The Big Bailout of the Eurozone (Another crisis coming? - Seriously)

[mayogodhelpus@gmail.com]

"I have rarely come across anything so blatantly opposed to the interests of the people. Comments by readers of Irish newspapers reflect the outrage, but a protest after the bail-out announcement counted only 50,000 participants.

I reckon a majority of Irish people want to march but won't march behing a Trade Union or a Sinn Fein banner. If the Trade Unions left their banners at home and the Shinners & co. stopped trying to storm the Dáil more people might turn up.

I reckon a majority of Irish people are still too wrapped up in themselves.

Fair enough but seems the majority are very much against the Trade Unions and an overwhealming majority are against Sinn Fein.

[mayogodhelpus@gmail.com]

I reckon a majority of Irish people want to march but won't march behing a Trade Union or a Sinn Fein banner

Excuses excsues - I marched on Saturday and am not a TU member  - I brought my own sign. If I can I'll be there on Saturday not marching behind an SF banner but marching to get rid off this govt and treacherous deal.

PS - There were nearer 100K there last week rather than the"official" figures.

Those figures were shamelessly manipulated by RTE and the Gardai. The Guardian reported 100,000.

Seafoid I can see why RTE might do this, but why would the Gards? They have nothing to gain?

[seafoid]

BLTD on the six o clock news says that Ireland's ability to pay nurses their salaries would not be possible without flushing their pension reserve fund down the toilet. What a craven b#st@rd.

http://www.rte.ie/player/#v=1086067 @ 14.10

It is the droit de seigneur of the bank bondholders

[seafoid]

I reckon a majority of Irish people want to march but won't march behing a Trade Union or a Sinn Fein banner

Excuses excsues - I marched on Saturday and am not a TU member  - I brought my own sign. If I can I'll be there on Saturday not marching behind an SF banner but marching to get rid off this govt and treacherous deal.

PS - There were nearer 100K there last week rather than the"official" figures.

Those figures were shamelessly manipulated by RTE and the Gardai. The Guardian reported 100,000.

Seafoid I can see why RTE might do this, but why would the Gards? They have nothing to gain?

The Gardai are an arm of a state that has failed its people. They don't want any threat to the current  incompetent elite.

[ardal]

Apparently we're so crap, we could bring the whole EU down with us. What would happen if they kicked us out?

[Orior]

Apparently we're so crap, we could bring the whole EU down with us. What would happen if they kicked us out?

Claim unfair dismissal, and take the feckers to court for 80 billion euro.

[muppet]

1. Letter to Opposition
http://www.progressive-economy.ie/2010/11/unite-letter-to-opposition-parties.html

Unite is affiliated to the Irish Congress of Trade Unions.

In 1987 two of the key architects of the 1st partnership deal were Bill Attley of the Federated Workers Union of Ireland (merged with ITGWU to form SIPTU) and Peter Cassells, Vice-President of ICTU. Certainly the early partnership agreements were good to the country, FF and to the union membership. But they also seem to have been good to the heads of the Trade Unions who are now calling for us to hit the streets.

In 2001, when Quangoism really took off, Cassells was made head of the http://www.ncpp.ie/. In the last decade he was also a member of the board of the http://www.nesdo.ie/ which oversees the work of the www.nesc.ie/ and the aforementioned NCCP. It appears he has also been on the Boards of Forfas, the Board of the Digital Hub Development Agency. Accoding to Shane Ross in 'Wasters', he has also done consultancy work for An Post, the ESB and St. Patricks's Hospital.

Attley was on the Board of Fás, the RTE Authority, the Board of Eircom. He was on the 1st Benchmarking Body (along with former head of IMPACT and former Vice-President of Sinn Fein, Phil Flynn) which paid 6 of the 7 members €329,000 over two years (The Chairman Justice Quirke accepted nothing). Benchmarking gave over 15% rises in under 3 years but also tagged them to performance. 15% for increased productivity, not too bad one might think.

The Benchmarking process created Performance Verification Groups to judge whether staff groups deserved their pay rises. Liam Doran of the Irish Nurses Organistion (union) was on the Health PVG. The Justice PVG had John Clinton of the Prison Officers Association and Rosaleen Glackin of the Civil and Public Services Union (CPSU - passport dispute anyone?) on it. Is anyone even slightly surprised that Benchmarking failed to deliver the expected productivity?

Peter McCloone, while head of Impact was also Chairman of Fás (€24,000 p/a) and a director of the Labour Relations Commission (€14,000 pa/a). Joan Carmichael's was Ass Gen Secretary of ICTU, on the Equality Authority, the NESC and the National Competitiveness Council. She was also made a Rights Commissioner. She also served on the http://www.eesc.europa.eu/ with one Bill Attley who was nominated by Bertie Ahern. Also on the EESC is Sally Anne Kinehan of the ICTU, who was also on the Board of Fás, Equality Authority and the NESC. (Someone called Jim McCusker of the Northern Ireland Public Service Alliance was on the EESC as well.)

Who here has heard of the National College of Ireland based in the IFSC? Bill Attley and Bertie Ahern have been awarded fellowships by the NCI. By coincidence Attley has been on the Board of the NCI along with other trade unionists such as Peter McCloone.

Des Geraghty was awarded an honorary doctorate in 2008 by the NCI. He has been Chairman for the Institute for the Development of Employee Assistance Services (IDEAS), on the RTE Authority, director of Poetry Ireland, the National Competitiveness Council and inevitably the Board of Fás.

My sources for the above are Shane Ross's Wasters and Google.

Forgive me if I fail to see anyone in the trade union movement leading us out of the mess we are in.

[ardal]

Seriously though. As a nation could we heck  it (heck it= majority of people living a reasonable standard of life) alone? Or are we always going to be a bunch of beggars. Sometimes you just have to take your hat off to the sassenachs (excuse spelling)f

[Zapatista]

"I have rarely come across anything so blatantly opposed to the interests of the people. Comments by readers of Irish newspapers reflect the outrage, but a protest after the bail-out announcement counted only 50,000 participants.

I reckon a majority of Irish people want to march but won't march behing a Trade Union or a Sinn Fein banner. If the Trade Unions left their banners at home and the Shinners & co. stopped trying to storm the Dáil more people might turn up.

I reckon a majority of Irish people are still too wrapped up in themselves.

Fair enough but seems the majority are very much against the Trade Unions and an overwhealming majority are against Sinn Fein.

FFs! such an excuse. Get your FG banner out and March. This shit about Trade Unions and SF is a weak excuse.

If FG or even LB called a march you wouldn't see a SF banner in the crowds of people. FG and LB have had chance after chance to take out this Government andf they still have that chance but they are sitting in wait like vultures.

[Croí na hÉireann]

I reckon a majority of Irish people want to march but won't march behing a Trade Union or a Sinn Fein banner

Excuses excsues - I marched on Saturday and am not a TU member  - I brought my own sign. If I can I'll be there on Saturday not marching behind an SF banner but marching to get rid off this govt and treacherous deal.

PS - There were nearer 100K there last week rather than the"official" figures.

Same as that but I didn't make my own sign, was that you with the "Down With This Sort Of Thing"? 

I was actually encouraged with the majorities reactance to Jack O'Connor's waffle, which was one of indifference. Problem is we're coming too late to the party.

[Declan]

was that you with the "Down With This Sort Of Thing"?

Not that clever Croí.Simple Wanted Poster was what I had

[seafoid]

1. Letter to Opposition
http://www.progressive-economy.ie/2010/11/unite-letter-to-opposition-parties.html

Unite is affiliated to the Irish Congress of Trade Unions.
Forgive me if I fail to see anyone in the trade union movement leading us out of the mess we are in.

I don't agree, muppet. Sure they need salary reductions. The Croke Park deal will go as the country goes through its internal devaluation. Everyone in ireland was overpaid. The house prices were a joke.  Yes yes yes .   But the unions are not the problem. The sovereign would be solvent without the banks.

With the banks the country is bankrupt. Unions didn't borrow hundreds of billions on the short term money markets or railroad the government (with false information and worse) into taking on a €440bn guarantee it had no hope of honouring. The unions didn't lend Anglo 3bn in a repo deal to make the numbers look good.

The banks are the problem and turning on the unions is what FF want everyone to do. The Irish elite has failed the people and the unions are being blamed. This is insane. 

[muppet]

1. Letter to Opposition
http://www.progressive-economy.ie/2010/11/unite-letter-to-opposition-parties.html

Unite is affiliated to the Irish Congress of Trade Unions.
Forgive me if I fail to see anyone in the trade union movement leading us out of the mess we are in.

I don't agree, muppet. Sure they need salary reductions. The Croke Park deal will go as the country goes through its internal devaluation. Everyone in ireland was overpaid. The house prices were a joke.  Yes yes yes .   But the unions are not the problem. The sovereign would be solvent without the banks.

With the banks the country is bankrupt. Unions didn't borrow hundreds of billions on the short term money markets or railroad the government (with false information and worse) into taking on a €440bn guarantee it had no hope of honouring. The unions didn't lend Anglo 3bn in a repo deal to make the numbers look good.

The banks are the problem and turning on the unions is what FF want everyone to do. The Irish elite has failed the people and the unions are being blamed. This is insane.

Seafoid, I'm not trying to say the Unions are responsible for the banks actions. Obviously they are not.

However beneath the surface the Quango charade is costing €13 Billion a year. A large amount of that money is
completely wasted and all of that money is taxpayer's money. The Boards of these Quangos are all political appointees and represent a who's who of Irish croneyism. The Irish trade union leadership prostituted themselves to this merry-go-round of favours and easy money.

I agree with all those who say the taxpayer should not pay for the banks, in other words the arrogant bluffer Lenihan should never have guaranteed the banks. Look back two years on this thread and I said the same thing. The union leadership were not part of that problem, but they will have to be part of the solution.

After the banks the biggest problem we have in this country is croneyism and as I demonstrated in the post last night, the current union leadership are up to their necks in it.

[Bogball XV]

The banks are the problem and turning on the unions is what FF want everyone to do. The Irish elite has failed the people and the unions are being blamed. This is insane.

What's funny is how the unions and ff are turning on each other now after having been in bed together for the last 20yrs.  I have absolutely no time for unions or union leadership, they have behaved disgracefully for the most part and appear to me to be self serving in most instances too.

They're all part of the cartel of vested interests that people were happy to allow control this country, mianly because very few people had any vision beyond the next 12 months, or at best 5 years being the next election.

[seafoid]

The banks are the problem and turning on the unions is what FF want everyone to do. The Irish elite has failed the people and the unions are being blamed. This is insane.

What's funny is how the unions and ff are turning on each other now after having been in bed together for the last 20yrs.  I have absolutely no time for unions or union leadership, they have behaved disgracefully for the most part and appear to me to be self serving in most instances too.

They're all part of the cartel of vested interests that people were happy to allow control this country, mianly because very few people had any vision beyond the next 12 months, or at best 5 years being the next election.

December 1st, 2010 at 10:12 pm
@ All
"sheltered" sectors? welfare rates, taxes on the rich, nurses pensions. Blah Blah blah.

Is this an Irish thing - the central EZ countries are in the process of extracting 60% of our GDP out of our country- and we're not doing anything about it? Rather we focus on how our neighbour might be paid slightly more than us.