Lenihan defends Cowen during Budget radio address

PUBLIC REACTION:MINISTER FOR Finance Brian Lenihan defended the Taoiseach robustly during a post-Budget broadcast on RTÉ Radio yesterday.

He said Brian Cowen was working hard, night and day, for a fraction of the pay of those “in similar positions” in the private sector. Mr Lenihan added Mr Cowen did not have the “many perks” enjoyed by British prime minister Gordon Brown, with his housekeeper and residences at Number 10 and Chequers.

Mr Lenihan had turned up a little late for what is a traditional ministerial post-budget appointment with Pat Kenny. He addressed callers by their first names and sounded empathetic – “this is not easy, I accept that”; “I appreciate it’s very difficult because you count every penny”; “I accept it’s difficult to live on any low salary or low transfer of money from the State”.

But his soothing words did not satisfy most callers, particularly one woman who said she had a significant disability and complained about the introduction of prescription charges for medical card holders.

“I now have to worry and fret about what’s going to happen when I need medication or far more importantly, Minister, my sick mother, who I am caring for on my own,” she said.

“Between us we’re on about 45 to 50 medications. Not because we’re greedy, not because we’re wasteful but because we are among the very sickest.

“And what would you like me to do instead Minister? Would you just like me to shoot my mother and have done with it?”

Another woman criticised Mr Lenihan for reducing excise duty on beer because, she said, the country already had a huge problem with alcohol. The Minister went on to suggest that the Irish could be “culturally determined” to drink.

“I absolutely agree with you, Bernadette,” he began. But the problem was people in the Republic were sourcing their drink in the North, he explained, with a third of alcohol now being purchased there.”

Another caller said Fianna Fáil would be “wiped out” in the Border constituencies because of the VAT differential between the Republic and the North, arguing that “an economic war” was under way.

Emerging from the studio, Mr Lenihan admitted the encounter had been “difficult”.

“But I was heartened, I have to say, by the number of callers who recognised there was a problem and it had to be addressed.”