Former taoiseach Bertie Ahern: 'Every week would be a PR exercise — what do we say this week to make the Sunday Indo or RTÉ happy. That wouldn’t do much for the city.' Photograph: Artur Widak/NurPhoto/GettyPublicity-obsessed celebrities who “wouldn’t care two damns” about Dublin would make a “dog’s dinner” of being a directly-elected city mayor, former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has warned.
“Every week would be a PR exercise — what do we say this week to make the Sunday Indo or RTÉ happy. That wouldn’t do much for the city.” Recalling the start of the Luas project, he said it was “like pulling elephants teeth trying to get the thing going.” “Dublin is a serious capital, with some of the biggest companies in the world now, more and more European headquarters ... about 50 international companies have their European headquarters here ... to run that kind of city we need a fit for purpose system.”Mr Ahern attacked the current planning system as too slow, adding that “one body” would be the “best way” to streamline development decisions.
“We are very slow at taking big projects and taking them through ... I think there are too many people, too many different agencies doing it,” he said.Rather than focusing on a directly-elected mayor, priority should be given to “stronger councillors” with “more powers, more resources”, Mr Ahern said, adding that there is “an appetite there for a federal system in Dublin.”
As articulate as ever, it would appear. Is 'dog's dinner' the best he has?
Absolutely no need for another highly paid public servant to act as another layer of bureaucracy between problems facing Dubliners and solutions local authorities are already being paid to solve
Some professional politicians would make a dogs dinner of the county putting it into its worst ever recession, triggering a housing crisis, & a crisis in pretty much every other social service like healthcare and transport, along with multigenerational debt burden on the country.
Surely not… Zelensky is making a damn brave president
Well he would know more then most about making a dogs dinner of everything.
What does the Mayor do? They appear to have no power at all and all policy decisions appear to rest with the unelected official Owen Keegan
Coming from someone who should probably been locked up for corruption 😂
Again why is this man being platformed by Irish media instead you should be writing articles about why he’s not in jail
Glad the are seeking the advice of experts in 'making a dogs dinner' of a situation 😀
Ha ha...look whos talking
When did he get released.
He's not wrong. Power has progressively been taken from our elected Councils and given to the public servants who nominally work for those councils. The solution to the democratic deficit in local government is the give that power back to the representatives we already elect.
Bit like him and Taoiseach
And the man running Ukraine?.....
Celebrities. A homogeneous group of people with a single skill set and not one of them with the capacity to lesrn, think, empathise, decide or change direction in life. Apparently.
Unlike your handling of economy .that was a great success 🙄 W⚓
Bertie needs to go away until he explains where he kept all his fundings without having a bank account. He has so much to answer for still.
Bertie is an expert on dogs dinners so any criticism is without foundation
Didnt he once say he would only be mayor if the position had more power? Bertie is as corrupt as fuck.
He's not wrong. Power has consistently been taken from our elected Councils and put in the hands of the public servants who nominally work for those councils. The solution to the democratic deficit in local government is the give power back to the people we already elect.
Taking advice off Bertie!! Haaaaaa. Probably ehhhhhhh stuttered ehhhhhh his way ehhhh through the response ehhhhh. Thanks for the article. Really created huge respect for you and the newspaper.
He’s correct, and he would know about dogs dinners.
This coming from the same man along with his Feeland Fall colleagues who made 'a dog's dinner' of the Irish economy.
From the same leader that brought down a country!
Lots of unconnected local government is a waste..
He's not wrong. Take from America, you don't want to elect celebrities.
Hazel Chu literally used her ceremonial position as Lord Mayor as a platform to promote her own virtue signaling believes. And the greens have virtually no public support. At least a directly elected mayor would speak for the people of Dublin.
That’s just code for “don’t it’ll be Sinn Fein”
BridMcGrath Yeah, if anyone is gonna fuck up Ireland. Let it be the professional fuck-up merchants in the main Political Parties.
And who’d know best than mr. Ahern, he’s generated so many dogs dinners, one uglier than the next, we should definitely listen to him 🤦♀️🤦♀️🤦♀️🤦♀️
What system?
Like he did with the economy
Receipts, receipts, receipts Bertie 😉
In facta, Tis a dogs dinner of a system already. Can it get any worse. 😄 🤣
Bertie4Mayor
Says the man who made a dog's dinner of the country
As opposed to making a dog's dinner of an entire country's economy.
He should not get media coverage, history shows he's a liar.
Who cares what that gowl thinks? BertieAhernFF made a dog's dinner of our country. The media should stop quoting him.
Like the dogs dinner he made of Ireland.
Why because TDs are doing such a good job of it? Dublin is a mixture of hotels & dereliction with fuck all culture. Bertie needs to pipe down
Dodgy old Bertie still trying his best to be heard when he should of been launching in a prison cell. Nobody cares a jot what he thinks. crook
You done a good job at that already!
How is this man not in prison?
You mean like the Ukarine president ?
What democracy? Extend the term for the person to make a difference!
Bertie forgotten not gone unfortunately. He had his day, he should move on.
Wasn't he the Taoiseach who 'made a dogs dinner of' the countries economy and quit before anyone had caught on how fucked we were...
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Ahern not in favour of directly-elected Dublin mayorSpeaking at the Dublin Citizens' Assembly, Bertie Ahern said he did not share the view that bringing in a directly-elected mayor 'is going to change things' I think we need bertie ..... just for the comedy 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 Former Taoiseach who presided over a decade of non-delivery and stymieing a directly elected Mayor, declares himself retrospectively correct. Big surprise. The political parties use local gov as a type of political patronage so, it is no wonder they oppose breaking that system. Pedophiles within the ranks of Sinn Fein/PIRA in The Irish Republic enjoyed a De Facto Amnesty (McDowell, 2021) granted secretly by Bertie Ahern, these child rapists able to work in schools, youth clubs and so forth, without interruption…
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