Return of the Blogger

It's been quiet here this last fortnight, so perhaps I should explain: Unable to take the pressure of Brian Lenihan's then upcoming 'Mini/Maxi/Panic' budget, I decided the week before last, "to heck with all this, I'm going to decamp to Bucharest to avoid all the stress, and watch Europe's strongest men & women lift heavy things over their heads."

This is not a euphemism for anything (I'm not that creative) nor have I completely lost my marbles (just yet.) I was actually in Bucharest for the European Weightlifting Championships, where Ireland had two athletes competing. An enjoyable week, some fantastic lifting and I was one of only two Irish bloggers present. I can feel the collective jealousy bubbling across the blogosphere...

My hope of returning to a nation whose government had a plan to get it through the coming years was, in retropect however, somewhat naieve. After all, our Taoiseach apparently has neither a sense of humour or a clue how to lead, and our Minister for Fianance has no financial training, which is helpful in his current occupation. Our Tainaiste... Well, the less said about her the better.

So no surprise then that the budget was a massive dissapointment to all but the opposition parties, who may have been ever so slightly worried that Lenny may have managed to pull off the shock of the century and bring forth a budget that would be beyond criticism. They needn't have bothered.

No surprise that 'levies' (i.e. taxes) have risen and that we will all be worse off come May 1st. Or, as we found out yesterday, we already are worse off. No great plan to get us through the coming storm, no vision, no promise of blood, sweat, toil and tears, but that we will persevere and ultimately come out of the curent situation a stronger, leaner, better nation. Our current government do not 'do' leadership and is incapable of oratory, gravitas or even honesty.

But never fear, because while all of us in the private sector are facing massive pay cuts, expenses for TD's are being cut (i.e. slightly less 'walking around' money for those who almost never 'walk around') and Brian Lenihan said of the controversial 'long service payments' that;

"Deputies will no longer receive long-service payments or increments."

However, on the same day we found out that they are back-dating the levies, we also found out that Brian was more than a little dishonest on what was being done about TD's bloated wages. As it turns out, existing TD's with 7-10 years or more service will still receive long service payments and increments. They're just not giving it out to anyone new.

We were also promised that the ridiculous situation where;

• TD's draw a Ministerial pension (pension!) while still getting their TD's wage, their "long service payment or increments" etc would come to an end.
• TD's who are on leave from their teaching posts and who now claim the balance of the wages they get after they pay the cheaper substitute teacher (who still can't get a permanent job due to their local TD taking advantage of the loophole) will be prevented from doing so.

Are you really surprised however, that it turns out that there is no way for TD's to be legally asked to give back their wages and as a result, it will probably not happen? No doubt the same arrogance that we saw in Bertie Ahern's L'Oreal moment will prevail and we won't see any of the chancers give back their double pay.

Can we trust anything that this government tells us?

If we were in any doubt of where their priorities lie, the true extent of this government's distaste for the people of the country and the democratic process was demonstrated clearly on budget day when journalists were given copies of the budget before the opposition parties. Extremely dissapointing, but hardly surprising.