Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.
You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.
If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.
RICHARD BRUTON BELIEVES the government will have a strong case to say it did exactly what voters asked of them when the country goes the polls at the next general election.
The Jobs Minister mounted a strong defence of the Fine Gael/Labour government’s policies in the four years since it was elected despite continuing poor poll numbers.
Despite new figures showing that over 1,000 jobs a week are being created and a further jobs boost from the consulting firm Deloitte today the good economic news has not translated into improved poll numbers for the two government parties.
The most recent B&A poll in the Sunday Times put Fine Gael on 27% support with Labour in just 6%, well short of what the two parties will need to be returned to government when the country votes before next April.
Advertisement
“Ultimately we will put a very strong case to the people that we have done exactly what we were asked to do,” Bruton told reporters in Dublin today .
We’ve taken an economy which was on its knees, where public services were in a state of collapse, where emigration was huge, unemployment was huge and we’ve taken people on a journey and we can now set targets for the future.
He said these included reaching full employment by 2018, spending €15 billion extra in communities and using €6 billion extra in revenue for the exchequer to build new services.
“I think we always knew when we were elected that this was a journey. We came from a situation where 300,000 people has lost their jobs, unemployment was at 15 per cent and we’ve been on a very difficult transition,” he said.
The Fine Gael TD insisted this would be the story that people will reflect on when it comes to an election “that’s still a very significant distance off”.
“I think people are not focussing on that yet and there is a lot of hurt around and I understand that, I meet it everyday,” he added.
Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone...
A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article.
Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation.
job statistics have naturally been good as our any statistics after you hit rock bottom which we did after the crash. combine with all those schemes and emigration you got a nicely spun figure.
- you don’t accept PSNI or Gardai findings
- you blame everyone for your own faults
- A party leader linked to a terrorist organisation
- Kangaroo courts are used to determine judgements
- call Rape Victims liars
- support Austerity in one jurisdiction yet vote against it in another
- support a party in Greece who received a majority NO vote to austerity – yet three days later give a resounding YES to more Austerity.
It’s the typical response of a Fine Gael supporter, once there’s a single bad word mentioned about the great party they immediately slander Sinn Fein. It’s pathetic really and I wouldn’t expect any less from a person who can’t even figure out how to run two accounts at the same time.
I think everyone is sick of listening to SF activists on thejournal.ie. A quick look at leading online publications & political forums will show you what level headed citizens of the Island think of SF’S following on here.
Since its about FG baz not sinn fein . deflect away. Delusion is .
You don’t don’t anything about Moriarty.
You blame everyone else for the state of the health service.
A party leader so far up dob arse , its comical.
A taoiseach who won’t do anything about fennelly report.
A party that refers to citizens as Isis.
A party who created the laugh of the world Irish water.
A party that turns a blind eye to corruption.
A party that resides over the worse homeless crisis ever in this country.
A party that destroyed families and communities.
Delusion and hypocrisy baz.
A party that ignored siteserv , irbc.
Nama.
Penalty points scandal.
@Sunshine. Name one fascist policy? The privatisation of profit and socialisation of loss is classic textbook fascist economics. The socialisation of the gambling debts of the banks was precisely that.
You said it’s immoral to tax a person’s home, well your leader did. Leo says not another cent! Remember Richard? Families loosing homes in record numbers. Tax on everything up with more to come, directly or indirectly. Water was the catalyst for awakening the people of the robberies your party are making on the Irish people to keep the Status Quo. The gap between rich and poor continues to rise under your watch. Where are these jobs being created? Don’t see them. I do see emigration slowing as there is fu(k all left to leave. You gave us Scambridge ‘ jobsbridge ‘. Please don’t think that the Irish electorate are so stupid as to be fooled again. Enda, IPhone Joan and the lot of you are on a hiding to nothing. If you don’t see this coming, you are totally delusional and far adrift of the people you claim to lead . …
Why it is that whenever the government get criticism, the FG havks come out attacking SF. I voted FG/Lab in the last general election and I am not happy with their lies, cronyism and arrogance. I have no idea who to vote for in the next ejection but it won’t be FG/Lab
Im surprised nobody mentions the more obvious commitments they made, central parts of their election platform:
-A stimulus package to take the route Germany and USA took out of recession
-Replacing the current third level shambles with a graduate tax with no up front fees and higher grants, this was win win, less money burden on students and better revenue for colleges
-Labour said no steath taxes
-Labour said water charges were a ‘red line issue’
-Public Sector reform never happened
Labour had 25% of the seats at cabinet, therefore they could only expect to implement 25% of their promises. The marriage ref for example was a labour policy. Most of the govt policies are Fine Gael initiatives given they make up the majority of cabinet team. They promised a water tax too by the way. Ryan you are commenting as if labour were in power on their own. Surely you understand politics doesn’t work like that?
If they have done / willing to do all that voters ask of them, they will spend between now an the election f&£king themselves . That all the majority of the voters want them to do.
fg u broke ure contract.you allowed the banks to run our country into the ground.no to cronyism and no to corruption.i don’t want to be part of a fascist state time for you to go and take dob with ye.
Name on policy that the government brought in that helped the economy recover? . Our recovery is based on how well the international markets are doing.
Putting some duct tape on the cracks and waiting for the EU to recover doesn’t class as fixing the economy. We still have high unemployment, record homelessness, high emigration, a second property bubble forming and now a fiasco with over a billion wasted on a failed super-quango. Even the government admits that the “recovery” hasn’t trickled down to the average worker.
@duck, actually you are wrong. if you think the economy is fixed, which of course isn’t true, then we should be handing the credit to FF and the troika as it’s their policies that FG implemented.
Ben, you’ll find that the majority of Irish voters did not vote for Fine Gael. They only received 36.1% of the total vote and went into coalition with a party which vowed not to allow water charges.
I’m a young proffessional living in Dublin, they certainly haven’t helped me with all these extra charges and taxes over last 4 years. The housing crisis is insane in Dublin and I’m paying ridiculous money on rent. How the hell am I ever going to own my own home with this shower and their crazy policies towards housing and the rental market.
A politician is the type of person who would piss in through your letterbox & then knock to ask how far it went,
and then, grinning while you stare them down, – go through your pockets…
This lot are a total joke.
When I see ‘Hugh’ I just skip straight to the comments.
This government has massaged growth figures using Jobsbridge, has continued the mistake of relying on Foreign Direct Investment instead of focusing more on SMEs, has continued with Fianna Fáil’s past cronyism when they promised ‘a new way of doing politics’ and the HSE’s hospital bed crisis which they vowed to end got even worse.
I didn’t vote for that, I wasn’t promised that and I do not want that.
Rubbish….. 70.000 on back to work CE schemes ETC. Published by the CSO yesterday. Plus 80.000 per year still emigrating. 60.0000 per year immigrated to Ireland, mostly working for less than the minimum wage.
A bit of a misrepresentation of the figures there, of those 80,000 who emigrated, 35,300 were Irish nationals, which is a 13% decline on previous years, the other 45,000 who emigrated were probably returning to their home country. Is it also spurious to say that all those who immigrated into Ireland are working for less than the minimum wage, that is illegal and has no basis is fact
this guy is delusional.
politicians and nappy’s need to be changed often and for the same reasons. they have facilitated the financial rape of this country and bowed down to special interests.
they will be remembered for many things IW, slavebridge, expenses scandal etc. most of all kenny will be remembered for doing the impossible………….he has made brian cowen look like a genius.
Sure how could they? When was the last time politicians in government meaningfully engaged with the average voter who isn’t a devout voter for their party?
Seriously, do these deluded and grossly overpaid clowns ever take their snouts out of the trough to listen/read what is going on. In all honesty these people really haven’t a clue. They are protected by the garda against the very people they vowed to represent. They are in for a very rude awakening.
But Mike, they have “people” to do that for them. You can’t honestly expect these important people to personally acquaint themselves with what goes on in this country!?!
Taking people on a journey? 6 billion for new services the only new service I heard about was scambridge. and that was people like myself and others private pension funds were raided to fund the scam. But the TD/Minister pension were not touched he is deluded as you’re wan from Irish water they must be getting the same spiel from the comms clinic.
Comical stuff from our brave leaders.The only people as deluded and away with the fairies as these self serving liars are the people that still vote for these self serving liars.
I have never looked forward to an election as much in all my life.Their representatives will be walking away from my door a lot quicker than they walked to it…….
Time for change Michael.Despite all the dirty underhand carry on with the right wing parties out with their Sinn Fein/IRA stick I would like to see a Sinn Fein/Independent coalition.
The country has been screwed and lied to for generations now and I think we are finally waking up.
We are a corrupt little nation with white collar crime with accountability only for the great unwashed.
So in short SF majority or SF/Ind coalition…..
First of all Pepper If you were to read the question,I was asked what my alternative government would be and I answered the question.Have a little read back over my answer.
Secondly Pepper does Baz look back at you when you look in the mirror or is “chum” a new word to use in YFG headquarters.You have to remember to mix it up when changing between your multiple accounts.Troll on.Not long left now,sure ya got a good run out of it chum…..
Oliver, given that there is zero honesty and accountability in Chairman Mayo’s party and that of iPhone Joan, not to mention the Soldiers of Density, could it be any worse than it is now?
In fairness, bankers and elite business people are also voters, since they didn’t specify which voters asked them to do their insane policies in the past 5 years, then I assume they are talking about these type of voters.
What voters asked you to pay bond holders millions, eviction of irish people from there homes, hospitals & education in the shits, Pissing money away like it’s going out of fashion. well we can all add something.
Mr Bruton .
Your Government promised above all fairness the Government of which you are part of the Government should have started at the top but instead started at the bottom and weakest in our society and made these pay for the previous Government , Bankers Builders mistakes and so on. The general election will certainly be interesting.
You’ll agree FG/Lab have turned the economy around though. While Europe flounders Ireland is a beacon on the global stage of how to lift an economy off its knees.
Congrats Team Ireland. Lot of people accross all political persuasions have worked to get us where we are. Sadly SF / loony left want a benefit culture to support drop outs and the people who refuse to get off their sofas watching Celtic on Sky Sports.
Yeah Richard you’re great and F\G are great too! I won’t be able to vote for you or your party going forward ever again but don’t take it personally. It’s just that you seem to inhabit a parallel universe.
No you haven’t. They didn’t vote for you to introduce water charges. They didn’t vote for you to take billions out of private pension funds. They didn’t vote for you to cripple people with taxes and heap financial pressure on a large portion of the population. There is obviously a big concerted campaign now by the gov to build up the economy before the election, and while there may be some jobs being created, the figures are obvious exaggerated.
Still gonna vote against this gov and encouraging all i know to do same. Frankly cannot believe anything this gov says. There are much better options out there other than the current calamity prone and corruption prone gov.
Fg and labour have had their chance in the last 5 years. They HAVEN’T delivered. They’ve been a very poor gov. Give either SF or some independents a chance to prove themselves. If they’re no good, we can throw them out.
What FG/Labour are out spending our money again and trying to fool the people to vote for them again? I don’t think the people will be fooled by their lies again
These claims and counter-claims are becoming nonsensical again. Look;- Bottom line is – Fine Gael have NEVER, EVER,been re-elected in their entire history ! We have never once given them a second term. Why ? Because they always somehow fcuk-up. Take Lowry, O’Brien, Vat on Kid’s shoes, Cutting Xmas bonus for pensioners, Water Tax, Property Tax – - etc,etc,etc. They have never been re-elected, and never will.
The Majority of the the Irish people have have given their decision on Irish Water by boycotting the bills ,Minister Bruton and his colleagues in government seems are not listening ,Delusional or to many advisors around him telling him fairy tales ,Earth calling minister Bruton ,
More Spin, the reality is the average Joe has been hammered and bled almost to death while the rich in this country get richer, we have seen an unprecedented erosion of civil rights for the ordinary citizen while the likes of Denis O Brien have gotten wealthier at their expense. only yesterday a shameful story was on the journal of a blind man, his wife and child being fecked out on the street, that’s the reality this governments “Journey” has achieved. a society where a person gets a prison term for not having a TV licence while bankers and serious criminals walk away laughing at the rest of us. so NO i don’t accept your spin and i wont be voting for Lab, FF, FG any time this century.
Not one more cent will be given to banks. Instead we will give them billions, then socialise the debt as sovereign. I don’t remember asking for that. Don’t remember asking them to push TTIP. I think poor Richard, meant too say, we did exactly what Angela wanted. Ah bless.
So did fine gael voters ask their party to fake the jobless figures, to bring back inflation as soon as possible, increase homelessness, persist in paying of gamblers and of course do more favours for Denis the Hutt.
Well Richard are you still on summer recess ? If you honestly think ppl are happy with u showered u gotta be telling the biggest joke of the summer . Today I heard about 400 jobs over 3 years u dumb arrogant Wiesel . I’ll this ppl will vote to what you failed to do & to do exactly what u said u wouldn’t .enda kenny always said if he didn’t for fill his contract mandate of government he wouldn’t stand for relelction he’s not done half it . Fine Gael said they would the scandals , corruption. He said would not implement water charges , also said he will end the hospital crisis . And look at us now . Hospital crisis , water crisis , political policing crisis , homeless crisis , corruption crisis in nama . We have labour playing policitial games with sin feinn . This government have been a disgrace from day 1 corruption to the max . Tomorrow will paint a very big picture.
I can honestly say that I did not believe that this government would have been able to turn the economy around in such a short period of time. Congratulations are due to both FG and Labour.
how about thanking the Irish people for taking the hits, the low wages, the taxes etc and the constant abuse and threatening behavior from the likes of hitler hogan slurry kelly and the likes….
and from your constant shite talk on here tap it appears you just don’t have any answers when you get called out on things which tells me your probably some nobody spotty nosed teenager with no friends who probably is still being breastfed either off your mam or edna kenny
Yes! we all voted FG in ,to carry on with the same policies that FF were voted out for???? Eh I think not..but sadly FG are not or have never heard a word the people said
Lying cheating political policing in the pocket of dob corruption nepotism and that is just the tip of the fg/labour iceberg I really don’t think the voters asked for that……..there must be an election coming soon
Excellent government who are on the front lines against the savage plebs….Alan kelly is a victim of their savage brutality…this government was the saviour of Ireland and anyone here who says different is obviously been sniffing on the glue.
Or they crazy or just bold liars, they created new taxes and look at the IW protests today, they did what Merkel told them to do and she is German and not Irish…
How worried is Ireland's pharma industry about Trump's tariffs?
Eoghan Dalton
5 hrs ago
5.5k
28
trump administration
Top Trump advisor used Gmail for official business, adding to security pressures
7 hrs ago
8.6k
22
Speaking rights row
Verona Murphy wins first-ever Dáil vote of confidence in a Ceann Comhairle by 96 votes to 71
9 hrs ago
30.2k
108
Your Cookies. Your Choice.
Cookies help provide our news service while also enabling the advertising needed to fund this work.
We categorise cookies as Necessary, Performance (used to analyse the site performance) and Targeting (used to target advertising which helps us keep this service free).
We and our 161 partners store and access personal data, like browsing data or unique identifiers, on your device. Selecting Accept All enables tracking technologies to support the purposes shown under we and our partners process data to provide. If trackers are disabled, some content and ads you see may not be as relevant to you. You can resurface this menu to change your choices or withdraw consent at any time by clicking the Cookie Preferences link on the bottom of the webpage .Your choices will have effect within our Website. For more details, refer to our Privacy Policy.
We and our vendors process data for the following purposes:
Use precise geolocation data. Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Store and/or access information on a device. Personalised advertising and content, advertising and content measurement, audience research and services development.
Cookies Preference Centre
We process your data to deliver content or advertisements and measure the delivery of such content or advertisements to extract insights about our website. We share this information with our partners on the basis of consent. You may exercise your right to consent, based on a specific purpose below or at a partner level in the link under each purpose. Some vendors may process your data based on their legitimate interests, which does not require your consent. You cannot object to tracking technologies placed to ensure security, prevent fraud, fix errors, or deliver and present advertising and content, and precise geolocation data and active scanning of device characteristics for identification may be used to support this purpose. This exception does not apply to targeted advertising. These choices will be signaled to our vendors participating in the Transparency and Consent Framework.
Manage Consent Preferences
Necessary Cookies
Always Active
These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work.
Targeting Cookies
These cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.
Functional Cookies
These cookies enable the website to provide enhanced functionality and personalisation. They may be set by us or by third party providers whose services we have added to our pages. If you do not allow these cookies then these services may not function properly.
Performance Cookies
These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not be able to monitor our performance.
Store and/or access information on a device 110 partners can use this purpose
Cookies, device or similar online identifiers (e.g. login-based identifiers, randomly assigned identifiers, network based identifiers) together with other information (e.g. browser type and information, language, screen size, supported technologies etc.) can be stored or read on your device to recognise it each time it connects to an app or to a website, for one or several of the purposes presented here.
Personalised advertising and content, advertising and content measurement, audience research and services development 143 partners can use this purpose
Use limited data to select advertising 113 partners can use this purpose
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times an ad is presented to you).
Create profiles for personalised advertising 83 partners can use this purpose
Information about your activity on this service (such as forms you submit, content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (for example, information from your previous activity on this service and other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (that might include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present advertising that appears more relevant based on your possible interests by this and other entities.
Use profiles to select personalised advertising 83 partners can use this purpose
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on your advertising profiles, which can reflect your activity on this service or other websites or apps (like the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects.
Create profiles to personalise content 39 partners can use this purpose
Information about your activity on this service (for instance, forms you submit, non-advertising content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (such as your previous activity on this service or other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (which might for example include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present content that appears more relevant based on your possible interests, such as by adapting the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find content that matches your interests.
Use profiles to select personalised content 35 partners can use this purpose
Content presented to you on this service can be based on your content personalisation profiles, which can reflect your activity on this or other services (for instance, the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects. This can for example be used to adapt the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find (non-advertising) content that matches your interests.
Measure advertising performance 134 partners can use this purpose
Information regarding which advertising is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine how well an advert has worked for you or other users and whether the goals of the advertising were reached. For instance, whether you saw an ad, whether you clicked on it, whether it led you to buy a product or visit a website, etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of advertising campaigns.
Measure content performance 61 partners can use this purpose
Information regarding which content is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine whether the (non-advertising) content e.g. reached its intended audience and matched your interests. For instance, whether you read an article, watch a video, listen to a podcast or look at a product description, how long you spent on this service and the web pages you visit etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of (non-advertising) content that is shown to you.
Understand audiences through statistics or combinations of data from different sources 74 partners can use this purpose
Reports can be generated based on the combination of data sets (like user profiles, statistics, market research, analytics data) regarding your interactions and those of other users with advertising or (non-advertising) content to identify common characteristics (for instance, to determine which target audiences are more receptive to an ad campaign or to certain contents).
Develop and improve services 83 partners can use this purpose
Information about your activity on this service, such as your interaction with ads or content, can be very helpful to improve products and services and to build new products and services based on user interactions, the type of audience, etc. This specific purpose does not include the development or improvement of user profiles and identifiers.
Use limited data to select content 37 partners can use this purpose
Content presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type, or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times a video or an article is presented to you).
Use precise geolocation data 46 partners can use this special feature
With your acceptance, your precise location (within a radius of less than 500 metres) may be used in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Actively scan device characteristics for identification 27 partners can use this special feature
With your acceptance, certain characteristics specific to your device might be requested and used to distinguish it from other devices (such as the installed fonts or plugins, the resolution of your screen) in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Ensure security, prevent and detect fraud, and fix errors 92 partners can use this special purpose
Always Active
Your data can be used to monitor for and prevent unusual and possibly fraudulent activity (for example, regarding advertising, ad clicks by bots), and ensure systems and processes work properly and securely. It can also be used to correct any problems you, the publisher or the advertiser may encounter in the delivery of content and ads and in your interaction with them.
Deliver and present advertising and content 99 partners can use this special purpose
Always Active
Certain information (like an IP address or device capabilities) is used to ensure the technical compatibility of the content or advertising, and to facilitate the transmission of the content or ad to your device.
Match and combine data from other data sources 72 partners can use this feature
Always Active
Information about your activity on this service may be matched and combined with other information relating to you and originating from various sources (for instance your activity on a separate online service, your use of a loyalty card in-store, or your answers to a survey), in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Link different devices 53 partners can use this feature
Always Active
In support of the purposes explained in this notice, your device might be considered as likely linked to other devices that belong to you or your household (for instance because you are logged in to the same service on both your phone and your computer, or because you may use the same Internet connection on both devices).
Identify devices based on information transmitted automatically 88 partners can use this feature
Always Active
Your device might be distinguished from other devices based on information it automatically sends when accessing the Internet (for instance, the IP address of your Internet connection or the type of browser you are using) in support of the purposes exposed in this notice.
Save and communicate privacy choices 69 partners can use this special purpose
Always Active
The choices you make regarding the purposes and entities listed in this notice are saved and made available to those entities in the form of digital signals (such as a string of characters). This is necessary in order to enable both this service and those entities to respect such choices.
have your say