Matt Cooper is happy with senator Ivor Callelly

moonpurple

read all about it

http://www.examiner.ie/opinion/columnists/matt-cooper/callely-will-have-done-us-a-favour-if-his-greed-speeds-end-of-the-seanad-121473.html
:pac:

Callely will have done us a favour if his greed speeds end of the Seanad

By Matt Cooper

Friday, June 04, 2010

INADVERTENTLY, Senator Ivor Callely may have done the state a massive favour. By his selfish actions, in what some would describe as giving a false address to maximise the amount of expenses he could claim from the state, he has emphasised the expensive uselessness of Seanad Éireann.

Never mind the saving that would accrue from his claiming less expenses. He has drawn attention to a potential saving to the state of €25 million per annum that apparently could be achieved by abolishing the upper house; it isn’t just the removal of salaries and expenses for the 60 members that would help but all the associated running costs.

No wonder Callely’s fellow senators are furious with him. The scandal involving his claiming of expenses since his appointment – note, not election – to the Seanad in 2007 has added significantly to already compelling arguments to do away with this unnecessary and expensive institution.

The Seanad is full of has-beens and wannabes and is a vestige for disgusting patronage and a gerrymandered voting system.

It is a retirement home for politicians who have lost their Dáil seats – such as Callely himself – or were never popular enough to get themselves elected. It is a stepping stone for those with ambition who think they can use it to raise their profile before a Dáil election.

The patronage involves the right of the Taoiseach to nominate 11 members after each election and then to nominate replacements if any drop out. Bertie Ahern, as Taoiseach, rewarded Callely when the people of Dublin North Central rejected him at the last election and just two years after Callely had been forced to resign as a junior minister because it had been discovered he took free painting and decorating services at his home (in Dublin).

The whole Seanad set-up is anti-democratic as it has an elite electorate, a subset of the entire electorate. If you are an NUI graduate you can vote on the election of a panel of three of your peers (I refuse to register). Trinity College gets its own three seats. County councillors all over the country are lobbied hard for votes. One Roscommon councillor recounted last year how he had received a free tie from one successful Fianna Fáil candidate (who owns a rural menswear shop) and discovered how all voters had received the same.

The Seanad rarely overturns laws originated in the Dáil or starts its own bills that the Dáil endorses. And even when they do, is it worth the cost of having this talking shop? Add to this the cost of running the Dáil and you have to ask what sort of fools we are to allow the political class to indulge itself to this extent at our expense. The excellent thestory.ie website has established that between 2005 and 2008 our 166 TDs pulled in just under €100 million in salaries and expenses.

What value for money did we get for that? The website also reveals that in 2007 alone former minister Michael Lowry, who had to resign when it was discovered he’d let Ben Dunne secretly pay for his house extension and who, we subsequently discovered, had offshore bank accounts he’d lied to the Dáil about, received nearly €200,000 in salary and expenses.

Callely’s (Dublin) house renovations cost only a fraction of Lowry’s. Callely may now have to show that he actually spends his time in west Cork but his problem is that his website says he lives in Dublin. It also headlines him as senator for Dublin North Central, which is clearly impossible, but shows how he intended using the Seanad role as a platform for a return to the Dáil in his own constituency. So you’re paying to finance his career prospects too.

Now let’s not just stop at abolishing the Seanad: let’s reduce the number of sitting TDs to 100 to serve a population of little more than four million.

What sort of fools are we to take this?

* Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary would never run a country this way. That said, his opponents rightly say you can’t run a country like a company. There are social requirements that a corporate entity does not have to meet. But that isn’t to say that many of the things he does at Ryanair could not be usefully employed in our public sector to provide a better service to users as well as more value for money.

Those who might decry the idea would be among those who would denigrate Ryanair’s commercial achievements. How sadly ironic for them then that the corporate bête noir for many confirmed itself this week as the country’s finest domestically owned and headquartered company.

Ryanair was vilified for years during the boom for its alleged poor work practices and apparent contempt for its consumers. Trade union leaders were to the forefront of this – because of Ryanair’s refusal to negotiate with unions, something that many foreign multinational employers insist on as well.

What Ryanair created was real. It did not engage in reckless speculation in overvalued properties or borrow excessively. Instead, it is a highly profitable company, making profits of more than €350m. It has accumulated more than €1bn in cash and is giving some back to shareholders. Ryanair’s customers may complain but the proof of its popularity is in its passenger numbers. Its workers seem happy enough with their lot. Ryanair is not without its flaws. It hectors and bullies and, as the High Court found recently, has made false claims during disputes. It could behave better. But it remains an example to the rest of the Irish economy.

A COUPLE of years ago in this column I extolled the virtues of an excellent biography of Michael O’Leary. Shockingly, the author of that book, Alan Ruddock, died suddenly last weekend, aged just 50.

He will be sadly missed by all who knew him, most particularly his family who meant everything to him and whose loss cannot be estimated.

Alan will be remembered as excellent company, witty and sharp and irreverent, but also as someone who seriously wanted a better Ireland for everyone and who was passionate about the role of newspapers in letting people know what was really happening in this country. He will be missed sorely too by his readers at the Sunday Independent, where he was one of its finest writers and analysts in recent years.

Alan wrote passionately and fiercely, but with a great sense of fairness and after applying rigorous and rational analysis, something those who disagreed with him did not always appreciate or, if they did, resented.

Those qualities of explanation and analysis meant he was a regular guest on The Last Word. We both enjoyed the fact that one of the country’s most prominent trade unionists was so enraged by Alan’s ability to lay out his argument clearly that he refused to take part in any discussions of which Alan was part. Alan was reviled by this union boss as "right wing" but what he should have realised was that Alan was as fiercely critical of dodgy businessmen, bad banking and populist politics as he was of bad practices on the left. That even-handedness was part of his excellence.

We will miss Alan as a contributor to our programme but far more importantly as a person. May he rest in peace.

The Last Word with Matt Cooper is broadcast on 100-102 Today FM, Monday to Friday, 4.30pm to 7pm.



This story appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner Friday, June 04, 2010

Mr E

The article is spot on. The Seanad is pointless and this saga will accelerate its demise.

threebeards

Yeah, I think he's spot on. Callely has just removed the ace of hearts from the bottom of the house of cards

moonpurple

Ivor fiddling while the senate burns

is there something in the water in north dublin

haughey lawlor burke callelly....?

or in the holy water:rolleyes:

Ali Babba

It's all down to morals really, Fianna Fail members don't have any and as a result they don't seem to know when or if they've done wrong, Callelly seems to believe he didn't do any wrong and the same with O'Dea recently, poor fellas, it's tough being a politican really, you can't expect them to be good at everything. Seriously though the majority of them should be fired anyway, crooked b@stards.

amiable

moonpurple wrote: »

read all about it

http://www.examiner.ie/opinion/columnists/matt-cooper/callely-will-have-done-us-a-favour-if-his-greed-speeds-end-of-the-seanad-121473.html
:pac:

Great article

silverharp

Cooper can be a bit of a populist hand puppet at times but yeah he hit some part of a nail with a hammer with this one

biko

Article content added to OP.

changes

Does anyone have Ivor Callelly's fianna fail email address i'd like to send him an email telling him he should resign and imo should face questioning fro the guards.

aDeener

Ali Babba wrote: »

It's all down to morals really, Fianna Fail members don't have any and as a result they don't seem to know when or if they've done wrong, Callelly seems to believe he didn't do any wrong and the same with O'Dea recently, poor fellas, it's tough being a politican really, you can't expect them to be good at everything. Seriously though the majority of them should be fired anyway, crooked b@stards.

ffs :rolleyes: any more generalisations about 1000s of people?

Liam Byrne

changes wrote: »

Does anyone have Ivor Callelly's fianna fail email address i'd like to send him an email telling him he should resign and imo should face questioning fro the guards.

The contact form on his website doesn't work (this week), anyway - I tried it!

As for Cooper.....maybe he's spot-on, but the thread title is misleading.....Cooper reckons Callely might have done us a favour by pushing us past our tolerance limit; that doesn't mean that Cooper is "happy" with him!

Pherekydes

Matt Cooper is an idiot.

Unethical action is unethical. Stealing money from the state to do the state a service is stealing from the state, which is never doing a service.

orourkeda

Now perhaps I'm missing something here but if the Seanad is a bad idea now, when was it ever a good idea.

Blowing public money is never a good idea even in the middle of an economic boom. This is partly why we're in the position we are.

orourkeda

Liam Byrne wrote: »

The contact form on his website doesn't work (this week), anyway - I tried it!

As for Cooper.....maybe he's spot-on, but the thread title is misleading.....Cooper reckons Callely might have done us a favour by pushing us past our tolerance limit; that doesn't mean that Cooper is "happy" with him!

I doubt he scammed the taxpayer as a favour to them. That could never have been his intention. I understand the point Matt Cooper is making but it would only serve as a happy by product rather than anything honourable

amiable

Liam Byrne wrote: »

The contact form on his website doesn't work (this week), anyway - I tried it!

As for Cooper.....maybe he's spot-on, but the thread title is misleading.....Cooper reckons Callely might have done us a favour by pushing us past our tolerance limit; that doesn't mean that Cooper is "happy" with him!

Maybe just maybe the title thread was to catch peoples attention

Biggins

aDeener wrote: »

ffs :rolleyes: any more generalisations about 1000s of people?

Well if they keep nominating/voting the same questionable people to the same vaulted positions...
What are others left to think unless something is shown otherwise!

I'm NOT agreeing with the generalisation.
FF lower members however need to do a drastic u-turn in their running and electing of their party hierarchy TODAY - not always tomorrow, tomorrow...

moonpurple

the cabinet need to find an annual reduction of 3 billion by the next budget

all they need do is walk 5 minutes and the 3 billion is looking back at them, our future industrial school memorial museum :pac:

currently called the senate

SoupyNorman

I always wonder what proportion of TD's/Senators would show the same 'passion' for their positions as elected representatives if salaries were halved (as they should be) and or expenses had to be vouched and allowed to be freely accessed by the people who pay for them.

Callelly's silence booms with guilt, he would seem to be on the road to palookaville but as usual if he goes he'll have a handsome pension which he is 'entitled' too etc, blah blah, legal issues...I'm tired.

Cooper is very correct.

Cookie_Monster

The Senate is needed as part of a democracy. Just because it has become corruptedin modern Ireland doesn't mean we should get rid of it. Needs to be reformed but not abolished. There has to be a second house to verify or reject the lower house's decisions

Biggins

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

...Needs to be reformed but not abolished. There has to be a second house to verify or reject the lower house's decisions

That can be done by either an elected much smaller committee who are for the duration of that role, willing to reside within non-claiming distance of their job (or they fork out for their own travel like the rest of the ruddy country!) - or - by a legal team set in place to over see such tasks.

Not this current fcukin' retirement home for the party faithful and non-elected!

Cookie_Monster

Biggins wrote: »

That can be done by either an elected much smaller committee who are for the duration of that role, willing to reside within non-claiming distance of their job (or they fork out for their own travel like the rest of the ruddy country!) - or - by a legal team set in place to over see such tasks.

Not this current fcukin' retirement home for the party faithful and non-elected!

Indeed.

Elected reps need to be the only part of it. It should be resized, 1 per 100,000 people for example. Along with the Dail at 1 per 50,000 or similar. There is no point reforming the senate though if the Dail is going to be ignored for reformation

Pot Noodle =

Why is this not in Politics forum

SoupyNorman

Pot wrote:

Why is this not in Politics forum

Give it a couple more pages.

Bob the Builder

I hope he gets Willie O'Dea'd.

Bob the Builder

Pot wrote:

Why is this not in Politics forum

OP couldn't find the "Corruption" forum.

When we treat things like this as a political matter, it turns into big silly bureaucracy, namely the Mahon Tribunal.

PeterIanStaker

The seanad needs to be abolished. Sure all you need to do to get in is shove your head up Bertie's hole. Its a joke.

Biggins

Bob the Builder wrote: »

OP couldn't find the "Corruption" forum.

I'm amazed we don't have one by now!

PeterIanStaker

Biggins wrote: »

I'm amazed we don't have one by now!

We do, they're called the Dail & Seanad!

SoupyNorman

Oh Lawd... excerpts from Callelly's vision statement;

We have to turn the tide of our present difficulties and put our economy back on a sound footing once we have our public finances under control.

I am determined ‘with every beat of my heart’ to resolve the difficulties this country now faces

Is he charging per beat I wonder?

Oh this is the winner...

I have a clear vision that involves new thinking of getting us moving again along the road we successfully travelled[EDIT]FROM CORK TO DUBLIN[/EDIT] in the past ant learning from our mistakes.


What a total Jackass.


[SOURCE]: http://www.ivorcallely.ie/

moonpurple

ivor decided to resign today

http://www.rte.ie/news/2010/0605/callelyi_butlerl.html
breaking news:eek:

Cookie_Monster

moonpurple wrote: »

ivor decided to resign today

http://www.rte.ie/news/2010/0605/callelyi_butlerl.html
breaking news:eek:

good.

but why are they always allowed resign and not just sacked?