Mahon tribunal to cost €250m - Gov to raise €160m from Household charge

donegal_road

just as the thread title says, I checked the Irish Independent online today and those two headlines stood out LINK

Im calling bull**** on this one...

The Government hopes to raise €160m from the levy, which will go towards funding public services, including libraries, footpaths and parks.

and on the Mahon Tribunal...

According to the secretary general of the Department of the Environment, Geraldine Tallon, the final bill could range from €204m to €250m.

She added that €97m has already been paid out.

Where the is the point in the public having to shell out a household charge when a tribunal investigating the former Taoiseach will cost us more than what the new levy will bring in.. you could not make this stuff up! Please someone give me a shake and tell me its just a dream.. :mad:

charlemont

Its all very Irish indeed !!:(

JohnMarston

Its a disgrace Joe!

Riskymove

donegal_road wrote: »

Where the is the point in the public having to shell out a household charge when a tribunal investigating the former Taoiseach will cost us more than what the new levy will bring in.. you could not make this stuff up! Please someone give me a shake and tell me its just a dream.. :mad:

Household charge - €160m PER YEAR

what til it becomes graduated!

foxyboxer

Isn't it uniquely Irish that over €200m is wasted to prove or not prove that a politician is corrupt.

The true corruption here is the sheer waste of money the tribunal has cost.

suicide_circus

Póg Mahon

donegal_road

I just heard on the news that it could go up as far as €300m for the total cost of the Mahon tribunal, while the rest of you out there will be prosecuted with the full process of the law for not paying the €100 household charge, by the very same legal system who has charged the tax-payer 300m

dvpower

What the hell has this got to do with the Household Charge - isn't that money going to pay for Crumlin Children's Hospital now?:eek:


Didn't the Revenue investigations that came out of the Mahon tribunal raise well over €250m anyway?

Ghandee

Household charge

First I've heard of such a thing........

Did you receive an invoice or something

donegal_road

dvpower wrote: »

What the hell has this got to do with the Household Charge - isn't that money going to pay for Crumlin Children's Hospital now?:eek:


Didn't the Revenue investigations that came out of the Mahon tribunal raise well over €250m anyway?

so that justifies the judiciary to put the boot in for the whole amount then? they are taking the f**kin pi$$ :eek:

galwayrush

We need a tribunal tax on property.:pac:

dvpower

donegal_road wrote: »

so that justifies the judiciary to put the boot in for the whole amount then? they are taking the f**kin pi$$ :eek:

The judiciary are getting €250m out of this?:eek:
Thanks for bringing this to our attention.

Where To

Where are those figures from?

The property tax cost me €100

The Mahon tribunal cost me SFA.

Pottler

JohnMarston wrote: »

Its a disgrace Joe!

this is probably why we are where we are. "give a sh1t/whatever" attitude. More focused people who do give a sh1t (about making money out of schmucks) love this attitude. Instead of being annoyed/expecting better/demanding change, people just shrug and say "shure thats how it is, the basterds" and go on with their day. A lot of poorer nations have that trait, Romania, Poland, most of the former USSR, Southern Italy, Ireland, America(a lot of it), etc etc.
Nations with more demanding populations tend to do better-Scandinavia, Germany(lately), Switzerland, Iceland, etc etc. As long as we tug the forelock and mutter under our breath, plus ca change. A pity, really.

donegal_road

dvpower wrote: »

The judiciary are getting €250m out of this?:eek:
Thanks for bringing this to our attention.

And the total cost of paying the 35 people who served on the tribunal's legal team since it was established in 1997 has now reached almost €50m.

The new figures on legal costs come after the Irish Independent revealed a massive €30m bill for day-to-day running costs at the tribunal.

The spend included €80,000 on tea, coffee and water; €70,000 on newspapers, milk and other kitchen supplies and nearly €50,000 on lunches for judges and the legal team.

This was on top of their fees -- senior counsel were paid €1,714 daily and juniors €1,143 during the first few years of the tribunal, which began sitting in 1997. In 2002 fees were hiked to €2,250 and €1,500 -- even when the tribunal was not sitting in public.

They were later cut to €2,070 and €1,380 in 2009, and to €1,760 and €1,173 the following year.

By the time it concluded its public sittings in 2008, the Mahon Tribunal had sat for 916 days and had generated 60,000 pages of evidence.

At its peak, it employed 50 staff, including legal staff, accountants, IT workers, indexers and a tipstaff (personal aide) for each of its three judges.

Some €5.8m was paid in fees in 2005 -- with more than €2.5m paid in 2010 and 2011 despite no public hearings taking place.

The total bill for the inquiry to date is €97.3m -- but the final cost is not yet known because it will have to decide whether to pay legal costs to tribunal witnesses. The first modules of the Planning Tribunal led to 92 of the 113 witnesses getting their legal costs in full -- a success rate of 81pc.

Tribunal chairman Judge Alan Mahon has estimated that the final cost will be around €247m when third-party costs are paid.

Mahon Tribunal creates millionaire lawyer No 17.... but dont take my word for it...

dvpower

donegal_road wrote: »

Mahon Tribunal creates millionaire lawyer No 17.... but dont take my word for it...

Ah right. Thats €250m for the total bill.

The cost for the judiciary is just a tiny proportion of this.

ilovesleep

I read a few months back that the tribunal has so far cost 97 million. Now I am reading here that costs for this tribunal may/will rise to 250 million.

So lets do some sums:
250 million - 97 million = 153 million.

So they have absolutely no attention of releasing that tribunal report anytime soon if they intend to spend another 153 million on it, considering that 97 million was spent over how long of a period?

This tribunal was due for release back in 2007. There have been many estimated release dates since but it keeps getting pushed back with excuses like budgets and elections.

Let's face it, this tribunal report has been finished for a long time but they keep hanging onto it with excuses to continue to fill their own pockets of taxpayers money.

Capt'n Midnight

http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/government_in_ireland/national_government/tribunals_and_investigations/tribunals_of_inquiry.html

The Tribunal of Inquiry into the Beef Processing Industry, 1994.

1994 and the only one who went to prison was the journalist.


We've had 18 years of tribunals mostly about wrongdoing by the rich and powerful. I don't get the impression that rich and powerful wrongdoers fear the tribunals

Yakult

This country is a giant sinkhole for money. Great to see money being well used as always..

ilovesleep

Yakult wrote: »

This country is a giant sinkhole for money. Great to see money being well used as always..

That's it!

This tribunal report is an abuse of taxpayers money. There's many more abuses of taxpayers money like over inflated pay, pensions and perks for those on the gravy train, quangos, wastage in the sw department for a few examples such as holy communion payouts. So long as people continue to be good little tax paying abiding citizens these abuses will continue. The plug should be pulled from Enda Kenny's arse. Let's see how he'll be able to fund these abuses with a deminishing exchequer.

ilovesleep

Still no sign of this?

Biggins

Where is the DIRECT LINK to this supposed independent story?

I'm all for truth about the "politics screws up - you pay" tax/levy/charge - but till I see a report on this, I too am very suspicious!

By the way the OP has posted these TWO stories in the title, it looks like he's saying one is paying part of the other?

donegal_road

sorry, because both stories were on the front page, I just linked it to independent.ie which of course, changes every day. It was on the edition from the 15th March. Will see if I can find them

Link to story 1 here

Link to story 2 here


It just so happened that they both appeared next to each other on the main page of the Independent, it struck me as being a bit outrageous

Biggins

donegal_road wrote: »

sorry, because both stories were on the front page, I just linked it to independent.ie which of course, changes every day. It was on the edition from the 15th March. Will see if I can find them

Link to story 1 here

Link to story 2 here


It just so happened that they both appeared next to each other on the main page of the Independent, it struck me as being a bit outrageous

Thanks for the clarification (and links) - much appreciated.

chickendinner

I demand a tribunal to investigate the cost of this tribunal, and if necessary
a tribunal to investigate the cost of subsequent tribunals investigating the cost of tribunals


Signed
Freeman and Hughes solicitors

donegal_road

its almost as if someone on Newstalk had been reading this thread, this very topic was being discussed today on the Ivan Yeats program... and the fact that the Department of the Environment are handling both the costs of the Mahon Tribunal, and the impending household charge.

Dirk Gently

Tribunals only purpose are to benefit the legal profession. Another private profession living off state benefits.

Biggins

donegal_road wrote: »

its almost as if someone on Newstalk had been reading this thread, this very topic was being discussed today on the Ivan Yeats program... and the fact that the Department of the Environment are handling both the costs of the Mahon Tribunal, and the impending household charge.

...While further promising away 3+ billion to bondholders and/or foreign banks at the end of this month.
Absolute sickening!

happypants

The the cost of this tribunal is absolutely shocking. As with everything else it will continue to be dragged out for as possible at the highest cost to the taxpayer, and for what?

I wouldn't trust the people conducting the tribunal at all, it's all back scratching as usual, you keep paying us for another year and we'll make sure only good findings are brought to light. All government parties are buddies, it's been documented on here before that once they get into the Dail bar they're all best mates. It's all for show, at the end of the day as long as they continue to receive ridiculous wages and pensions they don't care. None of them can be trusted yet nothing will be done about them. This country is a joke.

donegal_road

17 legal millionaires have been created by the Mahon tribunal.. and its two fingers to the rest of us who are paying for it

kupus

chickendinner wrote: »

I demand a tribunal to investigate the cost of this tribunal, and if necessary
a tribunal to investigate the cost of subsequent tribunals investigating the cost of tribunals


Signed
Freeman and Hughes solicitors

I agree with this, I mean times are hord, I have 4 kids that need to go to private colloge soon, and who'll pay for their 3rd level private university degrees. Please sir con we hove some more...
Richard Head B.A in B.S.

ilovesleep

donegal_road wrote: »

its almost as if someone on Newstalk had been reading this thread, this very topic was being discussed today on the Ivan Yeats program... and the fact that the Department of the Environment are handling both the costs of the Mahon Tribunal, and the impending household charge.

There was a thread last night on politics.ie with a rumour that it was due for release today. So that probably spurred the newstalk program I'm guessing.

Is anybody else absolutely pissed off at this abuse of taxpayers money? They're dragging it out for as long as possible.

donegal_road

ilovesleep wrote: »

There was a thread last night on politics.ie with a rumour that it was due for release today. So that probably spurred the newstalk program I'm guessing.

Is anybody else absolutely pissed off at this abuse of taxpayers money? They're dragging it out for as long as possible.

it is truly shocking what the people of Ireland are prepared to put up with... and equally as enraging is how far people in power will take the taxpayer for a ride.
I mentioned this to a guy I know in Toronto who is a senior lawyer, he is astounded. (the same guy drives a 12 year old Toyota)

ilovesleep

donegal_road wrote: »

it is truly shocking what the people of Ireland are prepared to put up with... and equally as enraging is how far people in power will take the taxpayer for a ride.
I mentioned this to a guy I know in Toronto who is a senior lawyer, he is astounded. (the same guy drives a 12 year old Toyota)

This tribunal has been ready for years and people just don't care that the establishment is riding high on the backs of the taxpayer.
Greed and carelessness.

ilovesleep

Rumour has it, it's out in the morning. Won't hold my breath for it though. There'll be an excuse issued in the morning for another delay.