a very serious situation!!

sheesh

thebman wrote: »

I don't forget that, the thread just isn't about those gits :P

touche sir

and please less of the we are all knuckle draggers because we're from kerry.

whoopdedoo

this is a truly shocking abuse of power and expenses! hope they get the book thrown at them

Healy-Rae aide asked to take my postal vote': Pensioner at centre of investigation into Kerry vote-rigging scandal speaks out
By MARISA LYNCH and KEN FOXE

The pensioner at the centre of a Garda investigation into alleged vote-rigging in Kerry says he complained to gardaí that an aide of TD Michael Healy-Rae tried to take his postal vote, the Irish Mail on Sunday can reveal.

Pat O’Mahony, 87, is one of three people questioned by gardaí about the claim – and a file has been sent to the DPP. The aide, family friend Ellen Lynch, has canvassed for the Healy-Raes in three elections.

In the general election in February, Mr Healy-Rae won the last seat in Kerry South by just 917 votes.


Party line: Danny Healy-Rae, second from left, and Michael Healy-Rae, second from right, at the 50th birthday party of Ellen Lynch, centre, the election campaigner at the centre of the Garda vote-rigging investigation
Now, in the week of the ‘Ring of Kerry’ revelations, the MoS can confirm that his general election campaign is the subject of a Garda investigation. Last night, Mr Healy-Rae said he was aware of the inquiry but denied any impropriety. ‘I swear on the Bible I know nothing about that,’ Mr Healy-Rae said.

In his complaint, Mr O’Mahony says he was approached by Miss Lynch on the day the postal ballot arrived at his house.

As well as speaking to Mr O’Mahony, gardaí interviewed another pensioner who was also approached on the same day, the MoS can reveal.

Miss Lynch is an ardent supporter of the Healy-Raes. Both TD Michael and his brother, Kerry County Councillor Danny, attended Miss Lynch’s 50th birthday celebrations recently, where Michael made a speech. *

The brothers then posed with Ellen, a separated mother-of-four, for a picture.


Votes trail: Jackie, left and Michael Healy-Rae canvassing in the election
Mr O’Mahony says his postal vote for the election in February had hardly landed in his letterbox when the retired farmer was ‘shocked’ to see Miss Lynch arrive at his door.

The pensioner, who lives near Castleisland, Co. Kerry, told the MoS that he informed gardaí: ‘I get a postal vote because of my age. I had not even opened it when the woman, Miss Lynch, called. I knew that I would have up to a week before returning the form filled out.

‘I have to admit I was taken by surprise when she appeared at my home just three hours after the postal vote arrived. She asked me for the vote. She said she had come to collect it and you know, if I was gullible, I probably would have handed it over to her.

‘I thought, “Why is she here so soon after the postman?”.

‘I told her I had not even opened it at that stage and she said she would come back later. I said it would not be ready and not to bother as I was going to post it myself.

‘She then told me she was canvassing for Michael Healy-Rae and asked me to give her my number, which I refused. I said I would not vote for him as I had always been in Fine Gael.

‘I was shocked by what had happened,’ Mr O’Mahony added.

‘I’m very angry to think that anyone would try to approach me for my vote in that way.’

Later that evening, Fine Gael canvassers called to Mr O’Mahony’s door and he informed them of what had happened.

Mr O’Mahony added: ‘They were so shocked they contacted Cllr Bobby O’Connell straight away. He contacted the gardaí and the county registrar and an investigation began.

‘The sergeant came to my house and I gave a statement. He said they would be investigating it. I haven’t heard anything since.’

But the MoS has confirmed that a Garda file is being sent to the DPP.

When contacted, Miss Lynch said she had absolutely no comment to make.

A local source said Miss Lynch was among Castleisland’s best-known and keenest Healy-Rae supporters.

The source said: ‘She has been around canvassing with them every time there is an election, whether national or local.’

Another source who is friendly with the Kilgarvan-based dynasty said: ‘The Healy-Raes have a political machine that is the envy of every one, including the large political parties. They have an army of people willing to go out and canvass who are extremely loyal.

‘People around the county are not a bit taken in by the gombeenism affected by Jackie, Michael and the others. They are shrewd business people who are worth a fortune.

‘On top of all that, they have their political earnings and expenses.

‘It is a status they guard jealously and they have no intention of letting it go.’

Miss Lynch, who is well known in the area because of her Tidy Towns work, lives near Crag Cave outside Castleisland. She became involved with the Healy-Raes in 2009, when the constituency boundaries changed and Castleisland moved from the North Kerry constituency into South Kerry, the family’s base.

FG county councillor Bobby O’Connell said: ‘My first reaction was one of shock that anyone would attempt to interfere with the democratic process by approaching people who are old and vulnerable.

‘These people actually request the postal vote because they are unable, because of age or health, to attend the voting centre on the day.

‘How they vote is a private matter and they should be entitled to cast their vote and post it without any outside interference.’

The MoS has also established that gardaí spoke to an elderly woman who had been approached by Miss Lynch on the same day. The woman confirmed to gardaí that Miss Lynch had called but did not want to make any complaint about her.

Michael Healy-Rae said yesterday that he knew Miss Lynch well and that she had been involved in campaigning on his behalf.

He said: ‘All I know about that is, one person said it. As far as I know, she was out canvassing and, same as anybody, she asked for a vote.

‘Any suggestion of anything wrong, that’s not true. Everybody canvasses and they would ask, “Will you give us your vote?” You’re asking for a vote – you are not saying give me the vote.’

‘I wasn’t there. I was up to ninety at the time – you know what it is like in the middle of a campaign.

Mr Healy Rae added: ‘We have been fighting elections all our lives. We do everything everyone else does.

He said that the ‘Ring of Kerry’ scandal revealed by our sister* paper, the Irish Daily Mail, meant he was now under extraordinary scrutiny.

He said: ‘At this stage, if I park on a double yellow line, I’ll find myself on the front of a newspaper.’



Michael sacked from €6k quango job
By Enda Feeney

Michael Healy-Rae has been given his marching orders from the Citizens’ Information Board by Joan Burton, it was revealed last night.

The Minister for Social Protection used her new powers to dismiss him from his €5,895-a-year position.

Miss Burton is reported to have said: ‘There is a letter in the post to him today, wishing him well and sending him on his way.’

She had previously written to him twice requesting his resignation saying it was, ‘good governance on all boards. When a member becomes a TD, they resign.’

Mr Healy-Rae was given the position as part of his father’s negotiations with the Fianna Fáil-led coalition to support the previous government.

A section of the new Social Welfare Bill, recently passed through the Oireachtas, means no TD, senator, MEP or councillor can sit on the board in future.

Mr Healy-Rae would have had another three years left of his term on the board.

But Miss Burton was determined to remove him, claiming his membership of the board ‘compromised its effective performance’.


€8m - That’s what Healy-Raes have earned and claimed from the public purse
By Ken Foxe

As political dynasties go, it will never be recalled as glamorous. When it comes to the dark arts of politics however – claiming expenses, looking after home turf and taking care of family – the Healy-Rae clan will long be remembered.

In the 14 years in which they have hovered on the political centre-stage, more than €8m has been earned by the family in salaries, expenses and contracts from the public purse.

Patriarch Jackie Healy-Rae took home up to €240,000 a year as he served as an Independent TD for South Kerry.


Cream: Jackie Healy-Rae was consistently among the highest-paid TDs
Since he was first elected in 1997, he is estimated to have raked in well in excess of €2m, close to half of that in unvouched and untaxed expenses.

During the same period, his sons Michael and Danny both served on Kerry County Council, claiming expenses that made them among the best-paid councillors in the entire State.

Two of the clan also served in lucrative positions on State boards, Michael with the Citizen’s Information Board and his sister Rosemary on the Criminal Injuries Compensation Tribunal.

The family business has also flourished, winning contracts worth nearly €5.5m from Kerry County Council since 1999.

The three best-known Healy-Raes are also the registered owners of 17 properties, the Irish Mail on Sunday can reveal.

On the latest Dáil register of interests however, Jackie Healy-Rae proclaims himself a simple farmer, living off a plot of 15 hectares in Meelick, near Kilgarvan.

Nothing else is declared – no property, no business interests – except ‘a right to live in a room in [a] public house in Kilgarvan’.

Yet he was consistently among the highest-earning of all TDs, receiving well in excess of €200,000 in a typical year.

Over the course of four years from 2005 to 2008, his combined salary, allowances, and expenses totalled €719,350, plus €145,000 in the leader’s allowances paid to all Independent deputies. That’s €864,350 in all.

But that doesn’t include postage, office expenses and the wages for three staff members paid to him directly.

Also paid automatically was his by-now infamous telephone bill of €2,639 for 3,636 telephone calls that helped his son Michael win a reality TV show.

Where there were actual expenses to be claimed, Jackie Healy-Rae claimed them to the maximum: for mobile phones, ISDN lines, constituency offices and travel.

Claim forms obtained by the MoS reveal a man keenly aware of a system that each month could be used to claim significant sums.

Every week, Mr Healy-Rae was allowed to claim three one-way journeys from his home in Kilgarvan to Dublin, a journey declared on the forms as 338km.

In fact, the route taken by the TD, as outlined by him in a newspaper interview in 2009, clocks in at 317km.

Over the course of a year, that 21km difference would have yielded an extra €698 tax-free.

Oftentimes, Mr Healy-Rae did not even drive and was frequently spotted arriving at Heuston Station via train.

By 2009, he had claimed enough mileage to circumnavigate the planet. He lodged claims for nearly €40,000 in mileage and overnight expenses in a single year. It adds up to 190 one-way trips between Kerry and Leinster House during a period when the Dáil only sat for 75 days.

Aged 70 when he retired, Mr Healy-Rae was entitled to a free travel pass for pensioners but he claimed: ‘I pay €72 for every ticket. I never had a travel pass in my life.’

In 2006, he asked for €629 to cover the cost of a mobile phone and two years later, he sought €1,575 for what was described as an ISDN line.

Every year, he claimed the maximum allowable in most categories: up to €8,782 for constituency travel, €9,819 for maintenance of an office and €7,830 for his constituency office telephone.

In 2010, his claims came to more than €65,000 even as a new era of supposedly reduced expenses was ushered in.

To top it off, Jackie left office with a lump sum of €186,219 and a pension for life of €33,947. When son Michael inherited the mantle, he simply took over where his father had left off. His monthly expense claim is €4,342, which in his first year in office will yield more than €52,000 tax free – on top of the generous near-€100,000 salary and an unvouched leader’s allowance of €43,000 per year.

But Michael already represented a considerable burden to the taxpayer, even before his election. As a board member of the Citizen’s Information Bureau, brokered as part of a deal with his father, he took home an average of €1,310 every time he attended a meeting – an average of €455 in mileage and hotel expenses each time, on top of the yearly €5,985 stipend.

Back home in Kerry, Michael – and his brother Danny – had also earned a considerable salary for their work on the local council. In 2008 and 2009, the two men shared a pay and expenses bonanza of €196,000, putting them among the top earning councillors in the land. As Mayor of Kerry, Michael also managed to claim conference expenses of almost €20,000 in one year, including some dizzying feats of bilocation.

He was paid for attending conferences in Tullamore, Co. Offaly, and Shannon, Co. Clare, on September 25, insisting it was perfectly possible to be at both.

He also claimed for attending the community games in Dublin on the same day as a mental health conference in Killarney.

He said: ‘If you are mayor, you are asked to go to everything and your expenses will always be the highest. I’ve never claimed for a conference I wasn’t at.’

Michael served on the council from 1999 to February 2011 when he was elected to the Dáil. Now Danny’s son Johnny has taken over.

Other, less politically minded members of the family also benefited from the Healy-Rae machine, particularly when Jackie was supporting a succession of Fianna Fáil-led governments.

His daughter Rosemary was appointed to the Criminal Injuries Compensation Tribunal in 2007 and reappointed in 2010 by justice minister Dermot Ahern. She is paid €272 for each meeting she attends, and up to €361 for giving legal advice in a case – but she insists she was appointed on merit.

The family business, Healy-Rae Plant Hire, has also made considerable sums from the public purse – nearly €5.5m in Kerry County Council contracts since 1999. Danny, a director of the company, has been a county councillor since 2003.

Healy-Rae Plant Hire earned just €241,689 in public contracts this year, well down on previous years according to figures obtained by Independent councillor Brenda Cronin.

However, the boom years were good – local authority contracts of €516,110 in 2005 and a further €648,571 in 2006.

The single most lucrative year for the company was 2007 when it earned €762,000 in council deals, before it fell to €679,019 the following year.

In 2005, Danny was the subject of an ethics investigation after he called for a resumption of hedge-cutting in the county even as he was tendering for that type of work. The investigation found Mr Healy-Rae had ‘no pecuniary or beneficial interest’ arising from his motion and no action was taken.

A council spokesman said: ‘All contracts and tenders publicised and awarded… follow national and EU procurement guidelines.’

The family’s considerable wealth also extends to the land and Jackie, Michael and Danny own 17 properties according to records from the Land Registry.

Jackie is listed as the owner of four properties, comprising nearly 81ha around Kilgarvan.

Michael has six properties listed to his name and Danny has seven, totalling nearly 45ha.

Aside from his plant-hire business and his seat on the local council, Danny also finds time to run the family pub in Kilgarvan, the tiny village that has spawned one of Ireland’s most unorthodox political and business empires!

ejmaztec

One huge feckin expensive joke.

They should all disappear into the oblivion that they deserve.

Snickers Man

Quote:
Originally Posted by theaceofspies
Wontfoolsbefools!
When dealing with the IQ of your average Kerry 'voter' your looking at the inteliigence levels found in the braincells of critters that inhabit the lower reaches of the ponds that neighbour slurry pits.
Quote:
Originally Posted by HellFireClub
As I said in another thead in the Politics forum, these kind of retarded explanations are obviously well received by the knuckle dragging gombeens of South Kerry who elected this arséhole but the rest of the country doesn't seem to be prepared to listen to another bar of this shít...
Quote:
Originally Posted by thebman
The reality is most likely that the people voting for these fools are incapable of using the Internet or finding this forum so there is little point in talking about it here IMO.

Even if they are here they will ignore the thread and not see the outrage and bad image this portrays of their area.
Quote:
Originally Posted by whoopdedoo
let's not get personal with the people of Kerry lads, I wouldn't like to see the thread in the Kerry section being locked because of it
Quote:
Originally Posted by HellFireClub
Yeah, let's pander to the problem as opposed to confronting it... This guy didn't elect himself, the people of his constituency are ultimately responsible for this.

sheesh wrote: »

THank you for all the kind words

Fair enough, sheesh. Actually, I think the phenomenon of the Healy-Raes shows the utter futility and negativity of pejorative stereotypes. Fundamentally, I think they represent the Kerryman's Revenge against the rest of the country for deflecting other people's negative stereotypes of the bucolic, irresponsible, grubby Irish race as a whole on to De Kerryman.

After decades of this they said. "Right ya bastards. You think we're a shower of unwashed culchies? Well, we're going to vote into office the most archetypal caricature of the gombeen, sleveen, self-important utterly amoral gob****e and see how you like it.

Fair enough. We probably deserved it.

But when is the joke going to be over?

You don't hear too many Kerryman jokes on the radio these days.

seachto7

who voted in Bertie?

maringo

The Dubs I believe. Mea Culpa.

But wasn't Bertie a master at facing both ways at once - for and against at the same time - what I especially enjoyed was the anorak and the ashes - and trying to figure out what he was saying. Gave a new meaning to the word Socialist too.... and a very lucky at the horses too!

ejmaztec

maringo wrote: »

The Dubs I believe. Mea Culpa.

But wasn't Bertie a master at facing both ways at once - for and against at the same time - what I especially enjoyed was the anorak and the ashes - and trying to figure out what he was saying. Gave a new meaning to the word Socialist too.... and a very lucky at the horses too!

Even Bertie didn't manage to get 5000 members of his family onto the gravy-train.

maringo

I wouldn't swear to that if I were you!

sheesh

Snickers Man wrote: »

Quote:




Fair enough, sheesh. Actually, I think the phenomenon of the Healy-Raes shows the utter futility and negativity of pejorative stereotypes. Fundamentally, I think they represent the Kerryman's Revenge against the rest of the country for deflecting other people's negative stereotypes of the bucolic, irresponsible, grubby Irish race as a whole on to De Kerryman.

After decades of this they said. "Right ya bastards. You think we're a shower of unwashed culchies? Well, we're going to vote into office the most archetypal caricature of the gombeen, sleveen, self-important utterly amoral gob****e and see how you like it.

Fair enough. We probably deserved it.

But when is the joke going to be over?

You don't hear too many Kerryman jokes on the radio these days.

Jackie Healy Rae is more a symptom of the problem than the actual problem
THe problem is that the country kept on electing ff into government

If you think jackie healy rae is bad you should have a look at Tom Mc Ellistrim who was the FF candidate for north Kerry (A way worse! by an order of magnitude if you can believe it, im my opinion)

up until the last election 25% of the people who voted, for Fiannia Fail because they had always done so. And when the **** finally hit the fan during the previous administration who did everyone blame? The Greens.

The country is in dire need of reform of its political system.

whoopdedoo

imagine how quick a normal Joe soap would be arrested if we carried on like this crowd of gombeens!!

where's the charges against them? why continue to brush this kind of thing under the carpet?!!

Jul3s

whoopdedoo wrote: »

imagine how quick a normal Joe soap would be arrested if we carried on like this crowd of gombeens!!

<mod snip> no Joe soap wouldn't be arrested, at worst he would have to pay the money back.

where's the charges against them? why continue to brush this kind of thing under the carpet?!!

No charges were brought against him/them and rightly so.

whoopdedoo

Jul3s wrote: »

whoopdedoo wrote: »

imagine how quick a normal Joe soap would be arrested if we carried on like this crowd of gombeens!!

<mod snip> no Joe soap wouldn't be arrested, at worst he would have to pay the money back.

where's the charges against them? why continue to brush this kind of thing under the carpet?!!

No charges were brought against him/them and rightly so.

Thanks for your input there Jackie!

Jul3s

whoopdedoo wrote: »

Thanks for your input there Jackie!

You're welcome John.

whoopdedoo

Jul3s wrote: »

whoopdedoo wrote: »

Thanks for your input there Jackie!

You're welcome John.

forgive me but John who?

Jul3s

whoopdedoo wrote: »

forgive me but John who?

It's easy to see now why they put you in as ceann comhairle, you were obviously going a bit senile and now you can't even remember your own surname.

whoopdedoo

Jul3s wrote: »

whoopdedoo wrote: »

forgive me but John who?

It's easy to see now why they put you in as ceann comhairle, you were obviously going a bit senile and now you can't even remember your own surname.

ah so you're talking about the lovely John O Donohue!! oh and btw I loved the piece in today's Irish indo outlining details concerning the "phonecalls" that weren't made by JHR

ahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

http://www.thejournal.ie/revealed-how-calls-for-healy-raes-tv-show-win-were-made-190766-Aug2011/

ejmaztec

:rolleyes:

Anyone surprised?

I'm not.


http://www.radiokerry.ie/news/

Two Kerry TDs are amongst the worst in the country for taking part in Dáil votes. Of the 24 votes that have taken place in the Dail since the general election in February, Deputy Michael Healy Rae has missed 17 and Deputy Tom Flemming has missed 14 votes. This compares to just 2 misses each, for deputies Martin Ferris, Arthur Spring and Brendan Griffin.

An investigation by the Irish Independent shows TDs can earn up to 38,000 in expenses by just signing in and not voting. Deputy Healy Rae claims he was in the Dáil but was too busy to vote on some occasions, while Deputy Fleming says he was unaware why voting bells were ringing during his early days in the Dáil. Councillor Michael Cahill is Tom Fleming's parliamentary secretary:

http://www.radiokerry.ie/news/

thebman

ejmaztec wrote: »

:rolleyes:

Anyone surprised?

I'm not.


http://www.radiokerry.ie/news/



http://www.radiokerry.ie/news/

I'm surprised MHR managed to vote at all :P

ejmaztec

thebman wrote: »

I'm surprised MHR managed to vote at all :P

He could have voted by accident after going through the wrong door.

On the other occasions, he was probably busy testing a load of phones to see which one had the fastest redial button, just in case one of the Healy-Raes find themselves in another tv reality show.

whoopdedoo

gombeens of the highest order!!

goat2

i seen a picture of michael on one of the papers, with the modle who took part in the celebrities going wild, she has passed on, he looked good, think about it, what if he put his name forward for presidental campaign, i bet he would get alot of votes

whoopdedoo

goat2 wrote: »

i seen a picture of michael on one of the papers, with the modle who took part in the celebrities going wild, she has passed on, he looked good, think about it, what if he put his name forward for presidental campaign, i bet he would get alot of votes

feic off troll!

and what pray tell is a modle? is this a phenomenon restricted to Kerry?

whoopdedoo

whoopdedoo wrote: »

feic off troll!

and what pray tell is a modle? is this a phenomenon restricted to Kerry?

I presume he means "model", and is referring to Katie French.

In your part of the country, do you not start sentences with capital letters?