Will Healy Rae's/Lowry's extortion come to nothing?

murphaph

So Healy Rae and Lowry have extracted (extorted) "pledges" on a host of local projects for their own constituencies (at the expense of others and at the expense of the national interest). BUT...FF and the Greens will likely not form any part of the next government, which will be formed quite soon, so are these pledges from Cowen et al completely worthless in reality?

Bottle_of_Smoke

Depends on the pledges. Maybe they're things FF/Greens can sign off on before they quit.

Riskymove

murphaph wrote: »

So Healy Rae and Lowry have extracted (extorted) "pledges" on a host of local projects for their own constituencies (at the expense of others and at the expense of the national interest). BUT...FF and the Greens will likely not form any part of the next government, which will be formed quite soon, so are these pledges from Cowen et al completely worthless in reality?

It depends on what stage these projects get to

In the case of Lowry he wants a Report on Casinos approved, which can be done quickly enough...its not like he wants to build it before the election!

if projects are approved and funding provided in budgets it can be hard to claw them back in a few months

20Cent

I certainly hope so.

mikemac

Sure didn't Tony Gregory do the same and was hailed a hero by many.

If it's a big infrastructure project then certainly the pledge may be taken back by the next government

But if it's a report or funding for something that already exists then that money can be found and allocated. And it'd be difficult to take it back in a few months

Riskymove

feelingstressed wrote: »

Either way, Michael Lowry will top the polls yet again
I don't know South Kerry

'I don't know' is a common refrain about politics in South Kerry

Its a three seater and even in the circumstances we find ourselves 2 of the 3 elected are likely to be Healy-Rae Mark II and John O'Donoghue

South Kerry....I just don't know!

mikemac

Yeah I deleted out that bit of my post.
We have other threads for predictions and the OP didn't start the thread on that

Sleepy

Given that from the sounds of it, their demands were the protection of OAP's from pension cuts in the budget thus ensuring their re-election (or the continuation of their dynasty in Healy Rae's case), I think they've got their pay-off.

ziggy

This post has been deleted.

Liam Byrne

murphaph wrote: »

So Healy Rae and Lowry have extracted (extorted) "pledges" on a host of local projects for their own constituencies (at the expense of others and at the expense of the national interest). BUT...FF and the Greens will likely not form any part of the next government, which will be formed quite soon, so are these pledges from Cowen et al completely worthless in reality?

Probably a sudden push-through a la Tara, where the Government show that they can put through legislation quickly when it's in their own interest.

CorkMan

I hope the next government can reverse them all.

gurramok

feelingstressed wrote: »

Sure didn't Tony Gregory do the same and was hailed a hero by many.

ziggy wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

Gregory did it for the poorest in the slums which successive govts didn't give a feck about, big difference to todays gombeens.

ArmaniJeanss

I don't see a problem with the alleged pledge to Lowry - it seems to be just a quick change to the relevant law to make the huge casino project in Borris technically legal.
There is no extra money going from central funds to Tipp as the entire white elephant casino project is being paid for by private money, so go for it imo.

Riskymove

gurramok wrote: »

Gregory did it for the poorest in the slums which successive govts didn't give a feck about, big difference to todays gombeens.

while I agree about his intentions, the basic point remains that he was able to hold national interest to ransom in exchange for his vote

oppenheimer1

The OAP pension was probably the biggest thing they looked for. Incidentally it works for the current government to protect OAPs as well. They have now left a low hanging fruit for the incoming government, which will be next to impossible for them to resist taking it, considering everything else has been cut.

FF will then genuinely be able to say to the population, even in hard times we protected the pensioners and look what the new crowd are doing. It may have been the shrewdest move to ensure FF survival in the long run.

That said it should have been cut by at least 5% and it was political cowardice not to do so.

CorkMan

oppenheimer1 wrote: »

The OAP pension was probably the biggest thing they looked for. Incidentally it works for the current government to protect OAPs as well. They have now left a low hanging fruit for the incoming government, which will be next to impossible for them to resist taking it, considering everything else has been cut.

FF will then genuinely be able to say to the population, even in hard times we protected the pensioners and look what the new crowd are doing. It may have been the shrewdest move to ensure FF survival in the long run.

That said it should have been cut by at least 5% and it was political cowardice not to do so.

Plus no doubt pensioners make up a great amount of Fianna Fail voters/

Plus if the government started up an anti-fraud unit, they could save 2.5-3 billions euros a year. An estimated 1 in every 10 dole applications are fraudulent.