John O'Donoghue and his travel spending spree

thebman

Sizzler wrote: »

It gets better !

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/odonoghue-political-adviser-costs-836490000-1886373.html?from=dailynews

SERIOUSLY, when is enough...ENOUGH?

The former Fianna Fail minister tomorrow faces the embarrassing prospect of having to rule out of order questions about his €500,000 expenses bill. Sinn Fein is due to raise the issue in the Dail when TDs return to Leinster House after the summer recess.

Seriously, this just shows why he should already have stepped down. Conflict of interest by any chance?

JonathanAnon

He spends 90,000 a year on a political advisor, even though he is in a supposed non political system. Ceann Comhairle is a position that should be held by a normal civil servant anyway, not an elected TD.

Time to go John. He's been taking the piss.

optocynic

mike65 wrote: »

from indo



The publicly funded high life is of course so 2006 and I can only presume
no minister would dream of spending in such a 'fla-hoolacht' fashion in the current circumstances. Ahem.

And where is the interest from the media or the opposition? Hardly to be heard just some dull reportage, no outrage at all.

The expenses are ridiculous, and as insulting to us all as it was for him to NOT apologise at all in his letter.. is it not worse that he is in favour of drunk drivers??

When it comes to supporting selfish, drunken, dangerous, clowns that have no regard for anyone else on the dark winding roads of this country... I think... Expenses schmenses!!!

murphaph

Deleted User wrote: »

If by strokes do you mean getting massive investment into South Kerry, absolutely. That's not a stroke, that's politics, and O'Donogue worked very hard at it. Show me the politician who doesn't work for his constituents please, and I will show you a fool. As for holding him in high regard, I assure you that number is fast dwindling from what I hear.

FF are finished. It's just a shame that the silence is so deafening from the "opposition". The whole system lends itself to mugging the taxpayer and if there aren't serious changes made and the economy continues to decline, there WILL be anarchy.

These scrotes in FF make me physically sick. How anyone can defend such lavish behaviour is beyond me. I can promise you all, having followed the Bundeswahl (federal elections for the Chancellorship) here quite closely, Cowan would have had to resign today for what he did. As for O'Donoghue, well there was a national scandal here a few weeks ago when it emerged the Health Minister had taken a Merc to Spain to drive her around. It was stolen (but recovered, lucky for her!) and the press and opposition had a field day. She has since been ruled out of any cabinet position following the elections this month. If the car hadn't been recovered she'd probably have had to resign altogether.

I don't think the germans realise how lucky they are to have Angie in charge here. She thinks about GERMANY ahead of her own party.

thebman

Opposition are so quiet because they hope to get in to have their turn :mad:

optocynic

thebman wrote: »

Opposition are so quiet because they hope to get in to have their turn :mad:

Opposition are quiet because they are already guilty of similar atrocities with our money. Look at the UK, no one escaped their expenses scandal without a stink on them!

niffle

just what will it take to get the Irish people to revolt? how much more abuses of the system need to be highlighted. forget stepping down, who is running the country ! take some responsibility and clean house !

optocynic

niffle wrote: »

just what will it take to get the Irish people to revolt? how much more abuses of the system need to be highlighted. forget stepping down, who is running the country ! take some responsibility and clean house !

Revolt?.. Storm the Dail?.. Pitchforks & Torches?

And then what?..

murphaph

optocynic wrote: »

Revolt?.. Storm the Dail?.. Pitchforks & Torches

The french stormed the Bastille when they where having the p!ss taken out of them by their leaders. It's not as ridiculous as it sounds.

niffle

figure of speech ! but if anyone in the private sector abused expense system , would they be asked to step down or would they be fired. they would not be asked to explain in a letter adn that would be it. I fully accept that storming the Dail is no answer to the problems we face but are we so compliant that we accept all revelations about systematic abuse of our money lying down !

optocynic

murphaph wrote: »

The french stormed the Bastille when they where having the p!ss taken out of them by their leaders. It's not as ridiculous as it sounds.

It is 2009.... It is as ridiculous as it sounds...

But answer the question... then what?

Stark

optocynic wrote: »

It is 2009.... It is as ridiculous as it sounds...

But answer the question... then what?

Force a general election. We shouldn't feel that we should have to roll over and take this crap simply out of fear that bad things will happen if we don't.

The unfortunate difference between now and the 18th century is that our employers pay our taxes on our behalf so we can't simply have a mass non-payment protest.

optocynic

Stark wrote: »

Force a general election...

That should all happen in time... lets not give uppity toe-rags an excuse to break windows in Grafton street!

niffle

i agree its time to go back to the people and let them decide.

murphaph

optocynic wrote: »

It is 2009.... It is as ridiculous as it sounds...

But answer the question... then what?

Ok,
For pig iron....
We should abolish the current system of PRSTV with muti seat constituencies. It is the basis if the "I'll scratch your back and you scratch mine" attitude which pervades irish politics if you ask me.

It should be ONE TD per constituency akin to the UK (obviously requiring etra constituencies in the cities and a merging of some rural constituencies). TDs in Ireland spend FAR too much time worrying about their constituents bad hips and planning permission appeals and not near enough in drawing up legislation-their primary function in Dail Eireann.

The Dail needs to become (finally) a national parliament and not a glorified county council which is what it has always been. If I had my way we'd have a simple popular vote for a head of government and a vice head of government, who would take over in the event the head of government died or was unfit for the job. We should have more direct control over our government rather than electing TDs who then make deals (when negotiating their coalitions) with each other in back rooms and decide who will form our government.

Clearly all expenses should be receipt based etc. but the problems run much deeper with the whole system. I'd also abolish county councils and create regional bodies roughly along the lines of the traditional provinces (-6). The county council system has created ridiculous planning anomalies where they have allowed evelopment sprawl into their 'patch' to get more funding from central government. This is particularly evident between Limerick City/County and Clare and Waterford City/County and Kilkenny.

But first all the old gombeenism has to be seen for what it is. Political dynasties like the Flynns are an abhorrence to democracy and the FOOLS who vote for such p!ss takers need their heads examined.

optocynic

murphaph wrote: »

Ok,
For pig iron....
We should abolish the current system of PRSTV with muti seat constituencies. It is the basis if the "I'll scratch your back and you scratch mine" attitude which pervades irish politics if you ask me.

It should be ONE TD per constituency akin to the UK (obviously requiring etra constituencies in the cities and a merging of some rural constituencies). TDs in Ireland spend FAR too much time worrying about their constituents bad hips and planning permission appeals and not near enough in drawing up legislation-their primary function in Dail Eireann.

The Dail needs to become (finally) a national parliament and not a glorified county council which is what it has always been. If I had my way we'd have a simple popular vote for a head of government and a vice head of government, who would take over in the event the head of government died or was unfit for the job. We should have more direct control over our government rather than electing TDs who then make deals (when negotiating their coalitions) with each other in back rooms and decide who will form our government.

Clearly all expenses should be receipt based etc. but the problems run much deeper with the whole system. I'd also abolish county councils and create regional bodies roughly along the lines of the traditional provinces (-6). The county council system has created ridiculous planning anomalies where they have allowed evelopment sprawl into their 'patch' to get more funding from central government. This is particularly evident between Limerick City/County and Clare and Waterford City/County and Kilkenny.

But first all the old gombeenism has to be seen for what it is. Political dynasties like the Flynns are an abhorrence to democracy and the FOOLS who vote for such p!ss takers need their heads examined.

OK... now I'll try to explain how simple my question was...

HOW do you plan to achieve all this... do you think that all of the yahoos that would 'storm the dail' would agree with you on every one of your (admittedly lucid and good) ideas above?

Sounds like you would be swapping corruption and idiocy, with anarchy and idiocy (for the most part!)

sirdeclan

These people have the country drained. I agree totally.

All these big salaries should be slashed also.

murphaph

murphaph wrote: »

How anyone can defend such lavish behaviour is beyond me. I can promise you all, having followed the Bundeswahl (federal elections for the Chancellorship) here quite closely, Cowan would have had to resign today for what he did.

As a matter of interest, how much time did Helmut Kohl serve behind bars?

Heard lately that Merkel was in fact reappraising Kohl, which would be a bit like Cowen asking for a national CJ Haughey Day.

Again, I take it from your post that this is simply not true, given the way Germany deals with matters.

thebman

I think the media don't push hard enough in this country TBH.

They let politicians talk their way out of things far too easily. Its not like these are masters of the English language they are dealing with.

optocynic

thebman wrote: »

I think the media don't push hard enough in this country TBH.

They let politicians talk their way out of things far too easily. Its not like these are masters of the English language they are dealing with.

Very true... It's as if they are afraid of reprisals when they have them on their shows.
NewsTalk especially. Get them on.. hit them hard... Chris Matthews style!

But, Ireland is such a cronie-ish backward gombeen culture.. that the petulance of the political class is such that, they simply won't appear on these shows if they are treated 'mean'...

murphaph

optocynic wrote: »

OK... now I'll try to explain how simple my question was...

HOW do you plan to achieve all this... do you think that all of the yahoos that would 'storm the dail' would agree with you on every one of your (admittedly lucid and good) ideas above?

Sounds like you would be swapping corruption and idiocy, with anarchy and idiocy (for the most part!)

Ok, I'll hold my hands up-I'm just totally f*cking frustrated with gombeen Ireland and the public's inability to THINK for themselves and SEE how our country has been abused by these politicians. I would personally like to kick John O'Donoghue's fat greedy head in and that's where my support for a "storm the Dail" comes from. It just seems that these imbeciles who "run" Ireland from Kildare St. have ABSOLUTELY no shame and NOTHING seems to force a resignation and then their incredibly stupid constituents in <insert, usually rural, constiteuncy I'm afraid> rally around them and claim that "Dublin newspapers" are just against such and such a parish or some other bullsh!t and suddenly they get re-elected with a landslide majority. I'm just p!ssed off with my country tbh. It's depressing.

optocynic

murphaph wrote: »

Ok, I'll hold my hands up-I'm just totally f*cking frustrated with gombeen Ireland and the public's inability to THINK for themselves and SEE how our country has been abused by these politicians. I would personally like to kick John O'Donoghue's fat greedy head in and that's where my support for a "storm the Dail" comes from. It just seems that these imbeciles who "run" Ireland from Kildare St. have ABSOLUTELY no shame and NOTHING seems to force a resignation and then their incredibly stupid constituents in <insert, usually rural, constiteuncy I'm afraid> rally around them and claim that "Dublin newspapers" are just against such and such a parish or some other bullsh!t and suddenly they get re-elected with a landslide majority. I'm just p!ssed off with my country tbh. It's depressing.

Exactly... now that is the truth... you are frustrated by the idiocy of our citizens... yet, you think these same quarter-wits are capable of a Coup d'état??..

murphaph

Deleted User wrote: »

As a matter of interest, how much time did Helmut Kohl serve behind bars?

Heard lately that Merkel was in fact reappraising Kohl, which would be a bit like Cowen asking for a national CJ Haughey Day.

Again, I take it from your post that this is simply not true, given the way Germany deals with matters.

I didn't even mention jail, just resignation. It's a typical FF thing to do though-point the finger and say "sure he's even worse than me so I'm alright jack".

Kohl's misdeeds appeared after he'd left office and at least when he was in office he didn't beuild a house of cards economy like your FF mates with a TOTAL and UTTER over eliance on the construction sector for tax returns.

Germany is a STABLE country, even though it's economy has underperformed of late. Please don't even attempt to put the Banana Republic on the same footing as Germany. The head of the poxy commuter railway in Berlin had to resign here last month after a scandal emerged to do with maintenance checks on the trains being forged. It may well go higher up to the head of Deutsche Bahn himself. What do you think will happen over the Malahide bridge collapse (second one on Iarnrod Eireann's network in 6 years)? Will anyone resign or be sacked? Nope. It's Ireland! Nobody is responsible! There's always more taxpayers' money to burn! I wish with my heart of hearts that Ireland were a fair and equitable as this country.

Now go back to defending FF with your slight of hand diversionary techniques if you must.

thebman

Don't really have much choice on who votes or protests really, do we?

We only have the people on the island to force reform and their busy ordering guinness and asking the gombeen local politician to jump their daughter up the long list for braces little realising its his/her fault that the list is that long in the first place in some cases

You'll forgive me when I suggest that, while Britain and Ireland are presently mired in a recession and both have seen their politicians 'live like princes' and throw expenses around, I think political lectures coming from Germany set the teeth on edge!

When Germany get round to doing anything to Helmut Kohl, I'll take the lectures without sniggering. Though I bow to their expertise on what happens after a coup and populist nonsense about stringing up politicians...results have not always been that good in Germany...

murphaph

murphaph wrote: »

I didn't even mention jail, just resignation. It's a typical FF thing to do though-point the finger and say "sure he's even worse than me so I'm alright jack".

Well, when someone's argument is that things are so much better somewhere else, I believe I am entitled to suggest that is not entirely accurate.

Again, just tell us all what happened to Helmut Kohl and his corruption. It's not a million years ago.

optocynic

Deleted User wrote: »

Well, when someone's argument is that things are so much better somewhere else, I believe I am entitled to suggest that is not entirely accurate.

Again, just tell us all what happened to Helmut Kohl and his corruption. It's not a million years ago.

Forget Germany... what will FF do to O'Donoghue?.. will they ask/tell him to resign?... Of course not...

But forget the expenses... he thinks it's OK to drink and drive... how is this not more important?

murphaph

I'm not f*cking lecturing you! Typical response designed to close ranks and is used to great effect in irish politics (either Dublin against the Wesht/the newspapers against our man from OUR county etc. etc.).

I'm stating with absolute certainty that Germany is, on the whole, better run and run by people who for the most part enter politics to serve their country. In Ireland I believe most politicians enter politics as a job to make money for themselves and anything they do whilst in office is designed to enure they are relected.

I believe Angela Merkel (and Steinmeier who realistically has no chance of becoming chancellor) has Germany's best interests at heart whereas I believe quite certainly that Brian fathead Cowen has only his and his party's interests at heart. the country ALWAYS plays second fiddle to the PARTY with you lot.

thebman

As perfectly evidenced by a drunk driving supporting, expense inflating politician not even been called to resign by anyone really.

Opposition are as bad, its a failure of our system that there is no accountability.

Biggins

Deleted User wrote: »

...Again, just tell us all what happened to Helmut Kohl and his corruption. It's not a million years ago.

Neither is Charles Haughty and his then minister for Finance Mr Ahern.
The apple don't fall far from the tree.
Lets us not forget that Mr O'Donoghue is still officially a member of the FF party to boot.