Clare Daly after breathalyser: I had a hot whiskey for cold

[Maguire01]

Looks like the culture is infectious. It would be interesting to see just who has had points cancelled. Is any party / TD clean here?

[lawnseed]

Looks like the culture is infectious. It would be interesting to see just who has had points cancelled. Is any party / TD clean here?

well your crowd are clean this time.. as they circle the plughole north of the border

[Maguire01]

Looks like the culture is infectious. It would be interesting to see just who has had points cancelled. Is any party / TD clean here?

well your crowd are clean this time.. as they circle the plughole north of the border

Unlike you, I don't have 'a crowd'.

[lawnseed]

Looks like the culture is infectious. It would be interesting to see just who has had points cancelled. Is any party / TD clean here?

well your crowd are clean this time.. as they circle the plughole north of the border

Unlike you, I don't have 'a crowd'.

you sure dont
where are yez heading for you next agm? some old peoples home around dungannon

[Maguire01]

Looks like the culture is infectious. It would be interesting to see just who has had points cancelled. Is any party / TD clean here?

well your crowd are clean this time.. as they circle the plughole north of the border

Unlike you, I don't have 'a crowd'.

you sure dont
where are yez heading for you next agm? some old peoples home around dungannon

Unlike you, while my point of view will be more closely aligned to some parties than others, I've no loyalty to any. For today's proceedings at Stormont for example, I couldn't be much further from some of the SDLP contributions.

But you keep yourself young with your juvenile comments.

[lawnseed]

Looks like the culture is infectious. It would be interesting to see just who has had points cancelled. Is any party / TD clean here?

well your crowd are clean this time.. as they circle the plughole north of the border

Unlike you, I don't have 'a crowd'.

you sure dont
where are yez heading for you next agm? some old peoples home around dungannon

Unlike you, while my point of view will be more closely aligned to some parties than others, I've no loyalty to any. For today's proceedings at Stormont for example, I couldn't be much further from some of the SDLP contributions.

But you keep yourself young with your juvenile comments.

thats right thats the thing we agree on religion and me being young

[An Gaeilgoir]

Ming been handed his arse by Vinny Browne tonight, great stuff!! Ming, Step away from the shovel and stop digging!!!!!!

The f**king sheer arrogance of this p***k is mind blowing, i hope the Roscommon councillor involved, hangs this bollicks out to dry!!

[Syferus]

Up the Ming. Roscommon councillors or officials are a shower of edjits unlike any other I've encountered and Ming rightly drove them soft by reducing their expenses and exposing their stupid and useless practices when he was a member of the chamber, I wouldn't believe anything one of them says about Ming as all but a few have major, major axes to grind.

Anyone that does, more's the fool you.

This is classic mid-term blather that only people not willing to consider the candidate to begin with will remember come election time.

I tend to believe a Garda would very much solicit well-known people like Ming claims given their continued poor behaviour with other famous people but Ming's mistake wasn't even letting it happen, it was not getting out in front of this story when Daly was pushing this last year. The whole thing is incredibly ironic to me because Ming has taken the train to Dublin for a few months now, most times I'm in Castlerea early I'll see him walking to the station with his gear in hand.

For anyone that wants a little perspective without someone like Vincent Browne making stroke faces and interrupting every five seconds: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3dGPnEdcoM

[Dougal Maguire]

Just listening to his tax evading go been man mate Mick Wallace defending him on Radio 1. You folk down South really get the politicians you deserve

[Billys Boots]

Just listening to his tax evading go been man mate Mick Wallace defending him on Radio 1. You folk down South really get the politicians you deserve

Excuse me, but everyone (including you righteous nordies) gets the politicians they deserve. 

[Maguire01]

Up the Ming. Roscommon councillors or officials are a shower of edjits unlike any other I've encountered and Ming rightly drove them soft by reducing their expenses and exposing their stupid and useless practices when he was a member of the chamber, I wouldn't believe anything one of them says about Ming as all but a few have major, major axes to grind.

Anyone that does, more's the fool you.

This is classic mid-term blather that only people not willing to consider the candidate to begin with will remember come election time.

I tend to believe a Garda would very much solicit well-known people like Ming claims given their continued poor behaviour with other famous people but Ming's mistake wasn't even letting it happen, it was not getting out in front of this story when Daly was pushing this last year. The whole thing is incredibly ironic to me because Ming has taken the train to Dublin for a few months now, most times I'm in Castlerea early I'll see him walking to the station with his gear in hand.

For anyone that wants a little perspective without someone like Vincent Browne making stroke faces and interrupting every five seconds: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3dGPnEdcoM

I'm struggling to see the difference between you and those in North Tipp supporting Lowry, or South Kerry supporting Healy Rae.

Just watched both the Dail clip and VB appearance. Interesting that you think the pre-prepared, rehearsed and unchallenged version provides the perspective. Have to agree with An Gaeilgoir - VB ripped him a new one.

[Declan]

Elaine Byrne ‏@ElaineByrne
Help me. RTE all over @lukeming €160 fine & 4 penalty pts. NOTHING yet on @michael_lowry apparent non-disclosure of £250,000.

Now there's a surprise

[Maguire01]

Ming the meek makes his point

Miriam Lord

A new political cohort has emerged in Leinster House – The Technicality Group.

These are the deputies who may have transgressed (think Mick Wallace and his tax affairs) but manage to escape censure on a technicality. Group members are distinguished by their brass necks and fantastic ability to turn a blind eye.

Hypocrisy and victimhood also come with the territory.

At the moment, The Technicality Group has three leading lights – Wallace, Clare Daly and Luke Ming Flanagan.

Its members were to the fore last night when the Spent Convictions Bill came up for discussion.

By the time Ming finished speaking, listeners could have been forgiven for thinking they had wandered into a debate on the Compromised Convictions Bill.
Although, in fairness, it was a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time for Flanagan. He just happened to receive his penalty points when there was somebody in a position of influence around to have them wiped from the record.

In another unfortunate twist, he just happens to be in Leinster House this week. If he were in the Vatican instead, Ming would surely be a front runner in the race to the papacy.

Thanks to his wonderfully self-serving performance last evening, the holier than thou Roscommon deputy presented a most immaculate set of credentials to the House. (At least according to himself.)

Others may enter into the distinctly dodgy practice of actively seeking to have motoring penalty points quashed while others may find themselves sucked into a world of corruption by domineering Garda sergeants and sinister senior county council officials, but Ming the Infallible can do no wrong.

He may be part of a crusade against certain members of An Garda Síochána for sorting out people's points problems, among other things, but when he turns out to be the beneficiary of such carry-on – not once, but twice – Flanagan has no problem standing up in Dáil Éireann and bleating about the incidents as if they represent an injustice perpetrated against his own pristine character.

What was he to do?
The first time, Deputy Flanagan was forced by a sergeant to write to the station and request that his offence be wiped because he was entitled to do so under an antiquated rule which states that TDs cannot be snared by the police on their way to or from Leinster House.

This was after the officer heard that Ming had been done for using his mobile phone while driving.

What did this custodian of the law do but "insist" that Flanagan put pen to paper to avoid the fine?

Listening to Ming in the Dáil yesterday evening, you'd believe that policeman all but frog-marched him to the biro and Belvedere Bond.

Ming the meek – just ask all those people who have protested with him down through the years – always does what the local constabulary tell him to do.

But "that's not all" he told the Dáil, anxious to show how innocent people can be drawn into this murky world where "corruption is like rust", starting out unseen but soon corrupting everything it touches.

But not Ming, of course.
On this second occasion, in December 2011, six months or so after he endured the first atrocity, Deputy Flanagan was stopped again for talking on his mobile phone while driving.

This time, he mentioned it at a county council meeting and soon afterwards, a senior official got in touch to say he had sorted out the matter for him.

As you can imagine, Ming was outraged. On the spot. On both spots.

As outraged as any ordinary crusader for the little man trying to combat "systemic abuse" by shadowy establishment forces would be.
As outraged as only Ming can be, and frequently is.
And he did nothing. Said nothing.

Until the whole penalty points thing blew up and the Technicality Group ran with it.

And until the newspapers got wind of the penalty points that were turfed under the carpet for him.

Well, of course, it was the Garda's fault for leaking the information. That's "illegal" he told the Dáil, stung that such a thing could have been done to him.

And he would have said something (if not at the actual time, which some might consider the right moment to act) sooner, only he was keeping his powder dry so he could use his story to ambush the Minister for Justice.

No such thing as points getting quashed? At which point he would astonish Alan Shatter with his news.

"Whatever about the case whereby the points were removed on the grounds of travelling to the Dáil," he told the House, there was no case for the council official doing him a turn.

He's been terribly hard done by.

Ming is now hoping he will be allowed to pay the fine which "should have been imposed on me as punishment in the first place".

He believes 15 other parliamentarians were let off penalty points.

They should make amends too, he sulked.

(The TDs and Senators we met last night were moaning about their points and how nobody ever told them how to have them scrapped.)

Wallace, Flanagan and Daly spoke one after another, then left the chamber together.

Another mortifying night for the Technical Group. But, by the look of the Independent trio, a triumph for the Technicalities.

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/oireachtas/ming-the-meek-makes-his-point-1.1324104?page=1

[deiseach]

Listening to Ming in the Dáil yesterday evening, you'd believe that policeman all but frog-marched him to the biro and Belvedere Bond.

Ming the meek – just ask all those people who have protested with him down through the years – always does what the local constabulary tell him to do.

Brilliant.

[Syferus]

Up the Ming. Roscommon councillors or officials are a shower of edjits unlike any other I've encountered and Ming rightly drove them soft by reducing their expenses and exposing their stupid and useless practices when he was a member of the chamber, I wouldn't believe anything one of them says about Ming as all but a few have major, major axes to grind.

Anyone that does, more's the fool you.

This is classic mid-term blather that only people not willing to consider the candidate to begin with will remember come election time.

I tend to believe a Garda would very much solicit well-known people like Ming claims given their continued poor behaviour with other famous people but Ming's mistake wasn't even letting it happen, it was not getting out in front of this story when Daly was pushing this last year. The whole thing is incredibly ironic to me because Ming has taken the train to Dublin for a few months now, most times I'm in Castlerea early I'll see him walking to the station with his gear in hand.

For anyone that wants a little perspective without someone like Vincent Browne making stroke faces and interrupting every five seconds: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3dGPnEdcoM

I'm struggling to see the difference between you and those in North Tipp supporting Lowry, or South Kerry supporting Healy Rae.

Just watched both the Dail clip and VB appearance. Interesting that you think the pre-prepared, rehearsed and unchallenged version provides the perspective. Have to agree with An Gaeilgoir - VB ripped him a new one.

The clue is in the post directly below your's, they've very different political animals.

One set has a history of embezzlement, the other has a history of fighting for, and pushing through, changes that crub politicians' abilities to abuse the system at local and national level. The people who tried to compare him to have tried to get rich off their position; Ming lives in relative poverty and always has. This isn't Mick Wallace, this is someone of honestly small means who has done as close to an honest job in the Dail as any I have ever seen.

Ming has always campaigned for better laws and practices for everyone even since 1997, not just parish pump issues. He's always been a big issue guy, not some inward-facing career politician. This is not a man enthralled with money or developers, if you knew Ming as long as people here have you'd know he gets himself into holes by being too honest with people, not by being a gombeen and trying to tell everyone what they want to hear. Just about the only thing Ming shares with Haely-Rae or Pacman Lowry is the same side of the Dail chamber.

He made a balls up letting them wipe his points to begin with but it's nothing short of ridiculous that you'd compare him to those sort of fools because of this incident.

And on Vincent Browne - it's grand entertainment to watch him make bizarre half-awake sounds and faces every few seconds if you're in the position of not having anything better to watch at 11 PM at night but as something of real worth it's negligible, Browne is as big a blow-hard as any of the politicians he features. Browne doing the same old routine he's been doing for decades isn't 'ripping him a new one' in anyone's langauge.