michael mc namara td

pilate 1

does anybody know exactly what our td felt the health minister misled the dail on ? most unusual wouldnt you agree for a member of government to be excluded from the chamber in such a manner.mind you he didnt have to vote on the finance bill

Lady Chatterton

He was suspended because he refused to take his seat at the request of the Ceann Comhairle. Prior to that, McNamara had asked Minister Of Health, James Reilly a question relating to the Midwest Regional Hospital in Limerick and he wasn't happy with the reply that Reilly gave him.

Dáil delayed to vote on kicking out a TD – who had already left the room

DÁIL BUSINESS was held up for almost 15 minutes this morning when the Ceann Comhairle, Seán Barrett, asked TDs to vote on ejecting a member from the chamber – even though he had already left.

Labour’s Michael McNamara was ordered to leave the chamber after refusing to take his seat during the morning discussion on the Order of Business.

McNamara was complaining that the Minister for Health, James Reilly, had misled the Dáil in supplying an answer to a parliamentary question put to him by McNamara.

Barrett told McNamara that his contributions were not related to the Order of Business, and said the Dáil’s standing orders provided McNamara with a formal mechanism for complaining about the response given to any parliamentary questions.

McNamara refused to resume his seat, however, urging that the matter be discussed – with Barrett then telling him either to resume his seat or to leave the chamber.

Eventually the Ceann Comhairle felt forced to “name” the Deputy – that is, to formally propose his suspension from the house – and called for a vote on removing him.

This was despite McNamara’s relenting – with the Clare TD already collecting his papers and leaving the chamber by the time the vote was called.
Barrett proceeded with the vote – which necessitated a ten-minute pause in proceedings while TDs left their offices and filed into the chamber – which was passed by 83 votes to 36.

Ironically, his own party and its government partner, Fine Gael, voted in favour of his suspension. Fianna Fáil, Sinn Féin and all other TDs present voted against his removal.

The vote means McNamara cannot participate in Dáil business for the day – and that he will miss the vote on the controversial Finance Bill, which enacts some of the Budget measures, at 1pm today.

http://www.thejournal.ie/dail-delayed-to-vote-on-kicking-out-a-td-who-had-already-left-the-room-357184-Feb2012/

angelfire9

AFAIK he loses 3 days pay as a result

Publicity stunt IMHO this is a TD who NEVER replies to emails from constituents and he has only just been elected
I've emailed him about a few things (one of which was copied to all the TD's and local councillors) Joe Carey and Timmy Dooley will always respond even if it's a one line email saying "I'll look into it" but neither Deputy Breen nor Deputy McNamara have ever bothered responding to anything
Must say I was pleasantly surprised by the responses from councillors particularly Brian Meaney whom I have never voted for before

pilate 1

sorry ill repeat "does anybody know exactly how ml mc namara feels dr o reilly mislead the dail" in other words what was the question and what was the answer

Lady Chatterton

pilate 1 wrote: »

sorry ill repeat "does anybody know exactly how ml mc namara feels dr o reilly mislead the dail" in other words what was the question and what was the answer

You might be better off checking out the Dail website I've provided as much info as I know.

pilate 1

coud do that .instead thats why i started this thread:)

Lady Chatterton

angelfire9 wrote: »

AFAIK he loses 3 days pay as a result

Publicity stunt IMHO this is a TD who NEVER replies to emails from constituents and he has only just been elected
I've emailed him about a few things (one of which was copied to all the TD's and local councillors) Joe Carey and Timmy Dooley will always respond even if it's a one line email saying "I'll look into it" but neither Deputy Breen nor Deputy McNamara have ever bothered responding to anything
Must say I was pleasantly surprised by the responses from councillors particularly Brian Meaney whom I have never voted for before

I'm genuinely surprised that Deputy Pat Breen didn't respond to you! He seems so proactive, he frequently sends out newsletters and details of peoples entitlements etc. (BTW, I'm not in anyway connected to him, it is just an observation).

wingsnfire

I admire the TD if he is willing to stick to his principals and be a bit of a rebel. All to often politicians don't answer the questions you ask they ignore the actual question and give you some speil it's bad though when they do it to one another.


I normally am on the theatre and musicals section of boards.ie because of my work but thought I'd check out my local section as I have a meeting with this guy on Friday and thought I'd better do some research. This thread has been very informative and the meeting may actually be productive.

pilate 1

if hes willing to stick to his principals (good for him) he may be willing to articulate why he feels minister o reilly misled the dail. if u find out could you post the answer please? i sure as hell cant find out.btw i know and admire the man and will ask him when i see him. just to clarify i admire all elected public reps regardless of party

kollegeknight

From my very little experience of dealing with TDs, Pat Breen always responded to letters.

As for McNamara, a see it as a publicity stunt too.

buck65

Is it any wonder the country is ****ed when TD's are expected to and obviously do respond to emails from the public about local issues.
What are the councils for?

CptSternn

buck65 wrote: »

Is it any wonder the country is ****ed when TD's are expected to and obviously do respond to emails from the public about local issues.
What are the councils for?

Who said anything about local issues? We are talking about contacting TDs in general. The times I do contact a TD is it in regards to national issues. The most recent being the SOPA/ACTA issue.

Then again, would it matter if they did respond? I have emailed our TD's many times. I get one of a few responses...

First is usually the canned response of they will look into it.

Second is also common canned response which has obviously been given to them by the party and outlines why the party stands a certain way on an issue.

The third which is more rare is an actual response where they have did their homework and know something about the topic.

Then there is the also quite common no response, which means they don't give a toss and couldn't be bothered leaving the Dail bar to even have one of their lackies copy and paste a canned response.

Getting more and more of the last one lately.

Did anyone else use the new Boards.ie system to contact the TDs over the SOPA/ACTA legislation? I did.

Joe Carey wrote back with a canned party response telling me why SOPA/ACTA was brilliant and would be great for Ireland, clearly showing he has no clue and copy/pasted the response from a pre-set template.

Timmy Dooley's wife Emer wrote back and said she and Timmy were against it, but they hadn't had a chance to really look at the issue but were hoping to in the future. Not the best response but I applaud them for being honest and sending a real response.

None of the others even bothered sending a response.

buck65

Ok point taken, I would guess though that alot of it is local though?


This actually reminds me of something that happened a couple of years ago a Fine Gael party member who is prominent in the Clare area approached me for a donation from the business I run for the election campaign.
I explained that the business did not support political organisations and only gave money to charity. He ranted about how my father was a great Fine Gael supporter - news to me - and he expected the same from me. I laughed and muttered something that my beliefs were not his concern.
He became quite animated at this and said "you'll be looking for favours when we get into power" at which point I told him to get off my premises.
He seemed genuinely shocked by my attitude. Obviously I'm not playing the game properly?

pilate 1

pilate 1 wrote: »

does anybody know exactly what our td felt the health minister misled the dail on ? most unusual wouldnt you agree for a member of government to be excluded from the chamber in such a manner.mind you he didnt have to vote on the finance bill

most replies seem to be going off topic a bit.can anybody answer the original question?

Balagan

pilate 1 wrote: »

most replies seem to be going off topic a bit.can anybody answer the original question?

Surely Michael McNamara or his staff could supply the answer?

Michael McNamara TD
Work Address
Dáil Eireann, Dublin 2
Ennis Constituency Office: Courthouse view, New Road, Ennis, Co. Clare
Shannon Constituency Office: Sky Court, Shannon, Co. Clare

Ennis Constituency Office 065-6893639
Shannon Town Constituency Office 061-479020
Dáil Office 01 618 3000
Email michael.mcnamara@oir.ie (Dáil office)
http://www.labour.ie/michaelmcnamara/

angry kitten

I can't answer the original question, however, I have met him twice and I found him to be a genuine and sincere person.

busymom31

He has a fb page and there was a link to a youtube video.

It was about a stroke unit for limerick regional

opinionated3

Pity that he and breen are not as vocal to support Shannon airport which is being left to ruin. More rubbish Clare tds....no different to their predecessors.

CptSternn

Every TD in Clare is more worried about towing the party line than they are Clare. It's quite troubling to see TDs who have been politicians for years leaving their party to protest cuts in their county while ours happily sit by collecting cheques and do nothing.

wingsnfire

@Pilate 1 I will ask him and post the answer. It would be nice if the TD's would come on this board every few weeks to answer all our questions. Does everyone want me to put this to him on Friday?

pilate 1

that would be great.heard the start of his interview with clare fm yesterday but didnt catch it all.

wingsnfire

Updat to @pilate 1.
I went to the offices for the meeting with the Deputy on the Friday as agreed but it had been cancelled. I raised the question of why he had thrown a hissy fit at the other TD and asked about the press release to explain. I was told it was on his web site, but for the life of me I can't find it. Could someone else have a look in case I've missed it..thanks.

I would have asked the deputy about the press release myself but the email I sent to him on 1st March has not been replied to which is unusual because he was pretty sharpish up until now so this may be a problem with my outgoing emails. I'll just wait and see. This is part of the email I sent about bringing business into Clare

“I have done a small amount of advertising through Linkedin and have had three people from the US interested in setting up or liaising in Ireland. One person is a joint US/Irish citizen who wants to move his film stunt and productions business here full time and he asked for my assistance.

He is a lovely guy and I think his business could really benefit from moving over here because we are close to NuBoyana and we have the Euro too. Could you tell me is there a reference source that I can use to help him which covers advice for those in the entertainment industry wanting to re-locate to Ireland. I am putting the point over to him that there are more opportunities here in the West of Ireland especially as we have Shannon Airport which is a big selling point rather than basing over in Dublin but I was wondering if you could suggest any contacts in the business community, solicitors, accountants, estate agents et al."

If anyone on this thread can suggest business contacts I would be grateful.

mattroche

Having lived in the U.K. and paying £92. per MONTH Council Tax, for a small apartment, I have no problem paying E100. a year from my old age pension for the household charge. However I do wonder what this money is going to be spent or wasted. Can anyone tell me how many " Local Representives/Officals " were on JUNKETS for ST. PATRICKS DAY. Is this where the household charge is going to be wasted?, visits here and conferences there, which are of little or any use. I do pose the question, is there any need for local or county councils, or for that matter, 166 T.D. and 60 Senators, particulary, when you see the Dail attendance when it is sitting, I think it is a complete insult to the people who elected them. I think do away with all local and county councils, aand let the County Manager run the show, ( which he more or less does anyway ) and have 4 provincal councils, made up of 3 elected members from each county. The Dail to have 2 T.D. from each constituncy, and the Senate made up of business people who have proved themself in the real world, who can be appointed to Ministeral Posts to which they have expertise in. In fairness we now have an assortement of Teacher, Lawyers, ect. most of whom never created a job in their lives, running a country that needs jobs and investement Big Time. Looking at the New Goverement, I can see little difference between it and the last one. So help us God

squonk

CptSternn wrote: »

Timmy Dooley's wife Emer wrote back and said she and Timmy were against it, but they hadn't had a chance to really look at the issue but were hoping to in the future. Not the best response but I applaud them for being honest and sending a real response.

None of the others even bothered sending a response.

No offence to Timmy or Emer but he's in opposition so I'm pretty sure he'd say he's against it. That's his job after all, or at least in Irish terms it is. If the government declare the sky is blue, the opposition immediately go on the attack saying it's more red! It actually sickens me. Governments need to be opposed but opposition also needs to be constructive. We don't see a lot of this.

I see there's no conclusive answer as to why McNamara was ejected from the chamber. I took it at the time as a publicity stunt. I don't think I'm too far wrong in that regard. Like others, I contacted my local TD's regarding the SOPA/ACTA issue. Most I did not receive a response from. I rang Joe Carey and was surprised to actually get through to him. He at least admitted straight up that he knew nothing about the issue so I give him credit for not trying to BS me. He sent me on a canned press release which I had read elsewhere and was a bit behind the current position of things anyway. All in all though, he was the best of them.

Really it was a fairly poor showing from my local TDs. I think these guys need to realise that the days of showboating in the Dail to get on the news and coming on Clare FM for an interview about how they're looking after local issues are in the past. That might have worked up to the 80's but even the 90's had Oireachtas Report and nowadays we can watch Dail sittings on the web, information disseminates far more quickly via twitter and other means and people are more up to speed in general. In the past it was easier for them to control their image and the direction and flow of information. Nowadays I think we see a lot of them for the gombeens they are.

CptSternn

squonk wrote: »

No offence to Timmy or Emer but he's in opposition so I'm pretty sure he'd say he's against it. That's his job after all, or at least in Irish terms it is. If the government declare the sky is blue, the opposition immediately go on the attack saying it's more red! It actually sickens me.

As a regular on politics.ie we discuss this all the time as it is constantly happening. It sickens me as well. To see FF out there opposing the very bank bailouts they setup. That being said I by no means support FF anymore now than I did 10 years ago, but if they are willing to fight for us on this issue no matter what their motivation we need the help. As they say, politics make strange bedfellows.

I rang Joe Carey and was surprised to actually get through to him. He at least admitted straight up that he knew nothing about the issue so I give him credit for not trying to BS me. He sent me on a canned press release which I had read elsewhere and was a bit behind the current position of things anyway. All in all though, he was the best of them.

He sent me a canned response as well, but it had direct comments which made claims he understood the issue. Makes you wonder if he even bothered to read the responses he sent out if thats what he told you on the phone.

As far as being 'the best of them', what does it say about our local TD's when the best response we get on an issue that effects our everyday lives in such an important way is 'I have no idea about that legislation the government I am a part of just passed'?

Really it was a fairly poor showing from my local TDs. I think these guys need to realise that the days of showboating in the Dail to get on the news and coming on Clare FM for an interview about how they're looking after local issues are in the past. That might have worked up to the 80's but even the 90's had Oireachtas Report and nowadays we can watch Dail sittings on the web, information disseminates far more quickly via twitter and other means and people are more up to speed in general. In the past it was easier for them to control their image and the direction and flow of information. Nowadays I think we see a lot of them for the gombeens they are.

Agreed, but the problem is this - who else are we going to vote for? Our selection here in Clare is miserable at best. There are no alternatives. We elect the same FF/FG people as always, or we elect the other FF/FG members on the ballot. Our 'alternative' consists of members who left FF/FG because their parties wouldn't put them on the ballot ahead of the aforementioned candidates, but they still have the exact same ideals and vote along their original party lines.

We do have a Labour and Green popping up here and there, but sure, they have shown pretty clearly they are no better than the first two groups. When a Labour TD can't even bother responding to his own constituents over legislation his own party rammed down our throats, it shows they are just as corrupt as the rest of them and only in it to line their own pockets, the public be damned.

Clareman

There's a politics forum to discuss all of the subjects that are being brought up on this thread so I'm locking it.