Search Results for 'Angela Merkel'

He may not be as long on the scene as Éamon Ó Cuív, he’s not quite the ‘new kid in town’ that is Derek Nolan, and he may not be as outgoing as Noel Grealish, but Sean Kyne has become the quietly emerging figure of Galway politics, who this week took his first steps on the national stage.

Our election is now over for a while at least and we should now shelve the electoral and political strategy and get on with trying to save our economy. Except we cannot do this because another election is looming and it is having an even greater influence on our economic policies than anything ever dreamt up by strategists on these shores.

Time and time again we are fed the line that Anglo was included in the bank guarantee because it was of systemic importance to the Irish economy. When questioned not one person from Government was able to explain why precisely Anglo is of systemic importance. It is simply a mantra put forward by those who do not understand the issue and who are seriously out of their depth.

We now live in an age of cutbacks, economic austerity and diminished financial reward. We are told that we are all in this together and that we are all feeling the pain. That some people will not feel the financial pain to the same degree as others is a fact of life. Some of these are the very highly paid, such as senior executives from some of the larger companies who will take home huge salaries. They will take home these salaries if and only if they do their jobs effectively, generate acceptable results and display high levels of competence. If not they will be fired. That is the way the real world works.

Some 80 Fine Gael supporters gathered recently to celebrate the party’s historic win of five seats by women candidates in the recent local elections for the Kilkenny County Council.