TAOISEACH ENDA Kenny is to deliver his long-awaited “state of the nation” address from his offices in Government Buildings tomorrow night. But Mr Kenny’s plans to address the entire nation appear to have foundered even before he speaks, after TV3 said it was told too late to accommodate the Taoiseach’s broadcast in its schedule.
Mr Kenny’s 10-minute address will be sombre in tone and will stress the difficulties that lie ahead for the State in the years to come as well as the challenges posed by the growing fiscal crisis elsewhere in Europe, according to informed sources.
His broadcast will be transmitted tomorrow at 9.30pm, after the 9pm News on RTÉ and before the drugs and crime series, Love/Hate, but will also be made available to other media outlets, a Government spokesman said.
However, TV3 said it was unwilling to interrupt its X Factor- related programming for Mr Kenny’s address. A spokeswoman said it had made numerous attempts to elicit information from the Government Information Service (GIS) in recent weeks, but was only informed at 6.50pm yesterday that the Taoiseach planned to make a speech to be broadcast on television and was not told of the content.
“TV3 made its schedule known to GIS several days ago and that it included several live simulcast blockbuster programmes which could not be interrupted, unless in the case of dire emergency.”
The spokeswoman said TV3 would cover the Taoiseach’s speech on Monday morning during the breakfast news show.
The Taoiseach’s spokesman said Mr Kenny was anxious to fulfil a commitment to communicate directly with the people in advance of next week’s budget.
Asked who would be writing Mr Kenny’s speech, he replied that “the Taoiseach is the chief architect of his own words”.
Mr Kenny will be hoping to avoid any repeat of a power cut which disrupted electricity and phone lines to Government Buildings for up to 90 minutes after 5pm yesterday.
Leinster House sources blamed the cut, which cast the building and many surrounding offices into darkness, on a “small explosion” in the power room. Generators restored emergency power to some areas but in other sections it took up to 90 minutes for power to be restored.
The Dáil was sitting yesterday but had already adjourned for the day. To the embarrassment of Irish officials, the power cut occurred just as a group of French diplomats was leaving the Department of the Taoiseach, according to a Leinster House source, thereby preventing the group leaving the building for a short time.