This article is from page 68 of the 2009-04-07 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 68 JPG
FOR Ennis native Tony Morgan, the biennial pilgrimage to the Fine Gael Ard Fheis is the very first date etched in the calendar. A veteran of more party conferences than he’d care to remember, the former chair of the Ennis branch of Fine Gael is in a unique position to judge the current crop of Fine Gael talent.
According to Tony, despite some shortcomings, Enda Kenny is the man to lead Fine Gael back into Government.
“Enda is not a great man to think on his feet – if I could put it that way. But if he is in a situation where he is dealing with a problem that he is well briefed on, then he can really talk about it,” he said.
‘He 1s inclined to hum and haw a bit when faced with the general cut and thrust of politics but maybe that’s no bad thing. Other people can be too bloomin’ glib altogether sometimes.
“Richard Bruton is great – he has a great financial brain on him. He would make a great minister for fi- nance. I think he should be left in the position. Enda Kenny is a good leader and he should be left where he is too.
“I know that a lot of people say that Enda Kenny can’t cut the mustard but I think he is doing very well. He rescued the party after the last gen- eral election. It’s a good team and a young team. They are all excellent people who would make good min- isters.””
As with many who attended the Fine Gael Ard Fheis over the week- end, Tony believed that the state of the economy should be the main fo- cus for the party going forward.
“I watched a few of the debates there this morning and Fine Gael is certainly putting across their poli- cies and what they want to do. They are also well able to elaborate on all the ills that Fianna Fail have created over the years,” he said.
“The economy and the banks is a really big thing. I think a lot of peo- ple feel totally let down. It wasn’t just the Government alone, but the banks, the regulators, the central bank.
“The banks were shovelling money out to the people. If someone came looking for a 100 per cent mortgage, they gave them a 105 per cent mort- gage. It was totally ridiculous. They borrowed billion and millions from the international money markets and now the whole thing has collapsed.”