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New Cabinet

Written by Joerg Steegmueller
New Cabinet

The new Irish cabinet has been named today:

Enda Kenny (Fine Gael) – Taoiseach
Eamon Glimore (Labour) – Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade
Michael Noonan (Fine Gael) – Minister for Finance
Ruairi Quinn (Labour) – Minister for Education and Skills
Brendan Howlin – Minister for Pubic Expenditure and Reform
Richard Bruton (Fine Gael) – Minister for Enterprise, Jobs and Innovation
Joan Burton (Labour) – Minister for Social Protection
Jimmy Deenihan (Fine Gael) – Minister for Arts, Heritage and Gaeltacht Affairs
Pat Rabbitte (Labour) – Minister for Communication Energy and Natural Resources
Frances Fitzgerald (Fine Gael) – Minister for Children
Simon Coveney (Fine Gael) – Minister for Agriculture, Marine and Food
Alan Shatter (Fine Gael) – Minister for Justice, Equality and Defence
Phil Hogan (Fine Gael) – Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government
Leo Varadkar (Fine Gael) – Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport
James O’Reilly (Fine Gael) – Minister for Health
Paul Kehoe (Fine Gael) – Government Chief Whip
Marie Whelan – Attorney General

Interesting that Labour did not get their nose in any Department that has anything to do with Finance or Jobs.

Positive that Richard Bruton and Leo Varadkar are on the list and that Joan Burton was moved away from Finance.

A little surprising that James O’Reilly took the poisoned chalice of the Department of Health.

Surprising that the Department of Defence is gone and the responsibility has been merged with Justice.

Politics,

It’s all over – Let’s get started!

Written by Joerg Steegmueller
It’s all over – Let’s get started!

Finally the election (or most of it) is over. The ballot papers are nearly all counted and while there are still 12 or so TDs to be decided in a few constituencies, we know that the new Taoiseach will be Enda Kenny and that he most likely will form a coalition with Labour.

The Fine Gael win was impressive, but Labour’s and Sinn Fein’s many seats in the Dail mean that Ireland moved to the left and I am not too impressed by that. I prefer a center/liberal/social society, but not a socialist society.

Fianna Fail’s loss was impressive as well, but look at it this way: A party that ran the country into the ground in many aspects still got approx. 20 seats out of 160. That is still quite a high number! So many people still think that Fianna Fail is a party that should be in charge, which is rather shocking.

Now it is over to Enda Kenny! The Dail will meet on 09 March, so he has another 8 days to sort out his government. I am still not convinced that he is suitable or will be good as a leader, so he has to show us now that he can build a government and that he will choose the right people for his cabinet.  So, let’s get the future started. A future hopefully with more accountability and with a less self-serving attitude among the TDs.

Elections, , , , , ,

Elections can be fun!

Written by Joerg Steegmueller
Elections can be fun!

Elections and all the turmoil around it can be fun when you let good comedians or odd ordinary people at it. I found two brilliant snippets.

The first one is “Enda’s Ear Piece” where Enda is briefed via ear piece in the middle of the TV debate:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mJ_7SqKxGI&feature=player_embedded

And the second one explains why Anarchists will vote for Fianna Fail:

Hilarious! ;-)

Elections, , ,

Disappointed!

Written by Joerg Steegmueller
Disappointed!

Tonight’s Leader’s Debate on RTE1 was the first I saw live. (The other two I saw only partially.) …and I was not impressed with the future Taoiseach.

Enda Kenny did NOT know his facts, he was aloof, arrogant, not in the slightest passionate and – like a broken record – talks about his 5-point plan constantly. The guy on TV tonight is definitely not want as my “leader”.

Having said that, Micheal Martin is not much better. He did impress me this evening, though. He is passionate and knows his facts, but what I can’t get over is why he never cared enough about the facts before and while he was a Minister in the previous governments. So, a NO to Micheal Martin, but there is potential in a few years time if he sorts out his more or less useless party.

That leaves Eamonn Gilmore: He was taking on Micheal Martin and was cosy-ing up to Enda Kenny. My problem with Gilmore is his past. Labour sounds some where slightly left of centre, but Gilmore’s roots where in the party “Democratic Left”, which then merged with Labour. So he would be more in the socialist corner of Labour. And since the  the current economic situation can – in my opinion – not be solved with socialism, he would be a problem if in any powerful position.

Bottom line…AGAIN!!…I would not know who to vote for!

Elections, , , , , ,
 
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