Cllr. Ted Tynan
The Workers’ Party has said that the announcement that Taoiseach Enda Kenny will stand down as leader of Fine Gael tonight and as Taoiseach once that party elects a new leader will be met with indifference by the vast majority of workers and their families and by the wider working class.
Workers’ Party Cork City Councillor Ted Tynan said that at best people will see Mr. Kenny’s departure as the exit of a dithering and wooden Taoiseach and his place taken by a more calculating one, however the political programme will remain one with a distinct right wing hue.
“Everybody knows”, said Cllr. Tynan, “that Enda Kenny’s retirement was not a voluntary one. For months the Taoiseach has tried to hold on as the rutting stags of Varadkar and Coveney sparred off against one another while the everyday crises around housing, healthcare and public services went from bad to worse and were often seen as sideshows to the main event. Now we will have another week or more of grandstanding from the main contenders.
“On a local level, we are also likely to hear nauseating speculation as to whether a Cork Taoiseach or Cork ministers in a reshuffled cabinet will make any difference as if parochialism is ever a panacea. In fact it is the policies of those in government which matters, not the identity of the leader. Whoever leads Fine Gael we will still be faced with the same failed policies on housing which favour private over public, the same pandering to private healthcare interests while the public system goes down the tubes, and the same conservatism which hands public hospitals over to religious institutions”, said Cllr. Tynan.
The Workers’ Party councillor concluded by saying that all the contenders for the Fine Gael leadership have been in the outgoing cabinet; “all share the same blame for the various crises, the failures on policing and attacks on public transport. This is no a changing of course, merely the dropping of the pilot in favour of a younger, slicker operator”, said Cllr. Tynan.