Our Worst Minister?

paddyland

I just wanted to highlight Áine Brady somewhere, and this thread is the nearest place without opening a whole new thread.

Her performance on The Frontline on Monday night was disgraceful. She is no Mary Harney. You could throw concrete blocks at Harney and they would bounce off, Harney is a born scrapper. Áine Brady simple fell apart, and was one further embarrassment to the FF party. She spoke nonsense, and was shouted down by the audience.

"We won't close the nursing home without the consent of the residents."
"The residents have alzheimers, they haven't the capacity to give their consent."
"Well we won't close the nursing home without the consent of their families."
"But their families are in the audience, and they don't give their consent!"
Cue stuttering from Mzz Brady, and an audience shouting her down.

Not only is this low standard of politician typical of FF and a disgrace to politics, but she is a shame to women in political life generally. I am sure we should have more women in politics, but what a poor and lamentable representation of women the likes of this puts on. Is this really the next generation of FF women, after Coughlan has been drummed out?

RichardAnd

Japer wrote: »

Coughlan knows sweet all, and does sweet all except buy expensive clothes + hire expensive groomers, and she costs the state a fortune, more than most other prime ministers in proper countries are paid. In medieval times, it would be off with her head, hang and quarter her. Instead we will give her a massive pension in a few years time, when she is still a foolish, incompetent and lazy young one. Let her go back to school and learn who Einstein was.

I agree that Coughlan is less than suited to her position but if you think medieval politics were fair then you need to read a history book. In those days, you got to the top by making connections, stabbing people in the back and plotting to have the guy above defaced (sometimes literally).

Nothing has really changed except that back then, a monarch could fix thing quickly without having to wade through a sea of unions and economic illiterates.

liammur

So it looks like 2 of our worst ministers are set to battle it out for the leadership of FF. Great news for this impoverished country :mad:

max 73

thegoodgirl wrote: »

Lets not forget the biggest waste of space herself.......Mary Harney

Can't think of a simple thing she has done that is good.

She resigned…that's good :-)

liammur

max 73 wrote: »

She resigned…that's good :-)

Agreed, but unfortunately on €310K and over €100K pension.

tweedledee

Back in the day Bertie for sure,prick.today.....Harney or M Martin,both big talkers but their various departments suffered under them both.Very mediocre leaders.They both avoid talking bout the past always on bout the future.Im just wondering,when you resign from a normal job dont you have to give at least one months notice,if you dont you are not entitled to full benefits?????How come all these FF boys and gurls can just quit and get massive payouts????????????????just curious.

femur61

Interesting to see the origianl post was back in April and now M.Martin has his name in the hat for the leadership. The only name that didn't crop up then was the other Brian. IMO has to be Mary Coughlan she is so inept and embarrassing.

mark17

There is not a single bad minister. The way i see it over the past ten years, the Fianna Fail crowd really ignored the Irish public. For instance, over-inflation in the housing market saw people getting children up at six in the morning to get them to babysitters so both parents could go to work in order to have a roof over their heads. Allowing this constant borrowing by banks who were showing outrageous profits, and ordinary decent people paying over the odds for everything. Property developers being given money to buy up little plots of land, for millions. The banks were allowed to exploit the Irish public, then, the irish public is expected to bail out these guys. It's like a thief robs your house and when he is caught you have to put up the bail money to have him released. And Fianna Fail backed up all this and least we forget the tent at the Galway races, I didn't see any people who didn't have a helicopter in that.

They were all in on that, every member of the Fianna Fail party. So I'm sorry if I sound anti-capitalist but these are the reality of Fianna Fail. I'm also wondering why no farmers seem to be affected by the downturn, I mean has anybody heard of farms being re-possessed, farmers going bankrupt.

Head The Wall

mark17 wrote: »

TFor instance, over-inflation in the housing market saw people getting children up at six in the morning to get them to babysitters so both parents could go to work in order to have a roof over their heads.

I didn't have to do this to have a roof over my head, as did many others. I rented and saved and will have a 50% deposit when I buy in a year or two when houses are at a realistic level

CDfm

John Bruton who came out recently and said that politiians are ineffectual and are only there to rubber stamp civil service decisions.

He was Taoiseach.

mark17

Head The Wall wrote: »

I didn't have to do this to have a roof over my head, as did many others. I rented and saved and will have a 50% deposit when I buy in a year or two when houses are at a realistic level

Nor did I, I bought in the mid 1990's and sold it in 2005 for an unrealistic price
and moved with my equity. But, for those less-fortunate as us the financial
climate caused by successive Fianna Fail ministers, made it so that hundreds
of thousands of people had no choice but to buy at unreasonable prices. To
them it seemed that house prices were going to get higher. That's my point

liammur

mark17 wrote: »

Nor did I, I bought in the mid 1990's and sold it in 2005 for an unrealistic price
and moved with my equity. But, for those less-fortunate as us the financial
climate caused by successive Fianna Fail ministers, made it so that hundreds
of thousands of people had no choice but to buy at unreasonable prices. To
them it seemed that house prices were going to get higher. That's my point

And it is a key point.

nice_guy80

paddyland wrote: »

I am torn between Bertie and Noel Dempsey.

Bertie, because after the Haughey years, when there was an opportunity for FF to take stock and get back to basics, Bertie took the other road, and simply built tenfold on the rot and corruption that Haughey inspired. The single most dishonest man in the country, who peddled complete lies through three election campaigns, to no end but short term plunder for a small band of his favourites. The country is where it is today principally through the corrupt administration of this man.

Dempsey, because he has ruined me personally, through his appalling tenure in cabinet. I have lost not one, but two careers because of this man, and I have lost everything I spent twenty years building up for myself. I content myself now with dreaming up horrendous, Victorian tortures for him. I would happily see this toad take a bath in boiling cooking fat.

There is something terribly wrong when an ordinary decent citizen of the country starts harbouring such hatred towards politicians. It is a sign of just how far we have fallen, how bad they let it get. Not only have they personally behaved reprehensively, but they have left a mountain to climb for a new generation to try to restore respect for politics.

how did Dempsey ruin your careers?

bastados

M Martin is a two-faced little git!

nice_guy80

Cowen

As Minister for Finance
he was asleep at the wheel
allowed Public Service numbers to increase unsustainably - too much admin staff not enough frontline
allowed benchmarking to give unwarranted increases across the board
allowed the upper grades of public service to get huge increases in salaries
sanctioned huge increases in ministers pay
huge increases in hospital consultants pay
large increases in fees paid to barristers and lawyers
a bloating of the staff in Leinster house where TDs and minister now have double the staff tey had 10 years ago

housing market - failed to close off tax incentives to build housing estates in every little village long the Shannon (and elsewhere) which are now lying abandoned

has failed to close off tax loopholes that allow corporations funnel their profits out of Ireland to Isle of Man and elsewhere thus reducing their tax bill - eg google
failed to ensure there was a sustainable tax base in the country.
too many people left out of the tax system - eg low earners.
too many tax avoidance schemes available to high earners - pensions, property

Sand

Brian Lenihan.

Responsible for easily the single most self-destructive decision in the history of the state in guaranteeing the banks in 2008. And despite total recognition of the error, he repeated the mistake in continuing the guarantee in 2010.

We can look back with misty eyes at the days when wasting 80 million on electronic voting machines was considered an incredible waste of money. Brian Lenihan pushed us up into the league of tens of billions.

liammur

nice_guy80 wrote: »

Cowen

As Minister for Finance
he was asleep at the wheel
allowed Public Service numbers to increase unsustainably - too much admin staff not enough frontline
allowed benchmarking to give unwarranted increases across the board
allowed the upper grades of public service to get huge increases in salaries
sanctioned huge increases in ministers pay
huge increases in hospital consultants pay
large increases in fees paid to barristers and lawyers
a bloating of the staff in Leinster house where TDs and minister now have double the staff tey had 10 years ago

housing market - failed to close off tax incentives to build housing estates in every little village long the Shannon (and elsewhere) which are now lying abandoned

has failed to close off tax loopholes that allow corporations funnel their profits out of Ireland to Isle of Man and elsewhere thus reducing their tax bill - eg google
failed to ensure there was a sustainable tax base in the country.
too many people left out of the tax system - eg low earners.
too many tax avoidance schemes available to high earners - pensions, property

A lot of these would fall under B Ahern's remit.

nice_guy80

liammur wrote: »

A lot of these would fall under B Ahern's remit.

Cowen was minister for finance.
ie - meant to keep spending in check

CDfm

I think people have a very distorted view of how the government of the country actually works.

The incisive comment we see in newspapers and on TV actually exacerbates this.

When a Government Minister is asked on TV "what are you going to do about this Minister " the answer in most cases should be "nothing because I can't" .

A key issue for any new administration would be enforcing their authority -which - the current administration were unable to do with the Croke Park Agreement.

Has any government Minister managed to do so since the foundation of the state ?

If they have then that should be the benchmark with which to measure it.

omerin

Wouldn't trust M Martin as far as I'd throw him, sly, incompetent, he fits the qualities needed in a FF leader to a tee Laughable how he couldn't manage to resign properly, yet wants to manage the FF party.

Fingers crossed he'll win the leadership of the party and lose his seat, and he'll be another spare part just like Dan Boyle :rolleyes:

dRNk SAnTA

Certainly one of the worst ministers was Martin Cullen.

He and Dick Roche acted as if their job titles were "Minister against Environment, Heritage and Local Government". Between them they oversaw the destruction of so much heritage at Carrickmines and Tara.

There were countless examples of Cullen giving dodgy decisions when it came to planning. I remember him giving the go-ahead to a hotel right beside Trim Castle amid much controversy.

Cullen changed the planning and development act so that developers no longer had to build 20% social and affordable housing in each development - the idea of which was to develop socially mixed neighbourhoods, instead of social housing being lumped together into ghettos. Considering the amount of development since he changed it, that was a huge missed opportunity.

Electronic voting.


I hated the guy, he acted against the public interest time and again. One of the worst examples of the ****e Fianna Fail gave us. Good riddance to that man and that party.

later12

I have to express some surprise at those suggesting that 'embarrassing' Coughlan was our worst minister, or even more surprisingly, the totally forgettable and irrelevant double team of Roche and Cullen.

I really don't see how the mega culprit can be anybody else but Brian Cowen. The man spent three disastrous years in what he described as Angola, without apparently changing anything; and after a honeymoon in foreign affairs, wielded the shovel that dug away a gaping cavity in the foundations of the Irish economy, resulting in total collapse, billions of euro of debt and necessitating, eventually, external assistance. The excuse that Cowen could not have predicted the fiscal problem to the extent that it occured might be admissable, but nevertheless his policymaking over these years, and over his later years as Taoiseach would have been hazardous and deleterious in any economic environment and he deserves significant blame - moreso, perhaps - than Bertie Ahern in my opinion.

Noreen1

I find myself torn between Bertie, McCreevy, Cowen, and Lenihan.

Lenihan takes the prize, though. He signed the Bank guarantee, and insisted on renewing it, even when it was obvious that it wasn't sustainable.

His "award" for being the worst European finance Minister deserves equal recognition in his own country i.m.o. - so I vote him worst Irish Minister of all time.:D

county man

My fear is that our worst minister(s) is still to come in the new government.:(

Head The Wall

You're a FF supporter that's obviously blind to what the FF ministers have "achieved" while in office