He has resigned this afternoon.

do we really need two army barracks in westmeath seriously. Classic example of parochialism by the local TD.

For such a “brilliant orator” he’s very fecking quite ! I reckon he’s getting the ol’ knife in the back by his Labour Party colleague Mr Dollard !

I understand his need to represent his constituency. When he became a TD surely his responsibility is to the greater good of the country? I know its a tough decision and liable to make him unpopular but he knew what he was getting into when he ran. I’ve a lot of sympathy with those affected but really this is just a local issue and we have greater problems at hand.

Gas to see the indignation at an elected representative resigning over an issue he campaigned on.

What are ye like?

Unbelievable stuff this is parish pump politics at it’s worst. Here’s a local TD threatening the stability of the government because he is not getting something for his constituents (granted the coalition is secure in numbers). Why did he bother to go for office? Surely Penrose does more than just try and keep a barracks open?

Mr. Penrose that he is elected to a national assembly. It may well be his stated mission to keep the barracks open and there is nothing wrong with that. However, he has to accept that he has to work in the national interest and sometimes this means that there is pain at local level.

If he has done his best to put a case forward for keep the barracks open there is absolutely no need for him to resign. He just have to take it as a battle fought but lost. That’s what representation is about. As a TD he has still plenty of national issues to deal with.

If he does resign from government then he should resign his seat as well. We don’t want this sort in the dail.

(funny how TDs don’t resign when it comes to their expenses etc)

Are ye so used to being lied to now by politicians that ye get annoyed with a politician when he actually sticks to a promise?
Keeping a promise has turned into a lie. What are we going to do in our country.
Wtf!

Willie threw a massive strop in February. So Gilmore invented a job for him. A month later Rté ran a story with the headline: “Dolphin House living standards ‘breach UN law’”. http://www.rte.ie/news/2011/0328/dolphinhouse.html

“Minister for Housing and Planning Willie Penrose said today that he will be raising the matter with Dublin City Council.”

Nearly two months later after a Primetime special the ‘super minister’ told us

” I will raise those matters with DCC because that is the first port of of call in relation to those particular matters.”

You would think he would resign over being useless….

Roscommon Hospital is another example of the Devastation of all the lies and Promises before the election and then when this shower got into power within 100days KENNY himself announced that Our A&E was closing within 2 weeks that was back in July 11th 2011
Fair Play to Willie Penrose He has taken a very difficult step today BUT WILLIE PENROSE HAS Stood by his word and his PEOPLE AN HONOURABLE MAN

as a westmeath man, i believe he’s right to resign, the barracks provides, well, provided, a lot of jobs directly through the defence forces, and indirectly through contracts for catering maintenence and admin work, as well as providing a focal point of employment and morale for many families. i think the argument that westmeath doesnt need two barracks is a little silly. athlone is one of the largest towns in ireland and having its own troop catchment area requires one. mullingar to my knowledge is in a seperate district, and as such has tge barracks as the bulkhead of that area. i think this desicion will have a terrible effect on business, commerce, and on all the families in mullingar and beyond, and to clonmel.

I’m enjoying David McCullagh’s commentary more and more these days.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_7e_GWITzr-I/TK8TUODLt1I/AAAAAAAAAj0/ZXQNONwcVbc/s1600/dave.jpg

Willie is meant to be quiet ill at the moment, so he’ll be stepping down anyway. Might as well do it now, rather than a few weeks time.

Din’t see anyone in Cavan/Monaghan resigning over the closure of Cavan barracks. I find it fasinating when these resignation come up. They seem to wrangle their way back into the party after a “bit of a break”. They don’t seem to resign their Dail seat which would have the most impact. Imagine trying to hold a by-election in a constituency where they have closed a barracks or hospital – that would be interesting.

The whole thing is just a game to some with the public the pawn!

Local issues continue to bite however mullingar lost out massively when brian was king of clara and mary was in situ in athlone. If we look at the economics of it I wud guess the upkeep and security alone is close to the cost of keeping it open. Add in the money spent every day in the town by staff working there and it makes no economic sense. There are no multi nationals in mullingar like Elan or the others in Athlone. Tullamore has a super hospital and mullingars is being constantly downgraded. On a positive note a new business did open in the town last week employing about 50 people. I think of that fella on the telly the other night losing a contract over 6k. If he got it he said he cud employ 20 people, I think, immediately. Thats 2k a week off the dole bill as a minimum plus added taxes etc and its all just a load of crap

Can someone please tell me why we need as many soldiers as we have guards? A small navy to protect fishing maybe but an army training just incase something happens and when that something happens they’ll be totally useless anyway makes no sense. Disband the army and expand the guards and double the amount of prison officers. If we are going to pay tax payers money at least let’s pay people who provide a service.

without our constituency’s we have no country….the effect the closure of this barracks will have on mullingar & further afield will be felt by many. if you could all get off your soapbox & stop looking at willie’s resignation from a political view & mabe instead from the point of view from the many, many families & businesses this is going to ruin…we might get somewhere. i take my hat off to willie, he has fought for something he strongly believed in…which is peoples lives, their past, their present & their future. it’s just a shame that so many of us have got so caught up in all the wrongdoings of our government…that we can’t seem to see the good in anything anymore….

It’s rare these days to see any td resign for anything these days-but I suppose the €150,000 pension should ease the pain considerably!!…

NO resignations over the failure to put in place anything humane and sensible to address the tens of thousands facing negative equity/mortgage default and get people spending, but any amount of bluster over a non-issue. Typical smoked salmon socialism.

No walk outs for 3/4 billion payout, no walkouts for families getting evicted from their homes, no walk out for hard cash strapped families trying to survive on less money and higher outgoings, no walk outs after fine Gael and labour populous election promises that never came to light , no walk out over special need children and student cuts. the list goes on and will go on and on. Fine Gael 5 point plan
1. Pay unsecured bond holders first at any cost to state or citizen.
2. Bail out and Pay banks second before state or citizen needs
3. Crucifie citizens and state with taxes and cuts to pay bond holders, banks.
4. Have families evicted from their homes then sell home at a loss then rent back to state and pursue family for short comings and make profit for bank.
5.have every man woman and child believe we are all feeling the pain.

PURE STUNT for his local constituents, to get re-elected again.
If he was that grieved, the would fully resign from the party that is doing this action!

Opposition to closing the barracks in Mullingar seems to be based solely on the barracks being in Mullingar. Not in by back garden please. If you are in Mullingar presumably it is ok to close barracks everywhere else. RTE reported this evening that only 500 army personnel would be affected by the closures of the various barracks in the country. None will lose their jobs. What about the various private sector workers who commute in all seasons and great distances to jobs that are in may cases insecure at the moment? NI resignations over that of course.

My respect for Penrose has just trebbled, and I say that as a proud Fianna Fáiler. If only the other members of the Dáil (past and present) had the same integrity as him. Would that the other members of the labour party didn’t suffered from this odd impulse to become Ireland’s Liberal Democrats.

I was talking to a member of the Labour Youth earlier today, and he felt disgusted that Fine Gael and Labour promised so much in the last election. There was no need – we were going to get a hammering and they were the only available credible alternative. Yet as all too often happens in political history, in trying to overthrow the source of the country’s woes, they adopted its characteristics.

With a bit of luck current batch of student politicians will be taking notes, because in the next election the current government’s majority will slip largely. They may cling onto power because the opposition parties aren’t ready, but sooner or later they’ll get a trouncing – just like we did. That will put them in a situation where they’ll be entirely reliant upon their youth movements to provide them with talented replacements, and just like is happening in Fianna Fáil right now, this will have the effect of modernising their political apparatus and moving away from the clichéd old boys club that is the Dáil today.

The man has the backbone like Jelly. Good riddance. We need people at cabinet who can make decisions on behalf of the country, not on behalf of their constituency.

No way has he any intention of resigning. This is just a stunt.

Let him walk. Good riddance to the gombeen

We can’t afford to indulge this kind of ‘parish pump’ politics when the country is confronted with such serious problems.

Ministers must focus on the bigger picture and the major national and international issues.

That’s fine for a backbencher but a Minister (at least in theory) has responsibilities that go beyond his/her narrow constituency interests.

Actually I would prefer if all TDs served as national legislators and local concerns were addressed by Cllrs with more devolved powers, but that’s a somewhat different debate!

With that sort of parochial view i welcome ur deprture from office….but its patronism and cynical ploy…after all ur constituents voted to elect you as a td not a minister….so if you resign you should do so from your dail seat….but i guess that would not suit ur pension outlook one bit eh?…:)