Gombeenery has gone too far this time.

The_Minister

http://photos5.media.pix.ie/BC/A1/BCA12AB7F70C4E11882C516594775AC8-0000333355-0002400247-00640L-D1FB1E03DA79497AAACBEB0401656E77.jpg

From Politics.ie

The Daily Mail says that MHR won the "celebrities gone wild" reality TV show on RTE circa 3-4 years ago after 3600 premium rate calls were made from one Dail phone. The calls cost the taxpayer €2600.

This is ridiculous and beyond belief.

I am actually angry, and I rarely get angry - this is just so blatent, so in your face...

He's gone from office, but I want him to pay this money back.

Needler

MHR? what is it with Dubs and making up acronyms as they go along. Its annoying

The High King

Good man yourself Mickey

Cill Dara Abu

Michael Healy Rae

squod

We should just cancel his pension on the grounds that he's a fuhken narsole.

Napper Hawkins

Absolutely nothing surprises me about this country anymore.

Atlantic Dawn

3600 extra votes would not have won it for him alone or even came close. Just goes to show that there much be zero policing of what numbers are allowed be called from the Dail phones.

The_Minister

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

3600 extra votes would not have won it for him alone or even came close. Just goes to show that there much be zero policing of what numbers are allowed be called from the Dail phones.

Really?

Was this a big show?
I don't remember it.

Chuck Stone

Gobshite gombeen. I couldn't care less what county he's from.

pconn062

Only in ireland!:eek:

Paparazzo

mikemac wrote: »

You Dubs thinking you can call anyone outside Dublin a gombeen

Tony Gregory the greatest parish pump politician of them all and held the government to ransom for 100 million punts for his area, voters and pet projects but is held up as a saint

Double standards, now here is a gombeen for €2600?

And Michael Healy Rae isn't a gombeen because ? Because Tony Gregory is from Dublin?
And just to clear things up MHR has been a gombeen long before this. If he singly handedly saves the country from recession he's still a gombeen. He's also the son of a gombeen.

emo72

its a ****ty he thing he done. okay, he didnt wreck the country like some did. but it shows the disdain this man had for us. this ****er should be ostracized.

Sir Oxman

Even Vinny B on TV3 could only laugh at this, pure mucksavagery.
€2,639! sure what's that when the pig-ignorant Noel Dempsey said 50m on e-voting was nothing, a drop in the ocean so he says.
What a fckin country GRRRRRRRRR

ballsymchugh

http://www.thejournal.ie/healy-rae-won-tv-show-after-thousands-of-calls-from-the-dail-164750-Jun2011/?utm_source=shortlink

i was going to copy and paste the article, but i think the photo says so much more.

Kojak

Fair play to the Healy-Rae's - they know how to get a job done.

Vote 1 for Jackie for the Aras, which will be moved to South Kerry on his election!!!!

sidneykidney

mikemac wrote: »

You Dubs thinking you can call anyone outside Dublin a gombeen

Tony Gregory the greatest parish pump politician of them all and held the government to ransom for 100 million punts for his area, voters and pet projects but is held up as a saint

Double standards, now here is a gombeen for €2600?

In fairness I never remember Gregory appearing on TV reality shows

Spread

Once again, The Daily Mail is ahead of the home grown pack. Surely investigative journalism at it's best.;)

ejmaztec

Michael Healy-Rae has a job for life and couldn't give a sh1t, that's the sad thing about this.

ArtSmart

Thread on politics bout this.

Badgermonkey

mikemac wrote: »

You Dubs thinking you can call anyone outside Dublin a gombeen

We really don't, just the gombeens.

Personally, I don't place a geographical limitation on the term - Ray Burke and Liam Lawlor qualify.

mikemac wrote: »

Tony Gregory the greatest parish pump politician of them all and held the government to ransom for 100 million punts for his area, voters and pet projects but is held up as a saint

By his constituents perhaps, understandable that.

mikemac wrote: »

Double standards, now here is a gombeen for €2600?

Bargain basement gombeen?

krudler

fcukin' hell

cocoshovel

Im not surprised. Nothing will be done about this. Yay welcome to Ireland

Mr. Denton

You could understand if he was spending it on rogaine, hookers or cloth caps, but to rig some tv contest that I've never even heard of?

brimal

I am so sick of the Healy-Rae mob and the other gombeen politicians in this country.

mgmt

Will these fukkers be sent to jail?

Kojak

mgmt wrote: »

Will these fukkers be sent to jail?

Ah no. Remember this is Ireland where we reward back-handers and the people who deal in them.....

Jesus Wept

mikemac wrote: »

You Dubs thinking you can call anyone outside Dublin a gombeen

Tony Gregory the greatest parish pump politician of them all and held the government to ransom for 100 million punts for his area, voters and pet projects but is held up as a saint

Double standards, now here is a gombeen for €2600?

WTF in holy hell does it matter where anyone is from?

It's no wonder this country is so crooked, ****ed and retarded, it's actually mind boggling how small minded people are, are you 12 years old?

The type of people who have a savage rivalry with the town nearest them.
I lol in your general direction.

marcsignal

The_Minister wrote: »

This is ridiculous and beyond belief.

I am actually angry, and I rarely get angry - this is just so blatent, so in your face...

He's gone from office, but I want him to pay this money back.

+1 Absolutely

Holy Sh*t ! That is outrageous :mad: God only knows what else is going to come out in the wash about the last admininistration. It's an absolute disgrace.

Needler

G'morning Joe

Yes yes its terrible. Next caller on line 6

Joe something must be done about it

I totally agree. Time for a commercial break

MungBean

Only one shot for it, break into his house and start callin sex lines until we run up enough of a bill to teach the little **** a lesson. Might be an idea to try out a few of those housemate revenge suggestions while we're in there too.

Forest Master

Needler wrote: »

MHR? what is it with Dubs and making up acronyms as they go along. Its annoying

What is it with people not knowing what an acronym is? MHR is an abbreviation - look up the definitions. An acronym must spell another pronounceable word - like Scuba or Nato.

Is it embarrassing when you try to use a swanky word & get it wrong?

Pherekydes

The_Minister wrote: »

He's gone from office, but I want him to pay this money back.

Since when? Or have you your Healy-Raes mixed up?

LOL at people equating Tony Gregory getting facilities built for his constituents with this wanton waste of taxpayers' money.

And LOL at South Kerry: they must be very proud of themselves.

daveyboy_1ie

Nothing surprises me with those two chancers.

Every time I see the son on TV all I think is 'thank f*ck we have less tourists in the country to see this'. Every country has their own 'charectors' who become elected representatives but rarely are they as arrogant as the double act 'the Healey Raes'. At least the father knew he had the lowest common demonitor vote in Kerry, and there are seemingly plenty of them. The son on the other hand acts as if he is a politician.

ectoraige

I note they don't say who the elected member was. My money's on Mary Harney, I'd say she had a twinkle in her eye for the young lad :pac:

Crazy Horse 6

Jesus are people actually surprised by this sort of thing anymore.

up for anything

mikemac wrote: »

Tony Gregory the greatest parish pump politician of them all and held the government to ransom for 100 million punts for his area, voters and pet projects but is held up as a saint

I've only done a little reading about Tony Gregory since I read your post but it seems to me that If more TDs had the guts and displayed the same commitment to their constituency as he did, this country would have a chance of being a wonderful place.

stovelid

Probably a hero down home for it. Depressing.

dmullaney

I donno it could have been worse. Think of it like this, each phone call probably takes about a minute - 2600 euro to keep Micky away from driving national policy for 60 hours. We've made worse investments as a nation :-)

Sunnyisland

Thats what happens when you live near the Ring of kerry, its an addiction.it follows you everywhere.

Bartyman

I wonder if whoever made the calls, also claimed expenses for their time in Leinster House ?

It just keep's getter better.............:mad:

Greentopia

MHR is on Today FM now talking about this.

Greentopia

Lol, claims he hasn't spoken to his father about this yet :rolleyes:
Anton Savage tried to pin him down and get him to admit that as an elected representative it was wrong that tax payers money was spent like this and all he kept repeating was that "it wush unUshual" ffs.

Also claims he had no hand in it or knowledge of it and justifies it by saying that the money from the phone in went to charity anyway.
Seems entirely unfazed that Dail Eireann should have been used to get an elected politician votes on a bloody TV show.

Sh1t like this has to stop. He should be sacked, as he would be in any other country in Europe that has an actual functioning democratic political system.

oppenheimer1

up for anything wrote: »

I've only done a little reading about Tony Gregory since I read your post but it seems to me that If more TDs had the guts and displayed the same commitment to their constituency as he did, this country would have a chance of being a wonderful place.

Exactly what this country needs, national legislators looking after local needs. :rolleyes: Gregory was a great a gombeen as any Healy-Rae and just ecause his constituency was a drug riddled inner city doesn't make him any better. They were both as bad as each other, in that they diverted funding from the greater good to their pet projects.

Kev_ps3

The_Minister wrote: »

http://photos5.media.pix.ie/BC/A1/BCA12AB7F70C4E11882C516594775AC8-0000333355-0002400247-00640L-D1FB1E03DA79497AAACBEB0401656E77.jpg

From Politics.ie


This is ridiculous and beyond belief.

I am actually angry, and I rarely get angry - this is just so blatent, so in your face...

He's gone from office, but I want him to pay this money back.

Very disrespectful to the Irish taxpayers. What an idiot.

R P McMurphy

I used to live in T. Gregory's constituency and he used to call around occasionally out of the blue to see how everything was. Very nice fella and obviously worked hard for the area. That said, that was not his job and that type of constituency politics is every bit as bad as Healey-Rae. Decisions and resource allocations should not be decided on the ransom. Granted there was a great need for resources in the North inner city and Gregory worked within the system to get whatever he could to make a difference and I commend him for that and he had my vote. It is the system that is broken

jajjay

This is like something you would see on an episode of Father Ted!

fred252

i heard him on newstalk.

what irks me most is that he refuses to accept that tax payers money shouldn't have been spent in this fashion. i guess he's worried they'll be able to pin point the extension used but its simply idiotic to deny this was misuse of taxpayers money. there might be something to those kerry man jokes.

The_Minister

Pherekydes wrote: »

Since when? Or have you your Healy-Raes mixed up?

I assume it twas Jackie who made the calls if it was either of them.

suicide_circus

mikemac wrote: »

You Dubs thinking you can call anyone outside Dublin a gombeen

Tony Gregory the greatest parish pump politician of them all and held the government to ransom for 100 million punts for his area, voters and pet projects but is held up as a saint

Double standards, now here is a gombeen for €2600?

Rubbish. Where they're from is of no consequence. I wouldnt consider culchies inda kinny and meehall martin to be gombeens, where as dublins own bearty A-whore-n to be one of the greatest gombeens gangsters to ever walk the earth.

And tony gregory campaigned for money for his area which was in absolute bits and had been abandoned where as MHR cheated on a reality game show by stealing money from the tax payers. No comparison.

fred252

Forest Master wrote: »

What is it with people not knowing what an acronym is? MHR is an abbreviation - look up the definitions. An acronym must spell another pronounceable word - like Scuba or Nato.

Is it embarrassing when you try to use a swanky word & get it wrong?

i once worked for a large multinational, that shall remain nameless, which used many abbreviations. probably in the hundreds. they had a link on the homepage with details on these abbreviations. that link was "/acronyms". none of them were actually acronyms.

its a common mistake, nothing to be embarrassed about unless you're a journalist or some such.

Beruthiel

In the dictionary under cute whore sleeveen is a pic of MHR.
If I didn't know he existed as a real person, I'd be thinking that Gift Grub were doing a parody of an irish politician.
I heard him with Anton Savage this morning, the man couldn't answer a straight yes or no if his life depended on it.
Cringe worthy.