we’ve nearly got to that stage”.
The Minister was speaking on Lunchtime with Eamon Keane on Irish Newstalk 106-108fm:
“I don’t want to get into any sort of divisive row with the trade unions. We already have a type of civil war in this country between the private and public sectors and I don’t want to exacerbate that any further. But it is clear now that we are coming into a difficult budget. We have to make difficult decisions.
“I hope, I genuinely hope that we can continue with social partnership…. And I would say to people who are representing the public sector, do we take cuts, or is it a case of having your cheques bounce because we’ve nearly got to that stage and those people who believe that it’s impossible, that we could go on, that we could continue to borrow that amount of money and not face dire consequences down the road are not living in the real world I’m afraid.”
Minister Gormley outlined the gap between the private and public sectors: “I’ve never seen such divisiveness in my time in politics and it’s very regrettable. You’re getting this clear break down the middle. I don’t believe frankly it’s healthy. I don’t believe we have a public sector Ireland and a private sector Ireland; we have one Ireland where we need to work together, all of us. If we go down this particular route and say well, we’re looking after our section of society, it becomes a sectoral war and it’s not going to lead to the sort of consensus that is now required. That’s that partnership was originally about, getting that consensus. That consensus seems to be gone out the window at this stage.”
Eamon Keane asked if Minister Gormley believes the partnership model is outdated:
“I genuinely hope that it’s not. I think it has served us well if you go back to the genesis of partnership during the bad times, got us through the bad times, we went through the boom and I acknowledge that the partnership model did made mistakes, there were mistakes made undoubtedly, but we have to now rectify those mistakes, continue with the model and ensure that we can get the country back up and running. Because if we are facing the prospect of strikes…it is a winter of discontent we’re looking at. That is going to create instability, and it will not help us get the economy or society back on the road.”
Minister Gormley also said the concerns that some backbenchers express are “unrealistic”:
“Well of course you’re going to get resistance. It doesn’t mean it’s not going to happen, it will happen. We are going to deal with the drink driving situation. Minister Dempsey is committed; I said I’m fully supportive of the measures he wants to take. Regardless of what individual backbenchers say, they feel they are duty bound to express certain concerns of their constituents, I think frankly that some of those concerns are just not realistic.
“People can go down to the pub and they don’t have to drink alcohol. This idea, this is such an old notion frankly, this idea that you can get into a car and drive, and in some cases it’s been said that they can drive even better if they have a drink in them, I don’t accept that. I’ve never accepted that. People have to act responsibly and in my view you’re better off having no alcohol at all before you get behind the wheel.”
What should have been another quiet January weekend has become the centre of political intrigue with Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen tendering his leadership of the Fianna Fail party within the last few minutes.
Cowen has become a Taoiseach on borrowed time
The dust has settled a bit and the weekend reports on how the government reshuffle has been viewed by the Irish public is very clear from the polls.
Up here in the North West, Mary C got a reprieve from the executioner’s chair and got moved to Education. She will need all of her ear muffs to stifle the nightmares that will accrue from the incessant banter of the teachers unions, who seem to think that they are the only public servants facing the recession head on.
In some ways, they both deserve each other. The Greens party convention ended yesterday with John Gormley sounding as plausible as a duck denying the existence of water on RTE’s Week in Politics last night.
It’s pretty pathetic all round. Messiah Enda and his Fine Gael chums will have to make some real decisions when they get into government and one just wonders, how they will tackle the big issues.
They are entitled on the balance of natural justice to be the leaders of the next big cock-up in Irish politics. The wish to hang onto power for the sake of getting the country back into shape is poor and pathetic.
The honourable thing for Fianna Fail to have done, was to take their loss on the chin, get back to brass tacks, figure out how they were so easily taken over by developers and greedy parasites and ensure that they realise that they are not the chosen one’s to rule this country of ours any more.
They have to earn the title and after the next election, that might be at least two elections away, unless the coalition partners are as effective in government, as they have been in opposition.
At this stage, most people do not care anymore about who is running the country and most have forgotten the sacrifices that were made to allow democracy manifest itself here in the first place.