Taoiseach or Beyoncé: the choice is yours

AN EVENING with Enda or a night with Beyoncé?

This is the dilemma facing Irish television viewers tomorrow night when the Taoiseach finally makes his long-awaited state of the nation address.

Despite confirming twice to the Fine Gael parliamentary party that he would be making a live broadcast, Enda kept them in suspense as to when it might happen.

As late as yesterday afternoon, Government spokespeople were refusing to comment on a possible date or time.

But they finally confirmed the Taoiseach will deliver his pre-budget talk after the main evening news tomorrow night. This means he will appear on our screens before RTÉ's stylish gangland drama Love/Hate. Brave man.

TV3 viewers will have to switch over from the Xtra Factorpost-results show and UTV viewers will have to abandon their Night with Beyoncéif they want to hear Enda perform.

During the week, some Fine Gael TDs and Senators worried that the Taoiseach’s decision to take to the airwaves may backfire.

“He’s never been great on camera,” said one. “He used to take awful stick whenever he went on the television before we won the election. I’d be a bit afraid, to be honest.”

Nonetheless the Taoiseach will go before the camera tomorrow buoyed by the result of a private poll commissioned by Fine Gael in the last month.

An aide confirmed yesterday that his personal approval rating continues to climb.

Enda’s popularity soared in opinion polls taken since the general election, with his most recent showings at well over the 50 per cent mark.

The encouraging result is not the reason he has opted to give his “state of the nation” address, says a FG source.

“It isn’t unusual for a political party to take the temperature from time to time, but polling in itself doesn’t lead to a process.

“The Taoiseach has wanted to do this for a long time because he feels the public has a right to be informed.”

In the course of their internal poll, the party also tested the temperature in relation to their Labour Coalition partners.

Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore remains steady, we hear, but the big winner is Minister Joan Burton, who is proving very popular with the public.