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WTF? Developer gets elected for Wexford who owes €40,000,000

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Comments

  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,468 ✭✭✭CruelCoin


    Seriously... WTF!!!!!!!!!!!

    What does it matter if he owes 40 million?

    I'd like you to point me to the relevant section of Irish law that says he cannot run for election?

    Business and political life are separate entities, and so they should remain.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,582 ✭✭✭Padraig Mor


    Hang on a second.

    Mick Wallace did something really, really stupid: he got into financial trouble, and he tried to get himself out by underdeclaring VAT one year defrauding the taxpayer while doubling his pay from the company, with the intention of making the money back and paying it the next year. He now claims that he intended to pay it back, even though his customers had already given him the VAT money..

    Very stupid. And not honest. But not the kind of systematic crookery he's being accused of. And he is already paying back the money he owes to the banks he is not paying back the money he owes to the banks. If he is made bankrupt, of course, he automatically loses his Dáil seat.

    I don't know much about the guy, but I'm made uneasy by the baying mob armed with torches who are going after him at the moment. Let's stand back a little, calm down for a while, lads.

    And let's not forget he was found guilty of ripping off his workers' pensions too.

    Fixed your post.


  • Registered Users Posts: 7,009 ✭✭✭conorhal


    Hang on a second.

    Mick Wallace did something really, really stupid: he got into financial trouble, and he tried to get himself out by underdeclaring VAT one year, with the intention of making the money back and paying it the next year.

    Very stupid. And not honest. But not the kind of systematic crookery he's being accused of. And he is already paying back the money he owes to the banks. If he is made bankrupt, of course, he automatically loses his Dáil seat.

    I don't know much about the guy, but I'm made uneasy by the baying mob armed with torches who are going after him at the moment. Let's stand back a little, calm down for a while, lads.

    He's not paying back his loans though, the company is insolvent, and when he knew that he doubled his wages.

    You're making the same kind arguments as those that defend Bertie 'I was going through a difficult time' Ahern.
    'Ah, sure he's just a lovable rouge, a thief but a salt of the earth thief with a pint of Bass for everybody in the bar, and sure wasn't everybody doing it?'

    Tell me, what differentiates your argument from the endless FF'ers who's general attitude to the likes of Haughey and Ahern comes down to, 'well, he's a crook, but he's our crook'.

    Face the simple fact that rogue builders like Wallace, with their massive and unpayable Anglo debts, their NAMA properties, their financial sleight of hand with the tax man and their cheating of their employees are EXACTLY the kind of people that have us where we are today.
    In a sane country we would lynch the likes of Wallace, but in this parish pump nation we elect the fecker!
    I despair, I really do.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 902 ✭✭✭scholar007


    Go on the bould Mickser! - Have a pint or ten for me over in Poland.

    Tell Trapp I was askin for him.

    Don't worry about a thing, it will all be forgotten about by the time you get back. After all this is Ireland.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 236 ✭✭NakedNNettles


    CruelCoin wrote: »
    What does it matter if he owes 40 million?

    .

    Yerra sure it's only a few mill. Isn't he a grand lad. :rolleyes:

    Cause all the effers who owe a couple mill here and there have destroyed the country. And we as taxpayers have to pay it back now, that means you too. That's why.

    Now is that the kind of person that should be representing the people? A little like putting the fox in charge of the henhouse is how I see it.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 34,076 ✭✭✭✭NIMAN


    This whole sorry episode sums up this country and why its in a mess.

    A guy owes tens of millions, defrauded Revenue but sure he's ok cos he a 'decent spud'. If this is the new breed of politician talked about at the last General Election, we may as well bring back the old ones.

    Oh, and he's really struggling with this current problem, so much so that he's able to jet off to Poland to watch footie and have a few pints. While the idiots back home can't afford to and have to work to pay their increasing taxes to save the country from his kind.

    Ckeers Mick. You're one of the lads.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 34,076 ✭✭✭✭NIMAN


    CruelCoin wrote: »
    What does it matter if he owes 40 million?

    I'd like you to point me to the relevant section of Irish law that says he cannot run for election?

    Business and political life are separate entities, and so they should remain.

    If you think this guy is fit to be in our Dail, and can't see why people have the opposite view to you, I really do see why the country can continue to be a basket case.

    Open your eyes.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,836 ✭✭✭Sir Gallagher


    He has a head like a bag of sperm.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,468 ✭✭✭CruelCoin


    NIMAN wrote: »
    If you think this guy is fit to be in our Dail, and can't see why people have the opposite view to you, I really do see why the country can continue to be a basket case.

    Open your eyes.

    Eyes are very open thank you.

    The law is simple, he has the right to run, financial issues or not.

    You're arguing your position based on mob rule opinions.


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 236 ✭✭NakedNNettles


    The lights are on but nobody's home.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 27,564 ✭✭✭✭steddyeddy


    Corruption in this country is a problem in my opiion however a bigger problem is the impunity some people here operate with. I dont agree with all of Wallace's economics but I admire his efforts in spreading the message that austerity wont work for society. He should resign for this and he should be investigated by the law. Hes not anything like the worst ie Haughey and his family and Bertie and his cronies but hes subject to the same law of the land as everyone else.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 632 ✭✭✭Forest Demon


    For those who have not realised it yet, Cute Hoor = Self interested scumbag

    As long as Irish people are greedy and individualistic they will continue to elect like minded politicians. We have seen it time and time again. Lets look up to the cute hoors. He will get things done. We need somebody like that. :rolleyes:

    http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/cute_hoor

    Description

    Noun
    cute hoor (plural cute hoors)

    (Ireland, slang) A shrewd scoundrel, especially in business or politics.

    Usage notes

    The term is not necessarily insulting, and can often be considered flattering. It does not carry sexual connotations in modern usage. Usually used to describe a male 'rogue'.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 6,824 ✭✭✭Qualitymark


    steddyeddy wrote: »
    Corruption in this country is a problem in my opiion however a bigger problem is the impunity some people here operate with. I dont agree with all of Wallace's economics but I admire his efforts in spreading the message that austerity wont work for society. He should resign for this and he should be investigated by the law. Hes not anything like the worst ie Haughey and his family and Bertie and his cronies but hes subject to the same law of the land as everyone else.

    So name a few more currently serving who should also resign?


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 21,191 ✭✭✭✭Latchy


    He popped up a few times on BBC 2 Panorama programme a few weeks back on the topic of the austerity measures and how it's affecting all the countrys involved , with a section of the programme telling us how it all went wrong and interviwing politicians from various EU country .

    Not knowing much about the man at first I thought it was some aging rock star been interviewed but he was spouting some ol shyte about how '' we Irish love to gamble on anything and everything and now '' how his buisness portfolio ,which was worth £70 million in the tiger days was now only worth £20 million '' .


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 20,919 ✭✭✭✭Gummy Panda


    This is what happens when you vote a scarecrow into power.

    Seriously who in their right mind would vote in Worzel Gummidge


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 27,564 ✭✭✭✭steddyeddy


    So name a few more currently serving who should also resign?

    Theres a lot more. A hell of a lot more. Fine gael were engaged in tax fraud for years. If I had my way half them would go because this country needs a major overhaul.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 27,564 ✭✭✭✭steddyeddy


    Ill also say his mistake was getting caught.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 6,824 ✭✭✭Qualitymark


    steddyeddy wrote: »
    Ill also say his mistake was getting caught.

    As I understand it, he didn't get caught, he went to Revenue himself.


  • Registered Users Posts: 16,500 ✭✭✭✭DEFTLEFTHAND


    This is what happens when you vote a scarecrow into power.

    Seriously who in their right mind would vote in Worzel Gummidge

    Lol, he does look like a scarecrow now that you mention it. :D


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 27,564 ✭✭✭✭steddyeddy


    As I understand it, he didn't get caught, he went to Revenue himself.

    Well as I said hes a lot better than most. He did apologise which puts him leagues ahead of haughey and the rest.


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 245 ✭✭beco2010


    did i hear this somewhere that he is off to the euro 2012 with his son and son's friend.
    he has to go though because his son is only 18


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,637 ✭✭✭Show Time


    I never thought for a second the people in Wexford were as dumb as Kerry people for electing the pig farmer but there ya go.......


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 126 ✭✭Joko


    He stole €millions from the people of this country, but when a fellow developer owed him €20,000 he hired a hitman to get back his money. He is a lowlife.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 5,550 ✭✭✭Min


    Show Time wrote: »
    I never thought for a second the people in Wexford were as dumb as Kerry people for electing the pig farmer but there ya go.......

    The pig farmer would be better in the Dáil than Mick Wallace.


  • Registered Users Posts: 16,500 ✭✭✭✭DEFTLEFTHAND


    In fairness to the people of Wexford I think Wallace falsely misrepresented himself to the electorate by standing for the Dail knowing at the time that he was guilty of a fraudulent offence.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 5,550 ✭✭✭Min


    Joko wrote: »
    He stole €millions from the people of this country, but when a fellow developer owed him €20,000 he hired a hitman to get back his money. He is a lowlife.

    Not defending the man, but it was in the papers today he told the person he wanted the money paid or he would have a hitman out on him, he said he never was going to hire a hitman, but yeah, a lowlife and I believe his son was involved in the teacher bullying campaign in some school. He doesn't give good example.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,637 ✭✭✭Show Time


    Min wrote: »
    The pig farmer would be better in the Dáil than Mick Wallace.
    The main problem in the country is that we have a bunch of farmers making all the important calls.

    There are people in power in this country who would be locked up for their stupidity in most developed countries in the western world.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 6,824 ✭✭✭Qualitymark


    Show Time wrote: »
    The main problem in the country is that we have a bunch of farmers making all the important calls.

    There are people in power in this country who would be locked up for their stupidity in most developed countries in the western world.

    It is true; the inarticulacy of the debates in the Dail is horrifying.

    Dáil Debate 2012
    http://debates.oireachtas.ie/dail/2012/06/07/00007.asp

    House of Commons Debate (on Home Rule Bill, Irish deputies speaking) 1886
    http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1886/may/05/second-reading#S3V0305P0_18860505_HOC_11


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 5,550 ✭✭✭Min


    Show Time wrote: »
    The main problem in the country is that we have a bunch of farmers making all the important calls.

    There are people in power in this country who would be locked up for their stupidity in most developed countries in the western world.

    If farmers were running the country maybe it would be a lot better, given farmers were not part of the Celtic tiger era in that their incomes did not rise and they provide something every human needs which is food.

    We had Bertie leading the country and he is a city slicker and Bryan Cowen was not a farmer, nor was Brian Lenihan RIP, or Charlie McCreevy or the Greens or the PDs.

    Farmers are producing a product that is in demand, not like the ones who thought we should be building houses and whatever else as if it was sustainable.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 2,366 ✭✭✭micropig


    Show Time wrote: »
    The main problem in the country is that we have a bunch of farmers making all the important calls.

    There are people in power in this country who would be locked up for their stupidity in most developed countries in the western world.

    I'll think you'll find it's mostly teachers;)


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 6,299 ✭✭✭djPSB


    It's no wonder the country is in ruins when the people of Ireland are electing crooks like this.

    He's frauding the government of VAT, yet advising people not to pay the household charge.

    Can't have it every way. The money has to come from somewhere. If businesses like his were paying their taxes, there would be no need for the household charge.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 6,824 ✭✭✭Qualitymark


    djPSB wrote: »
    He's frauding the government of VAT, yet advising people not to pay the household charge.

    Isn't VAT meant to be paid monthly? Where was the VAT inspector?


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 2,366 ✭✭✭micropig


    Isn't VAT meant to be paid monthly? Where was the VAT inspector?

    Shhhh! The Public sector are present and diligently doing their job in all corners.


    This is private sector beef!:pac:


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,078 ✭✭✭onemorechance


    http://cache.tcm.ie/media/images/m/mickWallaceTD1.jpg
    By Paul O’Brien, Political Editor
    Saturday, June 09, 2012

    Mick Wallace’s political foes take note: The tax-evading TD once threatened to set a hitman on a fellow developer who owed him money.
    A 2005 interview has resurfaced in which Wallace, then enjoying massive success, told of his unorthodox approach to collecting debts.

    In the Business & Finance interview, Wallace recounted how his company had once hired by a major developer, only to be short-changed to the tune of IR£20,000 (€25,000).

    Legal action was proving frustratingly slow, and so Wallace decided he needed some extra help.

    "So I knew of a guy [who] made a living out of a gun," he recalled in the interview. "I made contact with him and said: ‘Listen, there’s a guy owes me £20,000 — will you get it for me?’ He said he would give me £16,000 and keep £4,000.

    ...

    Irish Examiner


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 6,824 ✭✭✭Qualitymark


    Here's the full piece, from Business & Finance in 2005:

    http://www.businessandfinance.ie/index.jsp?p=413&n=427&a=2095


    Mick Wallace's dolce vita
    Developer Mick Wallace's motto is ‘Life is Short. Work Hard. Play Hard. Love Football.' He talks to Fearghal O'Connor about wealth, wine and replicating his Italian quarter around Dublin's working-class areas.

    Brendan Behan would probably lament the lack of characters in post Celtic-Tiger Dublin. Yet he need go no further than his birthplace, Russell Street, in the shadow of Croke Park, to see that true originals still stalk the streets.

    Wexford builder, wine importer and successful soccer coach Mick Wallace is bringing a little slice of his beloved Italy to a part of the north inner city that most developers only hurry through on their way to GAA matches.

    Using his acclaimed Bloom's Quarter development on Lower Ormond Quay as a blueprint, Wallace is developing 80 apartments around a courtyard with a distinctly Mediterranean flavour. A similar development is underway in Inchicore. As in Bloom's Quarter, Wallace himself will run the Italian-themed cafés, grocers and wine bars to ensure authenticity.

    Back in Ormond Quay, Wallace caresses a huge boardroom table in a plush office lined with rows of fine Italian wine. Despite the plush décor and the sundrenched view of the Millennium Bridge, nothing quite catches the eye like Wallace's bright pink Palermo football jersey.

    "Building properly in two working-class areas with the same sorts of ideas we used here appeals to me greatly," he says. "Russell Street will be even better than this. It's going to be beautiful. People think I am mad doing proper building work beside working-class housing estates. But if I build rubbish houses up there, what am I going to do for the area? They are going to be seriously good apartments including 26 affordable units. I am going to build very well there but still make good money on it. I'm no martyr. I am running a business and I make sure it pays its way. I never lost money on a job in my life but I try to run it in an honest fashion."

    To some, Wallace's ageing rock star appearance suggests otherwise. When the company was laying cobblelock for the City Council on South William Street, Wallace decided to do it himself to make sure it was done right. One evening, while he worked below, Tony O'Reilly came up the steps of a nearby hotel and was met by the manager. While chatting, the manager said to O'Reilly "do you see that fella with the long hair laying the cobbles? He actually owns that company." "My God," Wallace recalls O'Reilly answering, "imagine owning a company with hair like that."

    Such a reaction was nothing new. Soon after Wallace started out on his own, a contractor gave him three pieces of advice. "Go to a tailor and get yourself a suit, go to a barbers and cut your hair, and join Fianna Fáil." He still hasn't done any of the three. "I wouldn't look great in a suit and I certainly wouldn't look good in Fianna Fáil," he explains. "If I really had to choose, I'd cut the hair."

    Wallace has always known his own mind and was condemned from the altar in Wexford at an early age. After Mass, he would go to the sacristy and argue with the priest demanding to be allowed stand up in church and reply to his sermons. He wasn't let so he never went back.

    Despite this rebellious streak, Wallace had a normal background. His parents ran a general merchant business in Wellingtonbridge, which his brothers still run today. After school, he studied history and English in UCD followed by a teaching degree.

    "I couldn't afford to teach," he says. "There was more going for pushing a wheelbarrow. Having the education makes pushing a wheelbarrow much more pleasurable. Your mind is active and you contemplate the whole meaning of existence."

    Nevertheless, he didn't spend too much time pondering what to do next. After learning blocklaying and carpentry, he began doing extensions and attic conversions. The business went from strength-to-strength. A contract to do a huge amount of street work for Dublin City Council made the company. Wallace redid entire streets - paving, furniture, lighting - across the city centre.

    This steady income allowed him to start buying land in the late-1990s. He got a great deal on the Ormond Quay site, where he has since sold €15m worth of apartments. Not everyone believed he could make a success of it.

    "I had my cap in hand begging the banks for money," he says. "It took me 18 months to get a bank to finance this and five refused me. I expected the AIB to finance it because I had a great relationship with them in Wexford for 15 years. I was brought into AIB headquarters to meet the top boys."

    They said they would consider giving him the money on three conditions: that he pre-sell the apartments, that he let AIB appoint a bigger builder and that the bank would supervise the whole project financially and Wallace would pay for their supervisor.

    "In all fairness," he said to them, "I realise that my hair might be a little bit too long for yiz and maybe you don't like the cut of me jeans. But I will raise goats on that land before I let somebody else build it."

    If another bank had not come up with the cash, the north quays would be home to a thriving goat farm today. Wallace was always prepared to go the extra step to achieve his ambitions.

    Some years ago, one of Dublin's biggest builders was given a stark example of this. Wallace did £170,000 worth of work for him but was only paid £150,000, a stunt the powerful builder was well-known for. After six months of legal action, Wallace's solicitor told him it would take two years to get to court and he'd be lucky to get £2,000.

    "So I knew of a guy made a living out of a gun," he says. "I made contact with him and said ‘listen, there's a guy owes me £20,000 - will you get it for me?' He said he would give me £16,000 and keep £4,000."

    "There was a guy working for the builder and I deliberately went for a pint with him," continues Wallace. "‘Did you hear I'm getting the money out of your boss?' I said to him. ‘I hired a hitman and he's going to get it. Don't tell anyone now.' Next day I got a phone call from the managing director. ‘Mr Wallace,' he says, ‘I believe there is a bit of a financial dispute on that job. Can we meet and talk about it?' I met them and they offered me £15,000. I said I'd take £16,000. Of course, I never would have dreamt of actually hiring the hitman. I only used him as leverage but it worked."

    He admits that as a businessman he personally has done well out of many of the Government's policies. Nevertheless, he is not afraid to criticise what he sees as Fianna Fáil's dishonesty - most famously when he hung a massive banner on his Ormond Quay site imploring people to vote No to Nice.

    "I wouldn't be as well-off if I worked in a socialist system but I do believe that corporation tax should be higher," he says. "The Government should put the priorities of the people ahead of those of business. I would praise the Government that does that even if it costs me more."

    For now though, he is unlikely to be found in the Fianna Fáil tent at the Galway Races. Neither is he overly enamoured with many of his fellow developers who flock to it.

    "More often than not, the developer is trying to make the maximum profit and he is not awful concerned about the finished product," he says. "It is whatever he can get away with. There are developers and builders who care but, unfortunately, too many who don't. There are a lot of really great planners in the City Council but they don't have enough control over the finished product."

    For his part, Wallace is prepared to go to unusual lengths to achieve the finished product he desires. He was determined to create an Italian flavour at Bloom's Quarter so his company runs seven of the shops itself - two coffee shops, two wine bars, an Italian food shop and a clothes shop. He also gives temporary accommodation to a Communist Party of Ireland bookshop.

    "Running wine bars and coffee shops is difficult," he says. "I wouldn't do it if I only took financial considerations into account. They are doing well but there is no money in it. I do it because to be honest I wanted to give something to the city in that line. Wine in this country is a terrible rip-off. 95% of the wine coming in here is factory wine. I am buying quality wine at a reasonable price direct from small Italian producers that I can trust. I go to the vineyards to taste the wines and meet the people, spend a few hours with them and get to know them. I wouldn't buy their wines if I didn't think they were honest. We are bringing quality wine to Ireland at a very affordable rate for the first time. Your average supermarket wine and a lot of the stuff available in restaurants is of very poor quality but the Irish are drinking it by the gallon."

    He now owns a small vineyard in Italy and hopes to soon sell wine from it in Dublin. But it is not just Italian wine that he loves.

    "I love their football for a start," he says. "I like the people, their passion, and it's the best place in the world to eat. I am passionate about food."

    This love affair began when he visited the country for the World Cup in 1990. He never stopped going back and bought an apartment in Turin seven years ago. Apart from the vineyard, he has also set up a small building company in Italy - despite having to overcome incredible bureaucracy to get anything done.

    Such business ties give Wallace the perfect excuse to regularly indulge his passion for Italian soccer. He tries to absorb as much as he can from the Italian game to bring it back to the Wexford Junior soccer team, which he coaches.

    He has regularly taken his team to Turin for tournaments and special coaching. It has paid off - they have contested four all-Ireland finals in seven years and his influence has helped to turn the Wexford league into one of the biggest outside Dublin.

    "At the moment I'm spending €1.5m on a football complex down in Wexford," he says. "Hopefully I will start a Wexford under-21 side next year or the year after."

    He is often linked to takeovers of League of Ireland clubs such as Waterford United. "There's no League of Ireland club paying its way so if I did set one up it would have to be on an amateur basis," he says. "Running a professional League of Ireland club is impossible."

    Somehow, though, it seems, the word impossible does not feature in Wallace's dictionary.

    http://ie.linkedin.com/in/fearghaloconnor


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 12,395 ✭✭✭✭mikemac1


    Show Time wrote: »
    The main problem in the country is that we have a bunch of farmers making all the important calls.

    Yeah, because nobody wants to ruled by yahoos from the mountains :p

    The country would be in better shape if farmers were running it

    They know about managing cash flow and risk and investment and planning and it's one of few areas in Ireland doing well
    What does a person in a permanent pensionable job know about these?


    Kenny - teacher
    Cowen - solicitor
    Ahern - accounts assistant [though he says himself he was an accountant ;)]
    Bruton - barrister
    Reynolds - entrepreneur

    There you, not far off two decades to find a risk taker and businessman who ran the country

    Better to have a farmer in charge then a teacher


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,078 ✭✭✭onemorechance


    ...

    Soon after Wallace started out on his own, a contractor gave him three pieces of advice. "Go to a tailor and get yourself a suit, go to a barbers and cut your hair, and join Fianna Fáil." He still hasn't done any of the three. "I wouldn't look great in a suit and I certainly wouldn't look good in Fianna Fáil," he explains. "If I really had to choose, I'd cut the hair."

    ...

    http://ie.linkedin.com/in/fearghaloconnor

    :pac:


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 2,366 ✭✭✭micropig


    Despite this rebellious streak, Wallace had a normal background. His parents ran a general merchant business in Wellingtonbridge, which his brothers still run today. After school, he studied history and English in UCD followed by a teaching degree.



    :pac::pac:


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,810 ✭✭✭Calibos


    Pre-election, as soon as I heard he owed the banks a few million my first thought was that all the talk of fighting for the little man against the elite blah blah was bullsh!t of the highest order and that this chancer was just trying to buy time against judgements from the Banks or Revenue. The Generous TD salary was just icing on the cake. He knew that as bankruptcy would mean a TD can no longer sit in the Dail, that the revenue or banks would baulk at the publicity of being responsible for a TD losing his seat and would delay coming after him or indeed not come after him at all till he lost his seat by ordinary means.

    My cynicism has served me well. As soon as I read about the pensioners being evicted I smelled a rat and sure enough a few days later we heard about the 30 rental properties they owned. Ditto with the Sister buying her forclosed brothers house and giving the proverbial two fingers to the banks. Straight away I said that they probably hatched a plan to stop paying even a token amount on the mortgage, let the banks forclose and because they could poison the well for a potential buyer with the site access issues, the family could by the house back from the bank for a song. ie. I knew it was a stroke, despite they way the media were initially portraying it. Turns out it was even worse than I thought. The brother was a developer that owed a fortune to creditors but was living it up in Australia and can come back home and move into his swanky house mortgage free once he saves 60,000 to pay back his sister.

    Honestly, what does it take for a fcuking TD to resign in this country!! MP's in the UK resign for letting a friend use a £100 House of commons transport allowance Rail voucher once....etc etc


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 236 ✭✭NakedNNettles


    Min wrote: »
    If farmers were running the country maybe it would be a lot better, given farmers were not part of the Celtic tiger era in that their incomes did not rise and they provide something every human needs which is food.

    We had Bertie leading the country and he is a city slicker and Bryan Cowen was not a farmer, nor was Brian Lenihan RIP, or Charlie McCreevy or the Greens or the PDs.

    Farmers are producing a product that is in demand, not like the ones who thought we should be building houses and whatever else as if it was sustainable.

    In fairness I think you're running away with yourself there.

    I have great time for farmers but lets be honest the only two words they were concerned with during the boom years were 'ROAD FRONTAGE"


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 52,428 ✭✭✭✭tayto lover


    Interesting top see that the only T.D.'s to call for Wallace's resignation are Independents. Is this because the main parties recognize that they have skeletons in their own cupboards and don't want to appear hypocritical I wonder?


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,010 ✭✭✭ringadingding


    Calibos wrote: »

    Honestly, what does it take for a fcuking TD to resign in this country!! MP's in the UK resign for letting a friend use a £100 House of commons transport allowance Rail voucher once....etc etc

    Good point,
    MP's in the UK are forced to resign over the slightest things that cause any kind of shame on the house of parliament .
    I guess not many can speak out as they probably have their own secrets, it wouldn't surprise me at all if it was created like that, encourage the new TD's to get dirty, then nobody can throw mud.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 6,824 ✭✭✭Qualitymark


    Interesting top see that the only T.D.'s to call for Wallace's resignation are Independents. Is this because the main parties recognize that they have skeletons in their own cupboards and don't want to appear hypocritical I wonder?

    Didn't FG pay everyone in cash for ages and ages?

    I'm laughing quietly to myself at the hysterical fuss being made over Mick Wallace's €2m, when sixty thousand million has been stolen by irresponsible politicians and reckless banks, or vice versa.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,810 ✭✭✭Calibos


    Didn't FG pay everyone in cash for ages and ages?

    I'm laughing quietly to myself at the hysterical fuss being made over Mick Wallace's €2m, when sixty thousand million has been stolen by irresponsible politicians and reckless banks, or vice versa.

    Its people like you who's attitude to the former made possible the latter tbh


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 6,824 ✭✭✭Qualitymark


    Calibos wrote: »
    Its people like you who's attitude to the former made possible the latter tbh

    Tis true, tis true, I'm a bad person. Sorry.


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 236 ✭✭NakedNNettles


    I'm laughing quietly to myself at the hysterical fuss being made over Mick Wallace's €2m, when sixty thousand million has been stolen by irresponsible politicians and reckless banks, or vice versa.

    You left out the developers which includes Mick Wallace....not much of a quality mark are you?

    Anyway I see he didn't go the euros and will be addressing the Dail to save his political skin next week. Bet we won't see him on VB for a while though.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,540 ✭✭✭Vizzy


    Isn't VAT meant to be paid monthly? Where was the VAT inspector?

    Ya you are right,the VAT man is responsible for Wallace not paying his VAT ?
    I heard he got a big backhander from Wallace and a yacht and tickets to the Euros.Oh and a cuddly toy :rolleyes:

    Wallace is a crook and he admits it.No ifs,buts,maybes and no conspiracy.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 43,311 ✭✭✭✭K-9


    From the Vincent Browne show it seems Wallace has been misleading the public again! He said he volunteered the information to the Revenue.

    From the papers tomorrow he only volunteered the information when notified of a Revenue Audit. Revenue were going to audit him anyway, find the undisclosed sales, so he chose to come clean.

    The difference would be in Wallaces version turning up at the police station voluntarily, to turning yourself in after a police investigation and you know the game is up.

    Mad Men's Don Draper : What you call love was invented by guys like me, to sell nylons.



  • Closed Accounts Posts: 88,972 ✭✭✭✭mike65


    K-9 wrote: »
    From the Vincent Browne show it seems Wallace has been misleading the public again! He said he volunteered the information to the Revenue.

    From the papers tomorrow he only volunteered the information when notified of a Revenue Audit. Revenue were going to audit him anyway, find the undisclosed sales, so he chose to come clean.

    The difference would be in Wallaces version turning up at the police station voluntarily, to turning yourself in after a police investigation and you know the game is up.

    Can this be a surprise? Did anyone think he would 'fess up without there being a pressing reason?


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 937 ✭✭✭Pandora2


    Saw that!! He's some chancer isn't he:rolleyes: I recently heard it said that, his family had said to the press he 'loved' the Dail......never left the place! I think Mick fit well with the cohort in there, he found his natural habitat;)


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