€36,000,000 wasted on British queen + US president

mike65

DjFlin wrote: »

What makes you say that?

The way I see it, if either expense could be justified it would be Obama's visit. Hes the leader of the US, his visit can help strengthen diplomatic ties between Ireland and the US, and promote US tourists to visit.

The Queen on the other hand is little more than a masthead for a failed system. It baffles me that people still pay attention to monarchs at all.

QE2 visit had a firm purpose to the benefit of Ireland (unless you are a republican) Obamas also had a purpose - to get him re-elected. Nothing else.

robtri

36million .... not too bad...

still a lot less than we pay for a lot of wasters on the dole who do nothing for this country... At least we got some good PR and potential for increased tourism out of it.... it was an investment in our short term future...

My name is URL

Biggins wrote: »

O' crap, not this stuff again! Seriously OP?
Its time to move on.
Whats done, is done.

Time to move on indeed.. until the time of the next vanity project dreamt up by those in charge. And no doubt then, when anyone criticises it, they'll promptly be put back in their box and told that it's good for the country..

I think it's more than fair for people to be pissed off by this stuff tbh. Our debt rating was yesterday downgraded to 'junk' status.. and it's likely that we'll need another bailout in 2013. But hey, let's not complain.. our glorious leaders will fix things by having some more high profile world leaders visit at our expense! You can't deny that they're getting things done, mind.. passing a bill to force people to wear suits in the Dail is surely the only way to improve the mess we're in.

People love distractions

Cavehill Red

Cydoniac wrote: »

Jesus, could you fast forward your dated attitudes about 100 years?

Sounds more like you wish he'd rewind his attitudes a hundred years, to when society didn't give a sh!t about the disadvantaged and gave people with military power or inherited privilege far too much respect.

Cypher_sounds

The visits will probably be worth it in the long run.

Wolfe Tone

My name is URL wrote: »

Time to move on indeed.. until the time of the next vanity project dreamt up by those in charge. And no doubt then, when anyone criticises it, they'll promptly be put back in their box and told that it's good for the country..

I think it's more than fair for people to be pissed off by this stuff tbh. Our debt rating was yesterday downgraded to 'junk' status.. and it's likely that we'll need another bailout in 2013. But hey, let's not complain.. our glorious leaders will fix things by having some more high profile world leaders visit at our expense! You can't deny that they're getting things done, mind.. passing a bill to force people to wear suits in the Dail is surely the only way to improve the mess we're in.

People love distractions

Is feidir linn!

Cavehill Red

Cypher_sounds wrote: »

The visits will probably be worth it in the long run.

People keep saying this. Where's the evidence for it? It sounds like blather to me. Our biggest tourist market already is Britain. And with sterling falling against the euro, my prediction is FEWER British tourists this year, not more.
And US is already the biggest source of FDI in Ireland. How many US-sourced jobs will come out of the Obama visit, I wonder? After all, the IDA already works to bring US firms over, and American businesses aren't muppets - they're not going to suddenly decide to locate R+D in Ireland because it looked sunny on the telly when Obama went to Moneygall, ffs.
Bottom line is there is no way to demonstrate ANY tangible return on the money we spent on these visits.

Dale Parish

€36 million! Jesus that's €20 million less than the social welfare bill for a single day! Crazy stuff :rolleyes:

Richard Hillman

Vudgie wrote: »

I wonder how much of the cost could be attributed to the morons that insisted on protesting around the place (The Queen's visit) and generally being a security risk.

For once I think that this was money that will hopefully prove itself to be well spent.

I fully agree. The security for The Queen would have been minimal if it were not for all the scummers protesting and the threats made by their republican heroes. If we are gonna place the blame for the cost then we must point the finger at these republican groups and the other left wing groups causing havok in Dublin City centre.

Mike 1972

Richard Hillman wrote: »

these republican groups and the other left wing groups .

Does not compute

Biggins

My name is URL wrote: »

Time to move on indeed.. until the time of the next vanity project dreamt up by those in charge. And no doubt then, when anyone criticises it, they'll promptly be put back in their box and told that it's good for the country..

I think it's more than fair for people to be pissed off by this stuff tbh. Our debt rating was yesterday downgraded to 'junk' status.. and it's likely that we'll need another bailout in 2013. But hey, let's not complain.. our glorious leaders will fix things by having some more high profile world leaders visit at our expense! You can't deny that they're getting things done, mind.. passing a bill to force people to wear suits in the Dail is surely the only way to improve the mess we're in.

People love distractions

While the visits were in the planning stages, I too questioned the cost of these things at the current over all time.
However seeing as the events have now come and gone - and LOADS of objections for various reasons were already voiced, whats done is done!
Its not like they are now going to be visiting every month/week anyway - so let get on with objecting and fighting our corner for the things yet to come and ongoing, not regurgitate that which, let be honest, we now cannot change - but only learn from it maybe and move on!

This matter has been done to death.
The same old divisional sides will yet again crop up, repeating the same old rubbish.
I'm tired of it so I'm outa here.

Corsendonk

Wolfe Tone wrote: »

I would blame the incompetency of successive FF governments. They had all the money in the world, but couldn't make a decent health service for under 5 million people.

Its not fair to blame staff.

I know various people who work on the frontline with consultants and specialist appointments and they blame the staff. The freely admit that consultants carry out more private care than they should and falsely the stats for this. Sure we still can't find out how much typically consultants earn a year.

The wards are a retirement home for nurses that don't make the grade in other areas and typically the foreign nurses are treated as second class citizens and do more work than the Irish nurses. So are you coming out in support of a private health care funded at the expense of the working person seening that we can't blame the staff(consultants)? They are very highly paided, is it unfair to ask for them to be effcient and not to milk the system?

admiralofthefleet

im sure the people of roscommon will be happy reading that

Crazy Horse 6

It's absolutely disgusting to see disabled kids go without so we can cosy up to the elite to the tune of 36m.:mad:

MagicSean

The visits put the country in the world news for positive reasons for the first and only time this year. Many people enjoyed the visit of Obama. The Queens visit was a landmark event in this countrys history and was a great demonstration of the change in relationship of the two countries in the last century. There has already been a boost in tourism as a result. Just ask the people of Moneygall.

€36 million is a relatively small figure for these events and the long term benefits they could provide.

MagicSean

Crazy Horse 6 wrote: »

It's absolutely disgusting to see disabled kids go without so we can cosy up to the elite to the tune of 36m.:mad:

It's more disgusting to see disabled people go without so some tramp can get a free house and weekly social because she can't remember who she screwed 9 months ago, or so some scumbag can play his PS3 all week with a few cans and still get paid by the taxpayers.

Gilda Fortune

36k is money well spent on a visit from O'Bama, there are hundreds of American companies operating here and why shouldnt we pay a bit of respect to their president. Im working in a large American Engineering company, we emply 360 people here. Not to mention the countless Irish people making a life in USA and Britain.
what in the hell is wrong with inviting them over, have a celebration for a day or two rather than walk around with the typical Iirsh Begrudger mentality

ejmaztec

Gilda Fortune wrote: »

36k is money well spent on a visit from O'Bama, there are hundreds of American companies operating here and why shouldnt we pay a bit of respect to their president. Im working in a large American Engineering company, we emply 360 people here. Not to mention the countless Irish people making a life in USA and Britain.
what in the hell is wrong with inviting them over, have a celebration for a day or two rather than walk around with the typical Iirsh Begrudger mentality

That's probably what it really cost, the other €35,964,000 having gone on bribery and corruption, which will no doubt be proven after a tribunal investigation costing €50 million.

Gilda Fortune

ejmaztec wrote: »

That's probably what it really cost, the other €35,964,000 having gone on bribery and corruption, which will no doubt be proven after a tribunal investigation costing €50 million.

Dont preach at me, im a taxpayer all my life, im paying huge taxes and expect things are going to get worse before they get better. and i know the state the last government got us into. but i do not begrudge the queen or o'bama visiting. it was actually nice to see some happy news here for a change.

My name is URL

Ireland is one of, if not the most expensive country to visit in Europe. You'd need to be pretty naive to believe that tourists will opt to come here just because Obama or the Queen did. Would you visit a rip-off nation just because Mary McAleese went there once?

The visits were good in the sense that they boosted people's moods for the duration of them. That's the only positive effect they'll have though. Tourism Ireland et al are deluded if they think that the visits will boost tourism numbers despite the fact that hotels, restaurants etc continue to fleece holiday makers.

Gilda Fortune

My name is URL wrote: »

Ireland is one of, if not the most expensive country to visit in Europe. You'd need to be pretty naive to believe that tourists will opt to come here just because Obama or the Queen did. Would you visit a rip-off nation just because Mary McAleese went there once?

The visits were good in the sense that they boosted people's moods for the duration of them. That's the only positive effect they'll have though. Tourism Ireland et al are deluded if they think that the visits will boost tourism numbers despite the fact that hotels, restaurants etc continue to fleece holiday makers.

I agree with this post. It made peoples moral lighter.It made people feel proud.
As for tourisim what i think it did do was bring alot of people out on the day spending money in pubs and hotels, drinking and having dinners or lunches. that kinda thing. I know my mother in law went off to moneygall with her friends from work. they organised a mini bus. they all in their 60's and they had a great day

LighterGuy

There was a lot of "pro queen in Ireland" supporters when she was over here.

Now that the official figures have been realised (nothing that anyone didnt know) but i expect said people will change their tune saying "we're in recession, blah blah blah, we should be used that money for blah blah blah" ... even tho the pricetag was a major arguing factor a few months ago. People knew it.


This is one of these threads will that stink of hypocrissy.
Now that the queen and obama are gone tunes will change.

mikom

Gilda Fortune wrote: »

36k is money well spent on a visit from O'Bama,

Was he visiting LIDL?

ejmaztec

My name is URL wrote: »

Ireland is one of, if not the most expensive country to visit in Europe. You'd need to be pretty naive to believe that tourists will opt to come here just because Obama or the Queen did. Would you visit a rip-off nation just because Mary McAleese went there once?

The visits were good in the sense that they boosted people's moods for the duration of them. That's the only positive effect they'll have though. Tourism Ireland et al are deluded if they think that the visits will boost tourism numbers despite the fact that hotels, restaurants etc continue to fleece holiday makers.

I think it boosted the job prospects of Irish people heading off to the US and the UK. British and American people will have seen how well their fugureheads were welcomed. They've probably already recouped the cost after another load of unemployed people fecked off to these two places since the visits ended.

TheZohanS

My name is URL wrote: »

Ireland is one of, if not the most expensive country to visit in Europe. You'd need to be pretty naive to believe that tourists will opt to come here just because Obama or the Queen did. Would you visit a rip-off nation just because Mary McAleese went there once?

The visits were good in the sense that they boosted people's moods for the duration of them. That's the only positive effect they'll have though. Tourism Ireland et al are deluded if they think that the visits will boost tourism numbers despite the fact that hotels, restaurants etc continue to fleece holiday makers.

There's a huge difference between the Queen and our President, I can't remember having ever seen a coin with Mary's head on it.

But lets look at the bigger picture here, a lot of British people believed that Ireland was war-torn and that the troubles were going on both north and south of the border. I can recall being on holidays in Spain a few years ago and an English couple came up to me for a chat and said it's terrible what's going on all over Ireland and even after I told her I was from Southern Ireland she still asked me if it was dangerous and if my town had been bombed. This was in 2005!!

Now not only have British people been shown that Ireland is not at war, they've also been shown places to visit, the Queen's entire trip was like a big Bord Failte advert.

So now they can see that Ireland is:

1. Safe
2. Has interesting places to visit

Additionally you can reach Ireland by land or sea, a cheap Ryanair flight or a cheap short ferry crossing will get you over and British tourists have the added bonus that we speak English.

I have mixed views about Obamas visit but I would imagine that a lot of second and third generation Irish people over in the US will come over here to visit the "old country" thanks to the extra media coverage Ireland got over in the US because of his visit.

UglyBolloxFace

cgordonfreeman wrote: »

Sorry I forget, how many billion did the UK give us in the bailout again?

Sorry I forgot, how much interest is Britain making from us because of those billions?

Cop on and realise that it's a loan, not a donation ffs.

My name is URL

TheZohan wrote: »

There's a huge difference between the Queen and our President, I can't remember having ever seen a coin with Mary's head on it.

But lets look at the bigger picture here, a lot of British people believed that Ireland was war-torn and that the troubles were going on both north and south of the border. I can recall being on holidays in Spain a few years ago and an English couple came up to me for a chat and said it's terrible what's going on all over Ireland and even after I told her I was from Southern Ireland she still asked me if it was dangerous and if my town had been bombed. This was in 2005!!

Now not only have British people been shown that Ireland is not at war, they've also been shown places to visit, the Queen's entire trip was like a big Bord Failte advert.

So now they can see that Ireland is:

1. Safe
2. Has interesting places to visit

Additionally you can reach Ireland by land or sea, a cheap Ryanair flight or a cheap short ferry crossing will get you over and British tourists have the added bonus that we speak English.

I have mixed views about Obamas visit but I would imagine that a lot of second and third generation Irish people over in the US will come over here to visit the "old country" thanks to the extra media coverage Ireland got over in the US because of his visit.

I wasn't really trying to compare our Prez to the Queen. Just pointing out that the number of tourists visiting is unlikely to change much just because she once came here. GB is already our biggest source of tourists. Something like around 2 million of them visit each year out of a total of 8 million visitors. They do so on their own accord.. not because they want to follow in the footsteps of their head of state. Unless prices go down and businesses start to cop on, then there's simply no point in marketing Ireland as a good place to visit.

The people that think that Ireland is war-torn, even today, are just stupid. It's not as if we live in a world where it's difficult to ascertain the safety of a nation. No amount of state visits will cure ignorance like that.

As an example of just how silly Tourism Ireland and the rest are at times, have a look at this - http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/northern-ireland/republic-tourism-chiefs-to-help-promote-orange-parades-16022550.html

They want to promote sectarian parades as fcuking tourism events. People leave NI in their droves around the 12th of July because of how dangerous it can be, and here they are planning on dressing the thing up as something positive and welcoming. The mind boggles.

Gilda Fortune

UglyBolloxFace wrote: »

Sorry I forgot, how much interest is Britain making from us because of those billions?

Cop on and realise that it's a loan, not a donation ffs.

On a seperate issue I absolutely love ur name:),

ejmaztec

Gilda Fortune wrote: »

Dont preach at me, im a taxpayer all my life, im paying huge taxes and expect things are going to get worse before they get better. and i know the state the last government got us into. but i do not begrudge the queen or o'bama visiting. it was actually nice to see some happy news here for a change.

I'm not preaching at you, and assume that you must be replying to someone else's post, because your post doesn't seem to relate to mine.

cgordonfreeman

UglyBolloxFace wrote: »

Sorry I forgot, how much interest is Britain making from us because of those billions?

Cop on and realise that it's a loan, not a donation ffs.

I realise it's a loan. I realise we must pay it back with interest. Either way, they still gave it to us.