Fianna Fáil will fight for political life – Calleary

Fianna FΡil will fight for political life


Anton McNulty

FIANNA FΡil will not give up on their political power according to Ballina-based Minister, Dara Calleary but he admitted that major political changes were forecasted to take place on the Irish political landscape
Minister for Labour Affairs, Dara Calleary was speaking at the School on the theme of ‘The Irish Political Landscape’ which took place in Castlebar on Sunday. Minister Calleary also said major changes were forecast to take place on the political landscape in Ireland, and that many people were already celebrating. However, he added that Fianna FΡil were ready for the battle.
“This will be the fight of our political lives but fight we will,” he said defiantly.
In the wide-ranging address, he described as ‘depressing’ the controversy which preceded Brian Lenihan delivering the Michael Collins oration and was a reminder that, though civil war politics ‘may be on life support, it is still there’.
During his speech he said the business of politics had been brought into disrepute in recent times but felt that most politicians were people of integrity and the electorate had a great deal of respect for 99 per cent of them. He said there had been evidence of this here in Mayo where people had turned out literally in their thousands to pay their respects to one of them, Liam Coady, whose funeral had taken place at the weekend.
He also expressed regret that the Seanad did not have the power to impeach Ivor Callely and politicians should be measured by their courage, judgement, integrity and dedication.
“The vast majority of Irish politicians can answer that call. However, we must defend our profession better than we have. We need to do more than simply suspend people. An impeachment process is needed and we will be looking at that,” he said.
Meanwhile, Labour’s spokesperson for Finance, Joan Burton described as ‘hypocrites’ the people who are eager to slash public spending but ‘don’t bat an eyelid’ when it came to the government financing Anglo Irish Bank.
Deputy Burton was speaking on the topic, ‘Can the EU survive the Euro Crisis?’ at the Humbert Summer School. She said that Internationally there were deficit hawks and deficit doves over public borrowing but Ireland had deficit hypocrites.
“In Ireland today, many self-described deficit hawks are pure hypocrites. They’re eager to slash benefits for children, for patients, for pensioners. But their concerns about red ink on the Exchequer returns suddenly vanishes when it comes to keeping tax breaks for the wealthy and saving Anglo Irish,” she said.
She described as infuriating, the way the public opinion had been coaxed to accept as normal many things that would be classed as entirely unacceptable two years ago. The present Government, she said had done terrible damage to Ireland and is leaving a legacy of unemployment, emigration and debt for both this and the next generation.
“It is small comfort, I know, but it would be even worse, if Ireland was not in EMU, and would be even more difficult to manage our way out of this catastrophic mess. Despite the economic damage and the myriad problems, I am confident that a new Government will be able to introduce the right policies and in time get the debt down, reduce unemployment and obviate the current push to emigrate. Being in EMU is a major support for Ireland.”