Pippa Hackett

Annasopra

Homelander wrote: »

You do realise how Seanad elections work?

She was basically elected on that panel by a handful of Councillors.

The electorate for the Seanad isnt a handful of Councillors. It is all 949 Councillors plus all TDs and Senators.

Galwayguy35

The Seanad is nothing more than a well paid stop gap for candidates who the public rejected and now one of them gets a cushy job at the cabinet table.

The Greens spent the last few years going on about how wrong the political system was and yet here they are with their head in the money trough same as the rest of them.

Silentcorner

KiKi III wrote: »

Is she a good person? Is she intelligent? Is she hard working? Is she articulate?

I think it is safe to say it was her genitals that got her where she is!!!

TheValeyard

Sometimes I do think we need a Second Republic.

SouthWesterly

Edgware wrote: »

I know but those honest socially responsible people in Sinn Fein give most of theirs to the Party

They give some of it... Not most. the average industrial wage story was a fable to suck in the gullible

KiKi III

Silentcorner wrote: »

I think it is safe to say it was her genitals that got her where she is!!!

Did she shag Eamon Ryan?

She deserves the €16k.

tabby aspreme

Joeseph Balls wrote: »

She was on local radio a few months back giving it the whole electric cars are the way forward, go green etc, until the DJ said to her 'Did you not drive here in a big Landcruiser jeep?'

She's not too popular in the local area.

You need a Landcruiser, to pull the horsebox, when you breed Thoroughbred horse's for horse racing, I'm not sure what the Green Partys current stance is on horse racing or the use of land for such purposes , Ms Hackett, who's ministerial brief includes land use, no longer mentions the Equine side of their farming business, just the cattle sheep and chicken's .

KiKi III

Homelander wrote: »

Well, you could argue what's the point of democratic elections so if they can be side stepped in this fashion?

Pippa Hackett was rejected by the electorate. It doesn't matter how she got in or who made the system, that doesn't make it right that she wound up at Cabinet with zero experience and after being rejected by our incredibly fair PR STV system.

I never once claimed she's not capable or intelligent, that is not the point.

The Seanad "elections" are bad enough, and personally I would be happy to see it abolished, but that's a different story - as is someone leapfrogging from a Council seat they barely got voted into, to a €140K Cabinet seat after losing a GE a few months previous.

This particular method of getting a Senator into cabinet was only used twice in the entire history of Irish politics since 1922.

And the times it was used, were very different times, culturally, socially, politically, far removed from the standards to which politicians are held today and the invasive scrutiny they are placed under.

That tells you all you need to know - it's generally not used, as a) it's largely unnecessary anyway and b) generally inappropriate in any case as it undermines our system of electing public officials.

I mean, where do you draw the line? What if Leo Varadkar loses his seat in the next GE? Would it be OK to put him in the Seanad and then sneak him back into Cabinet via the constitution backdoor anyway, who cares what people vote for?

Somehow I don't think anyone would be OK with that.

These are all good arguments for reform of the Seanad.

We had the option to get rid of it not so long ago and decided to keep it; unfortunately much vaunted reforms never came about.

I wasn't allowed vote in Seanad elections as a UL graduate but I'll be allowed vote in it as a Trinity grad as of January. Totally archaic, and in many ways flawed.

Still doesn't strike me that Pippa Hackett is any less deserving than any of the Taoiseach's appointees, who regularly have no political experience at all.

Joeseph Balls

tabby aspreme wrote: »

You need a Landcruiser, to pull the horsebox, when you breed Thoroughbred horse's for horse racing, I'm not sure what the Green Partys current stance is on horse racing or the use of land for such purposes , Ms Hackett, who's ministerial brief includes land use, no longer mentions the Equine side of their farming business, just the cattle sheep and chicken's .

I know exactly what she uses it for, and that was her reply, but you hardly need a Landcruiser to drop your kids to school, get milk in the local shop etc whilst you tell everyone else to buy an EV.
Yea funny she no longer mentioned the equine side,
Practice what you preach and all that.

KiKi III

Joeseph Balls wrote: »

I know exactly what she uses it for, and that was her reply, but you hardly need a Landcruiser to drop your kids to school, get milk in the local shop etc whilst you tell everyone else to buy an EV.
Yea funny she no longer mentioned the equine side,
Practice what you preach and all that.

Are you suggesting she should have a Landcruiser for farming and a separate EV for grocery shopping?

Ahd has she actually said "everyone else" should buy EVs, or has she said it's something that the government should encourage?

ronivek

Joeseph Balls wrote: »

I know exactly what she uses it for, and that was her reply, but you hardly need a Landcruiser to drop your kids to school, get milk in the local shop etc whilst you tell everyone else to buy an EV.
Yea funny she no longer mentioned the equine side,
Practice what you preach and all that.

So what is she supposed to do to transport her horses? Buy a second electric vehicle and have her husband push the horse trailer while she pulls from the front?

Dtp1979

ronivek wrote: »

So what is she supposed to do to transport her horses? Buy a second electric vehicle and have her husband push the horse trailer while she pulls from the front?

With the wages we’re all Paying them, they could certainly afford to anyway

Joeseph Balls

KiKi III wrote: »

Are you suggesting she should have a Landcruiser for farming and a separate EV for grocery shopping?

Ahd has she actually said "everyone else" should buy EVs, or has she said it's something that the government should encourage?

To be honest, I couldn't care what she has. I was just stating what was said on the radio, relax
IMO, a Landcruiser is the best way to go grocery shopping
Edit: and yeah, the green partys policy is against horse and greyhound racing

Dtp1979

Joeseph Balls wrote: »

To be honest, I couldn't care what she has. I was just stating what was said on the radio, relax
IMO, a Landcruiser is the best way to go grocery shopping
Edit: and yeah, the green partys policy is against horse and greyhound racing

Wouldn’t it be funny if she was found to be using green diesel in her land cruiser

Joeseph Balls

Dtp1979 wrote: »

Wouldn’t it be funny if she was found to be using green diesel in her land cruiser

It would be hilarious but she wouldn't do that, she'd be straight enough that way.

Stovepipe

SouthWesterly wrote: »

They give some of it... Not most. the average industrial wage story was a fable to suck in the gullible

Up to a point. At least one well-known Shinner TD refused point blank to accept the "average industrial" wage and took it home, as was his right. One Shinner I know told me that the few who took home the AVI got the money back from the Party in other ways, so that they weren't out of pocket..

ChikiChiki

This Government have made themselves universally despised already. It seems entitlement is back stronger than ever and charlatans have got in with the sole aim of personal enrichment.

Very concerning events to date.

Stovepipe

Rodney Bathgate wrote: »

The trade unions protected their ‘current’ members (at the time) at the expense of ‘future’ members by agreeing deals. But the government is to blame for the trade unions selling out ‘future’ members.

That particular tactic has been tried in several State organisations with varying success; I recall it being imposed upon the Defence Forces until it was challenged by an NCO who stood up at one briefing about it and dared them to touch his wages/contract without permission. The gist of it was that if the NCos and lower ranked Officers didnt take the hit, the lowest paid would and in due course,the lowest paid privates and aptces took the hit and the end result was old sweats jumping ship to take their pension and a drain of young privates and apprentices,which left huge gaps in the establishment of the DF,all to save a few quid and top up the bonuses of senior civil servants.

Sean.3516

The fact that she's not a TD doesn't mean she can't be in cabinet or be a minister. She just has to be a member of the Oireachtas, which she is.

Out of curiosity, does anybody know if a member of the Seanad could be Taoiseach? From what I've found you need a majority in the Dail but there's nothing that says you have to be a member of the Dail.

I know that in other parliamentary democracies, members of the upper house have been Premiers. It's been rare in recent times but Britain has had many Prime Ministers from the House of Lords.

AlekSmart

Joeseph Balls wrote: »

To be honest, I couldn't care what she has. I was just stating what was said on the radio, relax
IMO, a Landcruiser is the best way to go grocery shopping
Edit: and yeah, the green partys policy is against horse and greyhound racing

Do you happen to have a link to the Local Radio interview ?

I suppose one could suggest she yokes the ponies to the Land Cruiser and goes for the burn ?

Galwayguy35

Sean.3516 wrote: »

The fact that she's not a TD doesn't mean she can't be in cabinet or be a minister. She just has to be a member of the Oireachtas, which she is.

Out of curiosity, does anybody know if a member of the Seanad could be Taoiseach? From what I've found you need a majority in the Dail but there's nothing that says you have to be a member of the Dail.

I know that in other parliamentary democracies, members of the upper house have been Premiers. It's been rare in recent times but Britain has had many Prime Ministers from the House of Lords.

She was rejected by the voters and now is a super junior with big salary, it makes a mockery of the whole thing, bad and all as the rest of them are they at least got elected.

I cant understand how thick some voters were that they bottled it when we had the chance to get rid of the Seanad.

suicide_circus

Are there any other examples of someone being rejected by the electorate in a bid to be a TD, getting into the Senate and then being appointed to a junior ministry in this fashion?

The optics are not good.

Eric Cartman

suicide_circus wrote: »

Are there any other examples of someone being rejected by the electorate in a bid to be a TD, getting into the Senate and then being appointed to a junior ministry in this fashion?

The optics are not good.

you'd bet their increase that if it was an FF senator there would be wall to wall media condemnation.

suicide_circus

Eric Cartman wrote: »

you'd bet their increase that if it was an FF senator there would be wall to wall media condemnation.

and rightly so.

i do want to know if this is common practice though before i launch into one of my trademarked ill informed foul-mouthed tirades.

Buford T. Justice XIX

suicide_circus wrote: »

and rightly so.

i do want to know if this is common practice though before i launch into one of my trademarked ill informed foul-mouthed tirades.

Two previous instances of it happening before but never used for a junior ministry.

The whole idea was to have the ability to bring in outside expertise for a particular purpose , eg, finance or foreign affairs, and this appointment doesn't come in under that heading no matter how much you stretch credulity for it to fit.

suicide_circus

right so, i'm agin it!

chrisd2019

Rodney Bathgate wrote: »

The trade unions protected their ‘current’ members (at the time) at the expense of ‘future’ members by agreeing deals. But the government is to blame for the trade unions selling out ‘future’ members.

Short term bonus for the Union current members, however as time passes the "future" members grow in number and resent their lower salaries, which the unions accepted.
So much so that a substantial number of civil Servants recruited under the current pay scale are refusing to join the Unions.

keano_afc

You have to hand it to this administration in fairness. About a month in the job and already utterly despised. Its quite a feat.

mikhail

SouthWesterly wrote: »

They give some of it... Not most. the average industrial wage story was a fable to suck in the gullible

Well, whatever the truth of it, they officially abandoned it four years ago.
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/sinn-f%C3%A9in-to-end-industrial-wage-policy-for-tds-1.2741686

TallGlass2

keano_afc wrote: »

You have to hand it to this administration in fairness. About a month in the job and already utterly despised. Its quite a feat.

And about to go on holidays or break as they call it.

Surprised they are not the holders of 'The Best Place to Work 2020'.

Like imagine been paid, 100 odd thousand a year have a few advisers that actually work for you, show up to work as you please, get the lads to vote for you the odd time and then the rest of the time your on holidays.