Re:
Surely Bertie's the greatest Taoiseach we've ever had. During his stint in charge we've had almost full employment, sustained low inflation, a number of years sustained growth.
I think you'll find that those issues have more to do with the Minister for Finance than the Taoiseach. It's hard with Bertie to point to Anything other than Northern Ireland that he has put is personal stamp on.
The man either can't or won't give a straight answer to a question. On rare occasions when he has been unequivocal he has done U Turns. (E.g. We won't join Partnership for peace without a Referendum)
I honestly don't think he stands for anything except compromise. Which has it's place, e.g. In the North, in Pay Talks, etc. But if you want someone to pick up the country by the scruff of the neck and knock it into shape, Bertie is the wrong man for the job.
Lemass transformed the economy and changed the kind of work that was available. He basically industrialised the country.
Fitzgerald can take some credit for the promotion of the Liberal agenda, again not to everyones taste, but it's hard to believe how conservative the country was as recently as the 1980s. That was a transformation.
The seeds for the Celtic Tiger were sown before Ahern became Taoiseach, McCreevy in my opinion deserves the credit for keeping the economy growing in the recent downturn. Ahern's job was to use the fruits of the Boom to transform the country, and on that I think he's failed.
What's different about Ireland today?
We've become a nation which demands and get's a tribunal for every contentious issue. Which pays €2000 a day and more to lawyers for years and years, while hospital wards lie empty because we don't allocate money to run them, after spending the money to build them.
Tribunals are the Ahern way. If there's a problem, lob it into a committee, a task force, a tribunal. Hopefully that will keep it out of the way until I win the next election.
-Rd