The Fine Gael thread

[foxcommander]

One of these lads is a complete chancer who's got no morals or backbone. Can you guess which?




oops - shouldn't have put them in the same picture...they don't want to be associated with the other just in case it ruins their reputation...

[mikehunt]

One of these lads is a complete chancer who's got no morals or backbone. Can you guess which?




oops - shouldn't have put them in the same picture...they don't want to be associated with the other just in case it ruins their reputation...

Would be funny only both these clowns have had influence, albeit limited enough influence, on how this country is run. Kenny's latest gaffe mentioning how the recession has impacted Ireland's ability to fund emission reductions when a recession in itself means output falls resulting in less emissions anyway.

[Tubberman]

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-30204080

Sinn Féin MLAs have claimed nearly £700,000 in expenses for research from a company run by the party's finance managers.
The revelations came in a second BBC Spotlight programme on MLAs' expenses.
The programme also found claims of more than £4,000 in heating oil costs for one DUP MLA's office.
One MLA has called on police to investigate what he described as "several aspects of what appear to involve criminality".
'Potential forgery'
Traditional Ulster Voice leader Jim Allister said he would be writing to the chief constable about the issue.
"In particular, the siphoning of public money by Sinn Fein to an apparently bogus research company must be thoroughly investigated, along with potential forgery," he said.
Over the past 10 years, 36 different Sinn Féin MLAs claimed about £700,000 in total through Stormont expenses to pay Research Services Ireland.
Martin McGuinness alone claimed £42,000 over 10 years for the expertise of the company.
The company is run by Seamus Drumm and Sinead Walsh, who are in charge of running Sinn Féin's finance department in Northern Ireland.
'Too sensitive'
The BBC Spotlight NI programme was not able to find any evidence of research that had been carried out by Research Services Ireland (RSI).
The party said that RSI provided a centralised service and that other research facilities could not be used because the work was "too sensitive".
One Sinn Féin MLA said they had never heard of the company until they saw it on their annual expenses.
Five years ago, the police were alerted to concerns about expenses claims made by Sinn Féin for work done by the company, and a meeting was held with two assembly officials.
At the time, the Police Service of Northern Ireland decided that an investigation was not necessary.
Sinn Féin's biggest claims for payment to Research Services Ireland came after that date.
'No impropriety'
The party said that its office cost allowance spent with RSI was used exclusively for assembly and constituency work.
Speaking on the BBC's Nolan Show, Sinn Féin MLA Raymond McCartney said there had been "no impropriety" in his party's expenses claims and added they had "nothing to hide".
"I have no issue with any investigative process, indeed the Spotlight programme alluded that some time in the past the PSNI had been involved.
"They didn't find anything to proceed with an investigative process, I can draw a conclusion from that there was no evidence to go by" Mr McCartney said.
The former chair of the Westminster Committee on Standards in Public Life, Sir Alistair Graham, believes the issue should interest police.
"That sounds to me very near fraud - fraudulent behaviour and I would have thought was a very clear breach of even the current rules in Northern Ireland," he said.
"And I would've thought was worthy of police investigation."
Heating oil
Meanwhile, £4,355 was claimed in one year in the name of the former assembly speaker and DUP MLA Willie Hay for his constituency office's heating oil - the cost of heating his offices increased from £265 over a 10-year period.
Mr Hay's brother-in-law and former office manager has been suspended since Spotlight raised the issue with Mr Hay.
The former speaker now says he cannot comment on the issue as it is now the subject of a police investigation.
The heating oil company who were named as the recipients of the claim told Spotlight that they had not yet been contacted by the police about the issue.
Claim forms
Each MLA is required to sign their own expenses claim forms. But one former Sinn Féin MLA said one expenses claim form for mileage was signed without his knowledge.
Davy Hyland was the Sinn Féin MLA for Newry and Armagh between 2003-2007 before being deselected by the party.
He does not drive and said that the only mileage he would have accrued would be the journey to and from Stormont, where his wife gave him a lift.
Spotlight obtained a copy of an expenses form claiming for 11,500 miles at a cost of almost £5,000.
'Knew nothing'
Mr Hyland told the programme that shortly after he was deselected by the party and became an independent MLA, he received a phone call from the assembly finance team asking him to verify this mileage claim, of almost £5,000, which was about to be paid into Sinn Féin's bank account in west Belfast.
He told them he knew nothing about most of the mileage claimed.
Mr Hyland claimed the form had been signed without his knowledge. He also claimed a senior member of Sinn Féin's finance team then rang him and asked him to agree the expenses.
He said he refused, the claim was never processed, and the money was never transferred into the Sinn Féin bank account
The assembly told Spotlight the claim was never paid out and the assembly's bribery and fraud response plan was initiated.
Sinn Féin said they had no record of such an expenses application, and their records show no monies were drawn down on any such claim.
Mr Hyland was in the assembly for four years. In that time £19,000 was claimed in his name for mileage.
Mr Hyland said he did not use the bulk of the £19,000 of mileage claimed and he would not have knowingly signed off that amount.
Questions were also raised in the programme about Ulster Unionist and SDLP expense claims for services provided by their own parties.
The SDLP claimed £10,000 for each MLA to fund their press office. The rules say the money should have been going to benefit constituents.
The party said "any monies claimed for secretarial expenses or professional advisors... was spent to enhance the service given to constituents".
In one year the UUP claimed £84,000 for "support services".
Investigative Journalist Heather Brooke said these types of claim were "a way of taking money that the public's given to fund legitimate political expenses and it's recycling them into that political party".
Family members employed
The programme also found DUP MLAs employing a number of family members. Three quarters of all DUP MLAs have at least one relative on the pay roll, including eight wives, and eight sons.
Fifty-eight thousand pounds went to members of Robin Newton's family in 2013, who are employed in accordance with assembly rules.
With his own salary on top of that, a total of £106,000 from the assembly went into the Newton family in a year.
In recent years changes have been made to the way the expenses system operates. Money must now be paid to an MLA's individual bank account, rather than to a party account, as had been the case Sinn Féin.
However, Sir Alistair Graham believes that rather than just changing the system, people and parties should be held to account for past issues
"It seems to me that what you require here is a pretty root and branch independent investigation to the arrangements in place," he said.
"If there's potentially been a criminal offence or if there's been a serious breach of the rules, then I think there needs to be proper investigation."

[Tubberman]

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/sunday-life/news/sinn-fein-expenses-row-caral-ni-chuilin-forgot-to-say-she-paid-relative-11320-30855261.html

Culture Minister Caral Ni Chuilin paid her partner's brother thousands of pounds of taxpayers' cash for decorating her office - but repeatedly failed to declare the relationship in Stormont's register of interests.



Sunday Life can reveal that since 2009, the Sinn Fein heavyweight has handed over £11,320 from her office cost expenditure budget to John 'JJ' Magee to decorate her north Belfast office.


Following Sunday Life's revelation, Sinn Fein last night issued a statement saying the minister's failure to declare the family link was an "administrative oversight".

Magee, a joiner by trade who is also a serving Sinn Fein councillor, also received more than £55,000 of taxpayers' cash from other Sinn Fein MLAs for similar work.

He is the brother of Mrs Ni Chuilin's common-law husband Gerard Magee, a Sinn Fein press officer.

But she repeatedly failed to declare this on the Assembly's Register of Interests which state that any relationship by "blood, marriage, or partnership equivalent to marriage" has to be noted.

Section 12 of the register states: "In this section Members should register any family members who benefit directly or indirectly in any way from Office Cost Expenditure."

Her Sinn Fein colleague Fra McCann for example declared on the register than he employed a niece of party colleagues Paul and Alex Maskey as his PA.

However, Culture Minister Caral Ni Chuilin answered "none" on several occasions when asked to list family members who benefit directly or indirectly in any way from her office cost expenditure.

In response to Sunday Life's questions about her failure to say her partner's brother benefited from her office expenditure, Sinn Fein said last night: "This was an administration oversight and one that will be rectified.

"The party has declared publicly that a range of necessary maintenance and refurbishment work on Teach Carney and other Sinn Féin offices has been carried out by JJ Magee and by his construction company over many years.

"The work carried out was to a high standard and represented good value for money and has facilitated Sinn Féin in providing first-class accessible constituency services."

A Sunday Life investigation into JJ Magee's Assembly business contracts show that not only was he paid £11,320 by Caral Ni Chuilin, he pocketed a total of £68,000 of public funds from Sinn Fein over five years.

When we attempted to question the Belfast city councillor about this he told us to "ring the press office" before hanging up the phone.

For the past five years building firm boss JJ Magee has been Sinn Fein's go-to man when it needs construction jobs done at its offices across Belfast.

In 2011 he unsuccessfully stood for election to the Assembly as a Sinn Fein candidate in north Belfast.

But despite failing to make it to Stormont a busy Magee still reaped £68,000 of public funds paid to him by the party.

Sinn Fein's first recorded payment to the joiner-turned politician was in 2009.

That was when Caral Ni Chuilin, who is effectively his sister-in-law, coughed up £5,080 for decorating work at her Antrim Road office.

In 2011 five Sinn Fein MLAs - Paul Maskey, Jennifer McCann, Sue Ramsey, Pat Sheehan and Paul Butler - paid JJ Magee a total of £27,775 for renovations and maintenance.

He was raking it in again during 2012, receiving £15,750 from Gerry Kelly (left), Caral Ni Chuilin, Jennifer McCann and Sue Ramsey for painting and cleaning.

In 2013 Gerry Kelly, Caral Ni Chuilin, Fra McCann, Jennifer McCann, Sue Ramsey and Pat Sheehan paid Magee £11,176 for similar work.

So far this year he has pocketed a further £8,153 from Fra McCann, Rosie McCorley, Pat Sheehan and Sue Ramsey for painting and electrical work.

All of the 31 registered Assembly payments to Magee, which cover five years, were made in the five week period between March 27 and May 1.

Since 2009 he has received £16,560 solely for work carried out at Sinn Fein's north Belfast office at 291 Antrim Road. The two-storey town house is used by both Caral Ni Chuilin and Gerry Kelly.

Sunday Life's revelations about Caral Ni Chuilin's failure to declare she was employing a family member to do work, is the latest expenses controversy to engulf Sinn Fein of late.

Last month BBC's Spotlight programme revealed that the party had paid a research company run by its own finance managers, called Research Services Ireland (RSI), £700,000 of public funds.

One Sinn Féin MLA was reported to have said they had never heard of the company until they saw it on their annual expenses.

It further emerged that Sinn Fein was claiming thousands of pounds in office rent costs on buildings owned by three different cultural societies to which the party has strong links.

[foxcommander]

An Enda loyalist eh Tubbs?


Don't say anything about the glorious leader.

[Tubberman]

You can say all you like, I'm not a member of any party.
I just think if you look at all parties, you find the same type of shite - especially at council level.
Unfortunately there are always some who get into politics for their own personal gain (and will try to get that by fair or foul means) over public service.

[foxcommander]

You can say all you like, I'm not a member of any party.
I just think if you look at all parties, you find the same type of shite - especially at council level.
Unfortunately there are always some who get into politics for their own personal gain (and will try to get that by fair or foul means) over public service.

You mean enda? he still probably can't believe he's got away with this for so long. he only took the family seat because it was handed to him.. coining it in now. best little country to cream off expenses.

and tubs - you were compelled to engage in some whatboutery just because...yes, sure..... as certain as John Perry didn't know about that car park - you're not a Fine Gaeler....

[Rossfan]

No wonder the Shinners/Dupes etc didn't want Stormont to collapse recently

[mikehunt]

Conclusions of Moriarty Report

Lowry "secured the winning" of the 1995 mobile licence for O'Brien.
O'Brien made two payments to Lowry in 1996 and 1999 totalling IR£500,000 (GB£147,000 and GB£300,000) and supported a loan of GB£420,000 given to Lowry in 1999, a benefit equivalent to a payment.
Lowry imparted substantive information to O'Brien which was "of significant value and assistance to him in securing the licence".
Lowry bypassed consideration by his Cabinet colleagues and thereby not only influenced, but delivered the result for Esat Digifone.
A US$50,000 donation to Fine Gael was made through Telenor on behalf of Esat Digifone.
Lowry sought to influence a hike in the lease for Marlborough House (Telecom Eireann headquarters) following a request from Mr Dunne. These rent increases would have improperly enriched Dunne, and were deemed to be "profoundly corrupt".
Lowry was criticised for his "cynical and venal abuse of office" and his brazen refusal to acknowledge the impropriety of his financial arrangements with O'Brien and Dunne.

Meanwhile Mick Wallace gets arrested for non payment of fine. Can sit as a TD having not paid VAT but nothing happens over that yet can be arrested for non payment of a fine. Lowry continues to top the polls as an Independent FG and Denis O Brien silences most politicians, the press and throws accusations at the judiciary while standing shoulder to shoulder with our Taoiseach at the NY Stock Exchange. God Bless the Banana Republic.

[ashman]

Both Lowry and Wallace will each be elected in the spring.  Maybe enough of the people regard these as lovable rogues .

[mikehunt]

Both Lowry and Wallace will each be elected in the spring.  Maybe enough of the people regard these as lovable rogues .

At least Wallace has done the country some service by highlighting the Garda whistleblowing non action and the shady secretive carry on of NAMA. His arrest this morning is purely political policing. Clare Daly arrested for drink driving after having one hot whiskey in the Dail Bar. Coincidence? Catherine Murphy better watch her back.

[foxcommander]

Both Lowry and Wallace will each be elected in the spring.  Maybe enough of the people regard these as lovable rogues .

At least Wallace has done the country some service by highlighting the Garda whistleblowing non action and the shady secretive carry on of NAMA. His arrest this morning is purely political policing. Clare Daly arrested for drink driving after having one hot whiskey in the Dail Bar. Coincidence? Catherine Murphy better watch her back.

Nothing like a good smear campaign - you can bet your bottom dollar that Labour "Senator" Mairia Cahill will be front and centre during the next election. I can't think of any other reason for her rapid ascent into politics.

[ashman]

Both Lowry and Wallace will each be elected in the spring.  Maybe enough of the people regard these as lovable rogues .

At least Wallace has done the country some service by highlighting the Garda whistleblowing non action and the shady secretive carry on of NAMA. His arrest this morning is purely political policing. Clare Daly arrested for drink driving after having one hot whiskey in the Dail Bar. Coincidence? Catherine Murphy better watch her back.

To be fair Wallace has not paid the fine and this is normal..

To be honest I think he will benefit from this as he will us the siege mentality thing.

If these things are political policing then they ain't very effective.

[mikehunt]

Both Lowry and Wallace will each be elected in the spring.  Maybe enough of the people regard these as lovable rogues .

At least Wallace has done the country some service by highlighting the Garda whistleblowing non action and the shady secretive carry on of NAMA. His arrest this morning is purely political policing. Clare Daly arrested for drink driving after having one hot whiskey in the Dail Bar. Coincidence? Catherine Murphy better watch her back.

To be fair Wallace has not paid the fine and this is normal..

To be honest I think he will benefit from this as he will us the siege mentality thing.

If these things are political policing then they ain't very effective.

Then you underestimate Enda Kenny's incompetence. 

[ashman]

Sinn Fein have some operation .   A political industrial complex.