Newsmakers

Even in the season of goodwill, praise for Enda Kenny has been in short supply following his State of the Nation speech last night. But it wasn’t all bad. Here are five plus points.

He had the balls to do it

The reason why there was such hullabaloo surrounding the Taoiseach’s speech was because State of the Nation addresses simply don’t happen very often. There have only been six in the history of the state and this was the first one since Garret Fitzgerald’s address about the teachers’ strike in 1986.

At this stage, we know that we are very much in the shitter, whereas when the roof was collapsing in on us a few years back and an explanation was required, Brian Cowen was nowhere to be seen.

‘Inda’ has always been something of a maligned figure amongst a sizeable section of the Irish public, but in spite of his sometimes cringe-inducing public faux-pas, he is never one to shy away from putting himself on display. And for that, he should be commended.

He didn't bullshit

Enda might have been simply telling is at is and giving the public information that we are already painfully aware of, but at least his speech wasn’t drowned in flowery language telling us how it’s all going to be hunky-dory a few months down the line.

Yes it’s going to be tough for a while and yes, there are going to be a few more years of hardship to bear, but at least there were no extraordinarily optimistic promises or talk of a quick-fix and we won’t be getting ahead of ourselves.

We have something to aim for

Granted it’s a few years away yet, but 2015 seemed to be the year that Kenny was targeting as the one where Ireland will be at least some way towards restoring some degree of normality and for the government to achieve its goals in terms of job creation, downsizing the public sector etc.

If in just over three years time, those words continue to ring hollow, well then Kenny and his cohorts deserve all the flak that comes their way. For now, let’s just have some patience.

He absolved us of the blame

Bar a small minority of once fragrantly wealthy people in this country, the majority of us know that although we might have jumped on the bandwagon and enjoyed the good times while they lasted, we are not directly responsible for the mess the country finds itself in.

But you know how it is. When you were in school and something went wrong in the classroom, you would feel a slight pang of guilt even if you were totally innocent until the perpetrator was identified and brought to justice. And it was similarly thus last night.

“You are not responsible for the crisis,” said Enda.

“But the steps the Government has taken merely reflect your courage, your character, and your sense of responsibility, for which I thank you,” he said later.

It might be clutching at straws in terms of positives, but it had something of an absolving effect and was nice to hear all the same.

The bigwigs were taken down a peg

While not quite entering Robin Hood territory, Enda did at least hint that there will be an element of taking from the rich to give to the poor, although it’s certainly not before time.

Indeed, the current government aren’t going nearly far enough in cutting the pensions of former Taoisigh and political figures and removing some of the extravagant perks afforded to them, but at least it’s a start.