Has John O' Donoghue resigned yet

Every party is being hypocritical. However Eamon Gilmore read the public mood and played it well. To see Enda Kenny and FG scamble afterwards to try and take some credit was proof of that. I can't understand how FG and FF continue to misread the public mood. Even today, do we really need Brian Cowan coming out accusing the opposition of jumping on O'Donoghue's grave? You would swear he has been the victim of a great injustice. He is resigning from a post, goes back to being a well paid TD and can look forward to a ministerial pension. Hard to feel sorry for him.
There is nothing to stop O'Donoghue coming out with a Statement explaining his actions. Why does he need a week to prepare one?
Politicians need to stop hiding behind guidelines and procedures when things like this happen. They are public officials and are accountable to the public, not some closed door commission. I say fair play to Labour and Eamon Gilmore.
 
Sunny said:
Even today, do we really need Brian Cowan coming out accusing the opposition of jumping on O'Donoghue's grave? You would swear he has been the victim of a great injustice.
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Absolutely, happens every time with this lot, not only did he not leave with dignity but then he will have his back slapped by all around, even by those who were applying the pressure to remove him in the first place. Follow this with a series of media articles outlining just what a great job he did in the first place and you'd swear we should feel sorry for him. Meanwhile he will swan off on a nice fat pension and never have anything more said about the money he should rightly be asked to pay back. Pathetic.
 
cork said:
Was there not a former Labour leader who stayed at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel when staying in New York as Foreign Minister, instead of staying in the then Irish-owned Fitzpatrick Hotel?

The Labour party are being hypocritical on this one.

What statements did Joan Burton or Eamonn Gilmore issue about the Waldorf Astoria?
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Fairly poor attempt at diversion here. You can put Dick Spring's record up against Johnny Cash's record any day, and we know who's going to come out best.

Did Dick Spring spend €400 to change terminals at Heathrow? Did Dick Spring get the State to pay for his wife's hat? Did Dick Spring have an unending series of junkets?

And that's before you even mention their relative achievements.
 
In fairness i think the £1 claim was an automatic charge on the bill...who is next?
 
Complainer said:
Fairly poor attempt at diversion here. You can put Dick Spring's record up against Johnny Cash's record any day, and we know who's going to come out best.

Did Dick Spring spend €400 to change terminals at Heathrow? Did Dick Spring get the State to pay for his wife's hat? Did Dick Spring have an unending series of junkets?

And that's before you even mention their relative achievements.
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Its absolutely clear that the Fianna Failers are the prime culprits when it comes to snouts in the trough, and should rightly be booted out of office at the first opportunity. However, it is equally clear the the Fine Gael and Labour have some hidden skeletons when it comes to having their cake, and eating ours. How many FG and Lab TDs could stand over their expenses if they were subject to close scrutiny? Also, over several decades of dodgy land rezonings, I bet a fair few FG heads (and even some sainted Lab folks) took the odd brown envelope.
Interestingly, the Labour lot are publicly wedded to the union movement - financially and ideologically, and have been very quiet about the brothers involvement in the FAS debacle.
I say a curse on all their houses - especially on the F.Failers. I hope that FG can muster enough moral courage to make a break from its play it safe strategy, to take some bold (if painful) steps, starting by leading the way on cleaning up the expenses mess. By doing this they can begin to establish the credibility required to run the country.
Failing this, we could seek to become the 51st state, or a westerly satellite of Sweden..........things could only get better......
 
DonDub said:
Its absolutely clear that the Fianna Failers are the prime culprits when it comes to snouts in the trough, and should rightly be booted out of office at the first opportunity. However, it is equally clear the the Fine Gael and Labour have some hidden skeletons when it comes to having their cake, and eating ours. How many FG and Lab TDs could stand over their expenses if they were subject to close scrutiny? Also, over several decades of dodgy land rezonings, I bet a fair few FG heads (and even some sainted Lab folks) took the odd brown envelope.
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Any specifics behind your suspicions?
 
Well lets resign ourselves to the fact that he rifled the tax payer & he will continue to do so until he draws his last breath. In typical Irish fashion, he'll get a golden handshake & a nice pension. Ah 'tis good to be the king!
 
Where here are the full details of his [broken link removed]. Thats just criminal - and I don;t care what anyone says about his 'entitlements'!

So that's it for me! I'm not voting Fianna Fail next election as they have failed to implement recommendations on vouched expenses. See here.
 
From the breakingnews story linked by Ninsaga - Reports this morning say Tom O'Higgins submitted a letter of resignation during the summer because of the refusal of politicians to reform their expenses and allowances.

I'd love to know how this refusal was made. A show of hands, a committe and who exactly refused?

Bloody hell I didn't realise he was getting his CC salary on top of his TD salary. No wonder he didn't want to go.
 
As I say, this is just criminal. Any worthwhile leader would have had the balls to stand up & stop all these benefits to begin with. I think this is only the tip of the iceberg though.

These are our represented leaders! We voted for them to run the country - not to get on the gravy train line their own pockets. This damages the credibility of all politicians who have been coining it for so long in my opinion.
 
As Brian Lenihan says we all need to get a bit of 'perspective' about the whole expenses saga. :rolleyes:

What planet do these politicians operate on? They all hire expensive political advisors and yet still come out with statements like this. No-one is claiming that solving the expenses controversary will fix our economic problems but are they really so thick that they don't understand how angry people are and that they won't just lie down and take massive cuts in living standards and public services while this sort of stuff is going on.
 
are they really so thick that they don't understand how angry people are
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They don't care how angry people are. All they care about is trousering as much of our money as they can.

When the elections come around, the thick public will vote them in again anyway. FG/FF/labour etc - they're all cut from the same cloth.
 
monascribe18 said:
had it been USA he would and should be jailed
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+1


all us little people do is email/write/phone our local TD's and let them know it is not good enough.
i certainly hope the sunday tribune keep up this and target the expenses of Michael martin next.
 
umop3p!sdn said:
They don't care how angry people are. All they care about is trousering as much of our money as they can.

When the elections come around, the thick public will vote them in again anyway. FG/FF/labour etc - they're all cut from the same cloth.
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for what its worth, Finian McGrath details his expenses on his website.
 
Sunny said:
As Brian Lenihan says we all need to get a bit of 'perspective' about the whole expenses saga. :rolleyes:

What planet do these politicians operate on? They all hire expensive political advisors and yet still come out with statements like this. No-one is claiming that solving the expenses controversary will fix our economic problems but are they really so thick that they don't understand how angry people are and that they won't just lie down and take massive cuts in living standards and public services while this sort of stuff is going on.
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Hear, hear!

We know that the budget is going to be painful - and the pain should be felt first and severly in FF. It is galling to listen to Lenihan's patronisng comments.
Solving their attitude to our money IS part of the solution. :mad:
 
dy3qt5.jpg


Link to TD's expenses over the last 2 years.
 
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