Cowen was doing some outrageous spinning at the Irish Management Institute. Consider the following statements from him as quoted in today's Irish Times.

TAOISEACH BRIAN Cowen has criticised Irish banks which had been “in denial” about the level of their problems when they sought Government support last autumn.

Addressing the Irish Management Institute in Dublin yesterday, Mr Cowen said: “We were told by the banks they could get cash from the private sector, but that wasn’t true. There was a certain sense of denial that was going on.”
So according to Cowen, the Banks when they were desperate for help, misrepresented the amount of support they could get from the markets. Cowen and Lenihan accepted the banking line without question. The only investigation was after the guarantee was in place and that was to commission a PwC report that they didn't read. So Cowen bought the banking line but accepts no responsibility for his own gullibility.

Mr Cowen said the budget would not be a “silver bullet” to solve the economic problems , but would represent the “first steps” on the road to economic recovery.
Our economic problems have been evident since Cowen took office, yet these are the first steps on the road to economic recovery? Ok we know that the government slept through summer 2008, but wasn't the early budget in October 2008 supposed to be the first steps? What about the big policy document they launched to all the FF fanfare on the road map for the Irish economy or the revenue saving measures at the start of February. How many first steps can you take?

He did not think a second vote on the Lisbon Treaty would result in a No vote, and a new referendum would be won “by running a much better campaign”.

Mr Cowen told the business managers a lot more employers must “come up to the plate” during the next referendum, and he criticised what he said was the silence of the sector in the last referendum. There was a feeling from business that it “didn’t want to get its hands dirty”.

He also criticised the farming community’s stance in relation to the Lisbon Treaty.

He said they “voted No on the basis that there was going to be a world trade deal”.

“There was no deal but in the meantime they voted No to Lisbon – figure that out.”
again, Cowen seems to say that the failure was by everyone on the yes side except for the government. Cowen says that a much better campaign will be run, but he doesn't say what he or his ministers or FF will do. He puts the onus on the business community and the farming community.

Complete abdication of responsibility by the leader of the Irish Government!

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