I love this country, we are all press followers, first the press decide Fianna Fail have to go and Fine Gael should be in power, guess what Fine Gael are in power (i have never and never will vote Fine Gael), then the tribunal ends and even though the tribunal did not find any corruption dealins with Bertie Ahern, the press made him public enemy number one and of course the Irish followed. Now we have a Fine Gael Td who was found to be corrupt and yet I did not see his face on the cover of all papers saying out out out. The simple fact of life is that mistakes were made, not just by government, we also have to take responsibility, the WHOLE world is in recession, in each country the last government are being critizied for the mess, Obama etc, but at least these countries will vote in a government based on their prowess and ability to pull us out of trouble, and not do what the press tells them. Ireland voted Fine Gael in, they were kept out of power for 15 years, why, because they do not, never have and never will care about the little man in Ireland. So while I pray everyday that my children will have a future to look forward to I am slowly losing hope, that Ireland has sunk so low as to vote them back in scares me, one year on and we are broken.

I agree with your absolute sense of frustration Marcella….but looking back it seems that the vast majority of the voters went to the last election to vent fury on FF….and in doing so were led up the garden path by the only alternative, now Enda thinks he is the messiah, surely long before the next election we will have seen a party formed where we can steer a new course and jettison those civil war political parties as drift wood…..we need a new beginning, we owe it to our next generation that we do not give them the present corrupt culture of this rotten state!!

Marcella, if you are referring to Lowry Fine Gael kicked him out many years ago. Fianna Fail on the other hand knew about their dodgy TDs for many years and did feck all.

Reg

they only kicked him out because the public were made aware of the dodgey dealings he had with O’Brien. If that piece of information had not come to out, chances are he would still be in FG and the rest of them would have kept their mouths shut knowing quite well what had gone on and we would be none the wiser.

The people of North Tipperary have a lot to answer for. They elected him and will no doubt elect him again.14000 votes on the first count in 2011!! For shame.. No doubt these are the same people complaining about parish pump politics.

Going by the close vote above Reada I’d say Irish people will take an awful lot before shouting stop. Thats why the establisment keep shoveling all this crap on us………. because we take it.

Yvonne
People are standing up and finding our voices . Did you not see the protests around the country ?

Yvonne
You may be right about Lab , However they have lost my vote ( even if it was 2nd choice) forever.
I agree wholly with you that people should treat the local elections with more concentration and choose
carefully

Susie do you not remeber or should I say are you old enough to remember the failed GaeLab coalitons in the 80s. I wasnt old enough to vote in the early 80s but I remember everything they did and the effect their draconian budgets had on the people of this country, and by the time I was 18 I had made a concious decision to never vote for either party, EVER!
They were liars and self serving back then and it appears nothing has changed. Phill the blacks sacks Hogan has decided to park the investigations into more recent planning application irregularities because it serves him (in particular) and his government well to do so, particlarly given that they held the majoiry of seats in the Councils, over the past decade. Fine Gael ministers had meetings with Lowry before Mahon released his findings, knowing quite well that he had been involved in corrupt dealings with O’Brien. As the saying goes “the dogs in the street knew” he was corrupt and there is absolutely nobody on this island that was shocked by Mahons findings. Its the same old same old, nothing changes.

Ann
I had a longer reply written but it disappeared ….. Suffice to say that I am indeed old enough to remember the 80′s. I voted for FG then too . Why ? They were not FF/ Lab.
I was reared on civil war politics …. Anyway I am not alone at this present time to be goiung through this transiton / epipheny ( Spelling ! ) and it is a fantastic sense of freedom. I will accept that my lack of moral courage , by voting for them has brought us here , BUT. and this is significant to me and many others , we will stand aside no longer. I will stand with the rest of you and shout out loud Enough is Enough . It is a fantastic sense of self worth and freedom . .
Ann Speaking of which …….http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLrrBs8JBQo

Yes, visiting times are Monday to Saturday, 10am to 12 noon and 2pm to 4pm in Portlaoise Prison were the whole shower of them belong, crooked politicians, bankers and developers alike – traitors.

Shock !
Desmond , we agree on something . Of course there should be a garda investigation .

there is a garda investigation……led by the politicians!!!

ther is a garda investigation………..its led by the politicians!!!

Change to what? I see no viable alternative. Do you?

Yes I do :)

Susie, you give out about FG apologists in one breath and then in the next breath lament the fact that Labour are not in power on their own. Are you for real?? Labour are part of this government too and are dying by their own sword. For years we have listened to Labour’s blue-sky fiscal policies and now when in power they go down the same road as all the other parties.

Ha ha , Where have I ever said I wanted Labour in Gov on their own .? I ”lament” the fact that I gave them my 2nd vote in the GE …. I regret that daily too. I did say that Labour should get out . In other words fall on their own sword , and take fg with them, which will not happen . They are worse than not being there because they are doing less than nothing .

Susie Lab will pull out but not for another year or so. They know that if they stay in power for the full term that they will go the way of the PDs and the Greens. So they will pull out in time to rebuild the party before the next election. In the meantime they will try to win as many seats as possible in the Local Elections in 2014. So we need to treat and use our vote as carefully in the local elections as we would a General Election. We can’t afford to treat the next Local Elections as a relatively non event.

Yvonne
I answered this comment but it went ^ above :( , but I agree with you , except to say That Lab , have lost my vote .

So Senator Whelan

why wont your party leader, Eamonn Gilmore put it up to Kenny and FG and tell them that this situation is not on and that the majority of the electorate in this country find this type of behaviour unacceptable and unethical not to mention farcicle to the tune of 300million euros?

I agree. Whoever voted for him committed an act of treason.

Couldnt have put it better myself and I would say Joan needs the hardest one. The only thing she is interested in “protecting” is her new wardrobe and pay packet. And really it makes no difference to any of them wether this admininstration falls flat on its face because they have a nice big fat pension to look after them, I would say in their twilight years, but as we all know it will kick in the minute they retire from politics.

They should not have elected him , so. We all know that he was crooked … Isn;t that why he was sacked from the party .

Maybe if the people of North Tipp or any other county for that matter knew that those ‘under a cloud’ (be it via tribunals, tax etc) would not gain access to Government Ministers they wouldn’t vote for such specimens?

Susie, do the people of North Tipp answer to you?

Why not susie? He hasn’t been convicted of anything yet. They are entitled to their representation. Should gerry Adams constituents also lose their voice because of his connections to terrorism?

Maybe , you should rephrase that question …. Do they answer to themselves ?
But as you have asked me .Yes I believe they do .Just as much as my vote for
my local FG td gave him his seat … and I regret it every day …..

My God ! I think I will change my name to Honey !!! See all the FG apologists coming after me ,,ha ha . Like flies around the honey pot. I really must be hitting a lot of raw nerves . That is good , because I will continue `to be honest in my comments :)

why was he elected by people in Tipp when it was common knowlege he was corrupt. Do the people in Tipp like corrupt people?

@Sean Beag. Gerry Adams was not found to have made corrupt payments to businessmen for his own gain.

The people of North Tipperary would not be disenfranchised. They have 2 other very capable and upstanding TDs in Alan Kelly (Lab) and Noel Coonan (FG). Both of these represent the parties in Government and should have far greater access to Ministers than a so-called Independent, especially one as crooked as Mr Lowry. Those Ministers actually bolstered Lowry’s ability to compete at election time against their own honest TDs.

Susie I reckon he was elected soley on his platform of creating jobs in the construction and staffing of the giant casino development he had planned on building in N. Tipp. If this hadnt been part of his manifesto he probably would not have been elected.

Yes . Ann I believe you are right .

No Gerry just over sees the murder of people, sure that’s grand.

Something like Michael Collins and Eamon De Valera did when they was in Sinn Fein back in the day with Arthur Griffith….

He’s absolutely no influence now. Wonder what way Tipp would vote in the next election. Don’t see why ministers wouldn’t meet him, they’d get more satisfaction refusing him any requests.

Zero tolerance should be shown him. Tolerating him and the softly softly approach produced a glut of corrupt politicians who think they are untouchable.

It only has to be respected if you want to pay lip service to another corrupt institution in this beautiful country: our democratic model.

They can say they are busy or just ignore him like they do with Priory Hall reps

“due process” used to be the FF mantra, now FG have taken it over! Neither seemed to worry about it when Michael McDowell hid behind Dail privilege to attack Frank Connolly.

In the 1980s FG and Labour ministers refused to meet SF councillors or attend any function, however harmless if a SF councillor was present. Do not councillors have a mandate too?

????