Sunday Independent ‘journalist’ Jody Corcoran is amazing.
He’s written yet another article (this time nearly 2,000 words) criticizing all and sundry for the mess the country is in without once mentioning his great hero Bertie – amazing.
6,000 directors on quango boards – Fuck!
Independent TD Shane Ross in discussion recently.
Leo Varadkar, when in Opposition, did a superb paper on the quangos and he found that between 1997 and 2007 in the Bertie golden years there were 207 state agencies created.
There are 6,000 directors on the boards of quangos and Brendan Howlin is only going to tackle 28 and review 50 next year. This is not adequate.
I was at the PAC yesterday and the Pensions Board came in and we questioned them for about three or four hours. At the end of the day I didn’t know what they did.
There are 16 members on the board who are picked from political favourites and various social partners.
See here for full list of quangos
Pat Kenny on Irish maturity
Discussion on Today with Pat Kenny.
Pat Kenny: The ECB, it’s as much our Central Bank as it is the Germans. We can, if we want, implement changes in policy.
Panelist: But the cheque will, ultimately, be written by the Germans and they’re not going to write the cheque having been let down.
They don’t want to write a cheque in advance of the reforms they’re looking for from Greece, Italy and the rest.
Kenny: The Germans got very big cheques written for them after World War Two, they shouldn’t forget that.
Panelist: They’re not likely to back the solution we would like without trusting that the maturity of the political systems in Ireland or Greece will step up to the plate.
Kenny: Haven’t we, at least in the short term, demonstrated quite a lot of maturity?
Panelist: We have and that’s why we’re seen as the good guys in Europe.
Amazing isn’t it? Pat Kenny, a citizen of a failed state ruled by a crowd of corrupt gombeens, telling the Germans they should be grateful for money given to them by the Americans.
The Germans used that money to create one of the richest, most democratic, most accountable countries in the world.
That success allowed them to hand over about €30 billion to gombeen Ireland to bring the country from the 16th to the 21st century.
And what did our ‘mature’ ruling elite do with the money?
They blew it on a ponzi building boom that enriched the corrupt politicians, bankers and developers while impoverishing the rest of the population for generations to come.
Update on Cllr. Kennedy expenses scandal
I rang Limerick City Council again today to check on that report they promised to send me.
I spoke with a very nice lady who apologised because she thought the report had already been posted.
Said she would deal with the matter immediately.
Great idea for Ryanair?
I see passengers on a Comtel Air flight were forced to pay (cash only) for landing fees, taxes and fuel.
They were told that if they didn’t pay up they would be left stranded in Vienna.
I can already hear the gears in Michael O’Leary’s brain begin to turn.
Enda's Blitzkrieg
I see the Taoiseach has sorted out the Germans.
Poor old Angela must have thought she was caught in a Blitzkrieg.
There’s no messing with our Enda.
Guess who
Guess who said the following.
It really represents cheating, cheating on the students (voters) to win votes before an election.
Yes, Michael Martin, hilarious isn’t it?
The Baroness gives as good as she gets
Is the Irish Army over generalised?
A caller to some radio show yesterday said there were 28 generals in the Irish Army each on a salary of €200,000.
The presenter’s scepticism of this claim was justified when another caller said there were only eleven generals in the army.
But even eleven generals is an astonishing figure for such a small defence force.
In total, there are 9,500 personnel in the Irish Defence Forces. That includes the Navy (just under 1,000 personnel) and the Air Corps (also about 1,000).
In real armies there are (generally) three types of generals.
Brigadier General; commands up to 5,000 soldiers.
Major General; commands up to 15,000 soldiers.
Lieutenant General; commands up to 50,000 plus.
Going by these figures the Irish Army should have just one general, what are the rest of them doing?
Pensions for deceased ministers children – An outrage
Army pensions were the topic of discussion on Liveline yesterday. Army wives and some ex soldiers were reacting to the generous pension arrangements for politicians in comparison to the poor pension provisions for army personnel.
Joe Duffy read out some details on the provisions for widows and children of deceased ministers.
Wife of deceased office holder is eligible for a pension equal to one half of the office holders pension entitlement.
If the deceased had less than three years pensionable service, i.e. was a minister for less than three years, the spouses pension is calculated as if the deceased had served for three years.
The child of a deceased minister may receive a pension up to the age of twenty one. Children’ pensions are flat rate amounts but are revised in line with pay movements. The rates as of November 2008 are €2,996 per child per year.
That every child of a deceased minister is entitled to any monies whatsoever, never mind a pension up to the age of twenty one, is an outrage.
As I have said on many previous occasions – it is long past time that the people of Ireland united to bring our corrupt political system crashing down.