Vote Early, Vote Often

at

Dáil chamber

Jennifer Bray and Harry McGee, in The Irish Times, report:

TDs from across the political spectrum have admitted to voting for colleagues who were present in the Dáil chamber but who were not in their designated seats.

Deputies including Fine Gael’s Hildegarde Naughten, Peter Burke and Fergus O’Dowd, Fianna Fáil’s Anne Rabbitte and James Lawless, as well as Sinn Féin’s Louise O’Reilly, said they may have pressed a colleague’s voting button but only when they were actually in the chamber.

The controversy over Dáil voting deepened as Ministers also disclosed they voted for colleagues, although no further TDs have come forward to say they voted for absent representatives.

TDs across parties admit voting for colleagues not in seats (The Irish Times)

Previously: Push The Button And Let Me Know

UPDATE:

Gavan Reilly tweetz:

NEW: Fine Gael ministers are seeking to call Timmy Dooley, Niall Collins and Lisa Chambers (and potentially others) before the Dáil to make statements on #VoteGate and take questions from other TDs. Business committee being asked to meet later, session could happen this evening.

A FG source says Fianna Fáil have always rushed to call ministers before the Dáil for statements and Q&A on other major issues, and should therefore have no problem when the shoe is on the other foot…

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35 thoughts on “Vote Early, Vote Often

  1. Otis Blue

    So we’re told that our elected representatives are actually in the Dail Chamber but for some reason require that someone else votes on their behalf?

    Why?

    What prevents the individuals in question from fulfilling that most basic of tasks – y’know the one that they were actually elected for and are paid handsomely to do?

    There’s more to come on this, I’d say.

    1. Otis Blue

      A vote is held and TD’s casually wander around, shooting the breeze, giving the nod to whomever to vote on their behalf.

      And the Ceann Comhairle presides over all this farce?

      Needs more Bercow.

      1. Rob_G

        I can kind of see reaching over and tapping a button for a colleague when they are physically in the room.

        But Dooley’s and Collins’s carry-on was really taking the mickey.

  2. Cool_Hand_Lucan

    We need to scrap the electronic voting and bring back division lobbies. Make them physically move to a designated space to vote Tá or Níl.

  3. Liam Deliverance

    Apparently Damien English and Barry Cowen can be added to the list too, fupp it, I say sack all of them, no shortage of equally incompetent ministers to replace them. And enough of this “I was at the back of the chamber” crap. Either they press the button or no-one does, that’s the rule. If this most important aspect of their role is a bother to some of them it speaks volumes about their attitude to their job, the office and the people of Ireland.

    1. Liars Gonna Lie

      If they don’t respect the integrity of their own votes in the Dail, why would they respect the integrity of the people’s vote for the Dail?

      Rigged elections are nothing new.

      Rigged referendums too.

      ABOLISH THE DAIL!

      #UselessFeckers

      1. GiggidyGoo

        And that’s where it could go too. Wasn’t there a case of a ballot box going missing in Big Phil’s constituency a few years ago?

  4. Ron

    And I would line statements from their own Chief Goon, Charlie Flanagan. A minister for justice engaging in fraud regarding voting on our national parliament. Where is his statement??

    it’s time now for concerned, conscientious Irish voters who actually have a moral compass to protest Hong Kong style. This country needs to be shut down until every single one of those political filth are dealt with.

    The current daw jawed electorate who continue to vote for these goons do so only on the basis of their personal benefit. Stop allowing out country to be dictated by these D class inepts who think they are better then everyone else.

    Time to take back your Dail. It’s time for riots on the street until every single one of those sleazy, sneaky, inept jobs are gone

    Hong Kong style riots on the street now!!!! nothing else has worked

    1. V

      You could make a start yourself there Ron

      Stop calling the voter Daw Jawed
      Don’t blame the voter for what’s put in front of them in the Polling Booth, unless you are prepared put yourself on the ticket or find someone who is all that you want them to be who is

      I’m particularly taken by your bit above
      Time to take back your Dail. It’s time for riots on the street until every single one of those sleazy, sneaky, inept jobs are gone
      And replace them with who?

      The people out on the street protesting?
      Well lets see what the voters of Dublin Fingal answer that
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_Dublin_Fingal_by-election

      As a by the by
      I expect the eFFers to hold on to their CNC (Billie’s) Seat, and gain two by Senator Lorraine Clifford and Malcom Byrne coming through

      DMW should have been an open invitation to any bold but careful Independent / Anti Main Stream Main Party etc candidate – the opportunity to eviscerate Frances Fitzgerald into a mortified shamed has-been who did nothing for them there in DMW!!!!
      And have a licence to call her out on the Emails/ Maurice McCabe, her own attempt to hide her misdeeds, and her humiliation at having to resign
      24/7 for the next four weeks!

      Feck, I think I just described Paul Gogarty’s campaign

      Feck, I’m sorry I didn’t give it a go meself

      1. Ron

        The Irish electorate are daw jawed in every sense of the word. it is the electorates fault and they ensure the cancer on the body politic spreads every year.

        Anyone voting for FF or FG candidates in an election needs their head examined because there is something seriously mentally wrong with anyone who thinks it’s acceptable to allow the current political filth continue with their disgusting and shameful policies. Their inaction, their failure in every single thing they have put their grubby hands near.

        The usual palaver about “but there is no one else to vote for blah blah blah doesn’t wash anymore. Get a moral compass and stop voting for them because you are a part of their filthy little camp every time you vote for them.

        Talk is cheap and ineffective like the incompetent miscreants that dominate the political landscape in Ireland.

        Mass protests on the street now! National strikes. Irish people need to take back control of their democratic institutions. Kick these filth bags in the ballots

        This country needs a political rising and the daw jawed politicians ne edd to be removed from our parliament.

        There should be riots on the streets of Dublin if that’s the only thing the scum will listen too

        1. V

          Again
          You are forcing me to ask

          Replace them with what and who?

          In the last GE there was an opportunity for Right2Change to develop into a proper People’s Front

          And all it developed was another falling out amongst it’s own egos
          And that’s just one recent example

          The Voter wants stability not Ego or Charisma
          They need results and outcomes to re-elect
          Not more speeches or rabble rousing soapboxing
          How many new and alternative candidates failed to get re-elected in the last run of Locals?

          And any alternative amongst the left of center to be capable of delivering what the majority wants has failed
          every time

          Don’t blame the Voter
          Blame the Politicans who fail to deliver for the vote they got on their own windy promises

          1. Ron

            Stop making excuses!!! Let’s be clear about this FACT! The political filth that wash their grubby hands everyday on the taxpayer funded gravy train don’t get into power on the basis of just them voting for themselves. The electorate puts them there! The voter! Not the politicians, the voter!!!! If filth bags in politics are going to lie and make false promises well then it’s up to the Voter to make sure they are held responsible!

            Step of your never ending drama triangle, stop being the victim. Oh poor me, there is no one else to vote for! vote social democrats, vote Green, vote for real independents. Vote for smart new candidate’s. Vote for young people. Don’t give any votes to FF or FG candidates. None, zero, nada. your not going to change it over night but votes are the only currency these dirt bags understand.

            you have 2 choices. Continue your lazy victim blaming behaviour of voting for more cancer on the body politic, because you perceive there is no one else. or vote to change the system. Stop rewarding conartists and fraudsters with votes

          2. V

            You know what Ron
            You remind me so much of a certain ranty someone not unknown to Broadsheeters

            How dare you presume to tell me how to vote
            Or consider yourself any purveyor of FACT about how I voted or intend to vote

            My background, opinions and columns, such as they were – are pretty much all around this gaff and on BS.tv, and still available to be viewed
            as are the many replies and comments – some of which come keyboard cowboys like you with a hopeless agenda and angry vendettas

            Wind your neck in
            You demonstrate the very worst of what is wrong with our Democracy and our Politicians
            People like you – screaming for riots ffs, make it so easy for FF FG Labour and all the other Political Passengers to be seen as reasonable and the best of the bunch

            Don’t you ever call me lazy Ron
            Either with my opinions or advocacy – which I proffer Independently and Freely

            And I’d be very careful lobbing expressions like Stop rewarding conartists and fraudsters with votes about

            It could well be applied to candidates of all sorts of persuasions, loyalties, aims and motives.

          3. Ron

            not everything is about you. I’m talking about the country collective of which you are a part of. stop making everything about you and take responsibility for who you elect

        2. ReproBertie

          “Irish people need to take back control of their democratic institutions.”

          By voting? Sadly the majority voted for the FF/FG coalition and for all your ‘The usual palaver about “but there is no one else to vote for blah blah blah doesn’t wash anymore.’ you never suggest who people should vote for instead. Put up or shut up.

          I have never voted FF or FG and that won’t be changing come the election.

          1. ReproBertie

            I’m still on the bold step for some daft reason so your reply appeared before my “put up or shut up”.

        3. scottser

          tell you what ron, if we could get a few quid from putin or trump to fund a revolution, it would probably only take a few million and a couple of hundred well-trained mercenaries to take the major installations, disarm the military and jail the government.

          can i be commandante?

  5. Frank O

    this is the same crowd that wanted to introduce e-voting machines for the public!!! if they cant be honest with their own votes imagine what they’d have done with unverified machines!

    remember Bertie Ahern said we’d be the laughing stock of the world if we kept using pencil and paper.

  6. V

    I’ve no doubt they’re all at it tbh
    And this is a matter for the Party Whips to answer for as much as it is for the TDs themselves and their Party Spokesers’

    In any case, I think its a nonsense diversion, a tidy up you room or else kinda thing
    Sean Comhairle’s office can walk back on on each vote and confirm who voted for what and from who’s seat etc
    And he’s the lad to do it
    I also think each bad vote cast should have a mandatory fine – like a fixed penalty, I’m thinking € 200 for each button a deputy pushed that they didn’t have rights to

    If there’s anything cynical about it and worth politicking over is that it can easily be extended into a shabby and underhand way of maintaining the Confidence and Supply agreement

    Imagine if FF voters thought their lads were also pushing FGs voting buttons for them as well as everything else

    Now you’ll have some proper constituency skirmishing that’s not just about who gets up the pole first.

  7. Tea And Brexits

    They’re ALL at it. But let’s put it in perspective – what exactly were these votes on? Anything of importance?

    1. GiggidyGoo

      Yes – legislation.
      And lest we forget the night of Lapgate when there was alcohol taken during a late night sitting and voting

    2. Verbatim

      @ Tea and Brexits “But let’s put it in perspective – what exactly were these votes on? Anything of importance?”
      You must understand that is not the point…

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