Interested in maladministration. Estd. 2005
Conor Faughnan comparing clampers in the UK with clampers in Ireland.
Experiences in the UK were absolutely appalling.
There were thugs and criminals getting involved, extorting money from ordinary people and behaving in a shameful, shameful way.
That never happened in Ireland.
I see the Government has rejected the recommendation of the Dail Committee on Transport that clampers be banned from operating on hospital grounds.
Transport Minister Leo Varadkar said this was because some people park recklessly in hospital car parks and could impede others and particularly ambulances.
This is a weak excuse. The figures for such reckless parking in hospital grounds are, I suspect, approaching zero.
All reckless parking has the potential to cause major problems, for example, in front of a fire station, or a doctor’s clinic or simply creating a danger for other drivers.
No, this decision makes me suspicious.
I suspect this special exemption has more to do with protecting the massive profits extracted from hospital visitors than anything to do with public safety.
Councillors get pay-offs of up to €64,000 (Disappointment money).
Right wing (formally left wing socialist) politician Pat Rabbitte was on the Marian Finucane Show yesterday morning defending the Government’s ruthless treatment of those who desperately need but are being refused medical cards.
His overall opinion seems to be that people are simply trying it on, trying to put one over on the system and the government. In effect, they’re lying.
His approach is backed up by his strong opinion that such services are no longer possible due to the country’s dire financial circumstances.
(Councillors get pay-offs of up to €64,000 disappointment money)
Rabbitte:
I talked to James Reilly last week and he told me that there was never (heavy emphasis on ‘never’) a case where somebody phoned somebody who was the mother of a Down’s syndrome child to say, had the condition recovered or whatever was alleged (heavy emphasis on ‘alleged’) every day during the election campaign. He said he was satisfied that it never happened.
The clear suggestion here is that these are false claims leaked to the media as part of a political smear campaign against the Government coalition parties.
Marian Finucane responded by saying she heard a spokesperson for Down’s syndrome say that it had happened.
So, who do we believe, politicians whose default position is to lie or the Down’s syndrome spokesperson?
Rabbitte:
All kinds of things were alleged and urban myths grew up over the course of the campaign. No doubt some of them are true but no doubt some of them are not true.
A Dr. Ciara Kelly was on the panel and she challenged Rabbitte’s views. She related a case where a 7 year-old child with leukemia was contacted by officials to check about her condition.
Rabbitte:
Is it unreasonable given the straits we’re in that the situation ought to be examined. As the figures show, there are quite obviously a number of people who didn’t even bother engaging to reply.
(Councillors get pay-offs of up to €64,000 (Disappointment money).
This is a change of tack by Rabbitte. He’s now attacking the small number of people who failed to follow up with their claim for a medical card, possibly out of sheer frustration and stress.
Dr. Kelly responded:
I had patients who didn’t bother to reply as you put it. They were too sick, terminally ill or had learning disabilities. It’s unfair to describe them as not bothering to apply.
Rabbitte:
The fact of the matter is that we’re in the most difficult economic circumstances that we have ever been in and that every area of government expenditure has to be probed in order to try and keep the country viable.
(Councillors get pay-offs of up to €64,000 (Disappointment money).
I see ‘Fianna Fail’ journalist Brendan O’Connor is back in propaganda mode after his party’s good showing in the recent elections.
Here’s a flavour of his article in today’s Sunday Independent.
Indeed the Government, unless they wish to give a further free ride to Sinn Fein, also needs to stop slapping Fianna Fail down and blaming them for everything every time Fianna Fail tries to speak out.
Sometimes you have to have a hierarchy of your enemies, and Fine Gael needs to get their one straight. The new enemy could be a bigger threat to this country than the old enemy.
Mary Hanafin of Fianna Fail.
I’ve always stood on the basis of being an honest representative and working with integrity so I’m not going to label myself as something that I’m not.
I see Mrs. Drumm feared her husband David might drop dead from a heart attack because of all the pressure he was under.
He was working long hours at the bank, she pleaded. Ahhh…the poor man.
The marriage was going through a really tough time she said. Ahhh…the poor woman.
The world was going through a really tough time, she pleaded. Ahhh…the poor…what…the fecking world???
Anyway, the poor woman claims that the €1 million transferred to her account from her husband’s had absolutely nothing, I repeat, absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with hiding money from his creditors.
I mean, the very thought is, I’m sure, repugnant to every fibre of her principled and innocent being.
Still, while I believe her without question, I’m sure there are many, many people out there whose marriages, finances, futures and even lives have been destroyed by the likes of individuals like Drumm who would dearly have wished that he had dropped dead long before he became involved in destroying their lives.
Letter in today’s Irish Times.
Interesting consequence of the elections.
A chara,
So Matt Carthy has completed Sinn Féin’s remarkable quadruple – a seat in each of Ireland’s European constituencies.
For the first time, every person in Ireland is represented by an elected member from the same party – every single one of us, from Antrim to Kerry, has a Sinn Féin MEP.
I imagine this fact will cheer some more than others, but it should please the almost half a million voters who gave Sinn Féin their first preference – over 100,000 more than any other party.
Is mise,
Daire Mag Cuill,
Baile Átha Cliath 7.
I walked into the great hall of government to be met with a wall of absolute silence.
This despite the fact that the hall was full to brim with Labour and Fine Gael politicians, ministers, advisors, special advisors, civil servants and a host of general hangers on.
Timidly, I approached a small group of FG/Lab TDs sitting at a table where they were studying with great intensity the recent election results.
What’s going on, I whispered?
Ssssshhhhhh…..they replied in barely audible tones….We’re listening.
Listening to what?
To the people, we think they’re trying to tell us something…..but we’re not sure what.
Surely it’s that they’re not happy with your performance in power?
No, no, no, they replied in chorus through gritted teeth.
We’ve done everything right. It’s just that the benefits of our enlightened rule haven’t trickled down to the peasant level yet.
You mean their ignorance is preventing them from appreciating all the hard work you’ve done on their behalf?
Yes, we’re completely stumped by the electorate’s ungratefulness.
We know we’re doing right because the bankers, the regulators, the EU, our fellow politicians and people of power and influence in general have been constantly telling us what a great job we’re doing.
But maybe the peasants resent that approach; maybe they want you to pay more attention to their needs?
Yes, of course, that’s why we’re here……listening, listening with great intensity.
Have you heard anything yet?
Not a thing….sure how could we with all that mad racket going on outside our ivory tower.
It is now almost certain that Sinn Fein will be part of the next government and that means – decision time.
Will they accept power and cooperate with our corrupt political/administrative system?
Labour in 1992, the Progressive Democrats, the Green Party and Labour again in 2011 all decided to cooperate with the corrupt system in order to reap the benefits of power rather than challenge the rotten system for the good of Ireland and its people.
I hope Sinn Fein resist the temptation but I fear they will not.
I felt physically sick as I listened and watched that little prick Alan Shatter preen himself in front of my parliament and announce ‘his decisions’, on how he was going to disperse my money.
The €70,000 so called disappointment money for ministers who retire or, like Shatter, find themselves forced out of office for incompetence or worse, is nothing short of shame money granted to the incompetents by a corrupt body politic.
Any human with even a smidgen of decency, with even a hint of morality would make a discreet phone call to quickly disassociate themselves from the taint of such a disgusting payment.
But Shatter is not a decent human by any measure. He’s nothing but a pompous, self-regarding egotistic arsehole.
Like many, I thought the prick was going to make a significant announcement in front of Leinster House, that perhaps he was going to help clean up Irish politics by resigning.
But no, this excuse for a public representative cynically stretched out his ego circus for two days before telling the nation of his ‘decision’.
Have a look at the prick’s face as he informed the nation that he had decided to keep the severance payment before announcing that he was going to donate our money to his favourite charity.
This was supposed to be his big dramatic moment, when the media and nation would gasp in shock at his decision to keep the money quickly followed by deep gratitude and admiration for his unstinting generosity.
It seems, however, that his tiny, principles free brain wasn’t given a copy of the script and so, instead of looking like a great national hero, we witnessed a moronic sneer spread across the prick’s face.
All hail the generous idiot