Dail, any point in asking question??

Villain

I have a lot of interest in Irish Politics and follow the Dail sessions quite often, I was watching the Dail this morning on TNAG4 and I was again noticed Bertie Ahern can never answer a question properly.

This morning Pat Rabbite raised a question about the break up of Aer Rianta. He stated that the Minister for Transport Michael Brennan had commisioned a report on the break up which was carried out Price Cooper waterhouse. The report stated that the breakup would be very bad for Shannon and Cork, it predicted major losses for both.

Mr Rabbite asked why if the Minister had commisioned the report that he wouldn't use it. He asked was is simply that he had commisioned the report and when he realised it hadn't given him the answer he wanted that he ignored it.

Bertie talked around the issue but never actually talked about the REPORT.

I mean whats the point in asking questions if there never going to be answered. They spend little enough time in the bloody Dail so the least they could do is answer the questions where they are there.

Sparks

Originally posted by irish1
I mean whats the point in asking questions if there never going to be answered. They spend little enough time in the bloody Dail so the least they could do is answer the questions where they are there.

And you guys wonder why I tend towards the fatalist side of things?

Irish, if you want to be further depressed, try to find a debate in either house from the past year that did not consist of two parts :
1) A series of lengthy statements being read into the record without deviation
2) An optional series of ad hominem attacks, question dodging and fudging.

I swear, we see more debate in here from our less informative posters than you see in the Dail at almost any point.

bonkey

Originally posted by irish1
Bertie talked around the issue but never actually talked about the REPORT.

Shades of Sir Humprey from Yes (Prime)Minister

I mean whats the point in asking questions if there never going to be answered. They spend little enough time in the bloody Dail so the least they could do is answer the questions where they are there.

The so-called art of diplomacy has always been as much about what is not said as what is said. I don't think the discussions in the Dail are anyway different.

jc

mike65

Question Time, unless some sort of national crisis is underway, is a dusty ritual of absolutly no intrinstic value. I dont think anyone really feels the dail chamber serves any useful purpose anymore.

Ahern simply stops by to fufill a contractual obligation.

Mike.

Villain

Wonder if Cork will come up with a good excuse for Bertie.

star gazer

Maybe if the Dáil sat four days a week 180 days a year and the Taoiseach took leaders questions each day while each minister had to take blind questions every three weeks.

gurramok

..and unprepared answers where they would read not from a prepared statement but directly answer the question on the fly.

mike65

.....now you're just taking the mick! There's hardly a
soul in the dail that can speak unprompted never mind think by the seat of thier pants!

Mike.

Victor

Originally posted by gurramok
..and unprepared answers where they would read not from a prepared statement but directly answer the question on the fly.

There are people employed in Ministers' offices to guess what the second (not pre-notified) part of the question will be. The have to think up every contingency. :boggles:

Sparks

Just remember that next time a politician goes looking for your vote - I mean, if he can't even answer topical questions relating to his claimed area of responsibility....

Villain

I was watching the Dail again this morning and noticed another thing that bugs me.

The way the time is set out to ask about PROMISED legislation and during this time ONLY questions relatd to promised legislation are allowed.

This morning the most of the proceedings were spent with the Chair argueing that the question wasn't allowed because it didn't comply with the order of business which was restricted to questions on promised legislation.

Sparks

You think that's bad? Look back through the archives, Irish, you'll note that you can't accuse someone of lying in the Dail. Not because you can't prove it's true - but because it's not "appropriate parlimentary language".

So you wind up with people listing off the things that other people have said and pointing out that they're not true and that the other person had to know that they weren't true at the time - without objection - but being shut up by An Ceeann Comhairle if they say the other person lied.

Wonderful system, that.

Villain

Ya I noticed that alright, the TD's were forced to withdraw the accusation a lot of times.

They can accuse a member of misleading the Dail do.

Minister for Justice is in a bit of a sticky situation at the moment, apparently he said today that the 2000 extra Guardai that were promised in the last election run up were NOT NEEDED.
:rolleyes: :rolleyes:

star gazer

originally posted by irish
Minister for Justice is in a bit of a sticky situation at the moment, apparently he said today that the 2000 extra Guardai that were promised in the last election run up were NOT NEEDED.

Wasn't that McCreevy, he just doesn't want to fork out the money for it, typical . You can throw all the legislation you like at them but criminals aren't going to care until the Garda is actually trying to catch him.

The media are the missing link if Dail Éireann is to be seriously relevant, if the media ignore it, the government can too, if the media hang on every word in the Dáil then you can be damm sure the government will behave well and answer questions. It of course works both ways, Opposition TDs especially have to make the place news worthy. (easier said than done it seems)

Villain

Your right sorry, what went down was McDowell said the 2000 more people might yet come yesterday then this morning on Today FM McCreevy said they weren't needed.

Pat Rabbite tried to ask the Tainaiste who side she was taking but since the question wasn't allowed she didn't reply.

The Dail is ****.ing comedy show

star gazer

irish
The Dail is ****.ing comedy show

It suits governments to keep the Dáil under certain constraints because ministers that go off scripts can sometimes land thenselves in trouble, some of them aren't natural spinners and might even let us know what is actually going on.

It is pretty funny watching three people board out of thier minds listening to a fourth person falling asleep to the sound of his/her own voice.
or whne a question is asked and we get an answer that has no resemblance to the questions asked. If that attitude was constantly present here the mods would ask the individual to leave out of 'terminal' frustration with intransigence.

Villain

Very true Star Gazer.

The problem is there all the bloody same opposition included. Just FF are getting particulary good at not answering questions now.

It will be interesting to see if the Minister for Justice and Finance square up now.

McDowell reckons his wining the war on crime, now that man must really have his up his own arse.

star gazer

McDowell sits in the bold boys corner at cabinet after he distanced himself from the indemnity deal with the religious institutions. It looks like McCreevy is in hot water for his €15million grant to punchestown racecourse. Apparently it was supposed to cost 8million, they came looking for 7mil more and got it without any hassle, Sean Ardagh(FF) described it as john wayne coming into town to get money and walking away without any trouble.
The minister preaches prudence, but against departmental guidelines gave extra money for the project without scrutiny and accountability.

daveirl

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Cork

Originally posted by irish1
Wonder if Cork will come up with a good excuse for Bertie.

I think much of the business is done outside the house.

I have been up in Dail Eireann & I was honestly more impressed by the Seanad.

By adapting models like social partnership - it has lessened the importance of Dail Chamber debates.

Opposition too should put forward more ideas and admendments to bills.

This needs to happen more.

Too much political point soring occurs to have a frank debate on issues.

star gazer

originally posted by daveirl
Look seriously if you feel this strongly be proactive. Every TD has a clinic every month, week or whatever go down and give them hell about stuff like this instead of doing it here.

there's nothing proactive in talking to a TD who is either (on government side) going to listen and promise to do something and do nothing or (opposition) say they will try to do something but are powerless to change it.

originally posted by Cork
I think much of the business is done outside the house.

Isn't that done to make the Dail irrelevant?

Opposition too should put forward more ideas and admendments to bills.

Which get voted down by government most of the time no matter how good they are.

Too much political point soring occurs to have a frank debate on issues.

being frank is often labelled political point scoring anyway, particularly if you don't agree with the government.

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

Villain

Originally posted by daveirl
And whining about it here achieves what exactly??? I'm not saying it's perfect but if you want anything done you have to do something.

I think talking to a TD is about as much use as talking to the dog at home, actually no because if you have food in your hand the dog will listen!

DiscoStu

Originally posted by irish1
I think talking to a TD is about as much use as talking to the dog at home, actually no because if you have food in your hand the dog will listen!

there is one thing you can have in your hand that will make all dail members sit up and listen. it comes in 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 200 and 500 denominations and attention received seems to be directly proportional to the amount offered

Villain

Originally posted by DiscoStu
there is one thing you can have in your hand that will make all dail members sit up and listen. it comes in 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 200 and 500 denominations and seems to be directly proportional to the amount offered

LOL

So True

star gazer

originally posted by Daveirl
And whining about it here achieves what exactly??? I'm not saying it's perfect but if you want anything done you have to do something.

At least here there is a suspiscion of someone actually responding inteligently to a grievance, empathise with grievance or at least take the p1ss.

daveirl

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Sparks

Originally posted by daveirl
Do you think if lobby groups decided there was no point in talking to politicians they'd get anywhere?

I think they do think that. That's why lobby groups make donations, and that's why Fianna Fail want the maximum political donation amount raised significantly or eliminated alltogether.

star gazer

It's not a black and white issue, people can have some influence on politicians, but in the current climate it's like p1ssing against the wind to effect change. All the opposition parties come accross as ineffectual in the Dail. AS the title of this thread suggets, Dail Éireann has become somewhat irrelevant and obscurred by it's standing orders and way of doing things. The only political point scoring seems to come in the form of heckling rather than policy and legislation debate. While it makes for more interesting spectator sport heckling isn't exactly a gret way of standing up for irish democracy and bringing government to account.
Why should money talk and voters end up staying away from the polling booth?

daveirl

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