Skip to content
Support Us

We need your help now

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.

Poll: Who gets your vote to renegotiate the bailout?

Who do you think we should dispatch to Brussels to break the bad news?

IN A POLL in today’s Irish Sun, almost one in two voters said they’d sooner trust Michael O’Leary to renegotiate the EU/IMF bailout on Ireland’s behalf, than any of the finance spokespeople for the main parties.

Forty seven per cent of those polled plumped for the pugilistic airline boss – ahead of Michael Noonan, who got 46 per cent;  Brian Lenihan, who had the confidence of 35 per cent; or Joan Burton, who was trusted by just 29 per cent.

So if we don’t trust any of our potential future finance ministers to talk tough on our behalf, who would you send to Brussels to renegotiate the deal?

If you  have a better suggestion, let us know in the comments below.


Poll Results:

Michael O'Leary (446)
Vincent Browne (119)
Mary Robinson (76)
George Mitchell (36)
Giovanni Trapattoni (14)
Bono (10)

Read the full results of today’s opinion poll in the print edition of the Irish Sun

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.

Close
14 Comments
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Michael Mc Gee
    Favourite Michael Mc Gee
    Report
    Oct 4th 2023, 8:18 AM

    It has to come down at some point. The trends historically go up and down. Never permanently in one direction. All this talk of no recession, if one happens in the USA, there’s one here too. Economy is boiling over, costs of living are ridiculously high.

    230
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute MTB Mayo
    Favourite MTB Mayo
    Report
    Oct 4th 2023, 8:47 AM

    @Michael Mc Gee: GDP growth is just a relative measure compared to the previous year. We grew at over 10% in both 2021 & 2022, so it’s inevitable we will experience a “recession” unless we keep growing at those unsustainable rates. Just a technical recession.

    56
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Paddy C
    Favourite Paddy C
    Report
    Oct 4th 2023, 9:20 PM

    @Michael Mc Gee: and a massive housing crisis to add to it all fueled by a tick government asleep at the wheel,get used to sofa surfing more is yet to come

    5
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Tom Newell
    Favourite Tom Newell
    Report
    Oct 4th 2023, 8:43 AM

    Cost of living out of control in some sectors, price of fuel going up in a few days, the push to get people back to offices 5 days a week despite promised to make wfh or hybrid work which would help reduce costs on taxpayers and also take extra traffic off the roads, all going down where most of the promises of FFG go. The over reliance on FDI’s and the insanity of allowing this current government to giveaway surplus to win votes and then ride off into the sunset with their fat accounts and massive pensions for the next saps who get voted in, and laugh from the opposition benches when all their giveaways are having to be taken back cos they have helped cook this economy and drive the country closer to an actual full blown recession…..sure its all grand lads

    175
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute MTB Mayo
    Favourite MTB Mayo
    Report
    Oct 4th 2023, 8:51 AM

    @Tom Newell: I WFH full time since 2020. You just have to put your foot down – refuse long commutes, refuse to return to offices, quit your job. I did, twice, so that I could remain working from home. I live 1.5 hrs from my employers office, so returning to the office is never going to happen.

    80
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute
    Favourite
    Report
    Oct 4th 2023, 9:11 AM

    @MTB Mayo: If I was your employer I’d have sacked you.

    93
    See 5 more replies ▾
    JP
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute JP
    Favourite JP
    Report
    Oct 4th 2023, 9:24 AM

    @MTB Mayo: You are so lucky to be able to decide for yourself…if just a few become unemployed that could change. If you are based in Mayo thank your deity for the great turnaround in that lovely county. It’s really a short time ago when there was nothing in it except it’s beauty…then along came a certain James Horan and his band of volunteers.

    16
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute
    Favourite
    Report
    Oct 4th 2023, 10:07 AM

    @MTB Mayo: Great advice.

    10
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Bat Boy
    Favourite Bat Boy
    Report
    Oct 4th 2023, 10:39 AM

    @Tom Newell: Over reliance of FDI? Ireland has few natural resources & is therefore reliant on an active workforce. No government policy can change this, unless we return to the 70s/80s when many people had nothing.

    Investment is needed in order to make a workforce productive. As a (relatively) small economy, there is a need for international companies to bring this productivity.

    12
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute MTB Mayo
    Favourite MTB Mayo
    Report
    Oct 4th 2023, 6:12 PM

    Wouldn’t want to work for you anyway

    8
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Tom Newell
    Favourite Tom Newell
    Report
    Oct 4th 2023, 6:16 PM

    @: I doubt you’d have the cop on to run a business

    2
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Corey Dalton
    Favourite Corey Dalton
    Report
    Oct 4th 2023, 9:16 AM

    What happened in 2015 when the Irish economy “grew” by 25% was simply that Apple transferred all iPhone-related IP to Ireland. There was absolutely no increase in delivering products or services. Leprechaun economics indeed!

    131
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Corey Dalton
    Favourite Corey Dalton
    Report
    Oct 4th 2023, 9:18 AM

    @Corey Dalton: Such is the opaque nature of these tax-related shenanigans that this fact did not become clear until a few years later.

    58
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Thesaltyurchin
    Favourite Thesaltyurchin
    Report
    Oct 4th 2023, 1:32 PM

    @Corey Dalton: Gross = made up

    7
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Lonely Are the Brave.
    Favourite Lonely Are the Brave.
    Report
    Oct 4th 2023, 10:16 AM

    We need a good recession to drive down the cost of everything. Completely gone out of hand.

    47
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute MTB Mayo
    Favourite MTB Mayo
    Report
    Oct 5th 2023, 2:53 PM

    @Lonely Are the Brave.: That would be great, except deflation is even worse than inflation. If people knew that the price of, let’s say building materials was going to get cheaper every month, sure then why bother doing anything, just sit tight, don’t spend anything and wait until the price hits the right level. That is how economic depressions start.

    1
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Thesaltyurchin
    Favourite Thesaltyurchin
    Report
    Oct 4th 2023, 8:15 AM

    The lies are getting smaller

    53
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute he didnt take the 120k because he already got it s
    Favourite he didnt take the 120k because he already got it s
    Report
    Oct 4th 2023, 10:59 AM

    Funny how all this govt income is going down just before budget day

    36
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute brian o'leary
    Favourite brian o'leary
    Report
    Oct 4th 2023, 8:15 AM

    We all partied…

    29
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute MTB Mayo
    Favourite MTB Mayo
    Report
    Oct 4th 2023, 8:51 AM

    @brian o’leary: not that kind of recession

    19
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Caoimín Ó Muircheartaigh
    Favourite Caoimín Ó Muircheartaigh
    Report
    Oct 4th 2023, 11:42 AM

    The government are laughing at us, with major international distractions and the egregious left agenda. Martin & side kick are screaming about the UN while our own victims are being trampled upon. Now they’re giving poor folk a Christmas present hoping it will shut them up while the economy is shrinking even though the multinationals are paying the wages for a majority in services and related economy and employment. The games are about to begin for Leprechaun economics and it’s not going to be pretty. We voted them in. We’ll pay the price because the fundamentals were ever only about one thing. Them.

    31
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Dave Grant
    Favourite Dave Grant
    Report
    Oct 4th 2023, 9:25 AM

    It used to be called a recession.

    22
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute James K.
    Favourite James K.
    Report
    Oct 4th 2023, 12:16 PM

    If there was honest reporting of the state of the economy in the first place there’d be a much clearer picture, the manipulation of figures to create a positive image fools nobody involved in International Economics, we’re a laughing stock in the EU for the manner of unreliable and inaccurate economic reports issued by the government

    23
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Paul Kavanagh
    Favourite Paul Kavanagh
    Report
    Oct 4th 2023, 10:17 AM

    The fundamentals are sound

    6
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Sean Wilde
    Favourite Sean Wilde
    Report
    Oct 4th 2023, 3:51 PM

    I’m sure it’ll be a “soft landing”.

    4
Submit a report
Please help us understand how this comment violates our community guidelines.
Thank you for the feedback
Your feedback has been sent to our team for review.
JournalTv
News in 60 seconds