If you and two of your cool mates were caught at work calling a colleague Miss Piggy behind her back, but in earshot of your clients/customers, would you not expect to be in serious trouble?

If people are elected to steer the country out of the shite it’s in, would you not expect them to behave a bit more responsibly while at work?

What town are you from and who is this outsider they’re paying €1000 a meeting to????

Im from Sligo, Dermot. A few years ago a councillor was accused of bullying his fellow councillors with regards a bridge being built in the town. He was reported and an investigation launched. Im not sure of the outcome of that investigation but since then they have paid an observer from Wicklow €1000 per meeting to sit and observe and write a report on their behaviour. It has come to light again as they have decided to put the job out to tender to “try to reduce the cost”… Sickening? I think so.. So this kind of crap I see about the Ministers in the Dail is just bull. And no doubt they pay observers there to ensure that there is no bullying. We just don’t
know it. I copied the story below, it wouldn’t allow me post the link… Happy Reading!!!
Council pays consultant €26,000 to watch meetings over bullying claim

Tuesday July 12 2011
A COUNCIL is paying an observer almost €1,000-a-meeting to report on the behaviour of its councillors following bullying allegations.

Documents obtained by the Irish Independent under freedom of information rules show Sligo Borough Council has paid a human resources consultant to attend 27 of its meetings over the past year-and-a-half.

Wicklow-based Declan Naughton was hired to write reports on the behaviour of councillors at the meetings after an investigation found one of them, Independent Declan Bree, guilty of “bullying and inappropriate behaviour” towards staff.

Mr Bree’s alleged behaviour led to a walk-out of officials in November 2008. Since February last year Mr Naughton has been paid over €26,000, including VAT, to observe the meetings and write reports on the councillors’ behaviour.

The council said it hired Mr Naughton as it had a legal obligation to ensure the health and safety of staff members.

His presence at the meetings was intended to be “a safeguard” to ensure alleged unacceptable behaviour did not reoccur. However, despite his attendance at meetings for the past 18 months there are still concerns over the treatment of officials in the council chamber.

In recent days the council indicated the independent observation of meetings would continue for some time to come. Last Friday, it placed an advertisement inviting new tenders for the work in a bid to keep costs down.

Mr Naughton is currently being paid €960 to attend meetings and write reports. The payment includes travel, overnight expenses and VAT.

- Shane Phelan

Irish Independent

Thanks for that Fiona :)

Doesn’t surprise me about Sligo, how can you guys afford to live there, I spent a night in Sligo recently, the drink and food are over priced, one bar along the river charges €8.75 for a plate of chips with sour cream and scallions, bacon bits, €18.95 for spaghetti bolognaise, restaurant service in Clarion Hotel is very bad as it is understaffed, the maitre d is rude,.

Oh I know Brianan, and I know the place your talking about with their “Mucky Chips” as they call them.. I’ve got them twice and both times the bacon bits were burnt to a crisp and the chips cold underneath. Its a serious rip off!! Try going out for a night. I was out on Sunday night for my sisters birthday and it cost me a fortune.. Any wonder I’m never outside the door!! Price of living hasn’t fallen in Sligo – not by a long shot!!!

If only national politicians were focussed on national issues apologies would’ne be necessary!

Mick and Ming comparing people to Muppet characters. Have the boys not looked at themselves in a mirror recently. Might I suggest to Mary in her response that she checkout Gonzo. He could be Ming’s half brother. There are so many in the show who could be Mick, that I will leave it to her to select one.
It’s nice to see that the boys have a handle on the real issues confronting the country.
It’s at times like this I wonder about the whole one man one vote setup. Who voted for these gobshites.

Good to see some people are blessed with common sense. Spot on Laura.

Well said!

Too much focus on female appearance? I can assure you this present dresscode nonsense is directed solely at the male TDs.

I said it about James Reilly, he looks like he needs an urgent medical, in fact come to think of it he looks more unhealthy than Mary Harney, she was overweight but at least she looks ‘fresh faced’ can’t same the same about James!!!

Mary Harney “Fresh Faced”??Are you f*cking serious?She looks like a tonne of uncooked mince stuffed into a small plastic bag……and apart from that and most importantly she was terrible at her job!If your terrible at your job and your job involves keeping people alive and keeping a health service healthy……expect insults about your hideous appearance at the least!She was lucky she didn’t get a punch in her 8 years of shame!Once again the govt have cleverly diverted our attention…….as corny as it sounds…once they wear their heart on their sleeves and do an honest job I couldn’t care what they look like altough any sensible person would admit that Cowen,Ahern and Harney are bet down ha ha :P

Oh, for fuck’s sake… what a massive steaming pile of shit! There was nothing sexist about this!

People these days see Indians behind every bush, was it sexist when people here were commenting on Michael D. Higgins’s height (Michael “Twee” Higgins), or similar jibes aimed at Nicolas Sarkozy? Was it sexist when all of us called Brian Cowen “BIFFO” or laughed at the crude paintings of him? Was Was it sexist when the Dáil dress code proposed forces men to wear jackets and ties and women only to “not wear jeans”?

Was it sexist that Mitchell O’Connor’s selection as a candidate was more based on her gender-based rather than merit based? Referring of course to Fine Gael insistence that at least one woman ran for election in the Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown constituency.

Male or female, the media and the public generally make comments about the appearance of our politicians, our colleagues, or friends etc. It may be childish and petty, but not sexist. The PC Brigade seriously need to get down off their collective moral high horse and cop the fuck on, I’m sick to the back teeth of the double-standards these days.

Spot on Liam!

isn,t there a fancy creche in leinster house is that where they hold there meeting,s should be under parental supervision for all, or should the children run the country

Surely you mean pot calling kettle “PINK” !!

@ Alco Holic

I’ll drink to that M8!

Brillant

Nothing like a bit of sexism, eh Mary?

@Kenneth Nah, it’s not sexist if it degrades men.