Trevor Sargent

LeoB

Not so clever Trevor;)

I would say what he done happens quite regularly and when he was leader of the Greens he called for the head of Bobby Molloy and got it.

I do think however this is the start of some dirty tricks with plenty of mud flinging in the coming weeks. Who will be next? George Lee is a distant memory at this stage

RobFowl

Well if Trevor can resign for something as trivial (in the scheme of things) then no-one is safe :rolleyes:

Beverly Flynn, Michael Lowry, Mary Harney (those espenses at Fas have to catch up with her at some stage) the list really is endless.

What odds an election soon......

I actually feel sorry for Trevor. He seems very committed and decent. To be honest I think our TD's in North Dublin are not a bad bunch at all, compared to the rest of the country anyway !

Little D

I dont really think what he did was so bad compared to others, but it is against the rules and cant be allowed to continue, i feel quite sorry for him!!

bcmf

Fair play to him for doing the right thing and resigning without a big "I did nothing wrong and am being forced out" incident last week.
Though in the back of my mind I cant help help thinking was a bit of " Thank God I am getting off this sinking ship" about it.

Fingleberries

I have some level of sympathy for Trevor. He's generally been a decent sort when in office and the fact that he immediately resigned when it was shown that he did something inappropriate shows a level of integrity and at least some respect for the office he held.

Not like Mr. O'Dea and Mr. O'Donoghue recently, where they basically had to be dragged kicking and screaming into resigning and then still moan about "They're all out to get me, I didn't do any thing wrong" even when it's blatantly obvious that what they did was wrong.

One of the problems in Government at the moment is the lack of personal responsibility responsibility for your actions. (e.g. Fás expenses issue - not the ministers fault, she doesn't run the agency; Bankers ruining the country - not the ministers fault, or the financial regulators; PPARS fiasco - clearly not the fault of the ministry, because the HSE is not her department; etc., etc., etc.).

That's the sort of stuff that makes my blood boil, and I think the fact that Trevor resigned immediately shows a level of personal responsibility for his actions. Although, does anyone truly believe that no other TD has ever done this?

The interesting fallout will be to see who is holding the smoking gun ... all the papers and RTÉ News appear to be looking in the direction of the Justice Minister (Dermot Ahern) - I wonder if they know something the rest of us don't - let's see how this all plays out.

Morpheus

Fingleberries wrote: »

The interesting fallout will be to see who is holding the smoking gun ...

Could it be THIS man?





Seriously though very nice bloke, very good TD (and not just for his own constituents) always had an air of integrity, he said he would never lead the greens in a coalition with FF and true to his word stepped down as leader when the election was over and govt was about to be sworn in.

I will continue to give him my vote should he continue to run and even reckon he is the man to turn the greens around when the dust settles and an election is called.

I think the greens realise now that they did the wrong thing by getting into govt at ANY cost. It was not worth it and their finest hour will now be overshadowed by being a part of the leadership that oversaw some of the worst political decisions ever made during the course of the countrys worst recession in 30 years.

tbh

I hate FF, and I hate the greens for propping them up.....but I'll still vote for Trev.

The Hill Billy

tbh wrote: »

I hate FF, and I hate the greens for propping them up.....but I'll still vote for Trev.

QFT. I couldn't agree more.

LeoB

I only met him a few times and found him ok. No Bulls**t. From what I hear today he is a very decent man, good for the elderley.

Only heard a snip of him on New at 1 and he came accross very well. He didnt point the finger at anyone and accepted what he done was in appropriate. I also think P.C. in this country has gone bonkers.

If the person he wrote on behalf of had genuine concerns for his safety and looking at the wording of Trevors letter where he wrote "at his time Not to proceed" I dont think he should have resigned. The person obviously felt in in danger so Who else had the person to turn to but a T.D and in this case it happened to be Trevor.

I should have pointed out earlier I take no pleasure from seeing him in this situation, that was not the intention of the thread.

On the conspiricy theory, why would F.F. hang him out? They would lose power if the Greens pulled the plug. Are F.G that hungry for power or could it be a disgruntled member of the Gardái?

Barry Bonds

Good to see people on here recognising Trevors work as a politican. This is a difficult one, while i accept he probably should not have contacted the Garda directly its hard to be critical of him as he was trying to help some one who had the guts to stand up to antisocial behaviour in his own estate, this estate is well known to have antisocial problems due to appalling planning. What was he to do when the constituent told him the cicumstances? I think if this was any other party it would have been put down to constituency work and wouldn't happen again but no question of resignations. Trevor set such a high standard that he had to resign though. A honest and hard working politican with principles he'll retain my number one vote.

dixierip

A silly error for an experienced politician. However I think Trevor has through the years proved himself to be a hardworking politician with integrity. His two minutes resignation speech illustrated this. This is what we call accountability.

sdanseo

Fingleberries wrote: »

I have some level of sympathy for Trevor. He's generally been a decent sort when in office and the fact that he immediately resigned when it was shown that he did something inappropriate shows a level of integrity and at least some respect for the office he held.

Fair comment, with one exception in my opinion. The office he held was a makey-up one to get the greens into government and was a complete and utter waste of money which we aren't exactly rolling in.

Eoineo

Barry Bonds wrote: »

this estate is well known to have antisocial problems due to appalling planning.

Really? I wasn't aware of that.

According to reports today Mr Sargent donated his €47K golden handshake to the St Vincent de Paul.

Morpheus

sdonn wrote: »

Fair comment, with one exception in my opinion. The office he held was a makey-up one to get the greens into government and was a complete and utter waste of money which we aren't exactly rolling in.

Thats nothing to do with it, this isnt his fault, Ive already outlined about above WHY he didnt remain a fully fledged TD in the new govt.

Also it wasnt a makey uppy office, he accepted a junior role under the remit (and budget) of the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food covering Food and horticulture specifically. Both important parts of the parent department. :mad:

tbh

Eoineo wrote: »

Really? I wasn't aware of that.

According to reports today Mr Sargent donated his €47K golden handshake to the St Vincent de Paul.

heard that too. the guys a saint. Having heard the circumstances behind the case, I feel so sorry for him. I think he made a mistake, but I'm sure it won't be the end of him. I'm very proud to have him as my rep. in the dail to be honest.

maggy_thatcher

Morphéus wrote: »

Seriously though very nice bloke

I agree here - I was taught by him in primary school.

Morphéus wrote: »

he said he would never lead the greens in a coalition with FF and true to his word stepped down as leader when the election was over and govt was about to be sworn in.

He laid out all the groundwork for a coalition with FF, got everything ready and then stepped down (he even nominated Bertie for Taoiseach!), even though during the campaign, when asked about a coalition with FF (link):

Trevor wrote:

If pigs could fly, I’m sure that would also make news

No doubt he (and his party) collected a number of votes from people who did not want FF in power. It's being truthful in word, if not in spirit.

learnerdriver08

I understand that Trevor Sargent resigned when it was made public that he had done something unlawful. As a TD he tried to use his power in an unlawful manner - am I correct? He resigned when he was caught out by the media - am I correct?

we are living in an age when tribunal after tribunal is looking into cover - ups and abuse of power. The church is on the rack for having a culture of hiding criminal acts. The banks have collapsed because no one would tell when loans were made to directors etc.

We have a case here where someone took it on themselves to show evidence of a letter which was unlawful.

What happens? It is accepted that this letter was unlawful - we don't say "well done " to the whistle blower do we?

No! - We get an investigation to discover who had the cheek to blow the whistle on this abuse of power.


We have learned nothing from past!

I would think more of Trevor Sargent if he had resigned when he wrote the letter rather than waiting until it was published 2 years later!

RobFowl

learnerdriver08 wrote: »

I understand that Trevor Sargent resigned when it was made public that he had done something unlawful.

The letter he wrote was NOT unlawful or in breach of the law.

It was considered, in retrospect, to be an error of judgement however.

But I cannot emphasise strongly enough he did not reak the law nor do anything unlawful.

tbh

RobFowl wrote: »

The letter he wrote was NOT unlawful or in breach of the law.

It was considered, in retrospect, to be an error of judgement however.

But I cannot emphasise strongly enough he did not reak the law nor do anything unlawful.

unfortunately, that not necessarily true. Once a prosecution is initiated, it's illegal for anyone except for a select few - family, doctors, social workers - to intervene. It depends on how you interpret the phrase he used "not to proceed with the prosecution at this time" - he may face charges on this, but I hope not.

meditraitor

tbh wrote: »

unfortunately, that not necessarily true. Once a prosecution is initiated, it's illegal for anyone except for a select few - family, doctors, social workers - to intervene. It depends on how you interpret the phrase he used "not to proceed with the prosecution at this time" - he may face charges on this, but I hope not.

You are right on the button with this, but get this,

The unlawfull act attributed is only an unlawful act in words as when they wrote this piece of legislation (70s) they didnt actually stipulate a sentence, he cannot be sentenced in any way for it as there is no sentence for this act

tbh

that's mental!

meditraitor

tbh wrote: »

that's mental!

We live in a mental country, mostly good but always mental

Khannie

All this "the guy's very decent" "committed", etc. I'm guessing none of you have ever actually had to deal with him or his office.

A few years ago we had a serious problem with large groups of teenagers (upwards of 50) drinking on the green in front of our house. The drinking itself wasn't the main problem, we had several incidents which were related to it (my car was broken in to and vandalised for example and a neighbour was assaulted when trying to retrieve a wheely bin that they had robbed to burn so that they wouldn't be cold, lots of very large fires being lit, etc.). Sargents office was our first port of call (the Gardaí were well aware of the problem) because we thought much the same way as the general sentiment in this thread. Such a bad bad fob off. Complete and utter lack of care. Regularly ignored communication. Never seen the likes of it. He'll never get a vote off me or mine again and I would have considered myself more aligned with green policy than most other parties.

To be fair to the Gardaí, they have since more or less dealt with the problem with regular patrols which I very much appreciate.

bcmf

Just to keep things balanced I had a small prob not so long ago>Within hours it was sorted and recieved a follow up communication from him.
Despite my growing hatred for the Greens and their course of self destruction with Fianna Fail he will be getting my vote (hopefully) soon

Barry Bonds

Khannie wrote: »

All this "the guy's very decent" "committed", etc. I'm guessing none of you have ever actually had to deal with him or his office.

I've dealt with him on a couple of things and found him most helpful. I'm sure Dominic McGowan would say the same.

learnerdriver08

The point I was making with regard to Trevor Sargents problem was that it is typical of our attitude - we shoot the messenger again. I thought we were going to have openess and responsibility? Trevor Sargent resigned because a wrong doing by him was brought into the public domain. I don't know when Trevor Sargent realised he had done something seriously wrong when he sent that letter to the garda. He didn't see fit to resign until his action was made public - in other words he was happy to stay in his high office if no one found out about it. Is this an acceptable attitude - I thought we were trying to move on from this? Should the person/persons who publicised this be applauded for insisting on openess and responsibility or should this person(s) be investigated and punished for making the public aware of an attempted abuse of power?

LeoB

I dont think Trevor abused his power.

From the facts that have ben put out (if the journalist can be be believed), Why was this brought out sooner? Why did certain journalists sit on it for so long?

Trevor acted in the best interest of a constituant, he made an error at worst and should not have resigned imo. In the scheme of what is going on and has gone on perhaps some of these journalists should keep digging at the *ankers who have us up to our ears in debt.

It says very little for the hacks, that they feel the need to nail Trevor and truth be known it had to be handed to them on a plate by somone who is obviously disgruntled. Again imo.

If he broke the law was the Gardái not acting in our best interest by not making D.P.P. aware of his letter then? Why now?

I am working in North Dublin since 1980 and have never heard so many people disgruntled with him having to resign. Never realised he was so popular. Lets hope history is kind to Trevor