Fianna Fail..a legacy of corruption.

Degsy

http://www.druidschool.com/site/1030100/page/928971

Fianna Fail’s Fifty Ways to Laugh at Voters

1. In October 2007, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern became the highest paid Prime Minister in the democratic world at €310,000, more than US President George Bush at €279,000. Fianna Fail Ministers such as Willie O’Dea are paid more than US Vice President Dick Cheney.

2. In October 2007, former Fianna Fail Government Press Secretary Frank Dunlop told the Mahon Tribunal that property developer Owen O’Callaghan paid off a debt of £10,700 for Fianna Fail councillor Colm McGrath when he was facing a court judgment.

3. In October 2007, a book was published that included a claim that a serving Government Minister has admitted taking cocaine, and that he wasn’t the only one doing it. Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has made no effort to investigate this.

4. In September 2007, Fianna Fail TD Michael Collins was found guilty in court of obtaining a tax clearance certificate under false pretences. He had previously made a €130,000 tax settlement arising from a bogus non-resident bank account.

5. In September 2007, jailed Fianna Fail councillor Michael ‘Stroke’ Fahey had missed six months of council meetings, and by law he should have been deemed to have resigned. He escaped this by asking the council to deem his absence to be ‘due to illness and attendance in Dublin’.

6. In September 2007, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, while being questioned at the Mahon Tribunal, accepted that his earlier story that Celia Larkin had made a £30,000 sterling transaction on his behalf could not be correct, unless the bank records were inaccurate.

7. In September 2007, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, while being questioned at the Mahon Tribunal, said that he must have given £30,000 to somebody else (to make a transaction that the bank had no record for), but he didn’t know who he gave the money to.

8. In August 2007, Bertie Ahern appointed as a Senator former Fianna Fail TD Ivor Callely, who had just lost his Dail seat in a general election, and who had resigned as a Junior Minister after a scandal in 2005.

9. In August 2007, Bertie Ahern appointed as a Senator former Fianna Fail TD John Ellis, who had just lost his Dail seat in a general election, and who had resigned as chair of an Oireachtas committee after a scandal in 1999.

10. In August 2007, it was revealed that Fianna Fail-led Governments have so far spent €52 million on obtaining and storing electronic voting machines that have only been used once, in a number of constituencies in the 2002.

11. In July 2007, after a strenuous seven days of work since being elected in mid-June, the Dail adjourned for a three-month summer holiday.

12. In July 2007 the Standards in Public Office Commission said that Fianna Fail had failed to report a donation in the party’s statutory declarations for 2005.

13. In June 2007, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern made secret deals, using taxpayers money, with independent TDs to secure their support as Taoiseach. Two of these independent TDs, Beverly Flynn and Michael Lowry, had previously been forced to resign from their parties after scandals.

14. In June 2007, Fianna Fail changed the law to create three new Junior Ministers with salaries of €150,000 a year. They had previously done this in 1977 and 1980. When Fine Gael did the same in 1995, Fianna Fail called it an abuse of the taxpayer and an act of hypocrisy, and Bertie Ahern vowed to abolish the new posts.

15. In March 2007, Fianna Fail councillor Michael ‘Stroke’ Fahey was jailed for twelve months after being found guilty of defrauding his own council of €15,000 and falsely implicating an innocent contractor in the crime. The jailed councillor was also chairman of the Limerick Prison visiting committee.

16. In May 2007, stockbroker Padraic O’Connor said that Bertie Ahern was wrong to say that he had given Ahern £5,000 as a loan from a friend in 1993. O’Connor said he was not a friend of Ahern’s, that he had been asked for a political donation of £5,000, that he had given that on a company cheque, and that he had been given in return a false invoice for consultancy work that had not been done.

17. In February 2007, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern praised the Moriarty Tribunal for its ‘outstanding work in painstakingly stripping away the layers of secrecy and obscurity surrounding Mr Haughey’s financial affairs and exposing them to public scrutiny.’

18. In December 2006, the Moriarty Tribunal found that former Taoiseach Charles Haughey took payments of €11.56 million, or €45 million in today’s money, between 1979 and 1996, and granted favours in return.

19. In October 2006, it emerged that Taoiseach Bertie Ahern had bought his house from businessman Michael Wall, who had been at a dinner in Manchester at which Ahern was given £8,000 sterling. When asked why he had not previously said that Wall was at the dinner, Ahern replied that Wall had not eaten the dinner.

20. In September 2006, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said that, when he was Minister for Finance, he had unexpectedly received a donation of £8,000 sterling from some millionaires who he had a meal with in Manchester on the night before a Manchester United football match.

21. In September 2006, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern accepted that he had appointed people who gave him money to State boards, but he insisted that he did not appoint them because they gave him money. He said he had appointed them because they were his friends.

22. In September 2006, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said that he had accepted £39,000 from friends, including the brilliantly-named Paddy the Plasterer, in 1993 and 1994. He said it was loans, and that he had tried to pay them back but they had all refused.

23. In September 2006, when Taoiseach Bertie Ahern was first asked about allegations of receiving from €50,000 and €100,000 from businessmen, he told journalists that a lot of the report was correct but that ‘the figures are off the wall.’ This, of course, was true, because he got some of the money ‘off Michael Wall’.

24. In June 2006, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said at the funeral of Charles Haughey that: ‘He was a consummate politician… The definition of a patriot is someone who devotes all their energy to the betterment of their countrymen. Charles Haughey was a patriot to his finger tips.’

25. In May 2006, Fianna Fail Junior Minister Conor Lenihan heckled Socialist Party TD Joe Higgins during a Dail debate. Higgins had been campaigning on behalf of immigrant Turkish construction workers, and Lenihan said that Higgins ‘should stick with the kebabs’.

26. In December 2005, Fianna Fail Junior Minister Ivor Callely resigned when it emerged that a top construction company had painted his house free of charge, while the company was also doing work for the Eastern Health Board of which Callely was chairperson.

27. In November 2005, with gangland crime all over the newspapers, Fianna Fail Minister for Defence Willie O’Dea posed for photographers smiling as he pointed a pistol directly into the camera.

28. In April 2005, former Fianna Fail Junior Minister for Transport, Jim McDaid, who had led an anti-drink-driving campaign, was arrested after drunkenly driving his car the wrong way up a busy dual carriageway.

29. In January 2005, former Fianna Fail Justice Minister Ray Burke was jailed for six months for making false tax declarations, breaking a law that he himself had helped to pass. He served four and a half months in Arbour Hill prison.

30. In May 2004, Fianna Fail expelled Mayo TD Beverly Flynn from the Party. Bertie Ahern said the integrity of the party depended on her expulsion, that Fianna Fail was at a crossroads, and that the party would also have to deal with any other members who transgressed ethics and standards in public life.

31. In September 2003, Fianna Fail TD Michael Collins resigned from the Parliamentary Party after making a €130,000 tax settlement arising from a bogus non-resident bank account.

32. In September 2003, Fianna Fail TD GV Wright knocked down a nurse while driving under the influence of alcohol. The nurse’s leg was broken in four places.

33. In December 2002, former Fianna Fail Government Press Secretary Frank Dunlop told the Flood Tribunal that former Fianna Fail TD Liam Lawlor (who he also knew as ‘Mr Big’) was the first person to tell him that money would have to be paid to councillors in return for their votes.

34. In November 2002, former Fianna Fail Government press Secretary Frank Dunlop named six Fianna Fail councilors who he bribed to secure the rezoning of land at Carrickmines in south Dublin.

35. In September 2002, the Flood Tribunal found that former Fianna Fail Justice Minister Ray Burke received corrupt payments, including £125,000 from property developers and £30,000 from the owners of Century Radio.

36. In September 2002, the Flood Tribunal found that former Fianna Fail Government Press Secretary PJ Mara had failed to co-operate with the Tribunal, by failing to provide details of an overseas account. In the 1980s, in a Hot Press interview, Mara said that his greatest ambition was ‘never to be found out’.

37. In May 2002, former Fianna Fail Government press Secretary Frank Dunlop said that he paid at least £160,000 to 25 councillors in relation to the redrafting of the Dublin County Council development plan from 1991 to 1993.

38. In February 2002, former Fianna Fail TD Liam Lawlor was jailed for a third time for contempt of court when he refused to comply with orders of the Flood Tribunal. When the Dail called for his resignation, he was brought to Leinster House in a prison van to speak against the motion. Lawlor had previously chaired the Dail Ethics Committee.

39. In January 2002, former Fianna Fail TD Liam Lawlor was jailed for a second time for contempt of court when he refused to comply with orders of the Flood Tribunal.

40. In December 2001, Fianna Fail TD Ned O’Keefe resigned as a Junior Minister. He had voted on a bill about feeding bonemeal to animals, forgetting to inform the Dail that his family was involved in manufacturing the substance.

41. In October 2001, Fianna Fail Junior Minister Joe Jacob, who was responsible for the Government’s emergency response to nuclear accidents at Sellafield, gave a comical interview on RTE radio that resulted in the Government having to send iodine tablets to every house in the country.

42. In April 2001, Fianna Fail TD Beverly Flynn resigned from the Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee. She had lost a libel case that she had taken against RTE, who had correctly reported that she had sold banking products designed to assist tax evaders. After losing the case, she faced a €2million legal bill.

43. In January 2001, former Fianna Fail TD Liam Lawlor was jailed for contempt of court when he refused to comply with orders of the Flood Tribunal.

44. In June 2000, Fianna Fail TD Liam Lawlor resigned from the Parliamentary Party after he misled an internal party investigation about a donation that he had got. Lawlor was also chair of the Oireachtas Joint Ethics committee.

45. In May 2000, Fianna Fail Finance Minister Charlie McCreevy nominated Hugh O’Flaherty to a £147,000 job as Vice President of the European Investment Bank. O’Flaherty was a former High Court judge who had been forced to resign after a scandal the previous year.

46. In February 2000, Fianna Fail TD Denis Foley resigned from the Parliamentary Party. He had £100,000 in an illegal offshore account. He said that he knew that his account might have been an Ansbacher one, but he had been ‘hoping against hope’ that it was not.

47. In November 1999, Fianna Fail TD John Ellis resigned as chairperson of the Oireachtas Agriculture Committee. He owed money to farmers, he had £250,000 in debts written off by NIB, and Charles Haughey had given him £26,000 of taxpayers cash to settle other debts.

48. In January 1999, former Fianna Fail Minister Padraig Flynn appeared on the Late Late Show on RTE. Now a European Commissioner, Flynn complained about the difficulties of living on ‘just £100,000 a year’ when he had three houses, housekeepers and various cars to maintain. ‘You should try it,’ he added.

49. In June 1995, Celia Larkin lodged £11,743.34 into Fianna Fail leader Bertie Ahern’s bank account. Ahern says that £10,000 sterling of this was actually his own money, part of £50,000 that he had earlier withdrawn from his own account and used to buy £30,000 sterling. However, the bank has no record of selling £30,000 sterling to anybody during that period.

50. In December 1994, Celia Larkin lodged IR£28,772.90 into Fianna Fail leader Bertie Ahern’s bank account. Ahern says that this was £30,000 sterling cash given to him in a briefcase by his soon-to-be landlord, just after he had become Fianna Fail leader and was expected to become Taoiseach However, the amount equates exactly to $45,000 based on bank exchange rates on that date.



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Guy:Incognito

That's a lot of reading but I was drawn to #5 while. scolling down because a nickname was added in commas. i assume this council wasnt all ff councillors? What did the others say to this request?

th3 s1aught3r

I think FF should be banned as an organisation. How many leaders/ministers have they had that have left office under some cloud or scandal ?
Its not worth the risk with them anymore

thebigbiffo

tl;dr

synopsis for the lazy: (now are ya sitting down, cos this might be a bit of a shock) politicians are corrupt.

Degsy

Guy:Incognito wrote: »

That's a lot of reading but I was drawn to #5 while. scolling down because a nickname was added in commas. i assume this council wasnt all ff councillors? What did the others say to this request?

Here's a bit on the bloke

Tabnabs

I've seen this before and am very unimpressed.

The list is far too short.

Did they find virtue in 2008 or something?

Guy:Incognito

Just on the first one swell. Would any increases not bet put through (and passed by) the dail and thus be increases for all td's? Where were the objections?

super_furry

And yet I'd be willing to bet that more than a quarter of the people that vote in this election, vote for them.

Don't believe the polls, when the idiots get into the booth with no-one looking over their shoulders they'll put the x right next to Fianna Fail. For Dev. Because their great-grandad once raised him on his shoulders in Ballygo-****in-backwards. And shure, aren't they better than the other shower?

Red Hand

You people f*cking disgust me sometimes.

ejmaztec

Tabnabs wrote: »

I've seen this before and am very unimpressed.

The list is far too short.

Did they find virtue in 2008 or something?

That was the year that someone loaned them a shredder, just after the bank guarantee.

extra-ordinary_

Got as far as #37. Reads like we were governed by 'the mob'.

Dravokivich

extra-ordinary_ wrote: »

Got as far as #37. Reads like we were governed by 'the mob'.

we pretty much are...

only we "choose" the mob...

MagicSean

super_furry wrote: »

And yet I'd be willing to bet that more than a quarter of the people that vote in this election, vote for them.

Don't believe the polls, when the idiots get into the booth with no-one looking over their shoulders they'll put the x right next to Fianna Fail. For Dev. Because their great-grandad once raised him on his shoulders in Ballygo-****in-backwards. And shure, aren't they better than the other shower?

It's nothing to do with being an idiot. It's lack of options. Nobody wants Enda as Taoiseach, Nobody want's a socialist government. And god forbid Sinn Fein should get into power. Fianna Fáil have pulled a master stroke by completley changing their leadership and bringing in new candidates. I can see FG, Labour and FF being quite close in the results. FG and Labour should have done something similar.

Wolfe Tone

Fianna Fáil, a great bunch of lads

red menace

Jeremiah 16:1 wrote: »

You people f*cking disgust me sometimes.

Go on...

thebigbiffo

i'm always the one to play devils advocate...glutton for punishment...

but can i point that almost half of these cannot be defined as 'corruption'?

extravagant pay, jobs for the boys, absenteeism, long holidays from the dail etc are not just confined to FF...any real corruption allegations throw up the same 4-5 names out of 50 points...blatant anti FF propoganda.

punish them for past mistakes all ya want boardsies, but this kind of s'hite belongs in moscow circa 1950.

mikemac

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Guy:Incognito

super_furry wrote: »

And yet I'd be willing to bet that more than a quarter of the people that vote in this election, vote for them.

Don't believe the polls, when the idiots get into the booth with no-one looking over their shoulders they'll put the x right next to Fianna Fail.

Theres plenty on the list where the other parties (and independents) are at least comlicit to the goings on.

Surely that means anyone that votes at all it an idiot? Or does that not suit?

Anyway, skimmign through it, theres a bit of paddign in there too. I mean O'Dea posing with the gun? Meh, harmless fun imo.

Im Only 71Kg

Dravokivich wrote: »

we pretty much are...

only we "choose" the mob...

not much choice really..sure they dont want any of the new parties to grow/expand..SF,ULA & Greens excluded from the TV Debates. not exactly democratic.

Guy:Incognito

Im Only 71Kg wrote: »

not much choice really..sure they dont want any of the new parties to grow/expand..SF,ULA & Greens excluded from the TV Debates. not exactly democratic.

SF are a new party now are they?

Captain Darling

Tabnabs wrote: »

I've seen this before and am very unimpressed.

The list is far too short.

Did they find virtue in 2008 or something?

No, that stuff hasnt caught up with them yet.

****.

Captain Darling

Wolfe Tone wrote: »

Fianna Fáil, a great bunch of lads

We're all going to heaven. Waaaaahey!:pac:

Im Only 71Kg

Guy:Incognito wrote: »

SF are a new party now are they?

I meant Gerry's SF! 1970 on..

Guy:Incognito

Im Only 71Kg wrote: »

I meant Gerry's SF! 1970 on..

Ah right, goal post movign is what we're at.

SF are not small because they are being oppresed, they are small because a high enough proportion of the public are clever enough not to vote for them.

Im Only 71Kg

Guy:Incognito wrote: »

Ah right, goal post movign is what we're at.

SF are not small because they are being oppresed, they are small because a high enough proportion of the public are clever enough not to vote for them.

they're all terrorists as far as im concerned..FF's white collar terrorism is equal to SF's role during the troubles!

darragh16

The amount in that list that is just Bertie Ahern...

Bertie Ahern - A legacy of corruption

patwicklow

Well were all paying for it now. can we not get all these locked up with some kind of new law that can be back dated??

darragh16

patwicklow wrote: »

Well were all paying for it now. can we not get all these locked up with some kind of new law that can be back dated??

Probably not because there was corruption at all levels of govt. in this country and still is. Its common across all the parties, just because the FF/PD's were in for so long. It's like the expenses row in the UK, try to punish the previous lads and it turns out your own lads are already doing it.

ejmaztec

Im Only 71Kg wrote: »

they're all terrorists as far as im concerned..FF's white collar terrorism is equal to SF's role during the troubles!

But SF managed to achieve something positive.

admiralofthefleet

just the tip of the iceberg

chillywilly

thebigbiffo wrote: »

almost half of these cannot be defined as 'corruption'?

almost half = around 25 points which leaves 25 corrupt points. How many corruption scandals are deemed acceptable in your book?

any real corruption allegations throw up the same 4-5 names

Only 4-5 known corrupt FFers.......thanks be to god!

Not all points are about corruption I agree with you there. But ministers appointing their friends to cushy positions shows that they made decisions to favour the ones they knew and not for the people. I wouldn't call it Anti FF propaganda. Propaganda suggests that what is on show is untrue. These points are fact, things that they actually did. Its simply an overview of FF's recent history.

Kasabian

Guy:Incognito wrote: »

Ah right, goal post movign is what we're at.

SF are not small because they are being oppresed, they are small because a high enough proportion of the public are clever enough not to vote for them.

Yeah keep voting for the right wing shower they have done a fantastic job haven't they.

Don't right off the fact that you may be getting a Labour lead coalition with FF and SF as their partners.

Scary isn't it.

who the fug

[QUOTE=thebigbiffo;70538470

this kind of s'hite belongs in moscow circa 1950.[/QUOTE]


bags the job with the pistol in the basement

Consmiles

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]The post at the top was from 2007, the post below is a current Fianna Fail corruption snippet of just how well they pay themselves with your money...

Former Minister for health Mary Harney will receive:
Annual Ministerial pension of €69,200, a TDs pension of €50,600, a pension lump sum of €160,000 & a golden handshake of €84,000 Total for the first year will amount to €363,800 and for every following year €119,800 This is not including the additional payments she will get for serving as Tainiste between 1997 and 2006.


Brian Cowen: Pension exceeding €310,000 per year

Martin Cullen: Pensions exceeding €255,000 per year

Noel Dempsey: Pension of €313,000 per year

Dermot Ahern: €310,000pa

Willie O’Dea: €270,000pa

Bertie Ahern: Pension exceeding €150,000 per year

In the 14 years that Fianna Fail have been in government they have spent €4.8bn on Govenment vehicles and planes (not including travel expenses of TDs and Ministers), while... They have paid out €33bn in National debt interest alone They have spent only €4.7bn on the health infrastructure and €4.9bn on school buildings The current national debt stands at €95bn and climbing To view a counter of the national debt and watch as it increases at an alarming rate, go to:

http://www.financedublin.com/debtclock.php

There are 450,000 people unemployed in the country

....

Now these are just some figures showing the pensions that the unqualified can pay themselves. Imagine a country where the finance minister does not have a bank account and then he becomes leader of the country, gets caught and retires to E150k/yr. Now that's corruption for you.
Grá
Con

marknjb

with fine honourble politicans like this bunch not hard to guess what went on in the galway tent

Snakeblood

marknjb wrote: »

with fine honourble politicans like this bunch not hard to guess what went on in the galway tent

Riding?

cleremy jarkson

marknjb wrote: »

with fine honourble politicans like this bunch not hard to guess what went on in the galway tent

Raisins, ala mrs. doyle ..

x in the city

F.FAIL voters (and stubborn morons who continue to support the corrupt f|cks) should be all sent to a remote island to rot, all F.FAIL politicians over the years should be jailed tbh.

Cowen on a pension of 6Million euro +, hahaha.

Bertie lappin in a pension worth more than the salaries of politicians of Germany..

lol, gotta love Ireland

Consmiles

That are all on a remote Ireland thats inhabited mostly by sheeple and terrorised by clericks and manipulated by the media. The powerful are only so cause they bet you to your knees for so many generations that you forgot to be free!

The sheeple who voted the ffers in are corrupt too!

Grá
Con
http://www.druidschool.com

marknjb

Snakeblood wrote: »

Riding?

the system

Paparazzo

This quote from Degsys hero, Gerry Ryan is great. It's from his autobiography, which could be worth getting for comedy value. He was always a great spokesman for the property bubble:

"Bertie Ahern is, without doubt, more than any other politician in the history of the Republic, substantially responsible for the success of this country, and he has been pushed, shoved, prodded and pricked around beyond all toleration... How much was it? Two grand? Five grand? ... We're a begrudging bunch of f***ers.
I'm a great fan of property developers because I believe they turned the country around. These guys are really our merchant princes. I think there's been a lot of pointless tut-tutting in relation to the amount of money they've made. The likes of Sean Dunne, Harry Crosby and Johnny Ronan pulled Ireland up by its bootlaces and propelled it into the future"