Fair play to Eddie and RTE, they took a successful format for stand up comedy mixed with documentary, did a fairly poor imitation of it but managed to touch a national nerve that is having huge political impact. I bet no one in RTE expected anything like the reaction or the ratings. Now of course the rational thing for the government to do would be to batten down the hatches and let Hurricane Hobbs blow over. Unfortunately most of the senior people in the government are on holidays leaving people like Senator Donnie Cassidy to run the country.
Donnie has decided to tackle the issue of Rip off Republic head on, by blaming the show and not the subject. He is calling RTE and Eddie Hobbs to a Dail Committee to answer questions about the accuracy of their show. I agree with him, some of the figures aren't 100% accurate, but he has completely missed the point. It's not the show that is the cause of the problems for the government, it is longstanding public opinion. For years the Irish have complained that we were being ripped off and Donnie did nothing. Now RTE has repeated the common belief and the public sat up and is now taking notice of where their money is going.
The government needs to do something about Rip Off Ireland NOW, and not stamp on anyone who complains about it.
The third episode is on tonight at 9:30 and its guaranteed to be the main talking point of the week.
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