UK officials get away with a lot less than their Irish counterparts.

Run_to_da_hills

A former London deputy mayor gets a suspended jail sentence for "flagrantly and arrogantly" misusing his expenses. The expenses included just three unauthorized meals on a credit card with his lover while claiming it was used officially.

He was given a 12-week jail term, suspended for 18 months, at City of Westminster Magistrates' Court. He was ordered to undertake 100 hours of unpaid community work and to abide by an overnight curfew for 12 weeks. :eek:

The above would probably have gone unnoticed in this country unless it topped well into five figures.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2009/1006/breaking73.htm

Terrontress

We already knew as much. And they're also prepared to stand down when they've been caught with their mitts in the till.

Vorsprung

WE let them get away with this by putting them back into office. Sure look at the people in Kerry supporting JOD. We're a joke!

Biggins

Aye, the man has been caught screwing the country - and what do we do?

Let him BACK into the Dail to begin with, as an ordinary TD (plus a nice "move" package, pension package, etc) - who by the way is supposed to be representing us and our country!!!

What does that say to other countries about us, looking on!

I think its fcuking disgusting.

jimmmy

Biggins wrote: »

What does that say to other countries about us, looking on!

I do not think most people realise just how much this government + their greedy employees have made us the laughing stock of the world so much .

irish_bob

our tollerance of corruption among the political class is by and large a catholic cultural thing , we dont have the same black and white view of things like the uk or scandanavian countries do

jimmmy

When Haughey and a lot of planners and other govt people got away with it , it sets a bad example for everyone else younger + coming up behind them. A good example should come from the top. A leader should lead by example. Its like public pay : When Ahern + Cowen pay themselves so much ( more than the prime ministers of the industrialed European counties like Germany, France, UK, which are much bigger, have economies of scale etc ) , why would everyone else who gets the Irish govt cheque not want that cheque to be as big as possible too ?

parsi

Yes.

We let the developers take the profits and the taxpayer pays for the losses. Maybe we should let the contribute their cars. suvs and multiple properties.

In respect of the OP - I expect you'll find that the case was taken in the context of the new-found zeal that the UK politicos developed in the past year in respect of expenses. There have quite a few heads that rolled in the past six months in respect of expense payments that had been happily signed-off by all parties for many years.

Of course our German friends also had a similar scandal when someone had their porn channel sub classed as an expense...

Today's Indo (it was free) detailed quite a few TDs of all parties whose expenses had smashed through the 100k barrier.

Not sure the Brits always do it better.

Money for peerages etc.?

They do it differently alright perhaps.

jimmmy

No country or person is perfect. In general though, the thread title is UK officials get away with a lot less than their Irish counterparts. .....like in the Haughey era, a lot goes on here which is not reported either. A foreign industrialist once said Ireland reminded him of a third world country, such was the corruption / greed.

SLUSK

[quote=Run_to_da_hills;

62427847]A former London deputy mayor gets a suspended jail sentence for "flagrantly and arrogantly" misusing his expenses. The expenses included just three unauthorized meals on a credit card with his lover while claiming it was used officially.

He was given a 12-week jail term, suspended for 18 months, at City of Westminster Magistrates' Court. He was ordered to undertake 100 hours of unpaid community work and to abide by an overnight curfew for 12 weeks. :eek:

The above would probably have gone unnoticed in this country unless it topped well into five figures.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2009/1006/breaking73.htm[/quote]

This is because Ireland is a banana republic or should I say gombeen man republic?

Overheal

Sheep dont care when the Sheppard rapes them or strips them of their wool either. Or when he kills one for a full belly. No. They're still sheep. What are ye?

Biggins

Overheal wrote: »

Sheep dont care when the Sheppard rapes them or strips them of their wool either. Or when he kills one for a full belly. No. They're still sheep. What are ye?

The black one then!

parsi

jimmmy wrote: »

No country or person is perfect. In general though, the thread title is UK officials get away with a lot less than their Irish counterparts.

The thread title is what it is. However multiple posters showed that the same stuff is happening in other places.

Of course the OP forgets to mention that the MPs claiming a fortune in expenses eg duck ponds, are safe from any form of prosecution.

Irish people need to get away from their belief that we are somewhat different - incompetence exists in all countries - in St Lunaire in Fance they erected a solar powered parking meter in the shade of a tree - over here that would be passed off as "typical Irish".

We're not unique either in having professions/trades which screwed us and continued to screw us eg plumbers, sparkies, doctors, chippies , brickies and the like.

Seth Brundle

jimmmy wrote: »

When Haughey and a lot of planners and other govt people got away with it , it sets a bad example for everyone else younger + coming up behind them. A good example should come from the top. A leader should lead by example. Its like public pay : When Ahern + Cowen pay themselves so much ( more than the prime ministers of the industrialed European counties like Germany, France, UK, which are much bigger, have economies of scale etc ) , why would everyone else who gets the Irish govt cheque not want that cheque to be as big as possible too ?

Just to be clear, it wasn't the planners but the county managers, councillors, etc.
As for Ahern, sure he still can't get a C2!

jimmmy

jimmmy wrote: »

A foreign industrialist once said Ireland reminded him of a third world country, such was the corruption / greed.

A foreigner once said Ireland was bad?

That's me convinced then!

I can't locate anyone saying anything bad about France, Italy, England, Germany etc. etc.

r3nu4l

Well as bad as ye think it is in Ireland, Italy is worse, always remember that

Also, I'm not sure that Britain is any better than Ireland. Until the Telegraph broke the expenses scandal, MPs here had been getting away with fiddling the taxpayer on a much larger scale than O'Donoghue and had been doing so for years!

This was despite the fact that unlike in Ireland, MPs in England had to show receipts for everything they wanted to claim back. So they were showing receipts for TVs, garden ponds etc and still allowed to get the money from the taxpayer!

When the MPs were finally outed, they all squirmed and wriggled for ages before the first couple fell and then the snowball effect took over and a load of them resigned.

The only difference is that over here people don't care how much an MP has done for the local community, they won't re-elect him/her next time around unlike the thick gobsheens that reelected the likes of Lowry and will probably reelect O'Donoghue over in Ireland!

Also, don't forget that over here (UK), people like Jeffery Archer went to jail, then walked straight back into the House of Lords...so, again...perhaps not so different after all.

Biggins

r3nu4l wrote: »

Well as bad as ye think it is in Ireland, Italy is worse, always remember that

True but then also, the man owns a hell of a lot of the media there too.

Noffles

r3nu4l wrote: »

Well as bad as ye think it is in Ireland, Italy is worse, always remember that

Also, I'm not sure that Britain is any better than Ireland. Until the Telegraph broke the expenses scandal, MPs here had been getting away with fiddling the taxpayer on a much larger scale than O'Donoghue and had been doing so for years!

This was despite the fact that unlike in Ireland, MPs in England had to show receipts for everything they wanted to claim back. So they were showing receipts for TVs, garden ponds etc and still allowed to get the money from the taxpayer!

When the MPs were finally outed, they all squirmed and wriggled for ages before the first couple fell and then the snowball effect took over and a load of them resigned.

The only difference is that over here people don't care how much an MP has done for the local community, they won't re-elect him/her next time around unlike the thick gobsheens that reelected the likes of Lowry and will probably reelect O'Donoghue over in Ireland!

Also, don't forget that over here (UK), people like Jeffery Archer went to jail, then walked straight back into the House of Lords...so, again...perhaps not so different after all.

The JOD thing is a f*cking joke, the beetroot faced clown is getting the backing of the voters... are they blind and deaf.... f*ck sake open you eyes you idiots!! This will just let the rest of the pigs at the trough think less about getting caught out..... And then you have the Finance minister saying that "people shouldn't let this little expenses thing blind us from the bigger issues"... you conniving c*nt, covering for the rest of them!!!!!!

jimmmy

r3nu4l wrote: »

So they were showing receipts for TVs, garden ponds etc and still allowed to get the money from the taxpayer!

Do not forget the Uk is approximately twenty times the population of Ireland.....if our political system was 20 times bigger and the only corruption or fiddlying of expenses was for one or two people to claim for a TV ( it could have been for a legitimate government purpose ) or Garden pond, I would be quite happy. Consider the scale of the corruption and money squandered here and overseas, by various people from Haughey to O'Donoghue , the planning tribunals etc etc. Because Mp's are only paid a fraction ( about two thirds ? ) of a TD's salary, despite having a far bigger constituency, I would be surprised if a few at some stage had not fiddled a few hundred quid in expenses. Only fractions of crumbs of the table compared to our little country though.

walshb

I don't think anyone is saying that corruption does not happen in the U.K.
or other places; it's how they deal with it when it's exposed that is the glaring difference. In Ireland, the scumbags are lauded and almost held in esteem, moved, shifted, compensated, rewarded etc. We have pretty much NO accountability or consequences when one engages in immoral and illegal acts.

cooperguy

Have you already forgotten the expenses scandal that ran for weeks in the UK only a few months ago. It was on a massive scale compared to the O'Donoghue thing. Probably why the reaction was so strong this time