irish election post

I don’t have any other sources of this story other then Fianna Fail press releases so I don’t know how accurate it is (If anyone knows where it was said let me know but it is not entirely new). But if they are true and that Labour want a.) a rotating Taoiseach or b.) Pat Rabbitte as Taoiseach this is truly bizarre.

”Enda Kenny is previously on record as saying a rotating Taoiseach was not on. His views are in stark contrast to the position adopted by Deputies Costello, Quinn, McManus and Bruton in the media this weekend. The insistence that the position of Taoiseach should either be rotated between Labour and Fine Gael or that Pat Rabbitte should be Taoiseach for the full term of the next government says a lot about Labour’s lack of faith in Enda Kenny.”

Fine Gael and Labour seem to be doing their up most to lose this election.

With Deasy coming out and challenging Kenny, and then the ease the Pat Rabbitte is getting rode by the Indo. I mean all he had to say was “I want Fianna Fail out but if worst comes to worse if it is required to keep Sinn Fein out of power we would go in for the good of the country and stop FF/SF happening”. Not only does it answer the question but it also gives Labour a shot at the anti-Sinn Fein vote. Indeed they could campaign on the platform that they are the only party that can stop Sinn Fein and again play the FF/SF card damaging FF. But a lass he is trying to dodge the question and allowing Pat Kenny to look good.

Now we seem to have Labour non-committal on supporting Enda Kenny as Taoiseach I mean was the point of the Mullingar accord not to avoid this kind of thing. Surely in a pact the first thing agreed upon is who is going to be the leader of the government. Surely that is point number 1.

Also how does a Rotating Taoiseach work. In Britain they have a practically a lame duck prime minister. With many people thinking, feck it we will wait till the new guy starts he might be better. With a rotating Taoiseach would we have people, unions etc waiting for the flip. Thinking that the other guy would be better to negotiate with.

I presuming that we would have differing policies with different Taoiseach’s. Which of course leds to the fact that Labour don’t trust Enda. If they actually trusted him to implement their policies then surely there would be no need for talk of an arrangement that has never happened in this country and to my knowledge in any other country.

Steve Stauton said “I’m the boss. I’m the gaffer. At the end of the day what I say goes, the buck stops with me”. Surely Enda would be in the same boat. I know this post just rehashes many of the points of the Fianna Fail press release but the thing is they are right.