Time to accept criticism and read the signs
My interpretation of this comment is that those people he refers to must know something about something. Paranoia now seems to be gripping our body politic, a fact that has also been borne out by the extreme reaction to some very sensible comments made by the German ambassador to Ireland last week. It is a dangerous omen for this country if we are not prepared to take criticism, recognise realities and deal with them. Some of our leaders are obviously unwilling to do that.
There are undoubtedly serious issues facing the Irish economy. While on the face of it, the economy is still doing reasonably well, there are serious challenges. It is quite clear that over the past couple of months, general confidence among the public has been seriously tested. Rising interest rates, record high oil prices, a dreadful Irish equity market performance, falling house prices, the subprime debacle, and the issues surrounding Northern Rock have all combined with the negative commentary that has been all-pervasive since February, to generate a feel-bad factor that has not been apparent for over a decade.
