Irish politics discussion thread

and pixie lott as mary davis

i hadn't given any credence to the polls showing gallagher the big lead last week, but the red c poll data about swingers backed it up

Transfers doing wonders for gay.

paying 1bn tranche of anglo bonds from taxpayer funds tomorrow- not even senior debt afaik

Politicians and bankers lining up on primetime now to tell us why

Corrupt, lying motherfuckers

studio discussion was 'unsatisfactory'

and again at the end of this week, though at long, long last the media are starting to attempt to profile where/to whom and therefore why the irish govt is paying such huge sums to unsecured investors in dead companies

Ironic thing is that there'll be a huge and IMPORTANT debate when terry pratchett or whoever finally goes the assisted suicide route, we're not only lemming it financially, we've to fuckin report progress to the doctor in charge every three months

NAMAste, deems

deathlols

i've a fine righteous anger on me today, channelling it into landlord negotiations. Averaging 13% across the board so far, can't work out if i'm helping or exacerbating the problem tbph.

Dunph taking it to the bin companies on the Late Late. Fight the power

He's had a few

way to scorn his main source of nutrition

any time Eamon needs to reach for a symbol of Irish greatness he goes for horse racing. It's hilarious

& padraig harrington

Referendum a coming! I love EU refererendums.

Taking Sides:

Passing the referendum will lead to our enslavement, forced abortions for all, and mass conscription v. Rejecting the referendum will lead to our expulsion from the EU and reversion to a barter economy based on the potato.

latter, pls

latter all day

right

FF split
Referendum
Hotel in bundoran sells for 650k
Central bank to ease into negative equity sales
Exchequer take up by 1bn vs last year
IMF lobbying for us

Is there really nothing to talk about

plus sean sherlock passed that fucking awful legislation

1000 messages to get from ff re-elected to here.

― socks & pwns may break my bwns (darraghmac), Monday, 9 May 2011 02:40 (10 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

160 million euros per message, that

― socks & pwns may break my bwns (darraghmac), Monday, 9 May 2011 02:41 (10 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

chilling

hows all

flynn corrupt
Lawlor corrupt
Rambo corrupt
FF corrupt
Bertie- ah jaysus, hard to say

!?

The following is the full text of a statement issued by former taoiseach Bertie Ahern tonight, in response to the findings of the Mahon tribunal:

"I note the publication today of the Mahon Tribunal Final Report which are not the findings of a court of law.

At the outset, I want to make clear that I have had the great honour and privilege to serve as an elected politician for over 30 years. I have dedicated my life to politics and serving the interest of the Irish people in politics. I have never accepted a bribe or a corrupt payment.

The Tribunal into Certain Planning Matters was established to inquire into allegations of planning corruption in Dublin. After spending over a decade of inquiries and countless millions of euros, the Tribunal has not made – nor could it make – a finding to support the scurrilous and untrue allegation that I had been given a corrupt payment by Mr Owen O'Callaghan (the Cork based developer of Quarryvale) or any of his companies.

On this key substantive point there is no evidence whatsoever to show I received anything from Mr O'Callaghan.

Nor could there be because, put simply, this never happened.

The only reason that the Tribunal was allowed to investigate me was the entirely untrue and unworthy allegation that I had received money from Owen O'Callaghan. Without that allegation (which in truth was no more than rumour and gossip) it had no mandate at all to carry out a general inquiry into my finances and a trawl of my personal life.

>From the report it is clear, not a single witness at the Mahon

Tribunal directly stated that I was given a bribe (other than Mr Thomas Gilmartin). And he stated he was only repeating what he claimed he had been told by Owen O’Callaghan. Mr O’Callaghan was always clear that he never made that claim to Mr Gilmartin.

It is a matter of fact that I had nothing at all to do with the rezoning of the lands at Quarryvale. I was not a councillor on Dublin County Council and never exercised planning or zoning powers in respect of that site.

I am disappointed that the Tribunal has said that I failed to give “a truthful account.” That statement is unfair and inaccurate having regard to the evidence. It is one that I cannot and I will never accept and I will continue to examine ways in which to vindicate my name.

I was honest with the Tribunal and I gave it truthful evidence and I reject completely any suggestion that I did otherwise.

What I find most remarkable is that even where there is no evidence to the contrary, in many instances, my evidence has been summarily rejected and no good reason has been set out for why this is the case.

I am incredulous that the Tribunal has made findings rejecting the evidence of a number of individuals – including a number of friends who loaned me money –whose evidence supported mine. In the case of almost every person who lent me money, their explanations were not challenged at the hearings in any substantial way. I believe this is fundamentally unfair.

I find it extraordinary that the Tribunal has also disregarded the expert evidence that was given to it on tax, accounting and banking matters which supported me.

In particular, I believe that the notion that I got large sums of sterling and dollars is objectionable, inaccurate and without an iota of foundation.

Given the significance of the issue, this conclusion is all the more surprising because it has been arrived at without deploying the resources of a forensic accountant or an independent banking witness.

The Tribunal had unlimited resources available to it.

I find it startling and disturbing that despite its resources, the Tribunal did not employ any relevant experts but at the same time, declined to hear my expert banking witness to establish whether in fact their hypothesis could form the basis of any finding about foreign currency.

I note that the Tribunal’s report does not explain why the Tribunal did not call my expert in evidence, but still contradicted his conclusions.

I have accepted before that my personal finances were chaotic and this arose from a busy and personally traumatic period in my life.

I have apologised for any concern that this has caused people but I have never done anything wrong or illegal.

I have never received a corrupt payment and I have never done anything to demean any office I have held. I know that some people will feel that some aspects of my personal finances are unusual and that in retrospect it is obvious I was wrong not to have paid more attention to my financial affairs and records.

I truly regret if this has caused any confusion or worry in people’s minds. All of these issues arose in a period when my family, personal and professional situations were rapidly changing and I made the best decisions I could in the circumstances in which I found myself. I have long said that if I could go back in time I would do things differently, and for that confusion I am sorry. But I must repeat I never took a bribe or corrupt payment.

I never made a political decision in return for a payment.

I hid nothing. I gave the Tribunal unfettered access to all my financial records, and after years of investigation, this Tribunal has not made any finding of corruption against me. I have told the truth to this Tribunal, and I reject strongly any suggestion that I sought to mislead it."

tragic huh

Martin has recommended that he be removed from the party.

Probably less work and better off if those worthy of leaving it did the moving.

http://i.imgur.com/DwRGV.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/FqDmr.gif

perfect

http://www.broadsheet.ie/2012/04/18/the-eviction-in-killiney-new-video/

any sympathy?

not a huge amount myself having read the detail. but i am sort of amazed by the gardai letting the bailiffs do the manhandling.

surely if someone has to be forcibly moved, the national police force should take responsibility for that given that there are laws governing their right to do so and the manner in which they do it.

it strikes me that they just left the most inflammatory part of the job to the "evil bailiffs" to save face. but the fact is the bailiff could be anyone or do anything.

where did you find the details?

you've to go pretty far to get repossessed/evicted. sitting on a 2m or w/e asset is a bad starting point to be drawing analogies with the rural and famineridden victims of the rackrent era.

agree fully with you on the bailiff/garda thing. bailiffs seem to have a very strange position, like proactive bouncers. i'd be much happier to see the gardai in charge of removing illegal occupiers but that's also a fuckin minefield i suppose.

i dunno man, once a court has decided yr occupation is illegal then surely it's the job of officers of the law to enforce that, not private hire dudes?

It's not usually a criminal issue, is it? idk

The police probably shouldn't be enforcing civil judgments, if that's what this is.

Does anyone have a right to evict in that case?

I think bailiffs are officially officers of the court and they do, but i'm not 100% sure of the details in the UK, let alone Ireland.

i think that it's a civil issue, and i think that gardai will be informed and present if there's an idea there'll be trouble and it's likely (as many civil issues do) to turn into a public order problem.

Bailiffs act on behalf of the legal owners of the property, i'm p sure they can 'evict'- whether that translates into a physica act is undoubtedly covered somewherd but it's kind of an unsettling area, given *drumroll for concepts vmnic* historical context.

Tho as said, attempts to draw on that context in this case is more likely to draw ire than sympathy.

These people own other properties, or so i hear secondhand from talking about this? If so, they're the reason we're fucked, and to hell with the IRBC supporting a privileged lifestyle for them while drawing on a bankrupt state. I'll horsh them out for nothin this evening.

Yeah he owns several other properties apparently, and they have had since 2010 to do something about that mortgage. Compares himself to Gandhi at the start, it's only in any way sad based on in-built emotion about being forced to leave your home.

I do have a big problem with random cronies grabbing the guy tho.

yr display name

“I am against abortion in any form myself. The grace of God is so liberating and provides so many options to get the best out of life despite our fall in nature, and we all have that. Having said that it is an ideal to aim for. In an ideal world there would be no unwanted pregnancies and no unwanted babies. But we are far from living in an ideal world. An honest and a scriptural view is that things are getting harder for people, so what then for the weak in our society?

“Abortion as murder, therefore sin, which is the religious argument, is no more sinful, from a scriptural point of view, than all other sins we don’t legislate against, like greed, hate and fornication. The latter, being fornication, I would say, is probably the single most likely cause of unwanted pregnancies in this country.”

a fucking unbelievable statement.

It's a decent-enough separation of church and state argument against just outlawing abortion but it sounds frighteningly like they wouldn't mind criminalizing hate, greed and fornication - which is a bit sisyphean, if you ask me.

that's what those defending the statement claim she was aiming at- a pro-choice position based on the lack of logic in legislating against one religious position but ignoring all others. i believe she nonetheless voted against the proposal, and claims to be personally against abortion.

it certainly came out rambling enough to be taken any number of ways, is the problem, and in a radio debate yesterday it seems she didn't exactly come out pro-choice or anything.

it really is a typical county councillor statement, tho- 'i'm personally agin it, but at the same time ideally we wouldn't need it, and musha aren't times hard for us all and won't someone think of the poor oik with the meandering vagina.'

Didn't know oiks had vaginas. Thanks.

well i'm assuming, i've never actually looked

oik mates

minister hogan sends his regards, i didn't really get into the nitty gritty with him tbh

voting no, dont even know if it matters anymore

on one hand, having single currency membership held up as the reason we must pay private debts and there seems to be an element of truth in that

On the other hand, if europe had had greater power to govern our affairs we'd probably have avoided the worst of it.

idk. Official campaign being so obv biased pushes me towards a 'fu' no vote.

what about this catalogue of 'distressed properties' then?

Any pref on whether lab do the right thing and lead a true opposition (and kill civil war politics) or sell out for meagre power and the right to get blame for it all in three years?

― Achillean Heel (darraghmac), Friday, 4 March 2011 16:56 (1 year ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Or they attempt to actually do something about this country's problems rather than just sit on the opposition benches looking disappointed.

― The New Dirty Vicar, Friday, 4 March 2011 17:00 (1 year ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

well yes i was framing it rather narrowly i admit.

Any govt that won't reconsider the bank guarantee can't really 'do' anything about the next 7 years, though?

Simplistic, i'm sure, but i'm only trying to initiate discussion here.

― Achillean Heel (darraghmac), Friday, 4 March 2011 17:04 (1 year ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

interesting, inevitable times

anyone catch quinn's doc ;ast night? serious 'thick of it' vibes off those young fellas

cmere why can't anyone say mick wallace and clare daly are having sex with each other?

She's married.

^ inscrutable

it's gonna go

Rents. Why so high? Very annoying.

because while there's apparently huge amounts of property out there, most of it's either built in ridiculous places or is substandard or too small. Finding a decent place in a decent spot for a liveable amount is still somewhat of a coup, lyfe i guess.

Was pondering this yesterday, think that a campaign of heavy enforcement of building and rental standards is long overdue. There's been a bit of it with local authorities getting involved in the private rentals market over the last few years but it hasn't been enough to affect the overall standard. We don't need more housing anywhere, but we need better housing almost everywhere.

Whether the political will is there to chase landlords (big voting bloc there, every second sod and that is, of course, the problem) or whether they're still wary of doing too much too soon in anything related to the property market (however obliquely) remains to be seen.

If they see a second term, perhaps. The expertise is there-anyone newly qualified in one of the technical/engineering fields can do the checks, and it could be a handy jobs boost for small construction. Maybe a good use for all that lovely property tax money.

I meant it more as a moan but that is a very good answer.

I think the PTRB is a step in the right direction.

I think a 'Care and Repair' programme would be very wise.