Is he for real?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?On the economy, Mr Ahern said there was “not a lot” he would have done differently.
And it was his job to ignore them all?!?!?!?!?!?!?On the Department of Finance’s reports on the economy, Mr Ahern said: “In fairness, the Department of Finance give you warnings about everything”.
Is this a rhetorical question???
Bertie resigns
Just a few months later the country enters recession
Coincidence? I think not
Come back Bertie, sorry for ever doubting you
ahhhh, there was.I recall many posts filled with hubris on AAM mentioning Ireland being a model economy and punching above its weight. There was no mention of Bertie's flaws then.
Indeed. Bertie was a hugely popular politician as he essentially gave people what they wanted and was representative of the general population.
With regard to his personal finances and Revenue escapades, again he was representative: "Ah sure, wouldn't I do de same ting meself.."
I am going out on alimb here - but governments take advice from the civil service.
The ESRI predicted a soft landing.
The Central Bank had a job to do.
The Regulator had a job to do.
What many are doing is blaming Bertie.
People believed the Celtic Tiger was a reality. So did the whole public service.
Many got things wrong including politicians.
But, man, you're never going to get any truth from us. We'll tell you anything you want to hear; we lie like hell. We'll tell you that, uh, Kojak always gets the killer, or that nobody ever gets cancer at Archie Bunker's house, and no matter how much trouble the hero is in, don't worry, just look at your watch; at the end of the hour he's going to win. We'll tell you any **** you want to hear.
Bertie was in charge.
He aggressively pursued pro-cyclical economic policies as Minister for Finance and Taoiseach. He was in charge. That didn’t mean that he was just a mouth-piece for his advisors, it meant that he set government policy.But many factors were outside his control.
When you are in charge it’s your job to assess the quality and veracity of the advice and information you receive. There were thousands of column inches written my economists and commentators, both domestically and internationally, who were crying foul. It seems that none of them took his advice and killed themselves but the same cannot be said for some of the victims of this recession.Bertie had only the advice of the public sector to rely on.
This is my major gripe.
True but they aren’t the centre of the universe.The ESRI gave out very timid warnings.
We use cookies and similar technologies for the following purposes:
Do you accept cookies and these technologies?
We use cookies and similar technologies for the following purposes:
Do you accept cookies and these technologies?