Get ready for the next soft landing - Promising the impossible

ONE of the phrases Bertie Ahern must regret — and there may be a few — is the one he used to try to calm a self- fulfilling panic around a collapsing property market. 

Almost a decade ago he suggested that any “correction” could be characterised as a “soft landing” and that we’d easily cope with any eventuality. Indeed.

His successor Enda Kenny may have made his “soft landing” blunder in Davros yesterday when he said that he is confident Ireland will be insulated from some of the growing and ever more troubling turbulence in the global economy. Mr Kenny’s optimism, or at least his expression of optimism, is understandable — what else could he say or do on the cusp of an election? Especially on an issue he cannot control? However, his judgement seems questionable and his reassurances misplaced and unwise.