Former Union boss paid €100k fees by housing quango over 4 years

P. Breathnach wrote: »

It might be more honest to recognise is that Des Geraghty is not a union boss, and has not been one for several years. It might also be more fair if the headline indicated that the €100,000 was earned over a period of more than four years. But it wouldn't have made such a good headline.

It would also be interesting to know how much work he did for the money.

The fourth word of the article ( did you read it ?) was 'FORMER', so I cannot see why anyone would be in any doubt as to whether he was or not still a serving union boss ! The link is clearly provided. So the question of honesty seems to be a bit of a red herring. The article did make very clear that the € 100 k had been received over a period of years from 2005 - again, this is very clear to anyone reading the article.
Now the question of whether it had been earned or not is another question. Board members simply need to turn up for meetings, they do even have to turn up for all meetings to get full pay - and no, Doctor's notes are not needed. There may not even be very many meeetings in a year, six, seven - so quango's even rarely meet. So who decides as to whether board members are putting in a good performance or not ?There are full staff for the normal routine work.
As for doubling his fees for ' extra work' done, what was this work ? Turn up for a meeting, listen, throw in a few comments ? What does it say about this quango, that many people are surprised that it exists at all !
In these situations, having a chat over your expense lunch counts as lunch.
And of course very people do not sit on just one Board, but have multiple direstorships. As we see Mr Geraghty was one of those gentlemen who were on the FAS Board - well FAS deserves several threads all for itself, doesn't it ?

Nodin wrote: »

Shane Ross, having emulated the broken clock for a time and been right, has gone back to fate of all broken clocks it seems. From the article...



....those are not exorbitant sums - unless he did nothing to earn them (and what he did isn't touched on, for some reason).

It's rather pathetic that given the amount of muck that can be cast at Geraghty due to FAS, that this is the best they can come up with. Shabby effort, from a shabby paper. If this was about Glenda Gilson, we'd be drowning in detail.

Perhaps the amount of work done wasnt touched on because we dont know what work at all was done ! Do you know ?
As for not being exorbitant sums, then they are far more than many ordinary people have worked full time, all year around, have earned. But that is probably irrelevant to those who hold our elitie in high esteem.

P. Breathnach wrote: »

That is specious. The Indo headline and your header are what first engage attention, and they give a distorted impression.



For somebody who suggests that he doesn't even know what the Affordable Homes Partnership did, or does, you are now painting a picture of how it operates, and what Geraghty's contribution to the work was.

Do you actually know how many meetings a year were held? Do you know if Geraghty missed any of them? Do you know if he undertook any work in addition to chairing meetings?

Or do you simply want to engage in a campaign of unsubstantiated innuendo?

Are questioning whether or not Mr Ross is correct in the amount paid to Mr G ?
If not then what way would you like the headline to be phrase ?
How : Former President of Siptu underpaid for his heroic work ?

As for your comments on my knowledge of how boards operate, Leaving Cert business students would have that information
Well as you are your presenting yourself as Mr Geraghty's champion, perhaps you can answer those questions.
I can tell you that when given the opportunity to elect Mr Geraghty as an MEP, the electorate in their wisdom said " No"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Des_Geraghty
Desmond "Des" Geraghty (born 27 October 1943) is a former Irish politician and trade union leader. He was president of SIPTU from 1999 to 2004. He stood unsuccessfully at the 1984 European Parliament election for the Dublin constituency as a Workers' Party candidate. In 1992 he joined the newly founded Democratic Left party. He was appointed to the European Parliament in 1992 for the Dublin constituency following the resignation of Proinsias De Rossa.[1] He was a member of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs and Industrial Policy in the European Parliament. He did not contest the 1994 European Parliament election. He stood unsuccessfully as a Labour Party candidate in the 2002 Seanad election for the Labour Panel.

In fact the most notable fefeature of MR Gerghty's political career is the number of times he has failed to be elected and the number of APPOINMENTS to political roles he has received. This tends to happen to those who are amongst the Golden Elite !

I forgot to mention he was also previuosily a me,ber of the RTE Authority -salary for that - I dont know, do you ?

P. Breathnach wrote: »

On what basis do you say that? I do not advocate a left-wing position here.

So far, all we have is that Geraghty was chairman of the Affordable Housing Partnership and that he was paid about €100,000 in a period lasting over four years. Shane Ross has made a song and dance about it, and you have brought the matter here.

I don't know what Geraghty did to earn the money, but I am sure there was work involved. Whether the payment was commensurate with the work, I cannot say. I suspect that neither Ross nor you can, either.

I think that those who suggest that there is something wrong have the responsibility for making a case. It should not fall to me, whose position is that no case has been made, to answer an unsupported suggestion that some wrong has been done.

I would have thought the case was fairly evident, but then again, i am not a supporter of any particular political view point.
I am glad you were instrumental in having the title changed as it now reflects that this man received on average € 25,000 a year for this sinecure. The minimum wage at present is around €15/16,000 and I am just wonder of many of SIPTU's membership earn between , €15,000 and € 25,000 ? Quite a few I should imagine. And this is not taking inflation into account - I imagine the minimum wage was significantly lower in 2005, 2006.
I also wonder what Mr Geraghty would have thought of this kind of thing when he was a Workers Party candidate in 1984 - kinda funny he ran in 1984 ! Would he have approved or would he have objected long and loudly ?

Has anybody any info' on Worker's Party agenda in 1984, please ?

sensibleken wrote: »

is someone who earned 25k a year for being chairman of the afordable housing commitee really the enemy here. thats less than i make a year and its a hell of allot less than the people who caused this mess continue to get

No I am not saying that people like Geraghty are the enemy; I am saying there is a golden circle of people from different political viewpoints who were part of that group of people who participated in and with Ahern's so called ' Social Partnership' to and who all enjoyed very lucrative perks, privileges and substantial incomes from the directorships on quangos and semi state bodies which Ahern and his Ministers distributed like goodies at a party. And I think this mentality was the reason why so many people in politics, including the opposition parties were will not to raise their heads above the parapets and cry stop !

sensibleken wrote: »

was there a culture of greed in society? yes of course there was. public and private sector were both taking as much as they could. was someone who was taking 25k a year for being chairman of the affordable housing scheme one of the worst offenders? no, definetly not, its hardly a substantial income.

From my personal point of view, yes it is a substantial income and one which many who work a full time week do not earn.

So tell me what kind of hours were invloved in earning this income ?
How many Board meetings were held each month ? 2 or 3 or perhaps even fewer ?