Can Ireland be saved? Newsweek asks the question as election looms

Posted on Monday, February 21, 2011 at 07:29 AM

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"Can Ireland Be Saved?" is the bold headline that "Newsweek" runs this week when looking at the Irish election.

Certainly not by the current government is the first answer.

In the new Irish Times poll, satisfaction in with the Irish government is at 4 percent, which tells you all you need to know about what will happen on Friday when the election takes place.

These guys make the U.S. Senate look like Ronald Reagan in terms of popularity.

We know what is going to happen on Friday.

Fianna Fail, the party which has taken the largest percentage of votes in every Irish election since 1927, will likely be reduced to the third largest party in the state, with an outside chance that Sinn Fein could even pip them for that.

This will be an earthquake of an Irish election, where all the known factors in previous elections will be gone with the wind.

As for Fianna Fail, the 78 seats after the last election could be as low as 20-25 on this occasion, not quite annihilation but not far from it.

That wind is now squarely behind the Fine Gael opposition leader Enda Kenny, who will be Ireland's next Prime Minister.

All that needs to be decided is whether he will preside over a single party government, one with a few independents giving Fine Gael their 84 seat number for a majority, or a coalition with the Labor Party.

The second of those two possibilities is the most likely in my opinion.

In that case it will be up to Kenny and his cabinet to save Ireland.

That may sound overly dramatic, but it is not. The economy is in such bad shape, so many Irish are leaving the country and so much needs to be worked out with the International Monetary Fund and European Union that the next leader can expect many sleepless nights.

Kenny could be up for it. He is used to doing the impossible. After the 2002 election he took over Fine Gael when the party had only 31 seats and seemingly locked out of power for ever.

He rebuilt Fine Gael to where they are now within shouting distance of single party government for the first time ever.

Ireland will need that magic touch come Friday's resuts.

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mcdolan | Feb 21, 2011, 10:11 AM EST

This election will determine Ireland's future for the next 15-20 years. The Irish are resilient and we will overcome this, the question is at what price to the ordinary people!

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averagejoewa | Feb 21, 2011, 10:10 AM EST

Actually Newsweek should be more concerned with asking if Newsweek can be saved when you look at the financial problems that it has experienced over the years.

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averagejoewa | Feb 21, 2011, 09:38 AM EST

Niall, sadly, neither outcome in Friday's election is likely to be good for the country. My preference would be for Fine Gael, with a few necessary independents, to win the call. Problem is Fine Gael, almost always in opposition, has little experience in governing the country - and this is the worst possible time to learn-as-you-go. Parties in perpetual opposition acquire their own pathology, not very helpful in leadership. Alternatively, a Fine Gael-Labour coalition is hardly a natural partnership - indeed more the opposite, not very encouraging either, I'm sorry to say. I sincerely hope I'm being overly pessimistic.

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trigger | Feb 21, 2011, 09:25 AM EST

When Enda Kenny goes to meet Merkel and Sarkozy he has three items to be achieved. 1. cement our corporation tax. 2. Reduce the interest rate by at least half on the bailout and 3. Agree an orderly bailout of unsecured bondholders. Anything less than this and we can Kiss our Great country goodbye, now if he achieves this along with public sector reform and not necessarily redundancies, by bringing accountability from the top down then and only then will we see a turn for the good.

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