Search Results for 'Marie Whelan'

“I have come to the conclusion that politics are too serious a matter to be left to the politicians,” the former French president Charles De Gaulle once said. Indeed he would have been within his rights to substitute the word ‘dangerous’ for ‘serious’.

The dust has settled; the new Government has come through its first 100 days; Britain’s Queen Elizabeth and US president Barack Obama have been and gone; Garrett the Good, Declan Costello, and Brian Lenihan - three icons of Irish politics - have passed to their eternal reward. What a first six months of 2011 this has been.

Last night in Dail Eireann, the first chapter of the new history of this country was written. We hope that with the introduction of this new Government that an end of public service gombeenism is in sight. Taoiseach Kenny in his inaugural speech spoke of the need for the Government and the governed to move closer and he acknowleged that to do that, he needs to build up trust, and to build that, he will use the rare commodity of truth. It is something that has been in rare supply in recent years. He must acknowledge too that politicians are in the Last Chance Saloon when it comes to honesty and integrity, and that his Government, more than ever, will have to be seen to be above party politics if it is to achieve what needs to be done. If it fails, it will go down in smoke, and with it, the body politic.