Putting my hatred aside for FF, some of which he is saying is true. Labour did say they will protect state assets and the decision to sell these will come back to haunt us. It won’t be long now that people will dislike FG and Labour as much as they do FF.

No apologist for FF and Martin. But it is important to note that he is CORRECT in saying in the original MOU there is no figure mentioned as to what needed to be raised via the sale of state assets. So when you next meet a Lab or FG TD ask them were they got the figure of 5 billion and were the commitment to sell state assets to pay off borrowings came from.

Bare faced lies?

The IMF are not in town. Bertie Ahern won money on horses. Brian Cowen had a sore throat. Charles Haughey was a great leader. I see no problem joining the party of Lawlor, Flynn, Burke etc. as all were of the highest calibre.

FG repeatedly state they are are following FF policy. What would they be saying if they were still in opposition?

Ha Ha.. Fianna fail have a nerve to call anybody liars…. The IMF are not in town is my personal favourite

…And in other news today, the pot called the kettle black!

Begone, you foul glassy-eyed Fianna Fail reptile

The rich man has to say somethibg I guess. It must be hard to pretend to be the leader of the opposition when the script is soooo weak. Im surprised he doesnt bust his hole laughing in the middle of keeping the straight face when spouting.

Fianna fail and there partners put us in this position. But what is really pee-ing me off. Is that the FG /Lab. Are selling the family silver bowing there heads to the Eu going ” sure no bother boss anything else you want done”. A bit of backbone wouldn’t go astray. I really wish they would stop trying to show the EU what good european we are and defend our interests for a while.

hypocrisy at its worst, yes mm we know they are liars

Oh and my favourite: “Paypal’s decision was because FF did a great job.”

What a plonker!

An uncommon amount of typos in the post this morning. Not that I am any better or qualified to judge. Just saying. I bet the coffee machine at the journal office is busted, right?

and yes,, it was a condition when FF were in power.. the cheek of him to suggest it wasn’t,,, thats more lies,,, i wwould be completely against selling assets at all,,,, they will be sold on the cheap to outsiders and we will never get them back,,, and all for what 3 billion,,,, we should all say NO WAY

Every single unpopular decision that this government has taken, or will take, will be laid at the door of the troika and/or the last government. That’s politics. That’s reality. Just don’t be fooled.

The last government blamed the banks, the developers, the regulators and the ECB – everyone but themselves. Why would they now expect the present government to behave any differently?

Below is my post from yesterday’s article on the sale of our state assets. My firm belief is keep our assets and default NOW!!! Yes it is the nuclear option, but what other choice do we have?? Sell off everything we have to pay off a fraction of our debt and be left with nothing to show for it?? Or, hold onto what little dignity and assets we have, hit the big red and try and start over again without the burden of a mountain debt firmly hanging around our knecks choking us to death!!!!

Yesterdays post:
The way I see it is that these sales are forced upon us and the muppets in our govt are just rolling over and playing the good austerity boys they are by selling off all our assets. The fact is after they sell everything we are still left with a mountain of debt which can never be paid. Which will ultimately result in us defaulting and left with nothing. So why not keep our assets and default NOW! At least then we have something to use to start over.

Take a look at this link (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-15748696), it shows how much debt we owe and to whom we it to! Our debt for every man, woman and child living in this country is €390,000 per person. So my household (2adult + 3 kids) literaly owe the bones of €2m, never mind my own mortgage and cc debt. Jaysus I’m just about clearing the cc debt and paying all the other bills, how the hell do they expect the tax payer to service never mind clear the other €390k per person?? They say Greece is a basket case, FFS their indebtedness is only €38k per person!!!

Save our assets and tell everyone else to fck off!!!

The government has to put around 400 million euro a year into Iarnrod Eireann, why is there no talk of getting it off the states hands?

The Big Sellout is a good doc film. About the effects on the people when Gov sell off their state assets. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1010399/

In fairness he’s probably right. FF wouldn’t have sold our state assets, they’d probably have given them away for free:)

12th January 2011, the late Brian Lenihan stated “The financial assistance programme agreed recently with International Monetary Fund and the EU Commission, in liaison with the ECB, is governed by a detailed Memorandum of Understanding which sets out specific milestones that must be met before funds are drawn down. The Memorandum of Understanding provides, inter alia, that an independent assessment of Ireland’s electricity and gas sectors will be carried out before end 2011 with a view to enhancing their efficiency and that the Government will consult with the Commission on the results of this assessment with a view to setting appropriate targets for the possible privatisation of State-owned assets”. Mr Martin would need to get his facts straight!!!!!!!!!!

“I sat at the cabinet table… no decision was taken to sell any state assets.” – Mr Martin

I was under the understanding that the cabinet were not included in any of the decisions: 1) the leader of the Greens (surely an important cabinet minister) was just called in the middle of the night to be informed of decisions that were practically already made; 2) also, I remember two FF ministers of the cabinet coming before the media and denying everything and then informing us later that “we did not know of the discussions”.

At least one thing has changed for the better since last year, we now have a government that is functioning – the decisions it is making are of course up for debate but at least they are functioning as a government – what was going on in December and January a year ago was an embarrassment for our nation. It wasn’t just that our economic sovereignty was sold to the Trojka but also the behaviour and the disarray of the government was a fiasco and a joke. (And I am not discussing how disastrous the virtual single party state – that had existed for so many years – was for the country as a whole – but the shambles that the lack of governance eventual led to was a disgrace and for Mr Martin to suggest that anyone in the government knew what was going is just an insult to us the electorate.) If Mr Martin wants to raise points about what was in a document that can be verified fair enough (he has every right to defend his record where he can) but to suggest that he was in the loop (when it is questionable if the Minister for Finance, Taoiseach and Leader of the Greens were fully informed) is laughable.