Workers left without a paddle as sinking ship calls May Day
The once-great ship of state that was Fianna Fáil listed badly in the hot water of its own making as hapless first mate Brian Lenihan tried to steer it way from the beckoning rocks.
The annual workers’ holiday of May 1 looked like a cruel joke to the record numbers of unemployed tossed over the sides to sink or swim in the unforgiving currents below.
May Day for them, Pay Day for Michael Fingleton who had his €27m pension bonanza to keep him warm and dry as he stepped down as boss of the taxpayer bailed-out Nationwide.
The irony was brought to Mr Lenihan’s attention by Labour’s Joan Burton as she berated him over the latest ill-considered disaster to spill out from the crisis Budget – you remember, the Budget that was supposed to be watertight after 10 Cabinet meetings honed it to perfection?
Er, except ministers made a total mess of mortgage relief and then decided to panic already cash-strapped families across the country with the utter confusion surrounding the withdrawal of the tax payback.
Ms Burton insisted the mortgage mayhem was intolerable as householders would be left worrying over the bank holiday weekend not knowing how much extra they would be expected to fork out next month.
The Finance Minister and his Justice counterpart Dermot Ahern just sat there smirking at each other like two giggly schoolboys who had been caught out by a stern headmistress. There would be no financial justice from these two Cabinet members.
As they were behaving like children anyway, Ms Burton decided to patronise them further and suggested Mr Lenihan might like to take a “study day” and come in with a blackboard next week to explain the fiasco to the Dáil.
Mr Lenihan did not seem to get the damage and annoyance this latest financial calamity has caused, and decided to try and play it for laughs, indicating the country could not run to the expense of a blackboard. And in an ill-considered hostage to fortune, he admitted the Cabinet would meet on Tuesday as they had “many things to study”. Such as how to actually put together a Budget that does not collapse within days, presumably?
The total climbdown over taking back the lavish pensions being paid to sitting TDs, the mean-spirited attempt to retrospectively tax redundancy payments given before the Budget, and now the total disarray on mortgage relief – it’s as if Fianna Fáil is deliberately trying to antagonise voters ahead of the June elections.
At one point Mr Lenihan actually thanked RTÉ for clarifying the mortgage chaos, seemingly oblivious to the concept that should actually have been his job.
With his attempt to try and laugh his way out of trouble – Mr Lenihan really is sailing us up wit creek without a paddle.
