# Minister Lenihan on Morning Ireland 14th Dec



## Purple (14 Dec 2010)

Brian Lenihan was interviewed on Morning Ireland this morning. When asked if he agreed with Richard Bruton that the Department of Finance was not fit for purpose he said that he didn’t agree and that in his opinion its influence had been seriously curtailed over the last  few years. He said that there were two main reasons for this. The first was election promises (political programmes for government) which were not properly costed prior to parties committing to them. The second reason he identified was Social Partnership which had pretty much the same effect.

I completely agree with him but I was very surprised to hear a FF minister admit as much. When it was pointed out that it was his party that allowed this to happen he agreed, saying that he had already admitted that mistakes had been made. I hope the media pick up on this and  an informed debate about who should be making the decisions and how out country should be run can ensue. It is to his credit that he is being so candid.


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## TarfHead (14 Dec 2010)

> It is to his credit that he is being so candid.


 
True. Was he asked about the inability of the DoF to develop a reliable model/method for forecasting Government revenues ? As far as I recall, they are always significantly wide of the estimate. Up to 3 years ago, they were always more than forecast; since then always below.

If this process can never be accurate because of all the variables, then why don't they tell us that ?


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## Shawady (14 Dec 2010)

Purple said:


> It is to his credit that he is being so candid.


 
He wasn't a minister before 2007 so maybe this is more of him distancing himself from Bertie/Cowen for an upcoming leadership battle. He made some comments on budget day that basically said the problem was home grown, which was at odds with Brian Cowens' version of events the past two years.

Is it worth remembering however, that in September 2008 Lenihan himself signed off on a 6.5% pay rise with the social partnership. It was obviously not paid but it is worth noting that even as the economy was in freefall, Lenihan himself was happy enough to increase spending so is far from innocent himself. At the time, FG were against the pay increases.


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## dereko1969 (14 Dec 2010)

Why does Lenihan keep on getting a free pass? Being candid? He's been wrong about everything! 
He's told us we've turned the corner so many times I'm dizzy. 
He needed a full weekend to reflect (or was that on mature recollection) that the AIB bonuses were "galling" and only then decided to do something about them - he's now leaving the taxpayer to pick up the costs of these bonuses rather than taxing them at 99% as was suggested - because he'll be out of office when the bankers win their case to have the bonuses paid.
How anyone can give him any credit after he had the stupidity to say we'd have the cheapest bank bail out ever is beyond belief.


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## Purple (14 Dec 2010)

dereko1969 said:


> he's now leaving the taxpayer to pick up the costs of these bonuses rather than taxing them at 99% as was suggested -


 I don't get this point; he said that they were now not being paid.


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## dereko1969 (14 Dec 2010)

Purple said:


> I don't get this point; he said that they were now not being paid.


 
Yes but he'll be wrong again! 
When the bankers actually take the case, they'll win it and have to be paid by AIB which at that stage will be 99% owned by the State so taxpayers will end up paying these bonuses.


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## rustbucket (14 Dec 2010)

dereko1969 said:


> Yes but he'll be wrong again!
> When the bankers actually take the case, they'll win it and have to be paid by AIB which at that stage will be 99% owned by the State so taxpayers will end up paying these bonuses.


 

Agreed, the delay of these payments is going to cost us even more in legal fees, interest accrued etc.

We have to move on, pay them, then ensure that these kind of contracts have clauses in them or are not offered to staff.

The suggestion of a 99% tax retrospective tax rate was pathetic


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## Complainer (15 Dec 2010)

It's a fairly old Fianna Fail trick of being the Govt and the opposition at the same time.


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