Taoiseach urges restraint in pay talks

Nicki123

http://www.rte.ie/news/2007/1108/economy.html

This just about made my blood boil when I read it - cheeky f**ker takes a hefty 38k extra home per annum but urges the rest of us poor plebs who keep the wheels on the economy to show restraint!!!!!

We should have payed closer attention when Charlie warned that Bertie was far worse than him! At least Charlie tried to cover it up a bit but Bertie seems quite happy to blatently rub our noses in it........

togster

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

xzanti

^^^ :rolleyes:

OT.. Tis quiet sickening alright..

Sleepy

What else do you expect?

connundrum

I've gone from despising him, to nearly admiring him. Purely for the massive set of balls he has. That is all

themadchef

still wondering how they got back into power again, and even more amazed he still holds the leadership....totally outrageous after the hugh payhike he got himself, more than a years salary for the poor old country folk...nothing changes in this country, the rich get richer...yadda yadda yadda

jor el

Dalfiatach wrote: »

voted the wee crook back in again.

Not me. I didn't vote at all.

leninbenjamin

well you get's what you pay for...

sorry...

vote for...

Mr.Micro

Bertie man of the people believes he is worth his massive pay rise but the plebs may settle for less .so it is no surprise that he wants wage restraint .He has lost all credibility.Has he ever heard of lead by example .

watna

Don't look at me, I didn't vote for him!!

leninbenjamin

Mr.Micro wrote: »

Bertie man of the people believes he is worth his massive pay rise but the plebs may settle for less .so it is no surprise that he wants wage restraint .He has lost all credibility.Has he ever heard of lead by example .

frankly the man doesn't care. he wont be up for re-election again and his pension is tied to his overall wage so...

don't blame an opportunist for being an opportunist. blame the absolute morons who listen to and believe him.

Keth_tgi

I for one did not vote for FF, but what really annoys me are the spineless so and so's who did vote FF, then have the audicity to complain about them when we're suddenly in the sh_t.

Stand by your man you 40% of the nation who are destroying us every 5 years.

Me... I am annoyed but sleep easy.

Saint_Mel

Anyone who voted FF should line up in an orderly fashion
so the rest of us can punch them in the snot.

Mr.Micro

Bertie appears to have developed a love of money as yesterday he was on again about Consultants earn more than him.What qualifications has he got compared to a consultant .When did he last save a life .

humbert

Keth_tgi wrote: »

I for one did not vote for FF, but what really annoys me are the spineless so and so's who did vote FF, then have the audicity to complain about them when we're suddenly in the sh_t.

Stand by your man you 40% of the nation who are destroying us every 5 years.

Me... I am annoyed but sleep easy.

I agree. If you tolerate that sort of behaviour for any reason they're only going to see it as a licence to continue in the same vain. When I hear people defending FF I feel like vomiting in their faces.

Mr.Micro

No matter what happens between elections people will again vote FF or FG .Its like you stick with your bank no matter how much they shaft you.

Keth_tgi

leninbenjamin wrote: »

frankly the man doesn't care. he wont be up for re-election again and his pension is tied to his overall wage so...

don't blame an opportunist for being an opportunist. blame the absolute morons who listen to and believe him.

hey, I agree, and well said/spotted. the guy is an opportunist and to an extent you have to admire him in a crude almost masochistic way. What worries me is that the Irish have a very very short memory, and how soon before Darth Dempsey, Darth Martin, or heaven's forbid Darth Hanafin get a taste for blood when Emperor Bertie passes on.

ahh... the days of the old republic are long gone.... 'withered from within they have'.

...did I mention Jabba the Harney?

Nicki123

Dalfiatach wrote: »

:rolleyes:

By not voting, you enabled his victory. You are responsible - to a lesser degree than those who actively voted FF perhaps, but responsible nonetheless.

Slightly off topic but I didnt vote either but not by choice. I was one of the _many_ ppl who mysteriously fell off the register. My dad, who has been in the same house for over 35 years also was taken off the register but they left my mother on it...... That's at least 2 ppl who would have voted other than FF......coincidence that we were taken off the register????

Unshelved

By not voting, you enabled his victory. You are responsible - to a lesser degree than those who actively voted FF perhaps, but responsible nonetheless.

Tis simple maths. If all the people who didn't vote had voted, and voted for the Opposition, then Bertie and all his freak-show of incompetent goons would be but an unpleasant memory. By vacating the field you let the muppets win.

I see your point but consider this, no politician of any party or persuasion in the Dail turned down the payrise. None of them. It wouldn't have made any difference who he would have voted for, a greedy politician would still have gotten in.

(And yes, I did vote.)

slinky

Unshelved wrote: »

I see your point but consider this, no politician of any party or persuasion in the Dail turned down the payrise. None of them. It wouldn't have made any difference who he would have voted for, a greedy politician would still have gotten in.

(And yes, I did vote.)

Not entirely true: I believe Joe Higgins gave his TD salary to his party and was paid the average industrial wage in return (he was voted out so greed must be the new black:D) and possibly Sinn Fein TDs do so also, not sure about Labour. The fact that Bertie is the highest paid leader in the world is ridiculous and cannot be justified especially at a time when he's calling for pay restraint for Joe Soap.

heyjude

The thing I thought was hilarious was that his supporters were using the Celtic Tiger's successes as a justification for Bertie's big pay rise, as if every extra job, extra company started and all the extra income that was created in the past ten years was all personally created by Bertie, rather than by people starting businesses, through employees hard work and through foreign multinationals.

Yet yesterday when he comes under pressure over the health service he says he can't be held responsible for every one of the 120,000 people that work in the health service.

So what he is saying is when through the work of over 2 million workers the economy booms that is down to him and he deserves credit(for what others do) and a hefty pay rise, but when there's a problem, sorry nothing to do with me, I'm not accountable for what others do ! Unbelievable

astrofool

I'm sure the SF'rs have their retirement money well in hand after the bank job a few years ago...

Keth_tgi

Nicki123 wrote: »

Slightly off topic but I didnt vote either but not by choice. I was one of the _many_ ppl who mysteriously fell off the register. My dad, who has been in the same house for over 35 years also was taken off the register but they left my mother on it...... That's at least 2 ppl who would have voted other than FF......coincidence that we were taken off the register????

Nicki123... deliberately takne off the reg... thats too scary a thought... we're not there yet. Same happened to a friend of mine... hopefully just a mess up.... still perhaps better to be cynical than naive.

Keth_tgi

is it just me, or does Bertie actually winge when he comes under pressure? My dad does the same.... comes with old age.

Thing is we should build a big huge mammogram machine to see if Bertie really is the cancer killing this country, but I for one think that already.

Jesus Wept

Dalfiatach wrote: »

:rolleyes:

By not voting, you enabled his victory. You are responsible - to a lesser degree than those who actively voted FF perhaps, but responsible nonetheless.

loadahmebollix.

Until we are given some decent options, or they put a 'none of the above' option on the poll, I won't be voting.

It's like been told to vote between a kick in the head and a kick in the balls.

Erm, no I'll abstain from the voting thanks, SURPRISE ME!

the_syco

Unshelved wrote: »

I see your point but consider this, no politician of any party or persuasion in the Dail turned down the payrise. None of them.

Actually, two people voted against their pay rise.

tech77

I don't expect anything else from Bertie and FF TBH.
Amazes me how people keep falling for it.

But more depressing is the silent partners Gormless Gormley and the Greens suddenly losing their backbone since entering government.

Haven't heard any criticism from them about FF's shenanigans since they went into power and when they were in opposition you couldn't hold them back.

It's all just a power game.
Admittedly though FG couldn't possibly be worse than FF i suppose.

Dalfiatach

Unshelved wrote: »

I see your point but consider this, no politician of any party or persuasion in the Dail turned down the payrise. None of them. It wouldn't have made any difference who he would have voted for, a greedy politician would still have gotten in.

It's an important point this - the latest payrise was only for office holders, not ordinary TDs. Just the Cabinet and a couple of others, basically. And the Dáil never got to have a vote on it, IIRC. It "just happened" because some "independent review body" decided Bertie and the lads should get an extra €38K a year each.

And John Bruton's FG/Lab/DL government actually did turn down pay increases and refused to take them, back in 1994 or 95.

"All politicians are just as corrupt as us so you may as well just vote for us anyway" is one of those lines FF want you to believe.

I fully accept the Opposition weren't exactly full of vision and ideas and plans and were a bit anonymous really. But anything is better than a smirking wee bandit gloating, taking the piss, and rubbing your face in it being in charge of the whole country. No?

Mr.Micro

Bertie is just like Charlie who advocated belt tightening as he was living it up on others money and buying £300 shirts at the time ,now Bertie gets his wad and tells others to restrain .Charlie would be proud .

Colonel Sanders

the_syco wrote: »

Look at the massive amount of non-FF people who got shafted to see what I mean.

A bit like calling the GE for a thursday despite opposition from everyone bar FF. By doing so he excluded people from voting, a lot from the younger generation, a lot of whom (including me) have nothing but contempt for FF and Bertie

Colonel Sanders

Thank god FF invested in a world class infrastructure and public transpost system during the boom years, thus using the floods of Celtic Tiger money wisely.

Oh, wait a minute......

Mint Sauce

unfortunaltly i didn't get home to vote, didn't organise a proxy or postal vote in time, so i cant really use the democratic arguemment for voting someone else my self, rather than FF, when i didn't use my opertunity at all,

it still makes me angry though when the demoratically elected leader comes on with something like this, a 30k odd payrise for ffs when the rest of us only want a little more to make our lifes more comfortable

tech77

Keth_tgi wrote: »

Thing is we should build a big huge mammogram machine to see if Bertie really is the cancer killing this country, but I for one think that already.

Beautifully apt metaphor there.

I don't think you'd need triple assessment or a mammography machine to diagnose that.

I'm just wondering to myself how much longer this fool can stay in office though.
Surely he's a liability at this stage.

I used to stupidly think "Good oul' Bertie, sure he's harmless" but the more I see and hear of him now the more he angers me.

Hopefully he'll be gone in a month.

Wertz

"Urges restraint"

Can someone translate that for us? I mean the man can't turn around and tell people they're not getting a decent payrise....any union that accepts such calls for "restraint" would do well to battle their member's corner in the face of such callousness, by whatever means necessary, be that strike in warranted cases. People doing any job deserve fair wages and fair should be relative....people on an average industrial wage asking for 10% is akin to higher earners asking for 5%.
All the arguments about this destabilising the economy don't mean a damn thing when it's the workers who account for so much of that economy. If people can only afford to pay bills/mortgage and put basic food on the table thus having little disposable income, then that hurts economies too.

Shame on Mr Ahern, although I doubt he knows the true meaning of the word...

Mint Sauce

tech77 wrote: »

Beautifully apt metaphor there.

I don't think you'd need triple assessment or a mammography machine to diagnose that.

I'm just wondering to myself how much longer this fool can stay in office though.
Surely he's a liability at this stage.

I used to stupidly think "Good oul' Bertie, sure he's harmless" but the more I see and hear of him now the more he angers me.

Hopefully he'll be gone in a month.

he doesn't have the nickname teflon for nothing, how many scandels and tribunials have there been, and he's still in office

Tipsy Mac

To the 41.6% of people who voted them in, we thank you:D.

Mr.Micro

I reckon Bertie has the rubber neck for the long haul as he is clearly going to enjoy himself ,as we have been reminded by another poster that Bertie is not seeking re-election.He will have to be pushed as his ego has become so inflated of late that he appears not to care in the least what is said to him.

ioshmearse

Bertie and Harney said they werent responsible for employees in the HSE after recent Portlaoise cancer scandal. They paid an 'independent group' to review higher salaries in the public sector and surprise surprise the result was a pay rise 4 times the max expected in Benchmarking 2. They claim they are worth it because they were underpaid compared to private sector CEOs.

If the public sector and the health sector & education in particular were the private sector, Bertie, Harney & Hanafin would have been fired long ago and probably sued/prosecuted for wasting shareholders money.

Harney and Bertie are ultimatley responsible for individual employees in the HSE. Dick Roche started this disassociation from public entities within ministerial portfolios when he publicly denied any ulitmate responsibility for various county councils' f... ups.

I work in the public sector and estimate there is four degrees of seperation from my ministerial supervisor. There is no accountability anywhere in the public service. They've had 10 years to sort our healthcare and its still a mess.

Hiro Nakamura has upset the space time continuum and we're back with CJH and Charvais Shirts (or bass and oysters at the Galway races) while the rest of us cope with pay rises below the cost of living or no rises and unemployment for more private sector workers.

THEY WANT PAY RISES IN LINE WITH CEOs THEN TAKE THE RESPONSIBILITY.

purple'n'gold

Just imagine, a gobsh1te like Bertie is paid more than the president of the US, the prime minister of the UK and the chancellor of Germany. It’s like the manager of a corner shop being paid more than the manager of Macy’s. only in Ireland “the last great bastion of bullsh1t and codswallop west of the Urals.”

irishfeller

Bertie is some chancer - its unbelievable! Paid more than the US president...and the neck on him giving himself a pay rise!

But then he knows the Irish..we will moan for a while and the polls will go down for a little while then us fickle bunch will find something else to complain about and it will be all forgotten...if it happened in france there would be a nationwide strike!

Mossy Monk

Hopefully all the idiots who voted Fianna Fail are happy. Well done.

Didn't Worzil McCrevey mention that Bertie would be a welcome addition to Europe.

Fanny Cradock

I was listening to the Last Word today - apparently on top of this 14% pay rise and subsequent call for pay constraint for the rest of us, Bertie gets €250,000 per annum from the government to pay for 8 civil servants to work in his constituency office. I wonder if that goes down as 'sundries' along with the biscuits and tea bags for the office workers in the balance books?

Doesn't matter. The eijits keep voting them in despite the fact that most of em are blind ignorant to what they're actually voting for and just do it cos their family are Fianna Fail. I have seen that scenario sooooooo many times. Fianna Fail - The Sheeps' Party. Free thinkers not welcome.

transylman

To see just how bad these guys are take a look at the following.

http://thatsireland.com/2007/11/05/fianna-fails-fifty-ways-to-laugh-at-voters/#more-677

Its pretty shocking what they have gotten away with when you gather it all up into one list like that.

ziggy

This post has been deleted.

jor el

Dalfiatach wrote: »

:rolleyes:

By not voting, you enabled his victory. You are responsible - to a lesser degree than those who actively voted FF perhaps, but responsible nonetheless.

I knew someone would say that. The right not to vote is every bit as important as the right to vote. If no one deserves a vote then don't give it to any of them.

If anything, this election proves that voting is mostly a waste of time. Tha vast majority of voters didn't want the PDs back in power, given that they lost 6 out of 8 seats. However, they are still back in the government, contrary to the wishes of the people.

Tis simple maths. If all the people who didn't vote had voted, and voted for the Opposition, then Bertie and all his freak-show of incompetent goons would be but an unpleasant memory. By vacating the field you let the muppets win.

If everyone who hadn't voted did, then there's no way all of them would have voted for the oposition. If anything, FF may have gotten an overall majority and not needed partners at all.

My decision not to vote was one of geography anyway, but I'd still choose not to vote if I felt it necessary.

Charisma

In a fair world all public servants would get the same % payrise as our leaders. If not I think we should all kick up murder..
Thats whats wrong in this country. Nobody ever challenges the powers that be. They get away with it because WE let them.
Are we not all supposed to be equal and have equal rights. If its fair that they get a certain % then we all should get the same. If we dont its discrimination in my book.

Jay D

it would make my day to see that bastard get hit by lightening - far fetched like his wages.

What's the problem? He has to pay back the debts he owes his mates for the whip around, give him a break ffs.

Gillie

He's gonna be remembered as worse than CH when he's done.
He/They really don't give a $hite do they?