Kathy Sinnott and fraud?

Raiser

Each time I pass an election poster picture (taken 25 years ago ) of Krazy Kathy I fondly remember her German Television debut http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnMtc_QJ4-E

I was just wondering if anyone has any recollection of Kathy Sinnott ever putting forward her opinions/stance on the issue of fraud or corruption in present day Ireland.

P. Breathnach

I disapprove strongly of some of the antics of politicians in pursuit of expenses allowances. But I suggest that "fraud" is too strong a word; it should be reserved for behaviour that can be prosecuted, not to describe behaviour that might be legal, but is ethically questionable.

Raiser

Oh goodness!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

- Please, please be aware that I was only wondering what Kathy Sinnotts stance on fraud as perpetrated by others was.

If you re-read the original post then its all perfectly clear.

For example if somebody signs on for social welfare and claims benefits that they were not entitled to - what would Kathy think of that?

Darsad

€ 300 K in unvouched expenses how can anybody defend such a generous allowance. DeRossa has ran up 350K last year and Mary Lou with her poor attendance ran up nearly 280K plus their salaries. Even when she looses her seat she will get a generous pension for life. Gravy train is too mild a term for our MEPs '

Raiser

I find it absolutely incredible that Kathy Sinnott seems to have a lot of support out there though?

- I'd sooner vote for Fred West.

Sully

This is one candidate that interests me.. I heard some minor stuff like her son being disabled, how she was supposedly aiming to fight for their rights etc. Who exactly is she?

InFront

Haha I was only looing up that youtube vid a few days ago, the girl in the elevator always makes me laugh.

Raiser wrote: »

I find it absolutely incredible that Kathy Sinnott seems to have a lot of support out there though?

- I'd sooner vote for Fred West.

I don't see her returning to parliament after next weekend. Well, maybe to empty her locker. The Kellys Alan and Sean will be returned with Brian Crowley (of course). Ireland South is probably the most predictable constuency in Ireland this time around. It will be one each for the big 3.

Raiser

Sully wrote: »

This is one candidate that interests me.. I heard some minor stuff like her son being disabled, how she was supposedly aiming to fight for their rights etc. Who exactly is she?

This post should really interest you then - its from someone who had a similar interest in Kathy 5 years ago, gave her their support and then reaped the disappointment.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055568300

turgon

In a nutshell Sinnot is a euroskeptic neo-conservative who is effectively aligned with Libertas. They have a similar approach to everything: dodge, duck and lie.

When she gives speeches, she is known not to take query's from the audience lest they disagree with her or ask her a proper question.

Most of her arguments against Lisbon were bull****. I saw it first hand at a town hall meeting, and even though I voted No and I still saw through her crap.

I dont think one should define her as pro anything, she is more readily defined as anti most things.

Euro_Kraut

Darsad wrote: »

€ 300 K in unvouched expenses how can anybody defend such a generous allowance. DeRossa has ran up 350K last year and Mary Lou with her poor attendance ran up nearly 280K plus their salaries. Even when she looses her seat she will get a generous pension for life. Gravy train is too mild a term for our MEPs '

While it seems a lot that does include all the costs of running an office in in Brussels with 4 staff members. Its not like the British scandal where the money was going directly into the MPs pockets. You could agrue that 300k is too much to run the office and that 2 staff should be enough for any MEP. Its not clear to me that they are profiting personally from this though.

*On a side note : 'Gravy train' is an awful cliché - there has to be better ways of putting it.

Scofflaw

Euro_Kraut wrote: »

While it seems a lot that does include all the costs of running an office in in Brussels with 4 staff members. Its not like the British scandal where the money was going directly into the MPs pockets. You could agrue that 300k is too much to run the office and that 2 staff should be enough for any MEP. Its not clear to me that they are profiting personally from this though.

I absolutely wouldn't regard two staff as enough for an MEP! What gets missed out in these debates is that MEPs aren't supposed to vote by licking a finger and holding it up to see which way the wind is blowing - they are supposed to have, and absolutely need, researchers. If MEPs don't have researchers available to do their own fact checking, there are plenty of lobbyists and activists who will cheerfully supply such 'research'.

Certainly there are MEPs who don't bother to do research, and who use their research staff funding to hire family members (although they won't be able to after the current elections) - but reducing the MEP expenses to the point where none of them can afford research staff is throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

cordially,
Scofflaw

veronica

While I don't want her to get re-elected she is very popular as the media made her out to be a champion of the disablied and she took the trophy and swept into power as an MEP and she will again! We are obessed in this country when somebody hits the spotlight as she did with her sons Jamie's case and people voted for her as they felt sorry for her and she is well able to speak as most Americans have the gift.She is well educated but has very strange views on euope, aboration, gay marriage, etc., but she will get the third seat..sorry to say.

turgon

I dont think so Veronica, I havent heard that much about her.

aare

veronica wrote: »

She is well educated but has very strange views on euope, aboration, gay marriage, etc., but she will get the third seat..sorry to say.

No half as strange as her views on autism...

Autistics are "harbingers of Armageddon"...all backed up with arguments based on the book of Revelation...

...and then there was her, by now infamous, "begging email" sent out one hour before the last budget...to just about anyone who's email addy she had ever laid eyes on.

Can't, for the life of me, understand why more people aren't too busy backing away, without making sudden movements, to even consider voting for her.

IMHO the woman is "crazy like a fox"...she shouldn't get another term at any price, but it wouldn't surprise me if she does.

nesf

InFront wrote: »

I don't see her returning to parliament after next weekend. Well, maybe to empty her locker. The Kellys Alan and Sean will be returned with Brian Crowley (of course). Ireland South is probably the most predictable constuency in Ireland this time around. It will be one each for the big 3.

Paddy Power has Sinnott on shorter odds than Alan Kelly atm, I'm sorry to report that it isn't looking as clear cut as you paint it. Sean and Brian are guaranteed seats though alright.

mrquiteaguy

Veronica Quote "She is well educated but has very strange views on euope, aboration, gay marriage"

Anti abortion
Anti gay marriage
Anti Europe

I would think the majority of people would share a lot of those views.

Come election day i hope that people will vote for decent candidates.

Spend a bit of time researching online what they stand for and ps. Dont let others make up your mind for you.:)

bokspring71

mrquiteaguy wrote: »

Veronica Quote "She is well educated but has very strange views on euope, aboration, gay marriage"

Anti abortion
Anti gay marriage
Anti Europe

I would think the majority of people would share a lot of those views.

I wonder.

No one is actually pro abortion insofar as they advocate it as a good thing. Some find themselves in a situation where they feel its the best option. Question; Would it have been better to have aborted a foetus in 1950, or to have had the baby and committed it to Goldenbridge, or Artane?

The term "gay marriage" is misleading, and as far as I am aware no one is advocating it. What is being discussed is some sort of legal civil partnership arrangement, ( which can be availed of by anyhow regardless of sexual orientation).

Again, the term "anti-europe" doesn't really tell us anything. Are you suggesting that if we are for 99% of the policies of the EU and against 1% that we come under the "anti-europe" umbrella? How about 50% and 50%?
"Anti europe" is a term which seems meaningless in any coherant sense.
My guess is that the majority are broadly in favour of our membership of the EU, but that a largish proportion of those worry about the direction in which its headed, even though they also worry that thats probably becasue they don't know where its headed. But thats only a guess.

Do you have views yourself or do you prefer to tell us what you imagine are the views of the majority?

View

bokspring71 wrote: »

Again, the term "anti-europe" doesn't really tell us anything. Are you suggesting that if we are for 99% of the policies of the EU and against 1% that we come under the "anti-europe" umbrella? How about 50% and 50%?
"Anti europe" is a term which seems meaningless in any coherant sense.

The EU has a clearly stated goal of working towards "an ever closer union amongst the peoples of Europe".

It has 5 explicit objectives:
1) Free Trade (i.e. the EEC stuff) - An objective which includes the Euro.
2) Common Foreign & Security Policy - Where possible, the member states should speak with one voice.
3) Common EU citizenship - Turning this into a practical reality (And that includes the Free Movement of EU citizens within the Union obviously).
4) Justice & Home Affairs - Cooperation between the member states to deal with: a) the reality of cross-border crime in the EU, b) development of common external border controls (Frontex) etc.
5) Defending the existing acquis communautaire, and building upon it - i.e. Amsterdam, Nice, Lisbon etc.

Ireland has already approved all of the above as it is all in the existing EU treaties, all of which were passed after referenda if you remember.

If you don't agree with the above - either in full or in part - then there is no way you qualify as anything other than anti-EU (or anti-Europe as it is somtimes less precisely described).

In the case of (just about) every single leading No campaigner in Ireland, they fall into one of two categories. Either:
a) they are members of EU level political parties/organisations which are overtly Eurosceptic - e.g. Kathy Sinnot, Patricia McKenna's People's Movement and Anthony Couglan's National Platform are all members of the EUdemocrats, which supplied Libertas with EUR 700K worth of Jens-Peter Bonde's "Readable version" of the Lisbon Treaty during the Lisbon campaign, or;
b) they have in practice opposed each and every EU Treaty, both at EU level and in Ireland - e.g. Sinn Fein - their MEPs oppose EU Treaties as part of the (Communist) United European Left (GUE) at EU level, as does the party domestically in Ireland. As such, it strains credibilty to describe them as pro-EU in anyway.

Indeed, it is a mark of just how feeble the anti-EU movement in Ireland is that:
a) they lack the courage to explicitly state their hostility to the EU, and;
b) they have no alternative vision of Ireland outside the EU to offer the electorate.

Raiser

The days after the release of the Ryan report are a good time for the Electorate to be responsible and just take a step back to simply question the stilted, closed-minded, archaic mindset of religious fundamentalist, small-minded Nuns like Kathy Sinnott.

ixtlan

bokspring71 wrote: »

Again, the term "anti-europe" doesn't really tell us anything. Are you suggesting that if we are for 99% of the policies of the EU and against 1% that we come under the "anti-europe" umbrella? How about 50% and 50%?
"Anti europe" is a term which seems meaningless in any coherant sense.
My guess is that the majority are broadly in favour of our membership of the EU, but that a largish proportion of those worry about the direction in which its headed, even though they also worry that thats probably becasue they don't know where its headed. But thats only a guess.

Actually this is a very interesting question. It seems to me that if I look at the anti-Lisbon candidates they almost never talk about the policies they are in favour of, and therefore I cannot judge what percentage would apply. Subjectively it does seem to be 99% against, which is probably a bit unfair. In the case of pro-Lisbon candidates, they almost never talk about the policies they are against, and subjectively it seems to be 99% for.

I think this is a sad reflection on the level of political debate here (and probably in most countries). No one gets any credit for being balanced. We and the media want conflict. Yes versus No, black and white.

I believe in the EU and want Lisbon passed, but I'm sure there are some things in it which are the right thing to do for the greater EU good but may at times have adverse effects on Ireland. For example the Euro is a godsend right now, but if we had been outside the ECB during the worst years of the boom things might not have got so overheated since our interest rates would have went up. However in the long term the Euro will keep the economy more stable than it would otherwise be.

Ix.

nesf

Well for those who are interested, the single best way to vote against Kathy Sinnott is to give your number 1 preference to Alan Kelly of Labour. If you don't like her and don't want to see her as an MEP following this election then you you have a chance to affect that. Anyone who doesn't go out an vote in the upcoming elections really does lose any right to complain about her as an MEP afterwards when it's patently clear how to vote against her.

BlitzKrieg

the single best way to vote against Kathy Sinnott is to give your number 1 preference to Alan Kelly of Labour.

That was my plan, otherwise I would have applied to change my constituency to dublin, but its more important that I go home and vote kathy out. Hopefully I can convince my mum the same on thursday evening

nesf

BlitzKrieg wrote: »

Hopefully I can convince my mum the same on thursday evening

I've already convinced mine...

bokspring71

View wrote: »

Indeed, it is a mark of just how feeble the anti-EU movement in Ireland is that:
a) they lack the courage to explicitly state their hostility to the EU, and;
b) they have no alternative vision of Ireland outside the EU to offer the electorate.

I'm not sure any of the serious candidates in the upcoming election are hostile to the EU, in the sense they are advocating we pull out. There seems to be a danger that anyone who expresses any criticism at all is generally howled down for being anti-eu. I'm not sure thats completely fair.

I'm never comfortable with blind faith in politics, whether that be to a political party or to a political movement. For example, anyone who blindly and unquestioningly follows Fianna Fail or Fine Gael, or any political party, is obviously a pretty unintelligent position. And so it is also with the EU. We should question, and be encouraged, to question it.

Blind Faith in Ireland, whether it be to the RC Church, or to Fianna Fail, has not served us at all well, and I don't suppose blind faith in everything the EU proposes will do much better.

Scofflaw

bokspring71 wrote: »

I'm not sure any of the serious candidates in the upcoming election are hostile to the EU, in the sense they are advocating we pull out. There seems to be a danger that anyone who expresses any criticism at all is generally howled down for being anti-eu. I'm not sure thats completely fair.

It's completely fair to those who have opposed every European treaty since 1973 - Sinn Fein, Anthony Coughlan, McKenna, the various fringe left groups, COIR (which poses the question for Libertas), SPUC, etc etc. Their criticisms are often dismissable because they involve a set of assumptions about the nature and direction of the EU which has never been borne out in practice.

bokspring71 wrote: »

I'm never comfortable with blind faith in politics, whether that be to a political party or to a political movement. For example, anyone who blindly and unquestioningly follows Fianna Fail or Fine Gael, or any political party, is obviously a pretty unintelligent position. And so it is also with the EU. We should question, and be encouraged, to question it.

Blind Faith in Ireland, whether it be to the RC Church, or to Fianna Fail, has not served us at all well, and I don't suppose blind faith in everything the EU proposes will do much better.

I have no problem with questioning the EU, and have my own areas of strong reservation, but I do have a problem with the kind of criticisms that involve wearing a tinfoil hat. Anything that starts off by assuming a European superstate, or demonstrates a complete misunderstanding of how the EU works, isn't worthwhile criticism. It's like listening to a diagnosis of your computer troubles by someone who's still wondering where the little people in the TV go at night.

cordially,
Scofflaw

turgon

Voting Colm Burke 1, Alan Kelly 2 in a bid to get Sinnot out myself.

nesf

I've moved several off-topic posts on what exactly MEPs do to this thread: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055581498

Please continue the discussion there kickaha.

KnifeWRENCH

I'm trying to convince my Dad not to vote Sinnott but I'm afraid she appears to have won him over. Ironically my Dad is normally a Labour man and him voting for Sinnott may see Labour and Alan Kelly lose out!

I'm giving A.Kelly my number 2 (No.1 in my case is Toireasa Ferris) and leaving the rest blank. At least that will be one transfer vote in Kelly's favour over Sinnott. I have my doubts as to Kelly's competence and work ethic but between him and Sinnott he is the lesser of two evils.

I don't think Sinnott is a bad person but she's far too conservative as a politician and I am totally opposed to her stances on gay marriage, abortion and euthenasia. I voted NO to Lisbon but I did not like the way in which she campaigned against it (similar to Libertas and Coir) I don't think her Christian right-wing views are representative of the nation and she is not the right person to represent us in Europe. It's just unfortunate that she seems to have a large following in Cork.

I liked Sinnott when she first came to prominence because she was a dedicated mother fighting for her son's rights. If she loses her seat and goes back to being a disabled rights activist, my opinion of her may become more favourable again.

veronica

disabled rights activist??? this is a fairy tale she was never one....please tell me what she did besides court case for her son Jamie???

KnifeWRENCH

veronica wrote:

disabled rights activist??? this is a fairy tale she was never one....please tell me what she did besides court case for her son Jamie???

The court case was fairly prominent at the time and she seemed to be promoting herself as a disabled rights activist. There's a lot of stuff on her website about disabled rights aswell.

What has she done besides the court case? I have no idea. Fortunately, neither myself nor any of my family or friends are disabled and so I know very little about the quality of services for disabled people in Ireland South.

Regardless of all that, at the end of the day she's still not getting my vote.

omerin

Sully wrote: »

I heard some minor stuff like her son being disabled, how she was supposedly aiming to fight for their rights etc. Who exactly is she?

i voted for her, i'd like to know also