Irish Politics, Politicians in Ireland, TDs, Irish Government

A fair deal for all

Seen on Cllr. Michael O' Brien

Early last year when I was Chairman of the 883 member Association of County & City Councils, I led a campaign to correct an unfair denial of rights for Councillors for their contribution to public service prior to 2000. Our Association’s attempted since that year to correct an unfair anomaly continued to be thwarted by the... Continue reading »

McLaughlin stands in South Antrim

Seen on SAOIRSE32

McLaughlin stands in South Antrim Filed under: an príomhbhóthar BBC Sinn Fein’s Mitchel McLaughlin has made a surprise switch of constituency for next March’s assembly election. Mitchel McLaughlin is to stand in South Antrim Mr McLaughlin is moving to South Antrim, where Sinn Fein does not currently have an assembly seat. He said he... Continue reading »

Ahern treated electorate unfairly

Seen on 'political quote'

Bertie Ahern’s complaints about the coverage of the controversy about his finances shows how skewered Irish political morals have become. Today Bertie Ahern is in the Irish Times whinging about how unfairly he was treated ( I also heard him on the radio yesterday) by the media. Why are we even tolerating such complaints? Why is that whenever a... Continue reading »

Labour’s new website

Seen on ElectricNews.net:News

Labour’s new website The US Democrats spent a load of cash using the internet to first select their candidate and then take on George Bush. Little good it did them. And that’s in one of the most wired societies. So it’s with a modicum of doubt that we perused the new Labour Party website. It looks okay, but will it bring them new votes or... Continue reading »

Unmarried Fathers to protest at Four Courts

Seen on 'political quote'

A veritable “sea of Santas” will be protesting outside the Four Courts on December 23 at high noon. This is according to an e-mail I received today from Niall Murphy on behalf of the The Unmarred And Separated Fathers Of Ireland. The purpose of the protest is “to highlight the pain and suffering unmarried fathers have to go through because of... Continue reading »

Increase in Forestry Grants

Seen on IrishFarming.ie - Connecting The Irish Farming Community

Ms Mary Wallace TD, Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture and Food with responsibility for Forestry, announced that she had secured agreement from the EU Commission to increase forestry planting grants paid by her Department. The current grants will increase by an average 14.4%. The maximum grants available will now range from €3,573... Continue reading »

The pink eye on Charlie

Seen on Best of Both Worlds

In a sign that the Moriarty tribunal revelations about Charlie Haughey may have raised more eyebrows abroad than at home, the Financial Times’ Quentin Peel offers some thoughts on the implications of the findings, particularly for the Republic’s international reputation for corruption. The article is free, and concludes — Enda Kenny, leader of... Continue reading »

Ahern’s inconsistencies

Seen on Public Inquiry

Sarah points out an article by Colm Keena in the IT today, where he quotes Bertie Ahern’s speech after the publication of the McCracken Tribunal report. Here is the quote from the Dail archive: In so far as I could with little available records I am satisfied, having spoken to the person who administered the account, that it was used for bona... Continue reading »

Men of Honour

Seen on The Monkey's Typewriter

On Morning Ireland today there was a short piece previewing tonight’s Prime Time Investigates programme on lending practices in Ireland. It seems that one of the reasons why financial institutions are so eager to shower us with cash is that the punishment for bad debtors can end up like something out of a Dickens’s novel. One of the cases... Continue reading »

Parish pump infrastructure

Seen on Best of Both Worlds

Among the evolving issues in the operation of Dublin’s showpiece infrastructure project, the Port Tunnel, since its opening yesterday — [Day 1] Operators of the new route had promised to open it ‘after lunch’ but there were delays because of the large number of people attending the opening ceremony. Up to 1,000 people attended the opening of... Continue reading »

I React in Dis-belief…

Seen on Fergus O'Rourke - Journal - Of Laws and Men

… and I hope that I am not alone. Our Minister for Enterprise has expressed his “utter disbelief” that the ICTU is, among other things, suggesting that BES investments would be used as a tax-avoidance measure. Neither I nor (I imagine) the ICTU is unaware that many BES companies benefit from the scheme, and that the State does well from its... Continue reading »

Blankety blank

Seen on Weblog of a Senior Citizen

The immortal words of Bertie Ahern - “If I ever for a moment had thought that by signing a cheque, which was a practice that everybody did in the country, let’s be very frank and honest about it and not be prudish about it, I would have never signed them,” This is a statement by the leader […]... Continue reading »

New look Labour at labour.ie

Seen on 'political quote'

Labour has had an extreme makeover and it has taken years off! The new all singing all dancing website at www.labour.ie is an attractive and easy to use website which, no matter which way you swing, politically, must be acknowledged as the most attractive site on the web as far as Irish political parties go. The biggest change is the blog. The... Continue reading »

Moriarty Tribunal report - Comparing Haughey and Fitzgerald’s dealings with AIB

Seen on Semper Idem

Moriarty Tribunal report - Comparing Haughey and Fitzgerald’s dealings with AIB Filed under: Irish Politics, Dublin, Morality, Politics There is an instructive segment within the Moriarty tribunal’s report comparing the treatment of Haughey at the hands of AIB, and Garrett Fitzgerald. It is a short segment at page 48, and is quite interesting,... Continue reading »

Haughey

Seen on Bock the Robber

Eh, what? The Moriarty Report causes consternation and people are shocked. Could somebody please explain? What? Have I been asleep for the last couple of years? Listen, Haughey was a fucking crook, a megalomaniac, a thug, the worst thing that happened to Ireland in the last fifty years, a two-faced, thieving, bullying gangster who looked after... Continue reading »

IrelandOffline Comments on latest CSO Figures

Seen on IrelandOffline

IrelandOffline welcomes the CSO ICT report on information society statistics and furthermore, welcome the 47% increase in broadband subscribers since Q2 2005 and the corresponding 11% decrease in numbers using slow dial-up access. However, IrelandOffline expresses its concern at the widening gap in the percentage of households in Ireland... Continue reading »

CHRISTMAS POST

Seen on The Labour Party - People - Liz McManus TD - Weblog

FINALLY we had the announcement of Labour’s second candidate Nicky Kelly in Arklow. Pat Rabbitte came to do the honours. There was a great turnout. There were a few people unhappy with the decision but the overwhelming view was that two candidates offer Labour the best chance of two seats in Wicklow. This is a vital achievement and could... Continue reading »

Town Council Budget, 2007

Seen on Cllr Damien Blake, Letterkenny Town Council

Last night’s Council meeting saw us pass our Budget for 2007, and set the new Commercial Rate. In the end, we passed a rate increase of 4%, which is either slighly above, slightly below or in line with inflation, depending on which metric you use. Last year’s rise, of 3%, was below most inflationary estimates by the time the year end came... Continue reading »

Pope is Catholic

Seen on Skangerland

So Haughey was a crook. No shit. On a related point I can reveal that bears do shit in the woods. Of course, the fact that Bertie signed blank cheques for the man will slither of the back of the current Taoiseach like shit off a shovel. I suppose the excuse will be that Bertie was only a young fellah at the time and didn’t know any better.... Continue reading »

We’d like the island and the big house back, thanks

Seen on Skin Flicks

First things first. Let’s save trees. That’s what the interweb is for. Download your copy of the Moriarty Report here. Now you have your Christmas reading material sorted. Of course, Charlie Bird and numerous other breathless hacks have already spoiled the best gags in there, like how our evil hero Charlie Haughey stole three quarters of his... Continue reading »

Moriarty Tribunal Report

Seen on Irish Law Updates

The Moriarty Tribunal report on payments to Charles Haughey is available at www.moriarty-tribunal.ie/images/sitecontent_26.pdf Sample News Story: www.rte.ie/news/2006/1219/moriarty.html : Haughey severely criticised by Moriarty 19 December 2006 22:45 The first report of the Moriarty Tribunal has said payments received by the former... Continue reading »

55 years of service to Westport Labour honoured

Seen on 'political quote'

The Labour Party honoured Michael Joe Lavelle on Friday 15th December night. Michael Joe has been a loyal and dedicated member of the Westport Branch of the party for over 55 years and his service was recognised at the Westport Branch’s Christmas Party which was held on Friday night in Henehan’s Bar. The Branch and its supporters along with... Continue reading »

The unknown Haughey legacy

Seen on Twenty Major - still smoking in Dublin bars.

So the report into the activities of former Taoiseach Charles Haughey was published and there can’t have been any surprises. Here is a man who stole money from a fund collected to raise money for his colleague and so-called friend, Brian Lenihan, to have a liver transplant in the US. Over £265,000 was collected, less than £70,000 went towards the... Continue reading »

Technology Grant for Ballyhaunis School

Seen on Ballyhaunis - County Mayo - Ireland

According to Mayo Fianna Fáil TD, John Carty. Ballyhaunis Community School will receive €43,000 from the grant. Students will receive PCs, laptops, printers, digital scanners and data projectors to help prepare them for their four new technology subjects to be introduced next year. Let’s see if this actually happens - or is it all just talk and... Continue reading »

Charles J. Haughey: an apology

Seen on Oliver Kamm

I wrote a post six months ago on the death of Charles Haughey, the former Irish Prime Minister. In it I stated: Haughey turned out to be as financially corrupt as he was politically sinister. He received secret payments of more than €10 million from businessmen while he was in office, and was eventually forced to pay tax on them only in 2003... Continue reading »