PHIL HOGAN NEEDS TO RESIGN.

facehugger99

Frightening that Varadkar and Martin would flush Ireland's commissionership down the drain to placate the mob and serve their narrow party interests.

It tells you everything you need to know about the cowardly politicians in this country.

What's even more frightening is that SF wait in the wings - this country is truly ****ed.

We badly need a new political party to represent the working people of this country

Dyr

facehugger99 wrote: »

Frightening that Varadkar and Martin would flush Ireland's commissionership down the drain to placate the mob and serve their narrow party interests.

It tells you everything you need to know about the cowardly politicians in this country.

What's even more frightening is that SF wait in the wings - this country is truly ****ed.

We badly need a new political party to represent the working people of this country

Yes, a party to represent the working people led by Phil Hogan

fly_agaric

First Up wrote: »

It is not about showing "favouritism". It is about understanding (and caring) how the minutiae of EU - UK trade relations will impact on sectors and regions. Of course it isn't just down to Hogan but he has about 100 staff feeding into the system and he has a great rapport with Barnier.

There's loads of trade-offs in these matters and there's a million things to think about. We are much better off with someone in charge who has our issues close to the top of the list.

Every minute of every day of EU membership involves a bit of nudging, lobbying, persuading and thinking outside the box. We have been rather good at it for going on 50 years and having an Irish Commissioner in the most important job at the most important time is hugely important and valuable.

We would be shooting ourselves in the feet, hands and head if we throw that away to score a few political points.

Nuance is lost here I think. Alot of the ones posting here + moaning about our "betters" probably vote for the local "big man" who brings home the bacon for the parish + goes to bat against dem up in Dublin.

It must be a binary thing. Either the commissioner Ireland sends over shows favouritism and naked bias to Ireland throughout how he operates or he is "useless" and may as well be from any other EU country.

The political class here are a pretty good reflection of the people + what people actually want in their politicians. PR really ensures that.
Someone who is a cute hoor getting goodies for the local area. Someone who they look up for that cuteness.

Seeing as this thread is partly a good whinge about the EU, look at some of our MEPs over the years. i.e. the EU reps of Ireland who we can directly elect.
Mick Wallace, Ming and Brian Crowley. Mick Wallace is the best of that lot IMO and that is not saying much really. Look at the poor turnout & lack of interest in EU and local elections. The lack of knowledge about what the EU is or how it works is also quite stunning on the thread. I'm no expert myself but I do remember some of what I learned about it in civics a long time ago.

First Up

facehugger99 wrote:

Frightening that Varadkar and Martin would flush Ireland's commissionership down the drain to placate the mob and serve their narrow party interests.

I think they were (carefully) straddling the fence. They know it isn't their call;

Ursula Von der Leyen will weigh it all up. My guess is a knuckle wrap and more apologies and back to business. There is a much bigger picture to consider than local Irish political arm wrestling.

Gerry Hatrick

facehugger99 wrote: »

Frightening that Varadkar and Martin would flush Ireland's commissionership down the drain to placate the mob and serve their narrow party interests.

It tells you everything you need to know about the cowardly politicians in this country.

What's even more frightening is that SF wait in the wings - this country is truly ****ed.

We badly need a new political party to represent the working people of this country

Stop hurling from the ditch and off you go so.

lawrencesummers

facehugger99 wrote: »

Frightening that Varadkar and Martin would flush Ireland's commissionership down the drain to placate the mob and serve their narrow party interests.

It tells you everything you need to know about the cowardly politicians in this country.

What's even more frightening is that SF wait in the wings - this country is truly ****ed.

We badly need a new political party to represent the working people of this country

They can’t be any worse. I for one would welcome a different and Very much antiquated version of corruption that SF would bring.

Gerry Hatrick

Is there anyway of finding out if Hogan got points his licence for the using the phone whilst driving offence ?

caveat emptor

It's crazy that we are saying he has to stay because he is Irish and will favour us even though he is sworn to look after the interests of the EU as a whole.

So either he doesn't uphold his oath and treats 1.3% of the population (Ireland) of the EU preferentially (6 million people)or
he respects his oat and weighs up Irish interests fairly in terms of the proportion of the EU population. (446 million people)

He can't do both. Either the institution is corrupt and the oath is meaningless or big Phil is duty bound not to be on our side.

Commissioners swear an oath at the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg City,
pledging to respect the treaties and to be completely independent in carrying out their duties during their mandate

There is one member per member state, but members are bound by their oath of office to
represent the general interest of the EU as a whole rather than their home state.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Commission

Hawthorn Tree

facehugger99 wrote: »

Frightening that Varadkar and Martin would flush Ireland's commissionership down the drain to placate the mob and serve their narrow party interests.

It tells you everything you need to know about the cowardly politicians in this country.

What's even more frightening is that SF wait in the wings - this country is truly ****ed.

We badly need a new political party to represent the working people of this country

I agree and Phil actually sunk that party when he gave Irish Water to Labour and Alan Kelly. It was a hospital pass by Phil to a naive Alan Kelly.
AK47 and Joan Burton took the flak for the Irish Water superquango and they were most associated with it when GE16 happened.

In GE16 Fine Gael lost 16 seats, Labour lost a staggering 26!

There will be no love lost between Labour and Trickle Hogan.

The Social Democrats are on the way up. Some good honest politicians and one was a particular thorn in Phil's side when he was up to dodgy dealings.

You are most welcome.

Psychiatric Patrick

First Up wrote: »

It is not about showing "favouritism". It is about understanding (and caring) how the minutiae of EU - UK trade relations will impact on sectors and regions. Of course it isn't just down to Hogan but he has about 100 staff feeding into the system and he has a great rapport with Barnier.

There's loads of trade-offs in these matters and there's a million things to think about. We are much better off with someone in charge who has our issues close to the top of the list.

Every minute of every day of EU membership involves a bit of nudging, lobbying, persuading and thinking outside the box. We have been rather good at it for going on 50 years and having an Irish Commissioner in the most important job at the most important time is hugely important and valuable.

We would be shooting ourselves in the feet, hands and head if we throw that away to score a few political points.

Nw was that so difficult? Didn't posting that that feel better than making some narky bad minded comment.

Who is throwing it away to score political points? The Taoiseach?

It has been made clear that he cannot do anything to remove Hogan and who says he wants to? He went public with criticism and what else has he done? Has he asked the EU to sack Hogan?

Of course Martin criticised him. What was he supposed to do? Say "well he was bold but we need him in that job"? That is shooting yourself in the foot.

He had a pop at the guy - maybe for optics and maybe because the whole thing got on his goat - but he had to.

I have serious questions about Hogan's intelligence and he has any regard for Ireland at all. How do you know it benefits Ireland to have him in the job?

Loafing Oaf

Gerry Hatrick wrote: »

Stop hurling from the ditch and off you go so.

I always feel like saying that when people make those sorts of calls/laments on boards.ie.

Hawthorn Tree

https://www.rte.ie/news/ireland/2020/0824/1160880-phil-hogan/

Housing Minister calls for Hogan to resign

Minister O'Brien said Mr Phil Hogan has been a good commissioner and well-respected in Europe "but to pin all our hopes on one individual is simplistic".

He said Michel Barnier has led Brexit negotiations on behalf on the EU and it has also been a whole of government approach with Simon Coveney also heavily involved.

Mr O'Brien said Ireland's strategy around Brexit is not pinned on one individual.

Oh dear. FG are going for it. Very interesting rhetoric too.

First Up

Psychiatric Patrick wrote:

I have serious questions about Hogan's intelligence and he has any regard for Ireland at all. How do you know it benefits Ireland to have him in the job?

Because I clearly know a hell of a lot more about it than you.

Psychiatric Patrick

facehugger99 wrote: »

Frightening that Varadkar and Martin would flush Ireland's commissionership down the drain to placate the mob and serve their narrow party interests.

It tells you everything you need to know about the cowardly politicians in this country.

What's even more frightening is that SF wait in the wings - this country is truly ****ed.

We badly need a new political party to represent the working people of this country

When did they flush it ?

They had a pop at the guy in the media. What do you thing they should have done? Held a press conference to tell the Irish people that this shower are gas altogether and should laugh about it?

bertiebomber

hes a yes man for europe thats alll they bought him thats what they do. pay them well and tell them how to think !

Psychiatric Patrick

lawrencesummers wrote: »

They can’t be any worse. I for one would welcome a different and Very much antiquated version of corruption that SF would bring.

Really?

Psychiatric Patrick

Gerry Hatrick wrote: »

Is there anyway of finding out if Hogan got points his licence for the using the phone whilst driving offence ?

The Guards who stopped him made a report on it so I assume that means yes.

lawrencesummers

Can we give the “Phil is our Man in Brussels for Brexit” a rest.

It’s only a few weeks since he tried to jump ship to a bigger cushier job in the WTO.

He no more cares about Ireland and Brexit than Vladimir Putin cares about his opposition leaders.

lawrencesummers

Psychiatric Patrick wrote: »

Really?

Yea really.
Let them at it, give them a few years and then throw them out again.

Time in power leads to corruption. Thats a simple universal fact.

Psychiatric Patrick

First Up wrote: »

Because I clearly know a hell of a lot more about it than you.

There you go with the narky comments again.

Can you not just answer the question without revealing where you sit on the gowl scale ?

ZeroThreat

caveat emptor wrote: »

It's crazy that we are saying he has to stay because he is Irish and will favour us even though he is sworn to look after the interests of the EU as a whole.

So either he doesn't uphold his oath and treats 1.3% of the population (Ireland) of the EU preferentially (6 million people)or
he respects his oat and weighs up Irish interests fairly in terms of the proportion of the EU population. (446 million people)

He can't do both. Either the institution is corrupt and the oath is meaningless or big Phil is duty bound not to be on our side.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Commission

Actually not even that, 4.9 or perhaps 5 million at best. Unless theres 1 million undocumented hiding here who are invisible to the authorities?

jojofizzio

Psychiatric Patrick wrote: »

The Guards who stopped him made a report on it so I assume that means yes.

Was he not just given a caution? I.e told to just drive on??

Psychiatric Patrick

lawrencesummers wrote: »

Yea really.
Let them at it, give them a few years and then throw them out again.

Time in power leads to corruption. Thats a simple universal fact.

You think there would be a country left after a few years?

And you think they'll let us throw them out?

Mango Joe

Re the platitudes re Hogans work on Brexit... How hard could it be to kick Britain now that they've **** the bed and are now just rolling around in it cluelessly?

Looking forward to Hogan going......Privileged Gob****e.

DeanAustin

quokula wrote: »

I’d imagine most people who are smart enough to have worked their way up to a position as important as his would have thought that accepting an invite to an event that he didn’t organise and he assumed the organisers were following guidelines, where there were fewer than fifty people that he could see in the same area as him due to the partitioning, wouldn’t put his his job in jeopardy because nobody intelligent and rational would have expected that to lead to a mob with their pitchforks out calling for him to resign and shoot ourselves in the foot on the global stage and do possible severe damage to our economy in the Brexit negotiations.

Enda Kenny played golf and refused the dinner on the basis that guidelines weren't being followed. Even if Big Phil didn't cop the violations himself, which is hard to believe, it's stretching credibility beyond breaking point that he wouldn't have known about Kenny's refusal to attend. Yet he carried on regardless.

There is no plausible deniability here.

titan18

Hawthorn Tree wrote:

The Social Democrats are on the way up. Some good honest politicians and one was a particular thorn in Phil's side when he was up to dodgy dealings.

I mean they also had someone break covid rules, and a spokesman said they didn't see the issue as a resigning matter.

“It was a private decision he made, he made the decision to go in a private capacity, we don't think it would be a resigning matter," the spokesman said. “We would prefer if he hadn't gone on holiday. In hindsight it's a decision he regrets and he wouldn't make it again.â€

Seems like they should say the same about Hogan then.

Hawthorn Tree

titan18 wrote: »

I mean they also had someone break covid rules, and a spokesman said they didn't see the issue as a resigning matter.

“It was a private decision he made, he made the decision to go in a private capacity, we don't think it would be a resigning matter," the spokesman said. “We would prefer if he hadn't gone on holiday. In hindsight it's a decision he regrets and he wouldn't make it again.â€

Seems like they should say the same about Hogan then.

Missed that, tell us more. What did this person do? Were they at Clifden? Link?

Psychiatric Patrick

jojofizzio wrote: »

Was he not just given a caution? I.e told to just drive on??

I honestly don't know.

I know of people who got pulled for the same thing and they've all got got points, never anything less. So I thought the Guards were done letting people off with it.

bertiebomber

the head of tourism ireland had to go as he went on hols

Loafing Oaf

quokula wrote: »

he assumed the organisers were following guidelines, where there were fewer than fifty people that he could see in the same area as him due to the partitioning,

How likely is it that he or anyone else attending the dinner wasn't aware there were other guests on the far side of the partition?