'Have you no shame?': the political attack that has gripped a nation – SEE VIDEO

*Rotflol* @ jamthecat. Good joke but I think seano’s comment is nearer the truth. Rabbite, as Labour leader, was behind the money sucking FAS scheme. Ask any FAS employee how s/he got a job in FAS (hint: Labour Party supporters).

Carey's a fool. Rabbitte actually understands the situation, but no politician will listen to him because it means they screwed up, royally...and that's impossible for any politician to admit.

The labour party in Ireland like the rest of the mainstream politicians had their collective snouts in the money trough for years. Rabbite has the temerity to lecture another politician on ethical behaviour.What a hypocrite.

As far as I’m concerned, Pat Rabbite made a disgrace of himself live in that TV show. “Polemics” (the political art of passionately arguing about something) said Pat Carey in one word in response to Rabbite’s long-winded rant. Rabbite has spent so much time in opposition that he has lost any ability for forward thinking. And the Irish people think he made a point? Feranbegawdsake, spare us from PatRab and his ilk governing my country, especially in the face of people who keep their heads about them in the midst of turmoil, like Pat Carey, like Brian Lenihan, like our Taoiseach, Brain Cowen, like the IMF and EU financial supervisors and the rest of us real Irish people. Did ya see the latest threat to Irish Sovereignty came from a re-emerging bunch of terrorists – trade unionists, of which Pat Rabbite is/was one - threatening civil disobedience in my (and their) country??? Feranbegawdsake, shouldn’t they know by now what Connolly fought for and was executed for in 1916??? Connolly would be totally ashamed of Pat Rabbitte’s rant.

clardubh is right. One of the first items on the Reclaim Ireland agenda should be to encourage the countless foreign settlers wsho were imported into the country by Fianna Fail to go home. One of the reasons for the extraordinary passivity of the Irish is that they have allowed themselves be displaced from their own ancient homeland. They have permitted the notions of community, solidarity and nation to be removed from their vocabulary. They have let Fianna Fail and the capitalist class tell them that they're just another ethnic group cohabiting with countless others in Ireland, all with equal rights to the national territory. That's why they're proving spineless and worthless in this crisis.

The media and opposition are fully complicit in this and defended it to the last. Anyone who opposed this process was attacked rabidly. Mercenaries were brought to attack people who protested against the theft of resources. It's time for Irish people to realise who the country's enemies are, throw the damn "government" out, defend the constitution and the country's sovereignty (notice how the media has been saying there is no sovereignty?) and take our country back, like they did in Iceland.

A dead sheep being savaged by a rabid bunny! There is nothing more defeatist or pathetic than allowing FF lobby fodder like Carey to attempt a debate with Rabbitt. Where is the loser in chief ""BIFFO"? Is FF all spun out yet?

Looks like Jimmy Carter was right all those years ago. An angry rabbit can do a lot of damage.

Dublinjas: It seems to me that Irish workers will not be able to get rid of those foreign welfare fraudsters. Note that Mass Immigration continues, even though there are no jobs. That means the immigrants are coming as parasites, not workers. There has been a failure of the democratic system in Ireland. The majority of people know that some immigration is good for a country, but they don't want Mass Immigration. Yet their voices have been shouted down--we see similar behavior on this site. Isn't it mindblowing that Irish workers pay taxes to provide children benefits to kids in Poland, Lithuania etc. who have never EVEN BEEN in Ireland? That's a microscosm of how badly the country is run by the buffoons of Fianna Fail. And note also--not a word of solidarity has come from the presidents of countries like Poland, Latvia etc., despite the countless millions their citizens have withdrawn from the Irish economy over the past decade. Ireland in crisis but these people look away and stay mute. Ungrateful Bastards.

Ireland has tried to outdo the UK in imitating the US financial services system a system governed by regulators who did not believe in regulation or scrutiny. It was and still is system based on a medieval, superstitious belief in an idol called The Invisible Hand of the Market. This irrational pietistic devotion to a simple minded abstraction allowed for the creating and multiplication of debt beyond any economy's ability to pay. This irrational system also allowed the Big 6 US banks to deceive at will, structuring derivative bonds in a multiplicity of layers (tranches) in such a way that the the lower layers were doomed to failure. Sine the "regulators" had allowed the banks to pay the raters, the bond raters did anything the banks wanted and gave A ratings (theoretically cash equivalency) to overpriced and doomed megabonds. Cautious investment and pension management companies snatched up these "safe" bonds, gamblers traded them frantically, the banks created virtual versions of them (backed by no assets at all) for more trading, and inevitably the whole crooked enterprise collapsed. BUT those who perpetrated the frauds were given more billions to pay themselves with, and they walked away richer for the collapse. And the taxpayers took on the debt. If people really understood what went on. there would be mass riots, fully justified. ... Had the US government imposed an orderly bankruptcy and reorganization plan on the banks, as they did on the auto companies, the whole fiasco would have been far better managed and the executives responsible for the collapse fired instead of rewarded. Ireland could have imposed an auto industry type plan on its banks, but instead bankrupted the country to pay off private debts accumulated through mismanagement and fraud. On the words of Yeats, you have disgraced yourselves gain (by imitating the US).

Lord Bannside aka Rev/Mr/Dr Paisley supports Irish unity, under the British crown, whilst a German Economist associated with the European Central Bank is suggesting that Ireland needs another Cromwell experience. That's what Fianna Fail government has brought about 90 years after part-independence. Can Ireland be brought lower?

@jfoynyc, well argued, and hard to dispute.

I would rather have a dirt poor country with all the trash that flowed into it in the boom... Gone, than the country that Ireland became during the so called Tiger years, As long as all the foreign spongers are gone I'll be happy.

Having been in Ireland for extended stays every year for the past 20 years and while not being overly smart in Economics, I saw and stated that the current wage earners, especially those in their 20's and 30's, existed in an unreal world, a make believe one. Their own behavior makes people responsible for their situations. Their votes make them share also part of the government's blame. Their gullibility entitles them too to a small part of the bank's blame. Everybody knew that it was too good to be true but chose to party on and let the good times roll. We in America can look at Ireland or look into a mirror and recognize ourselves for what we are - no different. Irish people, however, would not pay $174,000 annually to legislators for two years who just say 'No!'. Those legislators gloat over Obama's less than successful efforts to dig us out of the deep hole that reckless spending under Reagan and two Bushs dug for us. They have not done one thing to alleviate the suffering. 9 % unemplyment and over 40m. Americans living below the poverty level. You know what, the parallel with Ireland//U.S. is scary economically and socially. Just THINK!

Rebelforce: You show your ignorance. That series was made in Britain.