Haven't we heard this before?

Victor

http://www.breakingnews.ie/2004/04/05/story141406.html

McDowell hopes to increase Garda numbers
05/04/2004 - 7:40:51 AM

Minister for Justice Michael McDowell is hoping to resurrect his plan to hire 2,000 new gardaí following an upturn in the public finances.

Reports this morning said the minister was planning to seek cabinet approval to bring Garda numbers up from 12,000 to 14,000.

The plan was shelved last year due to a shortage of money, but Mr McDowell is hoping to convince his cabinet colleagues that it can now be afforded.

This morning’s reports said the minister was also planning to tighten controls on firearms and introduce stiffer penalties for the illegal possession of guns.

And won't they graduate just in time for the general election :rolleyes:

Villain

Ah Wait till Charlie says theres no money!!.

They should have delivered them when they promised, IMHO, lives have been lost because the government failed to provide these resources.

FG are putting together a plan for a Traffic Core.

On a side note I didn't see any thread about the loop hole that was found in the speeding legislation.

To those who didn't read the story, basically what happened was there was 5 cases in the west where people received notices that they had been in breach of the speeding laws. They were caught by the Getso van I believe.

Anyway they didn't pay the fine, went to court and there lawyer argued that they hadn't received the notices, it was sent to the high court for a ruling and it was accepted that the Gardai couldn't prove the accused had received the notices, the 5 cases were thrown out!!!

daveirl

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RainyDay

Originally posted by irish1
Ah Wait till Charlie says theres no money!!.

Which will happen about a week after the local/european elections in June.

star gazer

Haven't we heard this before?
absolutely, if the electorate don't get a little more sophisticated it will end up happening again, more promises and we are all going to get a truck load before the next general election, and a few before the local election.
judge a government by its record and an oposition by its credibility, the last government did well to ride the waves of the celtic tiger and got re-elected, since then the record of this government hasn't impressed too many. The local elections could see them get hammered.
But then again electronic voting might have influence on voter turnout.

Villain

Originally posted by daveirl
And FF had a plan before the election that they don't seem to have implemented. So I don't really see what makes FGs plan any better.

Sorry Daveirl, I wasn't trying to say FG were going to solve the problem, just putting it in as an FYI.:)

mike65

Originally posted by irish1
Ah Wait till Charlie says theres no money!!.

They should have delivered them when they promised, IMHO, lives have been lost because the government failed to provide these resources.

FG are putting together a plan for a Traffic Core.

On a side note I didn't see any thread about the loop hole that was found in the speeding legislation.

check transport/commuting forum. As for the money, with a billion euro expected from the tax-dodgers there is plenty of extra dosh...Someone should point out to McGreevy that dead and injured ppl are very expensive.

Mike.

daveirl

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ferdi

rde

Damn, I hate it when I find myself defending (even partially) arch-fiend McDowell, but here we go...

Yes, we did hear it before. just before the last election. It was a PD election pledge. The money didn't exist, now it does. So now he wants to do it, like he promised.

'Politics' doesn't mean bitching about everything the government does.

Villain

I think the saying

Too Little Too Late

Might apply

Sparks

It was the first part of the speech that worried me more - changing firearms legislation is a devil-in-the-details affair. And I'm worried that sports shooters might get caught in along with criminals. It wouldn't be the first time.

bonkey

Originally posted by rde
The money didn't exist, now it does.

Where did it come from? Have things improved that much over the past few years that all this money has suddenly appeared out of the cracks?

jc

RainyDay

Originally posted by rde
So now he wants to do it, like he promised.

No - He wants to talk about it. If he wants to do it, why doesn't he just do it and tell us that it has started?

rde

No - He wants to talk about it. If he wants to do it, why doesn't he just do it and tell us that it has started?

He can't win, can he? He does something, and people bitch about how there's no consultation. He wants consultation, and people bitch about how he's not doing anything.

Where did it come from? Have things improved that much over the past few years that all this money has suddenly appeared out of the cracks?

It would seem so. Tax receipts for the first three months of the year were (if I remember correctly) €300m higher than expected.

daveirl

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star gazer

originally posted by bonkey
Where did it come from? Have things improved that much over the past few years that all this money has suddenly appeared out of the cracks?

one word provision. There was under-spending last year on capital side and it looks like a nice spending fund for the period running up to the next general election is being provided for. There might be a lot of announcements before the local elections but a lot of the capital projects will not be finished until the run up to the next general election.