Brief honeymoon for Cowen

Mr Cowen’s honeymoon

County View
John Healy

IT HASN’T been a great honeymoon for Brian Cowen. Indiscretions in the Dáil; a clumsy attack on Fine Gael for not doing its bit on Lisbon; a cave-in to the farming lobby in a desperate attempt to pull the ‘yes’ vote out of the fire.
And the nightmare is only starting. A year ago, Mr Cowen nailed his colours to the mast when he launched the National Development Programme 2007-2013. “I have made it clear, time and time again, that my first priority is the delivery of the National Development Plan,” he said at the time, wearing his hat as Minister for Finance. “Its implementation in full is central to our long-term economic prospects.”
Buoyed by the revenues of a surging economy, the government would chip in €143 billion over a seven-year period to ensure the prosperity of the country into the far-distant future.
Those of us in the west, of course, had our own cynical view of the bona fides of the NDP Mark Two. We had good reason to recall that under the previous plan, €3.65 billion of investment that was earmarked for the BMW region went unspent. Or, as Beverley Flynn was fond of reminding us at the time, €1 million a day for every day of the year went unspent in the west.
That was then, and Beverley was on the other side of the counter when she went into battle with Minister Cowen over the neglect of promised investment in the west. Much water has flowed under the bridge since then, and it is unlikely that Bev will be banging the table as forcefully now as she was then.
But back to the Cowen predicament. The rosy forecasts that the exchequer surplus would comfortably meet the bills to pay for the NDP have long disappeared. The economy is back struggling with the old familiar problem of not enough coming in to pay for the weekly bills. The NDP is showing all the signs of being an embarrassing albatross around the neck of the Taoiseach.
Mr Cowen has three options, one less palatable than the next:
He could stick to the NDP targets and meet the costs by resorting to the bad old practices of borrowing up to the hilt, even if that means breaking our promises under the EU Stability and Growth pact.
He could decide to take the scissors to the NDP, trim off the projects he can get away with scrapping, and scale back the projected €143 billion in spending to something like a more manageble €100 billion or even less – that might not augur too well for the N26, the N5, or the Western Rail Corridor, but there comes a time when a man’s got to do what a man’s got to do (and it’s only the west, after all).
Alternatively, he could simply stretch the timeframe of the NDP from seven years, to say, ten years, proceed a little more slowly and ease the annual burden on the Exchequer. That would bring the end point of the NDP to 2016 and, who knows, there might be another party in government to take the flak once the penny drops as to what’s happening.
Mr Cowen could hardly have envisaged that his first six months in office would present a problem on the scale presented by the NDP’s future. While his predecessor was able to bask in the glow of the economic sunshine, no sooner had Mr Cowen taken over than the old chill winds of austerity began to blow.
When the curtain fell on the final day of the last NDP, there were all sorts of vague mutterings that the BMW’s lost €3.65 billion would be restored under the new plan.
One piece of advice – don’t put your house with the bookies on that outcome!

Why O’Leary loves funerals
If there is one man who enjoys not pulling his punches more than any other, it has to be Ryanair boss, Michael O’Leary.
Announcing his company’s results last week, he gleefully told his audience that Ryanair’s most profitable customers are those going to attend funerals. “They book late because they don’t tend to get much notice,” he said, “and they tend to be price insensitive because they have no options but to travel.”
Journalists were quick to confirm what Mr O’Leary had been saying. A flight from Dublin to Stansted booked even two weeks ago could be had for €15. But if you were a funeral – attending passenger, booking the day before – you would be charged up to €120 for the one-way ticket.
O’Leary also likes taking the pomposity out of the exchanges that form part of the ritual of addressing financial journalists about the past year’s results. One such London-based analyst congratulated O’Leary and Ryanair on its ‘balanced customer base’.
“I’m not sure who told you we had a balanced customer base, but they were bullshitting you,” came the chief executive’s down-to-earth reply.
He also helpfully explained: “We don’t care whether you’re travelling for business, leisure or visiting friends and relatives. All we want to know about our customer base is that they’ve booked the flights, and we have their credit card number.”

One down for McCain
Asked about the probable outcome of this year’s US election, a friend from Boston assured yours truly a month ago that Obama would win the presidency.
And why so? Because the war in Iraq was about to go sour, and John McCain would be the main victim of the fallout.
This week, a book by George Bush’s former press secretary, Scott McClellan, is due to hit the shelves with explosive consequences.
In the book, the former White House insider, who worked his way up the ranks on the Bush coat tails, lifts the lid on a war campaign, which he exposes as being rotten from start to finish.
Iraq, he says, was a disaster, embarked on without any justification except that concocted by White House spin doctors.
Given his steadfast support for the Iraq war, there is going to be one major casualty of the McClellan revelations, if they turn out to be believable.
Look out, John McCain.

The Moneen Blackbird
Castlebar bade farewell last week to Betty Roache, one of the town’s old stock with a family connection going back into the mist of history.
A familiar figure on her small bike pedalling the streets of the town, she was affable, outgoing and friendly, held in the highest affection.
She had left her native Moneen for England when she was 16, serving with the British Army Wrens during the war years. She returned to her home place 50 years later, back to family and friends and roots.
A regular caller-in to Mid West Radio, she had earned herself the title of the ‘Moneen Blackbird’, and her songs, comments and anecdotes on radio won her a wide audience and instant popularity.
She was laid to rest in Castlebar Old Cemetry, not far from where lies her kinsman John Roache, who was a holder of the DSM from the Great War and who was honoured with a dedication ceremony on St Patrick’s Day last.
Relatives and friends turned out in numbers to pay their respects to Betty, while her friend Ernie Sweeney laid a single poppy on her coffin, symbolic of the days when young Irish men and women gave of their valour so that Europe would be free.
Betty Roache lived life to the full; Castlebar and Moneen are poorer places for her passing.