Kenny slates cost of public services

FINE Gael leader Enda Kenny has said the public services are “too expensive” and that his party won’t be “a prisoner” to powerful unions.

Mr Kenny also insisted that the “leadership crisis” was over in his party, before quickly correcting himself and referring to the “leadership issue”.

He also avoided committing Fine Gael to talks on a “national consensus” on the economy, instead saying the party was focused on removing the Government from power.

Mr Kenny was speaking at the Fine Gael presidential dinner – an annual fundraiser for the party – at the Burlington Hotel in Dublin on Saturday night.

In his speech Mr Kenny said: “Ireland costs too much to run. Ireland isn’t generating enough revenue. And Ireland’s public services are too expensive.”

Nobody had been sent to jail over the banking scandals while the Government had completed failed in its duty to the public, he added.

Forced emigration had returned and 450,000 were unemployed, while on the health front, the HSE had “turned into a monster”.

Mr Kenny said all those truths led to a “depressing conclusion: In so many ways, Ireland is not working.” Nonetheless, Fine Gael’s message was one of hope: “It’s time to rebuild Ireland. Together, as an Irish people, we can rebuild our country.”

The party in government would rebuild the banking system, the public finances, the public services, and the economy. It would also “rebuild politics as it should be”, he said.