Tánaiste claims people only going across the border to buy cheap booze

national | miscellaneous | opinion/analysis Saturday April 11, 2009 16:20 by Not Jimmy - SCSS macillin07 at gmail dot com

Mary Coughlan 'The Sarah Palin of South Donegal', manages to insult the whole country

On Ocean FM's 'Paddy Clancy' show, (Saturday 11/04/09) , the Tánaiste informed listeners how everyone knows that shoppers are only going across the border for cheap booze. Appearently the €800million in vat revenues lost to cross border shopping is as a result of the legions of Irish people searching out bargain booze in the north of Ireland.

Since becoming Tánaiste, Mary Coughlan has rapidly developed a habit of opening her mouth only to quickly stick her foot in it. There are too many examples to list here but most recent examples include her lack of understanding of how a levy on your salary is taken at 'source'. Coming from the so-called Minister for trade and employment, its not clear whether this should be considered funny or extremely worrying, many sources lean towards the latter.
Another classic example was heard recently at the opening of a new unit at Sligo General hospital in March. The 'Sarah Palin of South Donegal' claimed she knew of people who had 'gone to their eternal reward but NOW wish they had recieved better care then they had at Sligo General', needless to say these comments were less then well received by the people of the Northwest.

And then of course todays example, when Coughlan told an astounded Paddy Clancy, that all these shoppers travelling to the North of Ireland were only looking for cheap drink, failing to recognise the market forces that are driving people across the border to buy food, nappies and essential household items, she continued to labour the point by claiming 'and everyone knows it'. Even Clancy, a wiley, experienced journalist seemed stunned by the idiocy of the Tánaiste's statements.
We estimate that by Mary Coughlan's 'logic' this would mean the amount spent on Booze in Northern Ireland by Southern Irish shoppers since October 2008 at approximately €4 BILLION, its no wonder theres such a deficit and miraculous that anybody in the country is sober enough to work at all.

A request for the clip from Ocean fm today has been requested and will be posted here as soon as possible.

To hear the Tánaistes commenting on the results of her Deceased opinion polls, listen to the clip below.

http://www.sligocentre.net/ab_site/Audio/Tanaiste%20on%20Ocean.mp3

Embedded audio: http://www.sligocentre.net/ab_site/Audio/Tanaiste%20on%20Ocean.mp3