The Drunken Politicians

Lenny Lovett

So as well as a drunk Taoiseach, we're providing well paid jobs for 77 year old drunks as well. WTF are they playing at in Leinster House?
http://www.independent.ie/national-news/drunk-td-threat-to-ruin-garda-career-2343669.html
I love the last line:

I was very tired after a hard day in work."

Jesus! "Tiredness" is endemic in the Dail! I was very "tired" last night.... after several beers!

hallelujajordan

The intellectual power of our future government representatives is astounding . .

Later still he recalled that he had asked the garda concerned for her identification number. When asked why he had done that, he said: "I wanted to know who I was dealing with." When asked why he had wanted to know who he was dealing with, he said: "No, I didn't say that. I didn't ask for her number."

When it was put to him that he had just said he had asked for her identification number, he said: "Ah look here. This matter is completely finished. . . I'm under pressure now."

Genius . . .

GSF

But Cowen showed great foresight during his career according to Batt man on the radio this morning......

PCPhoto

why is there even a pub in Leinster house anyway ?

So the politicians dont have to queue in a bar with the great unwashed - their constituents ?

GSF

PCPhoto wrote: »

why is there even a pub in Leinster house anyway ?

So the politicians dont have to queue in a bar with the great unwashed - their constituents ?

it used to be subsidised didnt it?

Ash.J.Williams

IT'S TIME TO CLOSE THE DAIL BAR FOR GOOD, AND HAVE THEM DRINK WITH THE REST OF US, WHERE WE CAN MONITOR THEM.

PCPhoto

GSF wrote: »

it used to be subsidised didnt it?

thought it still was - thats another reason why they go there - its cheaper than pubs nearby ....its a recession after all - cant afford to pay full price - why not let the public pick up the tab (as usual)

GSF

Being drunk and driving the wrong way down the motorway didnt stop Jim McDaid getting re-elected so the real morons are the voters who elect these guys.

Ash.J.Williams

GSF wrote: »

Being drunk and driving the wrong way down the motorway didnt stop Jim McDaid getting re-elected so the real morons are the voters who elect these guys.

he even got a taxi from the hotel lobby, to his car, in the carpark!!

Essexboy

Lenny Lovett wrote: »

So as well as a drunk Taoiseach, we're providing well paid jobs for 77 year old drunks as well. WTF are they playing at in Leinster House?
http://www.independent.ie/national-news/drunk-td-threat-to-ruin-garda-career-2343669.html
I love the last line:

Jesus! "Tiredness" is endemic in the Dail! I was very "tired" last night.... after several beers!

Was he "hoarse" as well? :rolleyes:

Liam Byrne

hallelujajordan wrote: »

The intellectual power of our future government representatives is astounding . .

And yet it still manages to be streets ahead of that of our current government representatives.......scary!

That said, it is shocking if it's true, and if we are to weed out corruption this TD should be named and shamed, and be on their last warning before being fired.

Is there any link to the story in a credible newspaper, though ?

Lenny Lovett

Ash.J.Williams wrote: »

IT'S TIME TO CLOSE THE DAIL BAR FOR GOOD, AND HAVE THEM DRINK WITH THE REST OF US, WHERE WE CAN MONITOR THEM.

Ugh! No! I wouldn't want those leeches in my local when I'm trying to forget the damage and pain they've caused us!:mad:

PCPhoto

Lenny Lovett wrote: »

Ugh! No! I wouldn't want those leeches in my local when I'm trying to forget the damage and pain they've caused us!:mad:

but ...if they are in the"local" you* can actually tell them what you think instead of barstool complaining.

*= not actually you - but in general... people can no longer be barstool policitians and can actually tell the people in power what the ordinary public wants/needs.

Laminations

Liam Byrne wrote: »

And yet it still manages to be streets ahead of that of our current government representatives.......scary!

That said, it is shocking if it's true, and if we are to weed out corruption this TD should be named and shamed, and be on their last warning before being fired.

Is there any link to the story in a credible newspaper, though ?

I reckon it's true. You shouldn't need any warnings with such a grandiose fvck up, he should be booted out of FG.

Lenny Lovett

Laminations wrote: »

I reckon it's true. You shouldn't need any warnings with such a grandiose fvck up, he should be booted out of FG.

If any of the rest of us threatened a Guard we'd be facing Court. Why not him?

hallelujajordan

Liam Byrne wrote: »

And yet it still manages to be streets ahead of that of our current government representatives.......scary!

That said, it is shocking if it's true, and if we are to weed out corruption this TD should be named and shamed, and be on their last warning before being fired.

Is there any link to the story in a credible newspaper, though ?

The TD was named as PJ Sheehan and the story includes the full transcript of the Garda report . . What is not credible about that ?

Interesting that you are willing to offer this TD a 'last warning'; I have not seen such a lenient approach from you towards FF deputies?

Link to the full story

Laminations

Yes he should be charged. As you say Lenny if it was any normal Joe we'd have been arrested on the spot for drink driving and any verbal abuse or threats to the Garda would be added to that. Kenny needs to step up and discipline.

PS it is no coincidence however that the Sindo runs this story this weekend.

GSF

Lenny Lovett wrote: »

If any of the rest of us threatened a Guard we'd be facing Court. Why not him?

Enda can be called as a witness by the sounds of it.

thesandeman

I wonder has sh#t stirrer Crowly Tweeted anything about that?

PCPhoto

Lenny Lovett wrote: »

If any of the rest of us threatened a Guard we'd be facing Court. Why not him?

because he's part of the government !! - didnt you hear theres one rule for them ...and one rule for the rest of us !!!

Seriously tho - its probably because it was a load of nothing .... this sort of thing happens every day with "ordinary" people ...Gardai get "threatened" on a daily ...possibly even hourly.... basis.

what this politician did (according to reports) is disrespectful and disgraceful - and it all falls down to "drink" .... should the barman be charged for serving him so much alcohol ?

Personally I think the politicians should be held accountable for every decision they make - if this means drinking while on the job (or as the case may be - drinking after work then attempting to drive home) then they need to have the same punishment as the ordinary person - a conviction for drink driving - a ban , fine and potentially loose their job.

unfortunately - its unlikely that we'll see equal "justice" for the ordinary people and the people with money/power.

GSF

Laminations wrote: »

PS it is no coincidence however that the Sindo runs this story this weekend.

Are you saying they kept it back or that it was leaked to them this week?

mikemac

I doubt we'll be getting any tweets from Simon Coveney on his party colleague

Laminations

I'm suspecting the latter. Just like Trevor Sargeant got scalped after the Greens attacked Willie. Cowen in the news over drinking, now we hear of an incident from months back about a FGer.

PCPhoto

thesandeman wrote: »

I wonder has sh#t stirrer Crowly Tweeted anything about that?

if you are going to insult him you might as well spell his name correctly.

as for the position of said policitian last week - he tweeted his opinion - I'm not standing up for the guy - I didnt notice anything wrong with Cowans interview...sounded like he was wrecked tired - fair enough.... but then again - early morning interviews normally sound like that.

if Cowan did drink - excessively - then he wasnt setting the right example to the rest of the country ... (think in = drink in) ... wasting public money on booooze.

Why did he (cowan) apologise for if he did nothing wrong - he's not admitting he was drinking the night before/drunk that morning or hungover that morning ....but is apologetic that the interview sounded bad !!! .... what good is an apology ??

it does look like the government went in search of some kind of ammo to "deflect" attention. (new story garda/politician etc etc)

hallelujajordan

PCPhoto wrote: »

because he's part of the government !! - didnt you hear theres one rule for them ...and one rule for the rest of us !!!

Did I miss something ? ?

Laminations wrote: »

Yes he should be charged. As you say Lenny if it was any normal Joe we'd have been arrested on the spot for drink driving and any verbal abuse or threats to the Garda would be added to that. Kenny needs to step up and discipline.
.

Kenny had his chance and chose to ignore it. . He was on the scene and hasn't even followed up with the deputy. . Would be a bit two faced to now discipline him just because its hit the papers !

In fact, you could argue that in asking the Garda to ignore it Kenny was actually interfering with the law . .

Laminations

hallelujajordan wrote: »

Kenny had his chance and chose to ignore it. . He was on the scene and hasn't even followed up with the deputy. . Would be a bit two faced to now discipline him just because its hit the papers !

In fact, you could argue that in asking the Garda to ignore it Kenny was actually interfering with the law . .

Not at all. I've often had to deal with drunk friends who became abusive and vice versa. When they are talking rubbish you just tell people to ignore them. However now this story is grabbing headlines the TDs actions are publicly damaging FG, like how Cowens performance damaged FF and the country.
If it starts to snowball, Kenny needs to nip it in the bud.

thesandeman

PCPhoto wrote: »

if you are going to insult him you might as well spell his name correctly.

Realised that as soon as I hit send lol.

hallelujajordan

Laminations wrote: »

Not at all. I've often had to deal with drunk friends who became abusive and vice versa. When they are talking rubbish you just tell people to ignore them. However now this story is grabbing headlines the TDs actions are publicly damaging FG, like how Cowens performance damaged FF and the country.
If it starts to snowball, Kenny needs to nip it in the bud.

Interesting take...

Kenny has to deal with this not because he believes that the behaviour was unacceptable but because public awareness of it is damaging to the party . . ??

So its OK to behave in this way, as long as no-one finds out ?

Rob Northall

The TD is the Shame of Ireland?
The Shame of Ireland can be found on

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=147073735313917&v=photos

www.shameofireland.co.uk

Liam Byrne

Rob Northall wrote: »

The TD is the Shame of Ireland?
The Shame of Ireland can be found on

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=147073735313917&v=photos

www.shameofireland.co.uk

Why is the Shame of Ireland on a UK website?

Rob Northall

Because it was donated by a Daughter of a Survivor of the Industrial School System who had a spare website paid for for 1 year

Sand

Its not entirely shocking that a drunken fool was argumentative and made grandoise threats when challenged by a Garda. Take a walk through the city centre at 1am and youll see enough of it.

It might be true to say that Sheehan got "away" with it because he is a TD, but if the Guards arrested and tried everyone who talked back to them or was found to be drunk theyd never get around to dealing with violent crime.

Its dissapointing Sheehan didnt have the self regard, or the regard for his office to resign. Its grimly predictable Kenny didnt think it correct to ask for him to stand down. FG TDs making drunken threats against the Gardai apparently is not incompatible with the FG corporate identity. Second class cute whoorism.

Sheehan himself seems like a total fool, even sober going by that article, who has disgraced his constituency and himself. It doesnt reassure me that Kenny's support and instincts are drawn from men like Sheehan, that guys like this will be asked to cope with the major challenges we have to face over the next decade.

Its interesting though - the Cowen debacle has apparently changed the rules. Journalists have colluded with politicians to cover up drunkeness like this. Now, who knows if this new spirit of outrage will last...

hallelujajordan

Laminations wrote: »

PS it is no coincidence however that the Sindo runs this story this weekend.

Actuallty the NOTW ran with this story as a front page exclusive, written by Paul Williams ..

drBill

Disgraceful. Mr Sheehan should be ashamed of himself - but clearly isnt.

And Enda Kennys response is nothing short of pathetic.

As if we needed another reminder that not only are we governed by imbeciles, but there are more imbeciles queuing up to take their place.

Zynks

drBill wrote: »

And Enda Kennys response is nothing short of pathetic.

I would go further and say that he just proved that he is not Taoiseach material.

yoshytoshy

Whats really pathetic about this stuff is ,it's the only threads that fianna fail supporters feel they can post in.

Not a word out of them otherwise.

hallelujajordan

yoshytoshy wrote: »

Whats really pathetic about this stuff is ,it's the only threads that fianna fail supporters feel they can post in.

Not a word out of them otherwise.

Really ...?

Are you actually following the forum ?? If you were you would know that your comment above is complete nonsense !

Essexboy

According to "The Southern Star" of 10 July
" Cork South West has two fine TDs, Jim O’Keefe and PJ Sheehan, both with ministerial potential."

I look forward to next week's edition.

bonzos

Just like when John O Donoghue was screwing the tax payer Kenny wouldnt dare lay a finger on him,he knows all too well that some of the chancers standing beside him are every bit as bad!!!What hope have we when just like the whole Ivor Cal. shambles the dogs on the street know that we(the tax payer) are being screwed and yet still our overpaid elected reps from all parties turn a blind eye to it and insult the ordinary person with BS like"its the system thats at fault".....If you abuse you position by screwing expenses or abusing a garda you should be sacked!!!

Liam Byrne

thesandeman wrote: »

I wonder has sh#t stirrer Crowly Tweeted anything about that?

Who's Crowley?

And probably not because he shouldn't come out to comment on something he - or the country - didn't see and hear.

Based on what's been reported though, Kenny would need to explain - especially if he did see or hear the altercation.

danjo

There is another issue in relation to the P.J. Sheehan case and might explain why there is no Garda follow-up and it is this:

It is an offence to interfere with any member of the Oireachtas who is travelling to or from the Dail.

This arose in a case a few years ago when a TD travelling home from the Dail was involved in an accident.

Our politicians are in many ways untouchable.

bonzos

You have a situation in this country where certain groups of people are untouchable,these people are more often than not the ones who are paid by the taxpayer in one form or another.....so the laws of the country only applies to the ordinary person trying to survive and raise a family!

raymon

Sheehan should resign - for

1) Attempting to drive drunk
2) Verbally abusing a Garda
3) Making physical contact with a Garda

Not the behaviour one would expect from a lawmaker .


Enda Kenny should resign too if the allegations are true about his "ignore him" intervention.

This just shows that FF is not the only party to have arrogant , beligerent , lawbreakers.

Get these these ignoramuses (Sheehan and Kenny) out of our Oireachtas and back to the bog that they were dragged from.

thebaldsoprano

This reminds me of Pantera's album Vulgar Display of Power. It may be true that Gardai don't arrest every drunken buffoon who causes them a bit of hassle, but then yer average drunken buffoon doesn't have the means to ensure that Gardai "get nothing". Predictably, Kenny kept quite about the whole thing and still hasn't kicked him out of FG.

That article raises as many questions about FF as FG though. After the Greens finally stood their ground against O'Dea some letters Sargent had written to the Gardai conveniently found their way into the press. Then Coveney makes life difficult for FF and funnily enough, another matter involving Gardai is made public. AFAIR there was going to be an investigation over how Sargant's letters found their way from being an internal Garda matter into the public domain. Six months later and still nothing.

Coveney saying that Cowen sounded hungover is just an example of FG doing their job as opposition. If FF's response to a challenge is to go digging for some mud to fling at opposition rather than dealing with it, then we're not going to get much in the line of useful debate. Of course, FG could help by not brushing their problems under a rug.

Hopefully something good will come out of this and backbenchers will force both Cowen and Kenny to resign.

dan_d

Let's face it....they're all the same. Trying to convince ourselves otherwise is just ridiculous. This story is hardly surprising.

On a lighter note, I just found a group on Facebook called "Let's all go out and get Taoiseached":p...

Liam Byrne

raymon wrote: »

Enda Kenny should resign too if the allegations are true about his "ignore him" intervention.

I wouldn't agree based on what I've read. We have all probably had to say something similar to a third party if a friend or work colleague was stupidly pissed.

Kenny has no case to answer other than explaining what he saw/heard.

I just think the timing of this is hilarious and is so transparently 'do a quick search through our dirt database for the word "drunk" ' as to really, really make me sad about the pathetic state of Irish politics.

Fr Ted wasn't a comedy, it was a documentary.

thebaldsoprano

Liam Byrne wrote: »

Kenny has no case to answer other than explaining what he saw/heard.

Except he didn't explain what he saw/heard - in a response typical of FF, he kept quite.

If he explained what what he saw at the time then his actions wouldn't be in question.

Liam Byrne

thebaldsoprano wrote: »

Except he didn't explain what he saw/heard - in a response typical of FF, he kept quite.

If he explained what what he saw at the time then his actions wouldn't be in question.

Which is why I said that he should explain now that the FF spin machine has leaked this.

What happened was objectionable, and I actually have no time for people who get themselves into a ridiculously drunk argumentative state, so that includes that TD, but - unlike Cowen's interview while he was affected - this was not during work time, and I doubt that your boss would publicly comment on your drunken state and some argument you had while in same.

YES it's objectionable; YES it needs to be dealt with, but it is not comparable to Cowen because the TD wasn't working at the time.

thebaldsoprano

Liam Byrne wrote: »

Which is why I said that he should explain now that the FF spin machine has leaked this.

What happened was objectionable, and I actually have no time for people who get themselves into a ridiculously drunk argumentative state, so that includes that TD, but - unlike Cowen's interview while he was affected - this was not during work time, and I doubt that your boss would publicly comment on your drunken state and some argument you had while in same.

YES it's objectionable; YES it needs to be dealt with, but it is not comparable to Cowen because the TD wasn't working at the time.

No doubt he'll do a lot of explaining now that it's been revealed, just has Sheehan has suddenly found the grace to apologise to the Gardai. It all smacks of a sham though.

Agreed on the FF spin machine, but FG might do themselves a favour by getting their house in order and not giving it petrol.

raymon

Liam Byrne wrote: »

Which is why I said that he should explain now that the FF spin machine has leaked this.

What happened was objectionable, and I actually have no time for people who get themselves into a ridiculously drunk argumentative state, so that includes that TD, but - unlike Cowen's interview while he was affected - this was not during work time, and I doubt that your boss would publicly comment on your drunken state and some argument you had while in same.

YES it's objectionable; YES it needs to be dealt with, but it is not comparable to Cowen because the TD wasn't working at the time.

I believe that this type of arrogant behaviour by a TD of any party is disgraceful (whether it was leaked or not by FF) .

Enda needs to give a full account of what he himself said to the Garda . Sheehan should resign immediately - no question.

FG should lead by example and clear their house of decrepit, arrogant gombeens.

FG should take this golden opportunity to prove that they are different to FF . (FF has chosen to protect and celebrate their wrongdoers)

Enda - your chance has come - this may be your last chance .

Happyman42

Liam Byrne wrote: »

Which is why I said that he should explain now that the FF spin machine has leaked this.

What happened was objectionable, and I actually have no time for people who get themselves into a ridiculously drunk argumentative state, so that includes that TD, but - unlike Cowen's interview while he was affected - this was not during work time, and I doubt that your boss would publicly comment on your drunken state and some argument you had while in same.

YES it's objectionable; YES it needs to be dealt with, but it is not comparable to Cowen because the TD wasn't working at the time.

Are you reading what you are typing Liam?
What happened is a disgrace, illegal and immoral. Full stop.
Call a spade a spade and at least be consistent, this man had the potential that night to KILL innocent people. That begs the question, how many times has he done this before. Kenny's intervention also begs the question, how many times has he used his position to intervene on behalf of others to cover-up or dilute the seriousness of an offence?
Sheehan was after all cute enough to ask for the Guards ID. That is 'I have to ask you to accompany me to the station' time.