‘We live in an island and people will make their choices,’ Mr Cowen said yesterday. He was speaking about citizens of the Republic shopping in the North, a phenomenon that continues to undermine jobs in this jurisdiction. Insiders have interpreted this as a coded attack on Finance Minister Brian Lenihan, who referred to cross-border shopping as ‘unpatriotic.’
The two are said to be deeply divided on the economy. Mr Cowen has suggested that ‘something must be done to tackle the economic downturn’ while Mr Lenihan claimed this week on BBC’s Newsnight that Ireland has a ‘thriving’ economy.
The Government was to meet the social partners for talks on the proposed €2bn talks yesterday, but neither Mr Cowen nor any of his Ministers turned up. Instead, the talks, which featured no proposals, were chaired by Dermot McCarthy, secretary general to the Government. Mr David Begg was ‘surprised’ that there was ‘nothing very, very deep’ on the table.
Even insiders are unclear as to why crucial talks are being chaired in the absence of Government Ministers, and why the deadline for progress has been moved from this Tuesday to ‘the end of the month.’
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