The Sunday Business Post had some interesting analysis of the current political meltdown in Ireland last Sunday. PR consultant Ronnie Simpson suggests that the main problem with the Taoiseach’s approach to the crisis was that he should have expressed how sorry he was for accepting a loan from his friends at a difficult time in his life. If he had apologised from the outset, the whole affair might have blown over a lot quicker.

But that presupposes that the government has the support of the fourth estate and Pat Leahy points out that

“Relations between the media and the present government have not been good for a long time … relations at a corporate, non-editorial level between Fianna Fail and Independent Newspapers, once warm, cordial and frequently nurtured, have collapsed entirely. This development was confirmed to The Sunday Business Post some months ago by sources at the highest level of government. And rightly or wrongly, almost everyone in government feels they receive unusually rough treatment at the hands of other media.“

Even a first year student of Public Relations will tell you that in crisis situations, it’s important to have built strong relationships with all constituent groups:

• Employees - Bertie seems to have the unwaivering support of the Fianna Fáil party members.
• Shareholders & community groups - it remains to be seen how the general public will feel about these events by election time. So far, the polls are looking good for the teflon Taoiseach.
• The Media - If relations have soured between the government and the media, they will have an uphill battle to fight at election time. It certainly did them no favours at this time of crisis.

This evening, almost 2 weeks after the story broke, Bertie finally apologised to the nation for “the bewilderment caused to the public about recent revelations“.

Bonus link: In fact, ah has the scoop on Bertie’s latest book deal.