Messages

How many times do I have to say it? The €3.6Bn was not available for expenditure, the difference arose in the way debt was calculated. It is entirely irrelevant to this discussion, except as a means of prolonging it.

My only complaint is that I feel it should include a ticket to the AIF and semi final if the county minor teams gets there.

+1 While the semi-final may not be too hard to source a ticket for, for the final they should recognise season ticket holders of the minor counties with a Hill ticket at least.

No sh*t, of course they had the same money as before,

If you have the same money as before, then why should you increase spending?
As I said, the accounting calculations only related to debt.

A commitment they were, well, committed to, long after they knew they were in a financial crisis,

Exactly, they held on to the commitment as long as they could. What more could they do?

I didn't say they were €3.6bn better off. I said they realised they were €3.6bn better off than they believed

They weren't any better off, they had the same amount of money as before. They simply had a different accounting measure of debt, but this was no use for spending money as the money you had remained the same. If you have no money and you received a statement that your mortgage wasn't as big as you though, how would this help you spend?

And I'm criticising them because in the time they insisted they could afford it, between £40-£50 million was spent on the project and not an inch of tar was laid. Money which now may as well have been flushed down the drain and now more lives will inevitably be lost.

Why was the money lost? Is the route going to change? Why doesn't Stormont build the thing and get the Freestate money later?

[as possible until the s**t hit the fan]

So the ROI government agreed to do something and tried to maintain that commitment as long as possible until the s**t hit the fan and they couldn't do it?

The "shit hit the fan" in 2008. Three years later, Dublin was still insisting it would contribute to the raod upgrade.

So you are criticising them because it wasn't the first thing that they cut?

Comments about €3.6m are immature nonsense, this is just an accounting treatment of something, not a real increase in resources.

Why conveniently brush aside the fact that they found themselves €3.6bn better off than they believed they were when they were so adamant they could afford the road as it was?

As I said, but you carefully ignored,  they are not  €3.6bn better off in any real sense, this is simply a timing issue of accounting

Doesn't really answer my last question though. Was the money there up until Nov 2011? Did nobody tell Inda about the financial crisis until then or something? How can a government (despite knowing it was in a financial crisis) insist it can afford to contribute to a road which it had agreed to do as part of the St. Andrew's Agreement, then find another €3.6bn in the pot that it didn't know about, and subsequently decide it no longer can afford to contribute?

So the ROI government agreed to do something and tried to maintain that commitment as long as possible until the s**t hit the fan and they couldn't do it? Comments about €3.6m are immature nonsense, this is just an accounting treatment of something, not a real increase in resources.

The road does serve Donegal though.
Many of people of injured and killed on the road are also from the South (the man last week for example).

Of course it serves Donegal. My problem here is that because it serves Donegal this is being used as an excuse for the Stormont wasters not to fulfil their obligations towards connectivity on the island of Ireland by bringing it to a proper standard. Many posters here seem to see the broader linking of Ireland as being the responsibility of people in the 26 counties only, nothing to do with them. There is sickening partitionism here sometimes.

I know there's Armagh heads on here so you'll probably choose to disagree with this bit if an Armagh manager can pull two players from a college team then the tail is wagging the dog here. Where are the Ulster Council on this issue??? Again they fail miserably. And the media don't expose them cos they are too interested in getting their annual press pass for Clones. It's all f*cked up

Broken window syndrome. Once one manager repeatedly gets away with taking the piss, and claiming that he is being "strong" then there is a macho thing that other managers have to show that they too are serious.

4 of the 5 most deaths on this road in the last 2 years  have been on the Strabane - Omagh section which was dropped due to lack of Southern finance.

The south could not have done their bit as the likes of Sean Quinn had ruined their finances.

I was never sure why the south should have been expected to pay for this road in any case. Most people of Tyrone didn't ask to be in the 6 counties in the first case , but since the British wanted Tyrone there and control of the roads in it then they should pay for those roads.

That said if other sections were delayed there should have been enough money in any case. Or if the 26 county contribution had been a shadow toll type arrangement payable over 20 years, then this would have been agreed, so the will was not there.

[Most Time Online]

Most Time Online
hardstation 389d 11h 25m
Minder 293d 11h 51m
ziggysego 266d 10h 29m
pintsofguinness 251d 13h 44m
Fear ón Srath Bán 246d 10h 23m
Hardy 239d 9h 59m orangeman 220d 46m
AZOffaly 217d 14h 30m
ONeill 187d 19h 31m
armaghniac 181d 8h 33m

Hardstation the only person to spend over a year on this board so far.

New year resolution is to get a life.

Each of them people are migrated for a reason for a better life. Who the f**k are people think they are to tell them no?

I don't want my neighbour migrating into my house, because he thinks I have a nice carpet.

You have to wonder though why the legalities weren't done properly? What heads have rolled because of this?

What is story with Alliance? They seem to generally welcome Haas but have "some reservations". What are these?

I fully acknowledge that the Unionists are the ones who need to compromise more than SF or the SDLP on some of these issues.

Do you, really?

Nesbitt is no worse than the dick they had before

The previous incumbent was traditional bigot, Nesbitt is a new age bigot.

Are Glen doing well at the grades below minor?  What are the chances of them going for 4 in a row?

We made the Ulster U16 final this year but were well beaten by a strong Crossmaglen side. Good side next year but as ever getting out of Derry wont be easy!

Yerrra we got lucky, surely 5 in a row is the real target?

Has anyone ever won 4 in a row in Ulster at any level?