TAOISEACH ENDA Kenny is expected to deliver his “state of the nation” address on RTÉ television on Sunday night.
The live broadcast is expected to take place after one of the scheduled news programmes on RTÉ One. The 9pm bulletin usually has higher viewing figures than the 6pm news.
There had been speculation that Mr Kenny might make his address before the Late Late Showtonight, but the timing was believed to have been deemed inappropriate given that the annual "Toy Show" special will take place.
A Government spokesman declined to make any comment on the matter last night, as has been the case since speculation that Mr Kenny would make the address began at the beginning of last month.
At the Fine Gael parliamentary party meeting on Wednesday evening, Mr Kenny again confirmed to his colleagues that the broadcast would go ahead. He did not name a date or time, however.
“He did confirm he’s doing it. That’s the second time he told us he’s doing it, so he repeated that, but he gave no details as to when. He just said he was doing it and left it at that,” a source at the meeting said.
Televised addresses by taoisigh are rare events, and not always remembered favourably. Mr Kenny’s immediate predecessor as taoiseach, Brian Cowen of Fianna Fáil, was frequently urged to deliver such an address by backbench colleagues after the economic crisis hit Ireland, but he always declined to do so.
During Charles J Haughey’s infamous address in 1980, he told his audience “we are living way beyond our means”, while Jack Lynch, speaking at the outbreak of the Troubles, said the government could “no longer stand by” in the face of the growing violence in the North. He is often misquoted as having said “stand idly by”.
Mr Kenny’s expected Sunday evening address will be broadcast on the eve of one of the harshest budgets. The budget for 2012 will be unveiled in the Dáil over two days by two different Ministers. The budget cuts in public spending will be outlined by Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Brendan Howlin on Monday. Minister for Finance Michael Noonan will detail the taxation changes the following day.
The Cabinet held its final meeting on the budget yesterday. The discussion was described by a Government source as a relatively short one. Meanwhile, a report on Government income and expenditure for this year is likely to show that targets set for the State’s finances will be met for 2011.
The White Paper for 2011 will be published this afternoon along with the exchequer returns for November, the year’s biggest tax month as it includes returns for corporation tax and self-employed income. Both documents will inform the arithmetic for the budget.