Media silence over Niall Collins story

Ah come off it. Now you're going to argue about what's meant by 'transaction team' in my hypothetical scenario.

He was part of the process. He clearly shouldn't have been.

No employer in the world would accept he was in that meeting and forgot his wife wanted to buy the property.

But in an employment situation Collins would have been long sacked for his other activities.

Quite the generalisation. Granted, they are a different breed alright, but unfair to lable them as sociopaths. I've met a couple of sociopaths in my time and they're a good few rungs down the ladder.

Politicians life goal isn't always power. You can't boil down human nature to just power (despite what is being thought these days). There are many examples of fine politicians & it's easy to knock our politicians and country. Of all the places and all the times to be living, we don't have it bad.

You have to have the ability to buy it in the first place. It has to be available for you to buy. Before Collins didn't recuse himself, it wasn't available.

That's the nub of the issue.

He should have recused himself. If he doesn't resign (which he won't) the people of Limerick will decide what to do with him at the next GE.

Also, lot of legal talk about interest.

It's obvious, (using plain English,not legalese), that his partner had an interest in the site, otherwise she wouldn't have instigated the sale by contacting her solicitor to start the process of buying the land.

That she said she was going to create a medical centre, but built five 2 room apartments instead, is definitely not illegal, but it is slightly distateful.

But that's the point. There is no legal definition of pecuniary interest despite the claims of others so you have to use the commonly understood meaning of the term.

His boss at the time didn't have a bank account, loved brown envelopes and lied at tribunals. There was a culture of corruption all around Collins. FG promised sweeping reforms of local government in 'New Politics' and delivered nothing.

Yes the proposal to sell the land. This was not an official vote to sell the land.

It was a motion binding the council executive to put the land on the market - land that otherwise would not have been available for any purchaser.

One of the interested parties as we know was the spouse of a councillor who voted in that motion - which is a clear conflict of interest, seeing as she allegedly had contacted the council about the sale of those lands prior to the vote also.

I'm only delighted to do it for free.

Stupid nonsense like this is a waste of everyone's time, especially Dáil Éireann, when Christ knows there are enough genuine issues affecting people's lives that need addressing.

I hope Collins uses the statement to eviscerate this trend of gutter hobby journalism from malign biased actors, whose only goal is to defame and destabilise.

What have they be doing the 6 weeks before this story broke in the Dail? Or the past 6 months?

Has the housing crisis eased?

No.

Has the cost of living crisis eased?

No.

Have waiting lists in hospitals decreased?

No.

Have the amount of families in homeless accommodation decreased?

No.

Maybe these TD's could not make such stupid, basic mistakes like this, so we don't have to waste time dealing with it. If they actually do care about the genuine issues affecting people's lives.

If everything The Ditch says is incorrect and everything that Collins did was ethically bove board I'm sure Collins (backed by his party no doubt) will have no problem suing them out of existence.

We hear this line all the time "it's a waste of time", "its a distraction", "it is taking the focus of the problems", all typical BS from government and their supporters to try and distract from the behavour of their party members. I often wonder would you be so blasé about this sort of thing if it was a SF TD?

Every single TD in Dáil Eireann needs to be held to account, no matter how big or small the alleged transgression is, and yes that includes the TD's coming in and facing questions. If they have nothing to hide then it should be no problem answering some questions and clearing up the matter. Maybe we can say by the government attempting to ignore this for over a week is what has led to excuses like you trot out.

Fascinating to see how some people don't think this has reflected badly on his character at all, or that Collins doesn't need to defend his reputation. Absurd indeed.

I know if I was in his shoes, I'd be straight onto my solicitor. You're only as good as your name after all.

That's not what the minutes state.

The alternative is a list system and sever the connection between national politicians and local constituencies.

But I know that will never fly with both pols and voters, so we might as well get used to what we have.