Farewell Noel

Amtmann

He resigned as Minister for Transport yesterday.

(Though I fail to see what his successor can hope to accomplish between now and March.)

Sponge Bob

Noel qualifies for "loss of office" payments of around €150,000 as well as his 3 pensions, he doesn't care about nuthin any more...except maybe the subsidised transport that the taxpayer gave him for so long

Pete_Cavan

Tremelo wrote: »

I fail to see what his successor can hope to accomplish between now and March.

A ministerial pension perhaps?

Sponge Bob

Not unless they were a junior for at least the last 22 months and will make the magic 2 years as a full minister.

munchkin_utd

Sponge Bob wrote: »

Noel qualifies for "loss of office" payments of around €150,000 as well as his 3 pensions, he doesn't care about nuthin any more...except maybe the subsidised transport that the taxpayer gave him for so long

jaysus

he could pay for the extension of the Navan railway personally with a package like that!!

Sponge Bob

BUT If Cowen goes to the park to dissolve the Dáil AND if the President dissolves the Dáil BEFORE approving Dempseys resignation as a minister then Dempsey is down €20k -€30k

It is gonna be a loooooooong day for Dempsey as he awaits the mutual decisions of the Toiseach and President and their precise sequence.

L1011

Pat Carey to mind Transport till the election.

paulm17781

He was education when I was a student, comms when broadband was still a novelty then transport when it took over from broadband to be become my main intesrest (in the country's development). IMO, he did a terrible job of all 3. I for one will not miss him in the least.

davebuck

He'll still be paid way too much after the mess he's leaving behind!!!!

flazio

Does this mean that over the next few weeks we'll see a huge improvement in Gaeltacht roads and road signs with the Irish more prominent then the English?

dubhthach

flazio wrote: »

Does this mean that over the next few weeks we'll see a huge improvement in Gaeltacht roads and road signs with the Irish more prominent then the English?

There isn't any english on road signs in the Gaeltacht anyways, of course for improvements ye need wee-Dev in Transport though I would say he's one of few FF TD's guaranteed to keep his seat.

Sponge Bob

flazio wrote: »

Does this mean that over the next few weeks we'll see a huge improvement in Gaeltacht roads and road signs

No, you are more likely to see heroin addicts in Dublin getting free passes for the Luas

LXFlyer

The one thing he did do, and I will give him credit for this, is force Dublin Bus into a major restructuring of its operations into something that has an element of customer focus.

Any sort of changes have been blocked by the unions and other politicians for years, and for the first time the company is finally making changes to the network that are years overdue.

lods

Good riddance,” O’Leary told me. “Hopefully he’ll take the Dublin Metro with him on his way back to Trim. “It seems to me like some kind of bloody Green [Party] project,” he added. “I would have thought that Dublin airport has had more than enough billions wasted on it without building a metro to St Stephen’s Green for €6 billion when we’re broke.”

Michael O'Leary wishes him well in his retirement!

xper

lxflyer wrote: »

The one thing he did do, and I will give him credit for this, is force Dublin Bus into a major restructuring of its operations into something that has an element of customer focus.

Any sort of changes have been blocked by the unions and other politicians for years, and for the first time the company is finally making changes to the network that are years overdue.

Dear lord, please tell me you're not serious. Network Direct may have had laudable stated goals but its actual implementation is an unholy disaster. The ineptitude is only outdone by FF's mis-government.

LXFlyer

xper wrote: »

Dear lord, please tell me you're not serious. Network Direct may have had laudable stated goals but its actual implementation is an unholy disaster. The ineptitude is only outdone by FF's mis-government.

The implementation of the Deloitte report is down to DB management not Noel Dempsey with respect. Dempsey forced DB to actually co-operate with the report and face up to the fact that the network was out of date, and start a process that will eventually see a better network - one would hope.

Up until that report every attempt at either redesigning the network or cancelling routes was blocked by either the company or by the unions.

The actual content of the report and its recommendations are sound - it's the method of implementation that has been a shambles, be it the lack of information on street or lack of proper notice or indeed poor scheduling. The actual network redesign is not the problem - it is the internal rosters etc that have been totally inadequate.