Members of our armed forces are questioning the actions of this Government, all be it in a private capacity, because if they question them in public they will be charged with treason.

@Carcu – Which is kind of ironic since our elected representatives are actually committing treason and the Gardai and army (Including getting paid much less and taxed more) are letting them get away with it.

shatter what planet are you on the coup has already taken place think you need to get with the program .

Correct..

Jaysus, Fatima Whitbread has really left herself go…

Well it is like this every action this government is treason but they get away with it

Excellent point.

He might double-dare them

Sterilising junkies would probably work better than hiring more guards in the long run.

The crime rate has actually fallen significantly since the recession kicked in. Not that I’m in favour of cutting Garda resources either, but I like accuracy.

“By the end of last year, homicides had fallen by 52 per cent from a peak of 138 cases in 2007. Drugs offences have dropped by 24 per cent since 2008, with the specific offence of possessing drugs for personal use down by 30 per cent.

Cases of discharging a firearm have fallen by 49 per cent since peaking at 326 cases in 2007. Recorded cases of possession of a firearm have dropped by 35 per cent, from 457 incidents in 2008 to 297 last year. Public-order crimes peaked in 2008 at 61,822 offences, but have since fallen by 21 per cent. Assaults are down by 12 per cent, criminal damage is down by 21 per cent.

Burglary has bucked the downward trend by increasing by 15 per cent, and theft from the person is up 25 per cent. The cultivation of cannabis has doubled, as have prostitution offences.

However, even when spikes in those areas are taken into account, overall crime has fallen by 13 per cent since its peak in 2008, after increasing consistently for a decade and a half.”
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/weekend/2012/0818/1224322378674.html

Some of those crimes such as possession of drugs, firearms and public order offences where the injured party is the state, are only recorded when a detection takes place ie someone is stopped, searched and found in possession of a gun. Therefore with less gardai on the ground, these offences are going to reduce.

True (and mentioned in the article), but less so for some crimes – I think we can be pretty sure that the decline in murders, assaults, etc. is reflective of reality and not simply a lack of detection.

Agreed

Aoife in every recession high profile crime reduces. People have no money to buy Cocaine. This is why the gangs have increased the growing of cannabis. Less smuggled drugs means less smuggled firearms. One good thing about a recession. Less people can go out clubbing, getting drunk and starting fights. The gang members go back to the old, less profitable side of crime, robbery etc.

You’re confusing one thing the army do with the entire spectrum of their capability

The army has artillery, tanks and thousands of armed, trained men. If they decide to take over, that’s that (as is the case in virtually every state). That’s why we require them to be politically neutral. Who could stop them? Ivan Yeats?

It’s fairly obvious that some of the anti-Shatter comments that appear on here regularly are driven by pure old fashioned Jew-bashing. Criticism of his policies is fair enough & I think he is very wrong on reducing Garda numbers but It saddens me to see this kind of bigotry often hiding behind pro-Palestinian comments is alive in Ireland in 2013.

I appreciate your comment mate. I’m well aware that both the Garda force and the Army have multi-faceted roles that the majority of the general public would not be aware of. On this occasion, my tongue was firmly lodged in my cheek…

Aaron
Yes he should be a Minister because he was appointed by the Taoiseach and given his seal of office by the President.
And you are? Could you tell us of your own ambitions and contributions to Irish society. Do we know you? Are you an upright citizen? Have you ever been arrested? Have you ever been charged with a sexual offense?
You know the rest!

And yet another stupid comment from Mister Rodgers! Do you ever stop talking sh1te on this??
Im a normal person who has a pretty average job, I donate to a charity every month, Im a fater of 3 kids and I also foster animals for the DSPCA to help them out, even though I have 2 gods and a Cat of my own, the difference with him and myself is that im qualified for the job that I do which makes me capable of doing it, him on the other hand is doing a job he has no qualifications for

All of which by the way is none of your business or anybody elses because I chose not to be in the Public domain where as he on the other hand did so he will be subject to criticism from people who do not believe in his decisions or practises and I for one do not agree with any decisions that he would make as I feel he is going the wrong way with things. Again thats my opinion that I am allowed to express to whom I wish and I for one could not give a flying crap what you think of it!

I don’t think O’Duffy was pro-choice or in favour of Gay Marriage.

I’m sure an authoritarian can still be in favour of those things

@Kerron O’Duffy your astonishing grasp of Irish history aside, Kenny is more of a centrist than right wing if you look to comparisons with other right wing parties in Europe.

How is he authoritarian, we elected him?

Lenin/Stalin were authoritarian.

Minister Shatter is not.

I was referring to Shatter not Kenny

I can name plenty of authoritarians in history who have been elected. Being elected doesn’t preclude authoritarianism. His attack on civil liberties such as the right of protest and free movement are enough to brand him as authoritarian, as is his support for Zionism. Did the people who voted for him even vote for him to sell weapons to Israel or make a mockery of this state’s support for a Palestinian state?

Kenny mightnt be a right wing in the European traditional sense but he is very right wing sense of neo-liberalism in the mould Thatcher/Regan

@Kerron Are we only allowed to elect people who are pro Palestinian? I’m pretty sure that the vast majority of those who voted for him were aware of this views as he has been a vocal supporter of Israel. How has he attached free movement btw? I’m still able to travel anywhere in the world if I want to.

And he’d probably send them a bill for the cost of the coup !!!

Kerron’s source for news is Russian Television, hm. Do we always have to bring up Alan Shatter being Jewish? Can we have a little shame that there was a good bit of Nazi support during WWII here in Ireland. Most Jews are going to obviously support Israel and not the 22 Arab Imperialist states that want to destroy the only Jewish state on the face of the earth. Kerron is someone who is a big supporter of Sinn Fein-IRA and dissident “republicans” fight for “freedom”. We live in a democracy, your ideology is anti-Democracy.

Where did I mention him being Jewish?

Gilmore has been as complicit in rolling back our support for a Palestinian state as any

James my point was that did the people who voted for him know he would purchase arms from and thereby fund the Israeli terror state. If they did, these kind of people don’t deserve to vote. A vote for funding Israel is a vote for genocide, end of.

RT isn’t my only source for news ( you stalker :-D ). Unlike you I don’t just get drip-fed from corporate sources like RTÉ and the Indo

“Where did I mention him being Jewish?”

He is the only politician in Ireland which happens to be Jewish presently (there’s only 2,000 Jews in Ireland, very small population) and you decide to bring Israel/Palestine as a way of attacking the only Jewish politician in Ireland. Surely there are other things you can criticize him on other than Israel/Palestine? From my understanding of other articles on Shatter, there are plenty.

“Gilmore has been as complicit in rolling back our support for a Palestinian state as any”

Gilmore has been complicit in giving millions of dollars away to Uganda and other countries for his image at the expense of the Irish people. Israel doesn’t “occupy” Gaza or the Palestinian Authority. Gaza is controlled by Hamas and the Palestinian Authority is controlled by Fatah. Some claim they can’t even import crayons, yet ironically they can import tons of bombs and guns.

“RT isn’t my only source for news ( you stalker :-D ). Unlike you I don’t just get drip-fed from corporate sources like RTÉ and the Indo”

Oh that’s great so you also follow I assume Al Jazeera, Current TV, North Korea TV, etc. Wonderful! RTE, corporate? RTE is state-owned and is clearly leans to the left. You think RTE are pro-Israel? LOL. Just because they are civil when it comes to bashing Israel, doesn’t mean they are “pro-Israel”. I don’t like RTE on foreign policy at all, but I do appreciate they are civil when it comes to their reporting. They should be of all things civil as their state-owned. Just because a news organization don’t say things like “Zionist Sc*m”, “the Zionists financed the Holocaust”, “the Zionists control the media”, “the Zionists are trying to conquer the world”, “the Zionists are behind 9/11 because they wanted to turn the world against Muslims”, etc. doesn’t mean one is “pro-Israel”. This isn’t Nazi Germany!

You really think Palestinians (Arabs) have some kind of high moral position in reference to Israelis?
http://markhumphrys.com/israel.conflict.crimes.html
http://markhumphrys.com/israel.html

Kevin it wud be very difficult to be a Sinn Fein supporter and a dissident support. As dissidents are highly opposed to Sinn Fein.

Sinn Fein supporters on here justify routinely dissident activity. I am not retarded, I know dissidents are opposed to Sinn Fein because they won’t continue the terrorist campaign. I am aware there are parties like “Republican Sinn Fein”, “Eirgi”, etc. which get no votes because they aren’t realistic/cunning in their approach to making Ireland a 32 county socialist/terrorist republic.

oh poor Ministers, they’ve got it so tough with their 160 grand a year salaries, expenses and stately homes, telling people to “suck up” austerity or telling nurses who they offer a measly 22 grand to get a job in Maccy D’s or emigrate

do one pal

I meant shatter!!

Oh, soz!

Put a moustache and funny hat on him and you’ve got yourself a Gaddafi looksalikey