Category Archives: Misc

alanfarrell

Fine Gael TD Alan Farrell

Last night, on RTÉ One’s Late Debate, presenter Cormac Ó hEadhra spoke with his panel about the government negotiations between Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil, following the third vote – and rejection – of both Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny and Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin as Taoiseach yesterday.

Fianna Fáil TD Thomas Byrne, Fine Gael TD Alan Farrell, AAA-PBP TD Paul Murphy, journalist Niamh Lyons, of The Times Ireland edition, and Stephen O’Byrnes, of MKC Consultants, were on the panel.

They were discussing public sector pay demands when things got a little heated.

Grab a tay…

Niamh Lyons: “My understanding of it is is that you know when you talk about USC and water whatever, those are the issues on the table that would be the basis of a deal that would allow them to do business. I’ve no, I think you’d be making a very big jump to say that they’ll sit down and agree together what policies they’ll discuss, as in, you know, the pay issue…”

Cormac Ó hEadhra: “Well they’ll have to talk surely about Lansdowne Road and reopen that..”

Lyons: “I don’t think that..”

Talk over each other

Alan Farrell: “I wouldn’t be, I wouldn’t be 100% sure and and very much like Thomas [Byrne], you can’t have the negotiation on live radio. But what I suppose, I could say would be that if it were to end up in the negotiations, it would probably be a good thing because clearly it’s something…”

Ó hEadhra: “God almighty. I mean god almighty…”

Farrell: “Clearly it’s something, clearly it’s something, clearly it’s something…”

Ó hEadhra: “The public representation we have in this..”

Farrell: “Do you wanna talk on your own? Will I leave…”

Ó hEadhra: “Hold on, I want to find out..”

Farrell: “Would you like me to answer your question or do you want me to leave? Cause I’ll leave Cormac.”

Ó hEadhra: “I want to know your position on this because I’ve been asking you. In fairness Alan Farrell…”

Farrell: “There’s nothing fair Cormac about the manner in which you conduct these interviews.”

Ó hEadhra: “It’s absolutely fair because there’s nothing fair to the public servants who want answers or the general public who want, who are homeless and who are on hospital trollies and whose children are being abused and don’t have social workers. There’s nothing fair about that.”

Silence.

Ó hEadhra: “There’s nothing fair about that.”

Farrell: “Well that’s, we weren’t discussing that, Cormac.”

Ó hEadhra: “We were discussing forming a Government.”

Farrell: “Yes we are.”

Ó hEadhra: “And I’m asking you…

Talk over each other

Farrell: “And what I’m telling you and I’ve repeated now three times, Cormac, if you continue to talk over me, Cormac, there is no point in me being here.”

Ó hEadhra: “What’s your position, let me ask you once more, on Lansdowne Road, do you personally, as a Fine Gael TD want to reopen Lansdowne Road in your talks with Fianna Fáil?”

Farrell: “Well I don’t know whether they will arise and I’m not on the negotiating team so I won’t be taking part in that discussion.”

Ó hEadhra: “What’s your position as a Fine Gael TD?”

Farrell: “My personal, my personal view is, if I take two, in fact, three categories of public servants, the first being An Garda Siochana. I’ve always and I’ve said this publicly on a number of occasions when I was a member of the Oireachtas Justice Committee for five years that entry-level gardai are not paid enough. €23,000 is completely insufficient. I have said it publicly at committee and on the floor of the Dáil that a two-tier entrance system for members of the teaching profession is completely unacceptable, i.e. a starting teacher today versus I think a starting teacher in 2011, I think is paid about €3,000 more, less I should say, which equates to about €250,000 over the course of that person’s career. An nurses, whether my view is their not paid enough, the reality is that they are leaving this country in droves because they can get more money elsewhere. And that applies to doctors, NCHD, it applies to public consultants, it applies to a whole range of public sectors workers, right across the…”

Ó hEadhra: “And you would include Dublin Bus drivers in that as well?”

Farrell: “No, that question hasn’t come across my desk.”

Ó hEadhra: “But if it did?”

Farrell: “No I don’t believe that, well, the question hasn’t come up so I don’t know, I can’t…”

Talk over each other

Ó hEadhra: “Ok, I see it did come up, in talks at least, when the Luas question came up.”

Farrell: “Well perhaps as a comparison between a private company and their employees trying to benchmark themselves against the public company…”

Ó hEadhra: “So let me get this right: You say ‘yes, possibly’ to some pay increase to gardai, some…”

Farrell: “I didn’t say ‘yes, possibly’, I said if I were in the position..”

Ó hEadhra: “Yeah.”

Farrell: “And it is my opinion that they should be paid more. I was even more direct than you suggest.”

Ó hEadhra: “And nurses and teachers, but not Dublin Bus drivers?”

Farrell: “Well I don’t know how much Dublin Bus drivers are paid.”

Listen back in full here

Previously: ‘Let’s Be Very Clear’

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Following an anonymous email sent to RTÉ…

RTÉ reports:

A whistleblower has alleged AIB misled regulators on its progress in dealing with loans which are in arrears.

The claims have been made over recent days to the Central Bank and the European Central Bank.

AIB has told RTÉ News that it is “not aware” of the allegations.

A spokesperson for the Central Bank said that while the bank cannot comment on specific allegations “any correspondence received by the Central Bank through its protected disclosure channel is treated seriously and examined thoroughly.”

…The individual said AIB tried to make progress on restructuring look better than it was in reality.

Whistleblower alleges AIB misled Central Bank, ECB (RTE)

Previously: AIB And ‘Fraud Of The Highest Order’

The Mortgage Arrears Reality

The Mortgage Arrears Pie

Rollingnews

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A ‘thank you’ cartoon made by Twisteddoodles for Hailo

Dublin-based cartoonist Twisteddoodles writes:

On Tuesday after the babies were put to bed and I was waiting for them to go to sleep I got an email. It was from the taxi app Hailo. It read, ‘

Hi Maria, recently your Hailo account has been feeling somewhat unloved’.

This was followed by ways I could use the app. I saw it was sent by their customer support so on a whim I responded:

‘Hi Hailo! Thank you for your email about how my Hailo account hasn’t been used. I just want you to know that this isn’t because of you, I love your
service, I have used it on nights out and to go to the airport or the train station, it’s a real joy.’

‘The reason I haven’t used your app as of late is I have 8 month old twin girls, who are wonderful, don’t get me wrong. But in essence I have no life. I hardly ever go out, I haven’t gone to the airport or the train station, in fact it has actually been a year since I’ve left Dublin at all. I am not even from Dublin but I’ve been in this city for a year.’

‘A year in Dublin, not taking taxis, wait we took a Hailo to the maternity hospital, so thanks for that. So trust me Hailo, I’m aware that your app is on my phone, I also have a few hotel booking apps which aren’t getting a look in either.’

‘We’ll be together again some day Hailo. Just you wait. We’ll totally go out on the town. Warmest regards, Maria.’

I thought nothing of it, I thought it might give them a laugh or something I dunno I just responded as myself not as Twisteddoodles but then they responded….

Hi Maria, Thank you so much for your email, it is most certainly the best customer email we’ve ever received! As a thank you, I’ve put a little credit on your account for when you do get to go out on the town again. Kind regards, Leanne

I thought ‘Holy shit, that’s lovely of them’. But then there was another email from them.

Hi Maria, Following on from my previous message – I’ve shown your email to our team and we’ve all agreed that we’d love to treat you to a night out, we really think you deserve it! Have you a favourite restaurant you haven’t been to in a while? We’d like to get you a €100 voucher for it and provide taxis to and from on the evening. Let me know :) Kind regards, Leanne

Subsequent emails involved me thanking them profusely, doing a little cry, sending them photos of the babies and a drawing thanking them, them doing a little cry and it was generally nice. Actually it was lovely.

I walked home from work and called into the coffee shop Bread and Butter who got me to do a nice poem for a couple getting married on their blackboard, the couple saw it today and I wanted to know how it went.

I guess I wanted to know that they liked it, to actually hear the words. Also I wanted to buy some bread.

The manager wasn’t there so I bought bread and asked the guy who was there how he was and we chatted a little bit, he asked did I want to take some black olive tapenade which goes off tomorrow with me. Always a sucker for free food I said yes.

On my merry way I passed a bus shelter I saw a fiver on the ground, there was only a girl there who was a bit away from it.

I scooped it up, holding it victorious with a ‘woo hoo!’

The girl said ‘Aw I didn’t see that there!’

I took a few steps away from the bus shelter, then I went back.

‘Are you a student?’ I asked the girl. ‘Yes?’

I held out the fiver to her.

‘Take this, you could use it more than me.’

‘What? No! What? Are you sure?’

‘Yes! Just do something nice with it!’

Then I picked up my squealing children from creche and brought them home, outside I saw my neighbour who cut our hedge, then subsequently got rid of the hedge bits he cut off and cleared our drains. I want to make him a card and I will.

We talked briefly, I thanked him and the girls stared at him. We said our good byes and I walked away, then I turned back and asked…

‘Do you eat black olive tapenade?’ I took out the tub.

‘Is it vegetarian?’

‘Yes, it’s just that I was given it and I was hoping that maybe you guys would like it’.

‘Thanks very much.’

That was my day yesterday. It was a good day.

I thought I’d share it.

Twisteddoodles (Facebook)

Twisteddoodles on Broadsheet

Thanks Emily

Peaky Blinders 3

What you may need to know:

1. Oh yes. The Shelby brand goes global.

2. Series 3 opens with Tommy’s wedding. But is the blushing bride Horsey May Carleton (Charlotte Riley) or Grace “will I stand up on a chair and sing a song for you, Tommy” Burgess (Annabelle Wallis)??

3. Tom Hardy returns as psycho Alfie Solomons and Paddy Considine debuts as the Blinders’ new nemesis, a dodgy priest (fancy that).

4. Major Campbell (Sam Neill) is surely a goner. To be shot once is unfortunate etc..

5. Quite simply, Peaky Blinders is one of the best things on TV. If you’re not on board yet then Series 1 & 2 are on Netflix.

6. Broadsheet prognosis: Take a little walk…

Release Date: May (BBC).

CgAo2pRWEAAw_hi

This shameful 47 days and counting delay is obstructing and impeding us from doing the urgent work we were elected to do. Although in a different time, this delay, this level of obstructionism would put in the ha’penny place, the obstructionist tactics deployed by Irish parliamentary MP Joseph Biggar in the House of Commons in the late 19th century.

Whereas the obstruction then was due to excessive talking, the obstruction now is due to a refusal to talk, a refusal to seek solutions. The stance adopted by political parties in refusing to even consider forming the most stable government to serve the people has been disingenuously represented by some as being somehow linked to being in the national interest.

How can the current strangulation of representative democracy, a choking of the workings of Dáil Éireann be in the national interest.

The reckless approach cares little for the tackling of the unprecedented crisis of homelessness, the escalating rental crisis, hospital waiting lists and climate justice. In case any party has forgotten, perhaps it is important to remind ourselves of the obvious, no one party won the general election but unfortunately it seems as if the people have lost.

Some political parties refuse to face up to and accept this new political reality, refuse to accept the change for which the people voted for in February. We should remember the words of George Bernard Shaw who said, ‘progress is impossible without change and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything’.

A Ceann Comhairle, it is all too easy to make noise, to instil division, to create dissent, to divide, to score points. The contrived party policy differences and the point-blank refusal of some to even consider talking to others, who also have a democratic mandate is simply unacceptable.

Enough is enough, the only losers in this charade are the people. It behoves political parties to act in the true best interests of the people of Ireland, not themselves or their parties.

While some members have worked very hard and displayed some political courage, others certainly have not. Instead, choosing to sit on their hands for the past seven weeks.

TDs are not elected to be silent or to run for the hills to take cover when the going gets tough. Now is the time when members should step up and speak up for the people who elected you. Put people before party politics…

Green Party TD Catherine Martin speaking in the Dáil during her maiden speech yesterday.

Alternatively…

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Deputy Enda Kenny has made every effort and shown his commitment since the general election to form a stable Government. The offer would have brought together the two largest parties in the State in an historic partnership and was, I believe, a bold offer and one worth making.

I regret it has not been accepted to date, but Deputy Enda Kenny remains determined to ensure Ireland will have a stable Government to address the many challenges facing the country and work to improve the lives of the people.

Theodore Roosevelt once said, “In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing.” We have taken on the responsibility of doing something.

Fine Gael TD Noel Rock speaking in the Dáil yesterday, as he nominated Enda Kenny for Taoiseach for the third time.

On March 10, during Mr Rock’s first nomination for Mr Kenny, he said:

When I was younger the Taoiseach gave me the advice of Thomas Jefferson – “In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock.”

I will stand with him today and always. He brought this party back from being written off. Far more important, he brought our economy and our country back when many had written us off. We should not lose sight of that.

As we mark 100 years of independence, we can look forward to a brighter future. I believe Deputy Enda Kenny is the man to bring us towards that brighter future. I am proud to nominate Deputy Enda Kenny today.

On April 6, during Mr Kenny’s second nomination, Mr Rock said:

Unfortunately, there are those who wish to take their seats in here while permanently committing themselves to hugging the Opposition benches tightly and pursuing their so-called ideological perfection instead of the reality of compromise and governance. Good for them. However, the reality is this country needs a government.

As Robert F. Kennedy once rightly said, “one fifth of the people are against everything all the time”.

I think the public can rightly guess which fifth of the people in here that phrase might describe. Let us hope they stay at that level of just one fifth.

Parliaments simply cannot afford too many passengers. We need decision-makers and people who are serious about forming a government.

Transcripts: Oireachtas.ie