More on O’Donoghue
Posted on | September 15, 2009 | 44 Comments
So today’s Indo reports that John O’Donoghue has hired his own political advisor on a €90,000 salary despite using the fact his position is ‘non-political’ to avoid answering questions about his outrageous abuse of expenses.
That’s a fucking cushty number, isn’t it?
“You sir, are my political advisor. You have a monthly salary of €7,500″
“Splendid. Would you like some political advice?”
“Not at all, sure my office is non-political”.
More waste. Honestly, if this man had a shred of dignity he’d resign, but then politicians here don’t do that. Despite all the corruption, the overspending, taking advantage of the expenses systems, the planning kickbacks, sheer ineptitude and everything else, when is the last time a politican resigned rather than just wait for everything to blow over?
I can’t remember.
John O’Donoghue wrote a letter to the members of Dáil Éireann to explain the media coverage of his expenses. Not once did it occur to him to apologise to the public for spending our money to provide himself with a lifestyle only he felt he should be entitled to. It is arrogance of the highest order yet it remains unchecked.
The problem is that these people are answerable to nobody. We know the FF party are not going to deal with it. I mean, if they make an example of O’Donoghue there’d be plenty more shitting their pants and it’d make even bigger hypocrites of them considering what they’ve let go in the past.
It’d be nice to see an opposition leader with the balls to say O’Donoghue should resign. Again the problem is that they’re all afraid. If Gilmore or Kenny does that then they’re in no position to resist if it’s discovered one of their boys has been a little over-zealous their expenses. And they cannot be sure that’s not the case so there’s no pressure, bar what you see in the media and online.
So the system has to change. It’s very easy to ensure politicians expenses are correct. A system where they have to provide receipts. A system where they have to clock in and out of the Dáil so they can’t claim attendance fees and overnight stays when they weren’t there. A system where all the money they claim is checked and that information made public.
Simple. That is transparency. Then we can see who does what for our money. OUR money. When they spend our money we are entitled to know how they are doing it, when they are doing it, how often they are doing, with whom they are doing and everything else. When they’re going to fleece us and tax the shit out of us in the next budget then to let this issue go on without addressing it is unacceptable.
Still, bottom line is that John O’Donoghue should resign. He’s a disgrace. A relic of the olden days and unless we condemn these self-entitled thieves to the past then things will never get better.
—–
Finally, if you haven’t bookmarked Gavin’s Blog then please do so. What he’s been doing with the FOI documents and ensuring stories like O’Donoghue have, at last, got the kind of media coverage they deserve is fantastic.
Keep it up, Gavin.
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44 Responses to “More on O’Donoghue”
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September 15th, 2009 @ 10:42 am
That’s amazing Twenty. Mind you, it’s not strictly true when you say The problem is that these people are answerable to nobody.
These cunts are answerable to the electorate every 5 years. Trouble is the electorate are too thick/beaten/gullible/trusting/historically entrenched to vote the fuckers out.
Mind you, just when one thinks that one has found the biggest wanker in the dail, another one comes along, regular as clockwork.
They probably have a league table running in the Dail bar – The Charles J Haughey Memorial Cup…
September 15th, 2009 @ 10:46 am
revenue should be sent in to scrutinise all the cunts xxs and alowances for the last 10 years. but i suppose that would be akin to asking the gardai to do their jobs and catch a few crims,they’d have to start arresting each other. jesus wept,if any one of us did what these politicion cunts do on a daily basis we’ed be locked up and the keys thrown away. its tme to get up off our arses and start agitating.
September 15th, 2009 @ 10:48 am
These cunts are answerable to the electorate every 5 years. Trouble is the electorate are too thick/beaten/gullible/trusting/historically entrenched to vote the fuckers out.
Yeah, but even if we vote them out we keep paying the cunts as they get their TDs pension for ever and ever.
Vouched expenses should be brought in as a matter of urgency. It should be part of any decent oppositions election strategy.
its tme to get up off our arses and start agitating.
At the very least it’s time to stop letting things blow over.
September 15th, 2009 @ 10:54 am
“revenue should be sent in to scrutinise all the cunts xxs and alowances for the last 10 years”
Judging by the response to the FOI request they’d want to charge you for that.
September 15th, 2009 @ 10:55 am
Leaving aside the fact they appear to have lost over 2 years worth of expenses – http://www.gavinsblog.com/2009/09/11/tdsenate-expenses-1998-2008/
September 15th, 2009 @ 10:58 am
Dear John,
I hereby offer my services as ‘political advisor’ for the modest sum of €45,000 per annum, and I will not claim any expenses.
My first task will be to write you the best resignation speech ever uttered by an Irish politician (ok, I know there’s been few enough of them) and it will greatly increase your chances of re-election in Kerry South.
I know your main concern will not be for your own political future but a desire to keep the seat safe for future generations of O’Donoghues.
I look forward to hearing from you and I promise not to mention your offer to intercede with your party colleague on the delicate matter of the appointment that came up during the year.
Le gach deá mhéin,
Conán
September 15th, 2009 @ 11:15 am
mattie mcgrath saying somethign along the lines of “he’s been jettign around like some self-entitled prince” – well said that man
September 15th, 2009 @ 11:16 am
More on O’Donoghue indeed. Fucking moron in an ivory tower. Surrounded by white elephants.
Quite a convenient loss of significant paperwork, not to mention the spanner in the works regarding transparency and freedom of information. Free yes, at a just few grand to you and I. When will this rohypnol wear off?
September 15th, 2009 @ 11:17 am
Dear Conan,
I would like to thank you for your recent correspondence. However, at this time, in so far as I’m concerned, I must regretfully decline your generous offer.
I have, at all times, acted in accordance with the Department of Finance guidelines.
Rith mé ar nós na gaoithe,
John
ps – thanks for all that lovely money, the hotel in Italy was particularly fabulous.
September 15th, 2009 @ 11:33 am
twenty for teeshock,holemaster for tanaiste,supergroover for finance and me for justice( all on fixed wages dont ya know,i suggest 100k).6 months and ye wouldnt know the fucking place,mind you we’ed have to build some extra prisons fairly sharp like.
September 15th, 2009 @ 11:40 am
Prisons – build a wall around Leitrim. Helidrop prisoners in. Problem solved.
September 15th, 2009 @ 11:55 am
4yrs ago I got put forward for a contract in the fair city of Dublin, the job was: to sort out a number of cockeyed and useless public sector websites that had been managed by a twat. I was offered the job.. i accepted the job, handed me notice in etc etc. To be told a week later that due to an “intervention” the knob that had screwed up these sites and burnt not far short of 750K had got the job to sort out his own cock up and got a 35K pay rise for the privilige. His uncle (the intervenor) was one of the honorable members of the Dail that you refer to.. oh yes and in the intervening four years, the sites in question haven’t changed much, if at all.. Corruption and incompetency flourish in most bureaucracies, but you guys are really leading the way over the water…
September 15th, 2009 @ 11:55 am
It’s like an Engineer having an engineering advisor.
September 15th, 2009 @ 12:04 pm
It’s like an Engineer having an engineering advisor.
How true.
papalamour – amazing. Are you in a position to name names?
September 15th, 2009 @ 12:11 pm
Dear Conan,
thank you for your interest in the position as political advisor to myself, the Ceann Comhairle, no less.
You proposed salary seems way too low, however. Perhaps you could advise my advisor?
Na Caith Tabac,
John, Oh don’t know. Who?
September 15th, 2009 @ 12:13 pm
Papalamour, name the cunts. Do it, please!!
September 15th, 2009 @ 12:14 pm
Isn’t Limerick a Prison City ?
September 15th, 2009 @ 12:18 pm
unfortunately, no, Twenty.. the lad who managed to get me the contact with the consultants which led to interview, job offer etc.. still works in one of the teams.. I never met the “knob” who manages it all. Got the news of the “intervention” from the lad who still works there.. The consultants simply told me blandly that there had been “a number of strategic changes that meant the the post as described was no longer blah blah”.
September 15th, 2009 @ 12:21 pm
maggot leave limerick alone haven’t we enough to be dealing with down here
September 15th, 2009 @ 12:26 pm
All politicans on the expenses gravy train stop Fas was being run as a slush fund for ministers stop Bertie Aherne was giving them all the nod stop
its all a fucking game stop Please stop
September 15th, 2009 @ 12:29 pm
Wikipedia Cache is funny
“John O’Donoghue (born 28 May 1956) is a corrupt and venal Irish Fianna Fáil politician”
But it was edited
September 15th, 2009 @ 12:41 pm
The biggest hint that things were going wrong was a few years ago when the tax returns were way over what they expected. I think they were over by €2 billion. Everyone was shouting more hookers, more champagne.
They should have been asking how the fuck the Dept of Finance got it that wrong. It was a clear signal that the country’s finances were out of control.
We’re fucked.
September 15th, 2009 @ 12:55 pm
Dear John,
I’m afraid that I have had to reconsider my offer and that accordingly the price has now risen to €50,000pa.
This price is still inclusive of all expenses.
You may also rest fully assured of my discretion on the matter of that other appointment about which you will recall you made a generous but unsolicited offer to make representations on my behalf to the Minister?
You can be sure that as your personal firewall I would never allow you find yourself in such a position.
Is mise le meas,
Conán
September 15th, 2009 @ 1:01 pm
Dear Conan,
ixnay on the representationay miniteryay thing (sorry, never quite learned the whole ixnay language).
The job is yours if you keep your mouth shut.
Anois is aris,
John
September 15th, 2009 @ 1:10 pm
John,
Can we meet for lunch to work out the details. Nothing like good nosh to put a rein on the gob. The Lord Edward suits fine. Best to Kate.
Níl aon tóin-tinn mar do tóin-tinn féin.
Conán
September 15th, 2009 @ 1:14 pm
Malesh Scale a Chordya
You might like to consider Guilbaud’s for dinner. They have a recession busting special offer of three courses for €664 a head. Wines from €233.
Gurra mawgut.
Patrick Giblits
September 15th, 2009 @ 1:25 pm
It would appear that nothing is new. See this quote. We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office. ~Aesop
September 15th, 2009 @ 1:41 pm
I do apologise but even I recognise O’Donoghue as a Class A grasping cunt – Buddha.
September 15th, 2009 @ 2:27 pm
At least Haughey had a bit of class about him, even if it was entirely manufactured.
September 15th, 2009 @ 3:18 pm
Haughey was an unmitigated snob, a cunt, and a grasping bully with pretensions.
I have it on good authority that he held off the cigarette advertising ban in return for benefit in kind at a FF ard fheis.
September 15th, 2009 @ 3:27 pm
Carrolls?
September 15th, 2009 @ 3:38 pm
Indirectly, yep.
September 15th, 2009 @ 3:38 pm
yeah, Liam Carolls
September 15th, 2009 @ 3:42 pm
To be clear, the quid pro quo benefitted an intermediary who had a tete á tete with Haughey in Abbeville.
September 15th, 2009 @ 3:45 pm
Backs scratched all over the place. When did the cigarette advertising ban come in?
September 15th, 2009 @ 4:24 pm
Does anyone remember Rik Mayall’s turn as Sir Alan B’Stard, from that late 80’s sitcom ‘The New Statesman’? Pretty good, it was.
I often wondered why they never made an Irish version of the series. I’d be a piece of cake. I mean it’s not as if they lacked material. Then I figured there’s no way the fiction, however outrageous, could have ever come close to the truth.
..oh yeah and everyone working in RTE would have to take off their ‘RULING PARTY’S BITCH’ badges first.
September 15th, 2009 @ 4:30 pm
Is there any reason the public can not bring a class action suit against the government for miss handling of public finances? Surely there has to be some grounds by which this can be done? No legal eagle here but it would be fun if someone sued them….
September 15th, 2009 @ 4:48 pm
Conan, you’re right. I forgot he was actually a total and utter cunt. I nearly fell for it again, the charm of the rogue (aka, a lying cheat).
September 15th, 2009 @ 5:47 pm
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but O’Donoghue doesn’t have to seek re-election in Kerry next time out.
He’s the Ceann Comhairle now so he doesn’t have to get any votes at all at the next election.
September 15th, 2009 @ 5:56 pm
Christ, forgot that. There’s automatic re-election for the CC.
September 15th, 2009 @ 5:57 pm
Right, well someone’s just going to have cunt him in the bastard. We don’t have any other choice
September 15th, 2009 @ 6:41 pm
”..is there any reason the public can not bring a class action suit against the government for miss handling of public finances? Surely there has to be some grounds by which this can be done..”
I’m with Scratcher on that one; it surely would a hell of a party. But unfortunately I doubt the public could get a legal heavyweight to agree to do it. Most of the legal profession are in FF’s back pocket. Or up their ass.
September 15th, 2009 @ 10:43 pm
“It would appear that nothing is new. See this quote. We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office. ~Aesop”
So that’s where Dylan got his
“Steal a little and they throw you in jail, Steal a lot and they make you king”, plagiarising drone-merchant………
Great to see the genuine about of ire from this blog of late.
September 16th, 2009 @ 4:34 pm
Looks like the bugger is having to earn his pay
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2009/0916/breaking4.htm