Spotlight BBC1 now - Stormont MLAs rent scams

[Franko]

There is a difference though in some of the examples here. If you are representing the GAA in an attempt to get a grant then your clearly stated objective is advance the cause of the GAA. If you are a politician representing the public should you not also have some interest in the proper use of public finance as well as your own interest?

If you're a DUP/Sinn Fein politician your clearly stated cause is to advance the cause of the DUP/Sinn Fein.

As a taxpayer should you not also have some interest in the proper use of public finance as well as your own interest?

[Franko]

Agree to an extent AiA.  If it were a GAA club applying for a publicly funded grant for something or other we'd all be applauding if they managed to work the system to get more out of the government.  We can't really pretend to be outraged because political parties (whatever side of the fence they are on) are up to the same.

If we asked for a show of hands of people who have never been involved in or seen public funds being 'misappropriated' (for want of a better word) I'd say there'd be precious few...

Unbelievable. No wonder Bertie hung on for so long when this is the attitude.

But to try and drag a GAA club getting grant funding (a perfectly legitimate use of funding, with nothing to suggest the money is used for anything other than its intended purpose) into the likes of this argument - with references to misappropriation of public funds - is a great smear on the association.

Awesome bit of faux outrage - 'a great smear on the association'!  .  Settle yourself man! I'm not defending SF (which is why, I suspect, that you have jumped on this the way you have).  I was careful to add that my statement applied to all parties.

I've been a part of various committees and groups (professionally and through the GAA) who have been seeking gov't funding for various things.  As AiA said - when it comes to this type of thing it's the letter not the spirit of the law that we worked to.  If anyone else says they have done this type of thing and they haven't tried to work the system (legally) then I'd say they had no place being involved in the first place.  If the system can be circumvented then it's it that needs changed.

Now of course, I didnt even enter into the arena of discssing the hypocrisy of politicians doing this while preaching honesty and virtue to the rest of us.  But two wrongs don't make a right so it'd be a bit rich for us all join this hypocritical little band.

It's not outrage, faux or otherwise. And I didn't jump on any political party - I didn't see the programme, but from what i've heard, it's more a case of questions to be answered rather than any hard evidence of wrong-doing, at this point. My response was to the general attitude (that seems fairly widespread in this country) that there's nothing wrong with a bit of 'misappropriation', that everyone is at it, and if they're not, more fool them.

Reference to the GAA and grants doesn't belong anywhere on this thread. Many voluntary organisations apply for public funding with a stated purpose. If money is then used for that stated purpose, then there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. There's no misappropriation. It's totally irrelevant to this discussion.

Don't get hung up on the word 'misappropriated'.  I put it in inverted commas and added 'for want of a better word' after it.  Also, stop bleating on about the GAA -  I only used it as an example.  I can guarantee that every grant application submitted by every GAA/Rugby/Chess/Orange Order outfit in the country has had any costs listed in it as being at the very top end of the scale in order to claim the maximum allowable amount that they can get away with.  And the harsh reality is that everyone IS at it.  That's the attitude in the country and that's the way it is.  I'd like to change it but (to use your own words) 'clearly I can't'.

[muppet]

There is a difference though in some of the examples here. If you are representing the GAA in an attempt to get a grant then your clearly stated objective is advance the cause of the GAA. If you are a politician representing the public should you not also have some interest in the proper use of public finance as well as your own interest?

If you're a DUP/Sinn Fein politician your clearly stated cause is to advance the cause of the DUP/Sinn Fein.

As a taxpayer should you not also have some interest in the proper use of public finance as well as your own interest?

And that, in a nutshell, is why we are in an endless political quagmire with little hope of getting out of it. That also applies to the other southern parties who are just a slightly less obvious version of the same self-serving shite.

[Maguire01]

Agree to an extent AiA.  If it were a GAA club applying for a publicly funded grant for something or other we'd all be applauding if they managed to work the system to get more out of the government.  We can't really pretend to be outraged because political parties (whatever side of the fence they are on) are up to the same.

If we asked for a show of hands of people who have never been involved in or seen public funds being 'misappropriated' (for want of a better word) I'd say there'd be precious few...

Unbelievable. No wonder Bertie hung on for so long when this is the attitude.

But to try and drag a GAA club getting grant funding (a perfectly legitimate use of funding, with nothing to suggest the money is used for anything other than its intended purpose) into the likes of this argument - with references to misappropriation of public funds - is a great smear on the association.

Awesome bit of faux outrage - 'a great smear on the association'!  .  Settle yourself man! I'm not defending SF (which is why, I suspect, that you have jumped on this the way you have).  I was careful to add that my statement applied to all parties.

I've been a part of various committees and groups (professionally and through the GAA) who have been seeking gov't funding for various things.  As AiA said - when it comes to this type of thing it's the letter not the spirit of the law that we worked to.  If anyone else says they have done this type of thing and they haven't tried to work the system (legally) then I'd say they had no place being involved in the first place.  If the system can be circumvented then it's it that needs changed.

Now of course, I didnt even enter into the arena of discssing the hypocrisy of politicians doing this while preaching honesty and virtue to the rest of us.  But two wrongs don't make a right so it'd be a bit rich for us all join this hypocritical little band.

It's not outrage, faux or otherwise. And I didn't jump on any political party - I didn't see the programme, but from what i've heard, it's more a case of questions to be answered rather than any hard evidence of wrong-doing, at this point. My response was to the general attitude (that seems fairly widespread in this country) that there's nothing wrong with a bit of 'misappropriation', that everyone is at it, and if they're not, more fool them.

Reference to the GAA and grants doesn't belong anywhere on this thread. Many voluntary organisations apply for public funding with a stated purpose. If money is then used for that stated purpose, then there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. There's no misappropriation. It's totally irrelevant to this discussion.

Don't get hung up on the word 'misappropriated'.  I put it in inverted commas and added 'for want of a better word' after it.  Also, stop bleating on about the GAA -  I only used it as an example.  I can guarantee that every grant application submitted by every GAA/Rugby/Chess/Orange Order outfit in the country has had any costs listed in it as being at the very top end of the scale in order to claim the maximum allowable amount that they can get away with.  And the harsh reality is that everyone IS at it.  That's the attitude in the country and that's the way it is.  I'd like to change it but (to use your own words) 'clearly I can't'.

There's absolutely no issue with that. As long as the money was used for its intended purpose. There's no 'misappropriation', or any better word for it.

Issues only arise if public money is used for purposes for which it wasn't intended.

[Franko]

Agree to an extent AiA.  If it were a GAA club applying for a publicly funded grant for something or other we'd all be applauding if they managed to work the system to get more out of the government.  We can't really pretend to be outraged because political parties (whatever side of the fence they are on) are up to the same.

If we asked for a show of hands of people who have never been involved in or seen public funds being 'misappropriated' (for want of a better word) I'd say there'd be precious few...

Unbelievable. No wonder Bertie hung on for so long when this is the attitude.

But to try and drag a GAA club getting grant funding (a perfectly legitimate use of funding, with nothing to suggest the money is used for anything other than its intended purpose) into the likes of this argument - with references to misappropriation of public funds - is a great smear on the association.

Awesome bit of faux outrage - 'a great smear on the association'!  .  Settle yourself man! I'm not defending SF (which is why, I suspect, that you have jumped on this the way you have).  I was careful to add that my statement applied to all parties.

I've been a part of various committees and groups (professionally and through the GAA) who have been seeking gov't funding for various things.  As AiA said - when it comes to this type of thing it's the letter not the spirit of the law that we worked to.  If anyone else says they have done this type of thing and they haven't tried to work the system (legally) then I'd say they had no place being involved in the first place.  If the system can be circumvented then it's it that needs changed.

Now of course, I didnt even enter into the arena of discssing the hypocrisy of politicians doing this while preaching honesty and virtue to the rest of us.  But two wrongs don't make a right so it'd be a bit rich for us all join this hypocritical little band.

It's not outrage, faux or otherwise. And I didn't jump on any political party - I didn't see the programme, but from what i've heard, it's more a case of questions to be answered rather than any hard evidence of wrong-doing, at this point. My response was to the general attitude (that seems fairly widespread in this country) that there's nothing wrong with a bit of 'misappropriation', that everyone is at it, and if they're not, more fool them.

Reference to the GAA and grants doesn't belong anywhere on this thread. Many voluntary organisations apply for public funding with a stated purpose. If money is then used for that stated purpose, then there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. There's no misappropriation. It's totally irrelevant to this discussion.

Don't get hung up on the word 'misappropriated'.  I put it in inverted commas and added 'for want of a better word' after it.  Also, stop bleating on about the GAA -  I only used it as an example.  I can guarantee that every grant application submitted by every GAA/Rugby/Chess/Orange Order outfit in the country has had any costs listed in it as being at the very top end of the scale in order to claim the maximum allowable amount that they can get away with.  And the harsh reality is that everyone IS at it.  That's the attitude in the country and that's the way it is.  I'd like to change it but (to use your own words) 'clearly I can't'.

There's absolutely no issue with that. As long as the money was used for its intended purpose. There's no 'misappropriation', or any better word for it.

Issues only arise if public money is used for purposes for which it wasn't intended.

If that's your take then no issues arose here either.  This is what I'm trying to tell you. It's the system that needs tightened up. Money was earmarked for the rent of constituency offices and that's what it was used for. 

[macdanger2]

No issues if you consider that the standards political parties should be aiming for is "no worse than your average Joe". Yes, the system should be tightened up but parties should have enough ethics not to be taking the system (i.e. the taxpayer) for every penny the system allows for

[Windmill abu]

Big Story here

Political parties pay rent on buildings without fully investigating who the land lords are.

No punishment beatings, no knee cappings or exclusion orders.

God forbid that the BBC should ask who ordered the killing of Pat Finucane.

is it only anti governmental groups who are now investigated by the BRITISH Broadcasting Corporation?

[Minder]

They are having some laugh at us, thats for sure

[T Fearon]

All the same everyone of them

[Minder]

All the same everyone of them

Yeah just some of them are better at it than others

[theskull1]

What was the scam tonight?

[T Fearon]

Everything, you name it.Seems you just have to sign an "expenses" form to get thousands

[Hereiam]

Just confirming what people already knew what is/was going on with expenses.
The thing is alot of people would do the same if they were in stormont.

[Minder]

Just confirming what people already knew what is/was going on with expenses.
The thing is alot of people would do the same if they were in stormont.

Really ? They are supposed to be protecting public money and using it wisely but instead they are putting it in their pocket.

Everyone else has to tighten their belt except those wankers

[armaghniac]

What was the scam tonight?

Willie Hay likes a warm office, but it was all his brother in law's fault!
Sinn Féin claims mileage for MLAs who don't drive, without telling them!
McIlveen of the DUP runs a paperless office, needing new iPhones at every opportunity, but he also bought thousands of stamps!

Even in the 26 counties they sent Callely to jail for less.