TD's abusing their position

BryanL

this is from todays Examiner,

19 January 2008

Anti-hunt group ‘put woman’s job at risk’

By Paul O’Brien, Political Correspondent
A WOMAN who lobbied politicians to have a deer hunt licence renewed had her correspondence passed to an anti-hunt group who subsequently lodged complaints with her employer.


The Irish Council against Blood Sports confirmed it made the complaints after being passed the correspondence by Independent TD Tony Gregory, who is the organisation’s vice-president.

It is unusual for politicians to distribute an individual’s correspondence to a third party — particularly a third party opposed to that individual’s view.





The pro-hunt lobby has attacked the council’s move, saying it could have endangered the woman’s job. But the council says it had absolutely no intention of causing the woman problems with her employer.

On November 15, the woman, who works for a real estate agency, emailed a number of TDs seeking their support for the Ward Union Hunt.

At the time, the Ward Union, which is based in Meath, was seeking Environment Minister John Gormley to renew its licence to hunt stag.

Within hours of the woman making her representations, the council emailed her employer, complaining directly to the chief executive of the company.

In the complaint, the council drew attention to the fact that the woman had used her work email account to write to the TDs.

The council said stag hunting had been responsible for a series of “disturbing incidents” over the years, and said the woman was “in the minority of those wanting to retain this cruel hunt”. It urged the company to clarify whether the woman had its “sanction and backing” to send out the emails.

The company subsequently informed the council that the emails were written by the employee in a personal capacity and not meant to reflect its views. It did not take any action against the woman, as it regarded the incident as a minor mistake. The woman did not wish to speak about the incident when contacted by the Irish Examiner this week.

Aideen Yourell, the council’s campaign director, defended the organisation’s actions, saying it simply wished to determine if the company supported deer hunting.

“We do this all the time with companies. If we think a company has any kind of a connection with blood sports… we tell them what the blood sport is, we describe it to them, we send them pictures, we say: ‘Do you really want to be associated with this?’”

She said it was never the council’s intention to create any difficulty for the woman with her employers.

Ms Yourell said the council had been sent the correspondence by Mr Gregory. Mr Gregory could not be reached for comment yesterday.

Click here for irishexaminer.com stories before this date

RuggieBear

I'm no fan of hunting but that's pretty ****ing underhand from the politicians and that organisation.

meathstevie

So far for the integrity of Mr Gregory TD. If he was sent a letter or e-mail looking for support for one cause or another he should do one of the following as he sees fit : 1) ignore the correspondence, 2) raise the matter in the Dail or with the Minister involved stating his support or his disagreement or check up on the status of certain issues with the appropiate department or service. What he definitly should not do is pass on someone's personal correspondence to a group of people who have no business at all reading into someone else's affairs.

AckwelFoley

I dont remember Tony Gregory ever having any integretory.
Remember this is a man that supported CJ Haughey.

As much as i dislike Joe higgins and his likes, at least he stays true to what he believes.

meathstevie

Second that Snyper. At least you would be able to have a proper debate with Joe Higgins involving proper argument and counter argument and part on amicable terms agreeing to disagree what often can't be said about the anti bloodsports taliban. As far as CJ Haughey was concerned : he probably embodied the definition of a sly fox and Gregory would have been the goose being charmed to it's downfall.

BryanL

it's outrageous that if the anti's can get your work details they just routinely email or phone employers! and gregory is president of that organisation.at least he wasn't made minister for the enviornment.:eek:

the people that represent the sports to which the anti's and icabs are opposed to, should make a lot of noise about this
Bryan

Sparks

I'm rather ambivalent to hunting myself (with hounds that is, hunting with a firearm to put meat in the pot is something I would personally be in favour of even if I don't ever want to do it myself). But TDs putting the interests of an NGO above their duties as TDs, which is what seems to have happened here, that's far far far more important than any firearms issue in my honest opinion. Frankly, I'd think the woman in question would have had a case against both ICABS and Gregory had she lost her job as a result; and may have a case over harassment already.

Frankly, I don't want to see the protest at this led by the shooting groups, be it SSAI, NTSA, NARGC or grassroots - I want to see this taken up by NGOs like the ICCL, as well as by the Dail. I'd recommend that anyone - regardless of whether or not you hunt, support hunting, or don't care one way or the other - should write to the ICCL, their local TD and anyone else. Doing otherwise is not supporting civil rights - this is not a hunting issue.

Sparks

Sent to the ICCL:

Dear sir/madam,
I write concerning the recent story in the Examiner (Jan 19) regarding TD Tony Gregory, who, upon being petitioned by a supporter of the Ward Union to lobby on behalf of them for renewal of their licence, took it upon himself to pass on this correspondance to the Irish Council Against Blood Sports, of whom Mr.Gregory is the current Vice President. The ICABS then issued complaints to the woman's employer in an effort to have her fired on the grounds that she engaged in animal cruelty.

I personally do not hunt, either with dogs or with firearms. I never have, and outside of a survival situation, I cannot imagine I ever will. I am an olympic target shooter, and I shoot paper targets with an olympic air rifle - this is as closely allied to hunting as chess is to poker. I am not a member of any hunting group or body or lobby. I say this because I feel that given the behaviour of ICABS, I might be labeled as biased should I complain against ICABS, because I own a legally held firearm for target shooting purposes.

This incident, however, is not about hunting, or target shooting, or firearms or dogs, or even to an extent, about the ICABS. It is about the abuse of the position of TD by Mr.Gregory. He was written to by a constituent seeking representation by her representative. This is a perfectly normal and legal thing to do and is a commonplace activity in a healthy democracy. That Mr.Gregory received the petition is a result of Mr.Gregory being a TD - not because he was the vice president of ICABS. At this point, Mr.Gregory was free to agree or disagree with the petitioner. He could have ignored the petition completely, he could have supported it or he could have stated his opposition to it. Instead of these perfectly reasonable courses of action, Mr.Gregory passed on the communications to a third party, who then used them in an attempt to harass the petitioner.

It is this action that is unacceptable. It is a very short trip from this sort of behaviour to a corrupt regieme instead of a democratic government. Mr.Gregory clearly faced a conflict of interest owing to his holding both the position of ICABS vice president and Dail TD; it behoved him to show sufficient respect to the state to resolve this conflict by resigning one of the two roles - which role was immaterial. Instead, he has chosen to supply ICABS with information which was obtained through his Dail TD role.

Surely this cannot be accepted. Are we to accept that if we petition our representatives on some issue, that they may choose to supply our private communications to those who disagree with us, who may then go on to engage in harassment using these communications?

I would call upon the ICCL to take this matter up at the highest level, ignoring completely the hunting aspect of it and resolving publicly whether or not someone petitioning their government representative has a right to have their communications dealt with in an overt manner, rather than in such a despicable and underhanded way.

Yours Sincerely,

rrpc

Excellent

Fair play Sparks, that's exectly the right note. I can't believe that Gregory did something like that, it's incredibly underhanded of him. :mad:

Let's hope the ICCL make a stink about it.

Our man in Havana

+1 support for Sparks.

I for one would like an answer from Gregory as to why he did what he did.

cavan shooter

Very underhand indeed, but I wouldn't put anything past a politician he has a vested interest and look at the icabs site there supporters are clearly named, Ruari Quinn and Alan Shatter just 2 that spring to mind. So if I was mail shotting I would be careful who I sent to..at least the company had sense

Banjax

The girl in question sent the email to John Gormley, and someone in his department (Gormley claims to know nothing about it, but he has ICABS people working for him as advisors, so...) sent it to Gregory, who sent it to the ICABS office.

The more bad press that can be generated for ICABS over this issue the better. The cynical reply shows a smug self-righteousness that turns the stomach, no matter what the details may be.

Tony Gregory should be hammered with this.

stevoman

excellent sparks. I cant beleive gregory could be so underhanded to do something like that. It just goes to show their sneakyness does'nt it, in essence they are saying that anyone that sends them an email thats does'nt go along with their pushy beliefs, they'l jut forward it back to your boss with a bunch of "shocking" pictures and hang you out to dry and quite possibly ruin your carreer. If that was me id take a case out on him straight away to make a point, donhate whatever then back into the hunting lobby just to p*ss him off.

leeroybrown

I've got no strong overriding opinion on the topic of hunting but I think there are two problems here:

1) The details of the woman and her employer should not have been passed on directly.

2) It's gross stupidity to send communications related to your own personal political beliefs from a work e-mail account particularly when it's in relation to an issue as contentious as hunting. If her employer had been a large financial institution rather than a small company she'd have been on a final written warning at best. She was lucky.

cavan shooter

It's like something you would have seen in pre 1990 east germany. Informants passing on details about some one to the secret police so that they could take action. I am about to write to the examiner

Trojan911

Very underhand, sneaky tactics. It's what I would have expected from him, having Googled his name & reading up on him.

However the female concerned should not have used her company computer to register her issue.

Most of us use the company pc to forward jokes or letters etc but when caught and it puts the company in a negative light the consequenses can be harsh. She was lucky.

cavan shooter

Just sent my letter off to the examiner for my input, interesting to see if they print, and I used my hotmail account;)

RuggieBear

/Bill Gates now awaits accusations of supporting hunting

Sikamick

I totally agree with sparks and all above except for one thing the leading bodies in the sport need to give leadership on this and make representation
to the Dail and raise the question as to an abuse by (Tony Gregory) of his position as a TD on this matter.

These bodies representing the sport that now sit on the panel of the FCP are sitting across the table from the Minsters representatives for Justice Equalityand Law Reform. The words Justice and Equality do not apply in this womans case.


Michael O'Connor
Secretary to Dublin Target Sports Club

stevoman

BryanL wrote: »

Aideen Yourell, the council’s campaign director, defended the organisation’s actions, saying it simply wished to determine if the company supported deer hunting.

“We do this all the time with companies. If we think a company has any kind of a connection with blood sports… we tell them what the blood sport is, we describe it to them, we send them pictures, we say: ‘Do you really want to be associated with this?’”

What a sad woman. So bitter about her plight she's willing to try and get people repramanded in work because somebody does'nt have the same view as her. Its totally underhanded and extremly sly. This is what we are up against, it honestly makes my blood boil.

How does one ask to have a question asked in the Dail on this matter??

Our man in Havana

stevoman wrote: »

How does one ask to have a question asked in the Dail on this matter??

Conatct your local TD preferably not FF/Greens ahem yellows.
I have contacted my local TD about the matter. She is most concerned about this. I will be meeting her shortly to discuss the matter.

lostexpectation

this seems pretty bad ,

any reply from tony gregory, when exactly did this happen?

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/veteran-td-doing-okay-after-stomach-surgery-say-friends-1261941.html

very strange

why would somone in gormely office send the email on to gregory's office?

meathstevie

I sincerely wish the man all the best with his recovery as ill health is no joy and a case for concern to anyone with a grain of humanity. Regardless, the issue stands.