Labour TDs defend Broughan’s ‘Titanic’ remarks

LABOUR TDs have defended Tommy Broughan’s right to his opinions after he compared Taoiseach Enda Kenny to the captain of the Titanic steering toward the iceberg of “national bankruptcy and ruin”.

In a Dáil debate on the Jobs Initiative, Mr Broughan said he agreed with the “powerful and accurate analysis by Professor Morgan Kelly” who predicted that Ireland will have a debt mountain of €250 billion by 2014.

The Dublin North East TD said “Professor Kelly’s prediction of imminent national bankruptcy has, as expected, been shrugged off by the Government, which is still negotiating desperately just to get a 1% cut in the bailout interest rate. President Sarkozy is still saying: ‘Non’.

“However, the Taoiseach, with all the insouciance of the captain of the Titanic, continues to sail towards the iceberg of national bankruptcy and ruin. Like that captain, and as Morgan Kelly noted, the Taoiseach and Minister for Finance are still turning the tiller in the wrong direction.”

Mr Broughan, who lost the party whip last June, said the financing of the jobs package “starkly reveals the extent of the EU/ECB/ IMF straitjacket in which our ministers are operating.”

A spokesperson for the Labour Party said: “As a TD, Tommy Broughan is entitled to his own opinions. However, what he says does not necessarily reflect Government policy. Deputy Broughan was one of a very small number of TDs who voted against the Programme for Government.”