Biggest Waste of Taxpayers Money..?

Sizzler

Ever had a think about it? You probably see it every day on the streets and dont realise your cash is being spent stupidly.

So what pi**es you off the most about the way your hard earned cash is being spent by Cowen & co. ?

Steve_o

The Spire..... Its gonna cost a fortune in the future to maintain etc. its all money that could go into something more important...

Sofaspud

The spire's the obvious one.

And not directly our tax money, but there's a ridiculous amount spent on the space program. We should fix our own bloody planet before trying to find out if other planets are better than it.

Sizzler

Sofaspud wrote: »

The spire's the obvious one.

And not directly our tax money, but there's a ridiculous amount spent on the space program. We should fix our own bloody planet before trying to find out if other planets are better than it.

Are Ireland contributing to that :eek:

KnifeWRENCH

The electronic voting machines were a bit of a fiasco. I think the Govt. has to pay a lot every year just to store the bloody things :rolleyes:

Sofaspud

Sizzler wrote: »

Are Ireland contributing to that :eek:

No, hence the "not directly our tax money, but . . ."

At least I bloody well hope not!

wheres me jumpa

Biggest waster of tax payers money? That same generic group of young lads who left school early only to spend their days fishing and drinking cans by the river...until pay day that is.

AckwelFoley

most public service eployees.

Lazyness.. they get away with not doing a tap.

Private sector workers cant do the same degrees of nothing and get away with it

AckwelFoley

Mr.S wrote: »

Am i the only one who likes the look for the Spire?

no, i like it too.

Its just easier to attack it than defend its existence

humberklog

Mr.S wrote: »

Am i the only one who likes the look for the Spire?

Nope. It's v.beautiful and it is building a strong and easy identification of Dublin. Money well spent. O'connel st. has never looked better (well in my 38years).
Big waste? Having every scrap of government literature translated to Irish. The waste of money and materials is feckin HUGE.

Daftendirekt

Makes a good landmark if nothing else.

return guide

Dublin Airport, sapping more and more money through ill thought out extensions and building a new terminal yards from the existing one.

Intothesea

That perennial shower in the Dáil.

AckwelFoley

return guide wrote: »

Dublin Airport, sapping more and more money through ill thought out extensions and building a new terminal yards from the existing one.

Yes, because the largest and single most important gateway for the irish economy, as an Island.. is a waste of money >insert old fashioned rolley eyes here<

The Artist

the time when the goverment spent on patricks day,on themselves. €560k spent on Govt St Patrick's day trips:eek:
and also the bertie bowl?

Caoimhín

snyper wrote: »

most public service eployees.

Lazyness.. they get away with not doing a tap.

Private sector workers cant do the same degrees of nothing and get away with it

Beat me to it.

Lazy w*nkers, all of them.

Wishbone Ash

return guide wrote: »

Dublin Airport, sapping more and more money through ill thought out extensions and building a new terminal yards from the existing one.

Which bit is funded by the taxpayer?

stepbar

People who are better off than I am per month and are paid benefits... fcukers

Alun

Sizzler wrote: »

Are Ireland contributing to that :eek:

Yes. Ireland are members of ESA (European Space Agency) as are most other EU countries. I don't know what the contribution is now, but in 2005 it was about €12m (pretty small compared to the others).

The way ESA works (I worked there myself back in the day) is that only member countries can tender for ESA contracts, and broadly speaking, the slice of the total work you get out of it is proportional to your contributions as a fraction of the total contributions of all the members put together. I have no idea as to the net value of the contracts Irish companies have with ESA, but it's certainly not a one-way street, and it certainly helps with Ireland's supposed image as a high-tech 'knowledge economy', I'd say. Certainly when I was there back in the 80's there was an Irish software company (cara) with a good few people working there.

GBX

Berties Beige Suit ... Brian Cowens make up bill ..

Sizzler

A few things...

RTE - They sure do employ some good people but the clowns seem to outweigh the good.

TD's - Enda Kenny. Say no more tbh. And this dude wanted to lead the country :eek:

Tribunals - Moriarty Tribunal, I mean WTF. Apart from a few questionable lodgements being exposed, was/is it really worth the millions in legal fees?

Taxpayers footing the bill for legal aid for repeat skanger criminals or asylum seekers who launch appeal after appeal and get shipped out on a flight that costs 100k as there are no direct flights.

old boy

all them consultants, and advisors, plus all the tds, that have been made chairpersons of talking shops recently, plus the way tds and public servants, get their wage increases, a lot of them get a weekly pay reise of more than my pension ?, or what passes for one, btw. in my opinion the old girl should be the next minister for finance, regardless of who is in power, the way she is manageing our token few bob

xOxSinéadxOx

Steve_o wrote: »

The Spire..... Its gonna cost a fortune in the future to maintain etc. its all money that could go into something more important...

not to mention it's an ugly piece of ****e.

DonJose

My vote goes to that woman from the congo who the doctors kept alive with a blood transfusion after she haemorraged during child birth losing 80% of her blood, she later claimed to be a jehovah witness even though she put down RC on the admission form. If they had let the bitch bleed to death it would have saved the taxpayer €2m in legal bills :mad:

Jemmy

humberklog wrote: »

Big waste? Having every scrap of government literature translated to Irish. The waste of money and materials is feckin HUGE.

I dont agree,the irish language should be kept alive and it is still spoken just not up around you city boys.

Davidius

humberklog wrote: »

Nope. It's v.beautiful and it is building a strong and easy identification of Dublin. Money well spent. O'connel st. has never looked better (well in my 38years).
Big waste? Having every scrap of government literature translated to Irish. The waste of money and materials is feckin HUGE.

You'd prefer to spend money on giving Dublin an image and identity but consider spending any money on maintaining an Irish identity a waste? Pretty much the same if you ask me.

I don't rank either as particularly worthy of high expenditure myself. I feel money should really be invested elsewhere. I'd completely drop expenditure on making things look pretty if it weren't for the fact that some people think the look of the place is overly important for some reason.

Definitely think that the Spire was a waste. It doesn't serve any good purpose and generally seems like a forced attempt at giving Dublin a recognisable monument. Also think that there are frankly too many government positions, a lot of them are being paid for a job that doesn't actually involve doing anything.

More money into education and research I say!

Taco Corp

The admin staff of the HSE. Know a guy who works for them. Get the odd joke email from him with hundreds of other HSE staff emails on them. Lazy shower of w**kers. You can say that we all do this if you want, i'll still say that there are way too many admin staff working there.

javaboy

DonJose wrote: »

My vote goes to that woman from the congo who the doctors kept alive with a blood transfusion after she haemorraged during child birth losing 80% of her blood, she later claimed to be a jehovah witness even though she put down RC on the admission form. If they had let the bitch bleed to death it would have saved the taxpayer €2m in legal bills :mad:

Did she put down RC or did the admitting nurse do it? It could have been a language issue? Either way "let the bitch bleed to death" is harsh.

445279.ie

snyper wrote: »

most public service eployees.

Lazyness.. they get away with not doing a tap.

Private sector workers cant do the same degrees of nothing and get away with it

Please don't generalise - we're not all lazy :mad:

445279.ie

caoibhin wrote: »

Beat me to it.

Lazy w*nkers, all of them.

Oh yeah, I've never w*nked in either :rolleyes:

Capt'n Midnight

Govt Jet.

The new managment at the HSE, why is our health care system the most expensive in the world ??

NRA , provide public transport and telecommuting and then see if we really need all the roads , also have to take into account the kyoto tax we will have to pay

M50 toll bridge buy out and electronic tolling

e-voting , paper works and tallymen provide checks and it's not like the feckers that get elected are actually going to start working the next day or even that week so there is no rush

all the stealth taxes collected by middlemen / all the stuff that should be provided by government but the taxpayer has to pay for again the only one who benefits are the middlemen. Why should private hospitals be on public hospital grounds, providing a state sponsored safety net to them if they screw up ?

mickey money, just because a girl gets pregnant is no reason to get a house. ahead of others on the housing list, perhaps a hostel where they can get a bedsit with communal facilites, everyone gets a room but only houses for families.

The HSE has to be the biggest waste of money in the history of the state. There isn't a day that goes by without hearing about a new scandal/screw up. Considering the amount of money pumped into it, it's ridiculous how bad it is.

Peteee

Sofaspud wrote: »

And not directly our tax money, but there's a ridiculous amount spent on the space program. We should fix our own bloody planet before trying to find out if other planets are better than it.

How much exactly do you think the US spends on their space program?

Its .6% of the entire US Govt. budget annually.

2Scoops

Maybe this is just a misconception, but doesn't the government have to donate 1% or something of the GNP to artists, regardless of quality? There's some pretty awful government-funded art out there...

Thomas_S_Hunterson

2Scoops wrote: »

Maybe this is just a misconception, but doesn't the government have to donate 1% or something of the GNP to artists, regardless of quality? There's some pretty awful government-funded art out there...

I think that's an unavoidable waste however if the government want to foster Irish art. It's hard to vet quality of an unknown artist because no one has seen their work!

Kernel

Romas (not Romanians). They contribute nothing, sponge off the state for everything (housing, schooling, medical, social welfare), involved in crime, get free legal aid (costing taxpayer money), free interpreters (costing taxpayer money) and maybe deported (costing taxpayer money). Huge waste.

sdanseo

The Dublin 'orbital routes', and in fact most of our road transport system. Why, just why?

Imagine you are a tourist. You rent a car at Dublin Airport. You're unfamiliar with Ireland having never been here before and are expecting a perfect road network between here and your destination. If from America, you won't know what the gearstick does let alone be worried about a map etc. You drive out of the airport to be confronted with a sign a few miles down saying "J76 N1 N2 N3 <- | N4 N5 N6 N7 ->" or the like. Lord help you.

So say you decide to take the rental car to the West. You fight your way through the apocalyptic traffic as far as the M50 where, after briefly considering turning around and booking the first available plane back home, you hit the N4. Finally, a decent road. You get as far as Kinnegad and then, and only then, do you see a sign telling to DRIVE ON THE LEFT (true story).

Enough ranting. You get my point. Sack the DTO/DTA whatever it is and let leprechauns direct the traffic. God knows they'd do a better job.

BraziliaNZ

caoibhin wrote: »

Beat me to it.

Lazy w*nkers, all of them.

That's a stupid statement. I was a civil servant before I left Ireland for 3 years, and I worked my ass off there especially in the last year and a half or so. More work done there than I've done anywhere else. But I do agree that there are some total wasters being employed. My department on the other hand were working our asses off, so don't generalise.

ART6

Why all these attacks on the Dublin spire? When CERN turn on the Large Hadron Collider (as referred to in other threads) the Large Hadrons may well take offence at being forced to collide, and might just decide to attack us. When they try to land in Dublin the spire will stick 'em up the ass and save us all.:D

Caoimhín

BraziliaNZ wrote: »

That's a stupid statement. I was a civil servant before I left Ireland for 3 years, and I worked my ass off there especially in the last year and a half or so. More work done there than I've done anywhere else. But I do agree that there are some total wasters being employed. My department on the other hand were working our asses off, so don't generalise.

Sorry, 99.99% of civil/public servants are lazy wa*kers.

javaboy

ART6 wrote: »

Why all these attacks on the Dublin spire? When CERN turn on the Large Hadron Collider (as referred to in other threads) the Large Hadrons may well take offence at being forced to collide, and might just decide to attack us. When they try to land in Dublin the spire will stick 'em up the ass and save us all.:D

But is it a (Large Hadron) Collider or a Large (Hadron Collider). I thought Hadrons were small and this was a big machine which was going to smash lots of them together.

BraziliaNZ

caoibhin wrote: »

Sorry, 99.99% of civil/public servants are lazy wa*kers.

and how do you know this exactly?

John Mason

that what to do in an emergancy hand book - wtf


and all those Vote Yes to Lisbon posters - feck off and tell that it is all about in plain english

Steve_o

Peteee wrote: »

How much exactly do you think the US spends on their space program?

Its .6% of the entire US Govt. budget annually.

The US is waaaay bigger tho, with alot more money... .6% of the US budget taken out of the Irish budget would be a big chunk!

Steve_o

irishbird wrote: »

that what to do in an emergancy hand book - wtf


and all those Vote Yes to Lisbon posters - feck off and tell that it is all about in plain english

+1

ART6

javaboy wrote: »

But is it a (Large Hadron) Collider or a Large (Hadron Collider). I thought Hadrons were small and this was a big machine which was going to smash lots of them together.

Dunno boy, never having met either a small one or a large one, but if they are indeed small then their grown up parents might object to them being smashed together and decide to invade to teach us a lesson. Either way my point stands, as does that of the Dublin spire (drops the poitin jar and falls asleep).

billymitchell

snyper wrote: »

most public service eployees.

Lazyness.. they get away with not doing a tap.

Private sector workers cant do the same degrees of nothing and get away with it

+1

chuci

the HSE as someone who works in a hospital i have no idea where its going the mistakes are horrendous.
professor. brendan drumm- they should employ people who work on the ground and are know where money needs to be spent. rather than some eejit it just makes my blood boil.
tribunals argh why the need for so much money to be spent?
giving themselves a nice high pay rise which is more than half of what normal people get p/a.
42 days of holidays at xmas or whatever it is why why why?if they werent so lazy then the country might run better.

LouOB

Ohhhhh
1. Health service. full stop
2. M50 - come on the f*uk I could plan a project better
3. Junkies with babies - need i say more
4. Gardai walking by said junkies - wtf are we paying them for - no really what?
5. Buses with no people in them
6. Trains with people fainting in them
7. Government depts that have no function or role - Road Safety Authority
8. Government buildings in the most expensive areas of Dublin - sell the f*cking bulding and use the money for people on beds in the halls - COME ON....
9. Politicions that speak lots and say F*CK ALL
mmmmmmmmmmmmm

thats all for now

Caoimhín

chuci wrote: »

the HSE as someone who works in a hospital i have no idea where its going the mistakes are horrendous.
professor. brendan drumm- they should employ people who work on the ground and are know where money needs to be spent. rather than some eejit it just makes my blood boil.
tribunals argh why the need for so much money to be spent?
giving themselves a nice high pay rise which is more than half of what normal people get p/a.
42 days of holidays at xmas or whatever it is why why why?if they werent so lazy then the country might run better.

You drinking already too?

ART6

LouOB wrote: »

Ohhhhh
1. Health service. full stop
2. M50 - come on the f*uk I could plan a project better
3. Junkies with babies - need i say more
4. Gardai walking by said junkies - wtf are we paying them for - no really what?
5. Buses with no people in them
6. Trains with people fainting in them
7. Government depts that have no function or role - Road Safety Authority
8. Government buildings in the most expensive areas of Dublin - sell the f*cking bulding and use the money for people on beds in the halls - COME ON....
9. Politicions that speak lots and say F*CK ALL
mmmmmmmmmmmmm

thats all for now

Add to that the 400 odd Quangos that FF & Co have dreamed up over the years, each with a budget that would feed half the world's starving. Another way of looking at it might be that the biggest waste of taxpayer's money is politicans:(