bertie and gangs pay rise

rabbit said:
Its laughable to think that de teeshock who speeks like dat
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Far be it from me to defend Bertie, but I don't quite see what his accent has got to do with it? Are all politicians supposed to have D4 accents to meet your high standards?

I'm reasonably sure that this privilege of keep a position open only applies to teachers for some strange reason. I do find it grating that former teachers like Tom Kitt keep their teaching post, when we all know there isn't a snowballs chance in hell of him ever getting back in the classroom. This means that his replacement teacher is left without a permanent contract.
 
RainyDay said:
Far be it from me to defend Bertie, but I don't quite see what his accent has got to do with it? Are all politicians supposed to have D4 accents to meet your high standards?
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Maybe, just maybe, this politician who now thinks his salary should be more than the salaries of the president / prime ministers of much larger industrial nations like the USA, UK, France etc should have got a bit of help from de lads in Manchester - every fella down on his luck should have a few property developers dig in their pockets to give him a digout towards a few auld elocution lessons, and a few pints of de bass while his having dem, to steady de nerves like.

No wonder the German ambassador finds it so easy to get his audience to laugh at us.
 
There's no such thing as proper pronuciation, most Irish people don't pronounce "th" in "Received Pronounciation" style. Bertie speaks clearly enough.

The problem is what he says not how he says it - a few weeks ago he was whining that consultants had the cheek to earn twice his salary - now he's under the illusion that because Gordon Brown gets to use Chequers and No. 10 he deserves compensation as he doesn't have an official residence.

The comparisons made between senior government jobs and high level private sector are just invalid. If there was a danger of say Ryanair or Air Lingus making a move to recruit Minister Dempsey or one of his colleagues or even those superb senior civil servants who sat cluelessly on the Shannon story as their next CEO then it would make some sense to pay salaries to prevent this from happening.

But the danger of that happening is tiny, yes they could become board members as their contacts are always useful but that's not quite the CEO type level to which they reckon they correspond.
 
rabbit said:
every fella down on his luck should have a few property developers dig in their pockets to give him a digout towards a few auld elocution lessons, and a few pints of de bass while his having dem, to steady de nerves like.
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Yorky said:
What's a Dublin 4 accent? He should be able to speak plain English with proper diction, pronunciation and grammar.

If that's a Dublin 4 accent then yes, he should.
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This is just snobbery. There are so many easy targets when criticising Bertie without having to pick on his accent, which (like all of us) is just an accident of birth.
 
Accent debate aside, if the present lot were to find themselves in the private sector, they would have been fired a long time ago, with the possible exceptions of Brian Lenihan, and maybe Bertie..btw wouldnt it be nice if all the teachers in the Dail including Enda Kenny (funny how nobody seems to object to him being called "Inda")would follow Finian McGrath's lead and resign his teaching post?

daithi
 
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RainyDay said:
This is just snobbery. There are so many easy targets when criticising Bertie without having to pick on his accent
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With all that money - he thinks us taxpayers should pay him more than the President of the USA or France are paid by their taxpayers - he may at least spend a few bob at long last on a few elocution lessons.
 

I'm not disagreeing with the substance of your comment but there have been some very notable exceptions; Peter Sutherland, Ray McSharry, Ivan Yates, and Albert Rynolds spring to mind. Peter Sutherland is quite possibly the most successful Irish businessman of all time.
I’m sure there are others.
 
does anyone else take issue with him justifying his salary because he doesn't have an official residence, given the circumstances in which he acquired his house?
 
rmelly said:
does anyone else take issue with him justifying his salary because he doesn't have an official residence, given the circumstances in which he acquired his house?
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No, they are different issues. I think that the office merits a public residence. The American ambassador should be kicked out of the park and Bertie should be installed (thought just while he is in office).
 
does anyone else take issue with him justifying his salary because he doesn't have an official residence, given the circumstances in which he acquired his house?
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Yes of course - but what can you do? We all knew the situation and then voted him back in again.
 
Purple said:
No, they are different issues. I think that the office merits a public residence. The American ambassador should be kicked out of the park and Bertie should be installed (thought just while he is in office).
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Why does the office merit a public residence?
 
rmelly said:
does anyone else take issue with him justifying his salary because he doesn't have an official residence, given the circumstances in which he acquired his house?
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But he does have an official residence. He just chooses not to live there. Too far from Fagans I suspect.
 
ashambles said:
According to wiki

-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Official_residence#.C2.A0Ireland
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Actually, it says that "In 2006 it was announced by the OPW that the Steward's House which is located in the grounds of Farmleigh has been renovated. It is believed that the house will become the official residence of the Taoiseach (although a spokesperson has said Bertie Ahern has no intention of using it), and any official engagements will be carried out in Farmleigh or Government Buildings.[1]".
 
Seeing as everyone may have to tighten their belts a bit in the future, and seeing as world energy prices are rising, could not Bertie and Mary share the overheads of public office + share the same residence in the Phoenix Park ? It would help the environment. Our small country of 1.5 million taxpayers or so should not be asked to pay a Prime Minister - Bertie - more than the leader of the mighty big USA, France or UK gets - as well as a President - Mary McAleese.
 
This is just snobbery. There are so many easy targets when criticising Bertie without having to pick on his accent, which (like all of us) is just an accident of birth.
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Elocution lessons. Many great leaders have had them.

However, his marketing machine have probably decided that he'll get more votes if he sounds like dat.
 
rabbit said:
...Our small country of 1.5 million taxpayers or so...
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Must be more than that? 2.2 million I though and that was a while ago. Unless you mean PAYE only?
rabbit said:
...should not be asked to pay a Prime Minister - Bertie - more than the leader of the mighty big USA, France or UK gets - as well as a President - Mary McAleese.
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Alot of the USA's money is all going on military funding and other "ventures" which Ireland doesn't (yet) have I would think.
 

So how we are perceived by visiting politicians/ senior civil servants/ business people and a sense of respect for the highest executive office in our country is less important than penny pinching? What is it in our national mind-set that resents those in high office for the resources that have access to? It's not that long ago that many people thought that the government should not have any aeroplanes.
 
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