Not, of course, for our esteemed politicians. A mass exodus from the Dail took place in the days before March 17, when our top ministers and our junior ministers left the country to “promote” Ireland abroad.
These junkets (politicians prefer to use vocabulary such as “fact-finding missions” and “marketing drives”) have been an annual event for years, but came under scrutiny this year due to the disastrous state of our economy. An Taoiseach Brian Cowen responded to criticism when announcing the itinerary for his ministers saying the focus would be firmly on creating jobs and that costs would be kept to a minimum.
So, they planned to keep costs to a minimum. But were the trips necessary in the first place? These trips have been taking place on March 17 for years, and the same mantra has always been issued: “it’s about creating jobs.” If it was all about creating jobs in the past, then why do we find ourselves with mass unemployment? Why can’t we attract new businesses to our country? What were our ministers doing on all these trips in the past if the new jobs they spoke about still haven’t reached us?
This year, Brian Cowen was of course in Washington for his exclusive meeting with President Obama. In the picture above, he looks like the cat that’s got the cream, seated in front of the White House fireplace, with the most powerful man and woman in the world. Michael Martin was also in the American capital. Mary Coughlan visited Germany, Dermot Ahern went to France, Noel Dempsey to Atlanta, Brendan Smith to Italy, Eamon Ryan took in India and Singapore, Batt O’Keeffe visited Japan & Korea, Eamon O’Cuiv saw Poland & Austria and Mary Hanafin ventured to Philadelphia. For a full list see here.
Our controversial Health Minister, obviously confused with how long it takes to fly to New Zealand, left for her visit almost two weeks before March 17. Presumably with all the visits she says she has been making and all the meetings which have supposedly been held, we can look forward to an influx of tourists from New Zealand to boost our ailing tourism industry, and enjoy the benefits all the New Zealand businesses will bring to us when they set up all around the country.
Just in case any part of the world was left unconquered by the government on St Patrick’s Day, our junior ministers (most of us would struggle to even name or recognise two or three) made visits to the UK, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Holland, Belgium, Canada, Dubai, Australia, China, Vietnam and Russia. Our good friend Peter Power made his way to South Africa.
The publicity that Ireland got this week is the envy of every other country in the world. Our ministers have met some of the most powerful political and business leaders in the world. Our country has featured on news bulletins, talk shows and just about every other type of programme on almost every TV channel in every country. Google redesigned their home page in our honour for the day. The streets of some of the world’s biggest cities were shut for parades. It must be unbearably frustrating for other countries to see the preferential treatment which we are lucky to get. So have our minister’s capitalised on this?
With supposedly such a strong focus on tourism, creating jobs and trying to recover our country from near extermination, perhaps our politicians have worked extra hard this year. With all the meetings and functions which it’s claimed have been held in these countries, surely we need not have any worries about the future of our economy…
Wishful thinking. KF
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