Michael Lowry's popularity

Going Forward

Is Lowry's popularity an indictment of the inefficiencies within the public service?

Unless he is constantly breaking and bending rules in getting preferential treatment for his constituents, is he not simply getting matters sorted efficiently for them, something which the various public services should be capable of?

Is it naive to think that politicians can only give their constituents precisely what they are legally entitled to in the way of government/state services?

kippy

Going Forward wrote: »

Is Lowry's popularity an indictment of the inefficiencies within the public service?

Now that is a leap of logic.

To answer, no.

Dob74

Why is he meeting his olde FG buddies behind closed doors?
Surely all discussions should take place in the Dail out in the open.
Our public representitives like to meet someone with a dodgy past in private?WTF

Public service does things slow almost to help politicians like Lowry to pull strokes for them. The powers that be wouldnt have it any other way.

Going Forward

kippy wrote: »

Now that is a leap of logic.

To answer, no.

Whats his recipe for success then?

kippy

Going Forward wrote: »

Whats his recipe for success then?

Idiotic voters.
It's a big problem in this country.

thebman

kippy wrote: »

Idiotic voters.
It's a big problem in this country.

Voters aren't idiots. Unfortunately people like to assume this to avoid any discussion of the actual problems in our society.

kippy

thebman wrote: »

Voters aren't idiots. Unfortunately people like to assume this to avoid any discussion of the actual problems in our society.

A large portion of them are.

n97 mini

It's parish pump politics at its worst.

John O'Donoghue would get re-elected too. He sanctioned more than €5m for his pet swimming pool project in Killarney in 2006 -- despite several question marks raised over the viability of a leisure complex in a tourist town that already had 15 swimming pools. One year after it opened, the Killarney swimming pool and leisure complex was no longer viable and its operators pulled out.

Just like Jackie Healy-Rae got a by-pass and a hospital for every town in Kerry from Bertie. He'd get re-elected too (Jackie Healy-Rae that is).

Meanwhile my constituency has no hospital or swimming pool yet one company alone here is contributing about 9% of GDP.

mikemac1

He's not bringing home the bacon at the moment
Almost as invisible as Coonan from Roscrea who does nothing, nothing at all

The new man is Alan Kelly
Our new train service, leisure centre, road improvements and bridge by Ballina. Almost half a million for the CBS school
They've been talking about that bridge across the Shannon for over a decade :rolleyes:. Nobody will believe it until it is built.

But that doesn't mean everyone in Tipp North thinks the same
The good people of Roscrea hate the Nenagh based Minister :eek:

“Nenagh won and we lost”, one woman claimed in reference to news that extra staff and beds are being provided at St Conlon’s Community Nursing Unit in Minister Kelly’s Nenagh base.

It's Tipp so you have to bring in the hurling

Cllr Hogan also took issue with the announcement of extra beds for Nenagh, and criticised pictures of Minister Kelly wearing a Tipperary hurling jersey on his website.
“He should have worn a Nenagh jersey, because that’s all he cares about”, Cllr Hogan told the meeting.

http://www.nenaghguardian.ie/news-detail.php?article=11VZNN

There are enough votes around Thurles to send forward a TD and Team Lowry have that area sown up

I didn't invent Team Lowry, sure it's on his own website
http://www.michaellowry.ie/lowry-team/

Nenagh and Roscrea have their own TD's, there is a strong Thurles base and he'll get some more support throughout the county.
Lowry will be stepping down next election and then you can judge what happens next, is it someone fresh and new or is it someone he handpicks.

Looking at this thread you'd think the entire area supported Lowry.
Look a bit deeper, it's a big area. Far bigger then the Dublin and Cork constituencies.

As for the Galwegian calling the voters idiots, look to your own; Frank "twenty houses" Fahy.

murphaph

mikemac1 wrote: »

He's not bringing home the bacon at the moment
Almost as invisible as Coonan from Roscrea who does nothing, nothing at all

The new man is Alan Kelly
Our new train service, leisure centre, road improvements and bridge by Ballina. Almost half a million for the CBS school
They've been talking about that bridge across the Shannon for over a decade :rolleyes:. Nobody will believe it until it is built.

But that doesn't mean everyone in Tipp North thinks the same
The good people of Roscrea hate the Nenagh based Minister :eek:



It's Tipp so you have to bring in the hurling

http://www.nenaghguardian.ie/news-detail.php?article=11VZNN

There are enough votes around Thurles to send forward a TD and Team Lowry have that area sown up

I didn't invent Team Lowry, sure it's on his own website
http://www.michaellowry.ie/lowry-team/

Nenagh and Roscrea have their own TD's, there is a strong Thurles base and he'll get some more support throughout the county.
Lowry will be stepping down next election and then you can judge what happens next, is it someone fresh and new or is it someone he handpicks.

Looking at this thread you'd think the entire area supported Lowry.
Look a bit deeper, it's a big area. Far bigger then the Dublin and Cork constituencies.

As for the Galwegian calling the voters idiots, look to your own; Frank "twenty houses" Fahy.

This whole post sums up what is deeply wrong with the Irish political system and the electorate that vote in it.

The Irish electorate are incredibly parochial. My town, my parish bullsh!t comes waaay ahead of the national interest. Our electorate is in general ignorant in the extreme.

The likes of Lowry and Fahy simply don't get elected in the UK/Germany/Netherlands etc. Possibly they get elected in southern Italy. What do we want to be as a country? A southern Italy or a Germany/UK?

I want more for my country than parish pump politics but you have it in Ireland even in the cities-stupid northside/southside divisions and so on. Not as bad as the rural voters but still there.

doomed

Before we head off on the "look what the thick peasants of North Tipp voted for" trail, it is worth remembering that Charlie's Haughey's corruption was well known when we elected him Taoiseach and gave him huge votes in his Dublin constituency. Liam Lawlor and Ray Burke also got elected without the benefit of any reputation for honesty. And did we actually learn much from Mahon about Bertie that we didn't know when we made him Taoiseach the last time?

Maybe it is something to do with being a former colony but we almost see pulling strokes and a bit of brown envelope activity as an act of rebellion against authority, forgetting of course that the victim is now ourselves and the integrity of our State.

Because we have a PR system we think we have a sophisticated electorate. We don't. We just have a complicated process for putting unsuitable people into a national parliament.

We are also not the only country where you have politicians who pride themselves of being a constituency man first and foremost. They have these in other countries and they have a name for them. They call them "local councillors".

doomed

Going Forward wrote: »

Is Lowry's popularity an indictment of the inefficiencies within the public service?

You should get that checked out. I am sure there are tablets

n97 mini

murphaph wrote: »

What do we want to be as a country? A southern Italy or a Germany/UK?

Feck that!

I want a big house in the country, a BMW, a very small school for my kids, a hospital, a swimming pool and a bypass. I'd also want a bus route and a train station. When my daughter finishes school I want a local job for her teaching or in the ESB, earning enough to buy her own BMW. And I'm going to give her a site to build a big house on, so she won't have to pay stamp duty. And I want the council to connect my house to the mains sewerage, I don't care what the cost, cos I aint paying no septic tank tax.

M cebee

it's an indictment of the voters alright

they we/they re-elect a crook like him

what service did he do the country giving away a valuable license?

would never happen in the uk,he'd be out on his ear

mikemac1

murphaph wrote: »

I want more for my country than parish pump politics but you have it in Ireland even in the cities-stupid northside/southside divisions and so on. Not as bad as the rural voters but still there.

At least rural divisions are set

In your own area Lawlor was able to turn Clondalkin into Lucan

Not as bad as rural voters?

murphaph

mikemac1 wrote: »

At least rural divisions are set

In your own area Lawlor was able to turn Clondalkin into Lucan

Not as bad as rural voters?

Lawlor was not re-elected after any shenanigans of his became public knowledge of course. Anyway, I clearly stated that stupid divisions exist in urban Ireland too, but it's telling that you immediately and exclusively focused on the least relevant part of my whole post and made a "rural v urban" issue out of it!!

Do you agree that Irish voters in general focus far too much on local issues at the expense of the national good?

D1stant

Dob74 wrote: »

Why is he meeting his olde FG buddies behind closed doors?
Surely all discussions should take place in the Dail out in the open.
Our public representitives like to meet someone with a dodgy past in private?WTF

Public service does things slow almost to help politicians like Lowry to pull strokes for them. The powers that be wouldnt have it any other way.

All politics is done behind closed doors. The Dail is the after event party. The Whip system ensures that. If our public reps were barred from meeting people with dodgy pasts well.... they would have very few people to meet

p.s. For the record - Lowry is a cunt

Sponge Bob

Look at his tweets 2200 "following"

https://twitter.com/intent/user?screen_name=michael_lowry

"Looking forward to the opening of Jimmy Doyle Rd later today.Road will be of huge benefit to the town of Thurles."

goose2005

Going Forward wrote: »

Unless he is constantly breaking and bending rules in getting preferential treatment for his constituents, is he not simply getting matters sorted efficiently for them, something which the various public services should be capable of?

Not really, he's actually clogging up state bureaucracy with endless TD's letters that have to be dealt with, as do the other 165. Stuff like this is one of the main source of re-election votes, so what incentive is there to actually improve services if politicians can profit from badly-run services?

fly_agaric

Going Forward wrote: »

Is Lowry's popularity an indictment of the inefficiencies within the public service?

Yes. Ireland's crappy weather is also an "indictment of the inefficiencies within the public service" ( the Teagasc Weather Control Project has not delivered the goods despite all the Tax-Payers money spent on it!:mad:).

nursextreme

mikemac1 wrote: »

He's not bringing home the bacon at the moment
Almost as invisible as Coonan from Roscrea who does nothing, nothing at all

The new man is Alan Kelly
Our new train service, leisure centre, road improvements and bridge by Ballina. Almost half a million for the CBS school
They've been talking about that bridge across the Shannon for over a decade :rolleyes:. Nobody will believe it until it is built.

But that doesn't mean everyone in Tipp North thinks the same
The good people of Roscrea hate the Nenagh based Minister :eek:

I think they are all bloody useless to be honest, none of them seem to look at the constituency as a whole, we would be better off with just one TD in North Tipp instead of the 3 who put all there efforts into securing votes for reelection as opposed to tackling the constituency wide issues. Where is the job creation! Unemployment is rife accross the constituency as is immigration. Health Service has moved to Limerick, Mental Health Service is amalgamating with Limerick and Clare with North Tipp being the biggest loser in that deal. Most of the infrastrustural improvement at least will make it easier for people to get away from North Tipp as they seek healthcare and jobs else where. At least that new cycle path from Nenagh to Limerick will make it easier to cycle to A and E in Limerick when you get turned away from Nenagh Hospital then you will be able to relax on a trolly for 48 hours and get your breath back.

later12

Going Forward wrote: »

Is Lowry's popularity an indictment of the inefficiencies within the public service?

Lowry was a popular minister and member of government, and quite aside from his political contacts, he has contacts throughout the civil service.

This allows him favour on two areas
(1) Announcing government decisions affecting Tipperary North before they are even announced by Government. This was particularly notable when Tipperary North had Fianna Fail (government) TDs, and Lowry would beat them to the Nenagh Guardian newsdesk, making announcements of government decisions as though he was behind them.
(2) It wasn't all PR stunts. Sometimes, Lowry really was (is?) influential in administrative decisions. As well as being well informed, Lowry is often well placed to lobby those within the civil service, and those in politics.

I don't blame the people of North Tipperary one dot for voting for Lowry. He is an achiever for local services. Far from being the cradle of parochialism, North Tipperary voters did not come down in the last shower. They know that as it stands, they have to compete with parochial TDs in every other constituency in the country.

Under our electoral system, which has no tangible, direct input into a government's formation, and which elects an awful lot of nobodies with a lot of time on their hands, that's just the system the voter is handed. That's what the voter has to work with in North Tipperary and in every other constituency in the country.

liammur

n97 mini wrote: »

It's parish pump politics at its worst.

John O'Donoghue would get re-elected too. He sanctioned more than €5m for his pet swimming pool project in Killarney in 2006 -- despite several question marks raised over the viability of a leisure complex in a tourist town that already had 15 swimming pools. One year after it opened, the Killarney swimming pool and leisure complex was no longer viable and its operators pulled out.

Just like Jackie Healy-Rae got a by-pass and a hospital for every town in Kerry from Bertie. He'd get re-elected too (Jackie Healy-Rae that is).

Meanwhile my constituency has no hospital or swimming pool yet one company alone here is contributing about 9% of GDP.

Exactly. And even that company being located in your constituency was parish pump politics. Some politician probably pulled a few strokes to get in there and was deemed a hero.

n97 mini

liammur wrote: »

And even that company being located in your constituency was parish pump politics. Some politician probably pulled a few strokes to get in there and was deemed a hero.

That's a good point. I must look into it, and see who was in govt at the time, and who the local TDs were. (Although we're fairly urban here)

I always assumed the location was suitable because not long afterwards another massive one located down the road from the first one.

liammur

n97 mini wrote: »

That's a good point. I must look into it, and see who was in govt at the time, and who the local TDs were. (Although we're fairly urban here)

I always assumed the location was suitable because not long afterwards another massive one located down the road from the first one.

If you look at Galway at the moment, they are getting in a load of multinationals like SAP/IBM/Boston Scientific/HP. Companies get extra tax breaks for going there as they qualify for grants under the BMW scheme. As a consequence, Limerick 60 miles down has hardly got a company in despite massive job losses.
End result: 1 city booming, 1 city on the verge of shutdown. The Irish way of running a country.

n97 mini

liammur wrote: »

If you look at Galway at the moment, they are getting in a load of multinationals like SAP/IBM/Boston Scientific/HP. Companies get extra tax breaks for going there as they qualify for grants under the BMW scheme.

We don't even get the same relief here under the BES as the rest of the country does, as apparently we're alright for jobs.

The current "assisted" areas are all areas of Ireland excluding Dublin, Meath, Kildare and Wicklow (and with effect from 2009, Cork city and county (except for Cork Docklands).

liammur wrote: »

As a consequence, Limerick 60 miles down has hardly got a company in despite massive job losses.
End result: 1 city booming, 1 city on the verge of shutdown. The Irish way of running a country.

That's a good point too, and I remember discussing with someone recently that I would introduce a zero-rated corporation tax rate for Limerick and Waterford, and hold it in place until both cities were up to the national employment average. Companies that set up during that period would be zero rated indefinitely.

liammur

n97 mini wrote: »

We don't even get the same relief here under the BES as the rest of the country does, as apparently we're alright for jobs.



That's a good point too, and I remember discussing with someone recently that I would introduce a zero-rated corporation tax rate for Limerick and Waterford, and hold it in place until both cities were up to the national employment average. Companies that set up during that period would be zero rated indefinitely.

And that's exactly the problem with our political system summed up in a nutshell.
You would look at the problem from a national level. But our parish pump system means it's looked at constituency by constituency. And this is why Lowry is so popular in the Tipperary, if he didn't do anything, the government would literally let the place fall down.
Some people get a little confused with the term 'parish pump' because they take it literally and think it has to be some parish in a rural place, but it refers to any and every constituency.

n97 mini

liammur wrote: »

And this is why Lowry is so popular in the Tipperary, if he didn't do anything, the government would literally let the place fall down.
Some people get a little confused with the term 'parish pump' because they take it literally and think it has to be some parish in a rural place, but it refers to any and every constituency.

I think people see some constituencies getting maybe a bigger slice of the pie than they should, and the fact that most obvious of these are "down the country" leads people to use the parish pump metaphor. Lowry, Healy Rae, John O'Donoghue, Pee Flynn, but also Tony Gregory.

liammur

n97 mini wrote: »

I think people see some constituencies getting maybe a bigger slice of the pie than they should, and the fact that most obvious of these are "down the country" leads people to use the parish pump metaphor. Lowry, Healy Rae, John O'Donoghue, Pee Flynn, but also Tony Gregory.

But the same people won't see any problem if their constituency gets a bigger slice of the pie than it should. Indeed, they'd probably say, 'we've good politicians here, they're looking after us'

john reilly

n97 mini wrote: »

Feck that!

I want a big house in the country, a BMW, a very small school for my kids, a hospital, a swimming pool and a bypass. I'd also want a bus route and a train station. When my daughter finishes school I want a local job for her teaching or in the ESB, earning enough to buy her own BMW. And I'm going to give her a site to build a big house on, so she won't have to pay stamp duty. And I want the council to connect my house to the mains sewerage, I don't care what the cost, cos I aint paying no septic tank tax.

could this be anymore wrong. you do know there is no mains sewerage in the country. there is no bus or train stations and the only bmws are kanckers from dublin casing houses to rob

john reilly

murphaph wrote: »

This whole post sums up what is deeply wrong with the Irish political system and the electorate that vote in it.

The Irish electorate are incredibly parochial. My town, my parish bullsh!t comes waaay ahead of the national interest. Our electorate is in general ignorant in the extreme.

The likes of Lowry and Fahy simply don't get elected in the UK/Germany/Netherlands etc. Possibly they get elected in southern Italy. What do we want to be as a country? A southern Italy or a Germany/UK?

I want more for my country than parish pump politics but you have it in Ireland even in the cities-stupid northside/southside divisions and so on. Not as bad as the rural voters but still there.

cant see lowry standing in any of these countries, i dont even know if he speaks a foreign language. but this post smacks of stupid ***** from the country dont know what theyre doing, why dont we restrict the vote in general elections to city folk on account of how much they contribute to are country

murphaph

john reilly wrote: »

cant see lowry standing in any of these countries, i dont even know if he speaks a foreign language. but this post smacks of stupid ***** from the country dont know what theyre doing, why dont we restrict the vote in general elections to city folk on account of how much they contribute to are country

Do you know the difference between "Lowry" and "The likes of Lowry"? The second one means people who are like Lowry, but not actually him. :rolleyes:

murphaph

liammur wrote: »

But the same people won't see any problem if their constituency gets a bigger slice of the pie than it should. Indeed, they'd probably say, 'we've good politicians here, they're looking after us'

I'd NEVER say that if my constiuency got something it didn't need/deserve. I'd recognise the parish pump nature of it and condemn it for what it is.

Politicians in Ireland generally look after themselves first. They do what it takes to get reelected, rather than what's actually best. Sometimes the two things are coincidentally the same.

I grew up in Newcastle, County Dublin. It's a smallish village that has always (as long as I can remember) had a direct bus service to Dublin city centre. Dublin Bus proposed to cut this route back and make it a feeder route, to feed into a more high frequency, high reliability core route (and to Luas). This would ahve resulted in a more reliable end to end journey time, but would require a change, as is common the world over on transport networks. The local politicians all jumped on the bandwagon with their protests, despite the Network Direct reforms (from Dublin Bus) being overall a very sensible idea, it's being ruined by interfering politicians. So Newcastle may keep it's direct connection thanks to these goons, but it is not actually the best result for the city as a whole to be tinkering with a fundamentally sound plan in this way.

Most of said politicians wouldn't know the inside of bus from their elbow of course.

liammur

murphaph wrote: »

I'd NEVER say that if my constiuency got something it didn't need/deserve. I'd recognise the parish pump nature of it and condemn it for what it is.

Politicians in Ireland generally look after themselves first. They do what it takes to get reelected, rather than what's actually best. Sometimes the two things are coincidentally the same.

I grew up in Newcastle, County Dublin. It's a smallish village that has always (as long as I can remember) had a direct bus service to Dublin city centre. Dublin Bus proposed to cut this route back and make it a feeder route, to feed into a more high frequency, high reliability core route (and to Luas). This would ahve resulted in a more reliable end to end journey time, but would require a change, as is common the world over on transport networks. The local politicians all jumped on the bandwagon with their protests, despite the Network Direct reforms (from Dublin Bus) being overall a very sensible idea, it's being ruined by interfering politicians. So Newcastle may keep it's direct connection thanks to these goons, but it is not actually the best result for the city as a whole to be tinkering with a fundamentally sound plan in this way.

Most of said politicians wouldn't know the inside of bus from their elbow of course.

But the thing is, most constituencies actually do need/deserve most of these items.

Does Kerry need good roads? How about a multinational moving in some where, every constituency could claim they need them in. Medical facilities, the people of donegal could claim they need a health centre there etc

cast_iron

later12 wrote: »

I don't blame the people of North Tipperary one dot for voting for Lowry. He is an achiever for local services. Far from being the cradle of parochialism, North Tipperary voters did not come down in the last shower. They know that as it stands, they have to compete with parochial TDs in every other constituency in the country.

That's why these politicians remain popular. Look at the Flynn dynasty as another fine example. It boils down to whether the local area is better off with out without them...and in fairness, the answer is usually pretty obvious.

There's an inherent problem when politicians are elected locally to represent nationally. But that's what we have.

n97 mini

murphaph wrote: »

Newcastle, County Dublin.

I'm familiar with Newcastle. It got the wrong sort of parish pump politics in that it got a load of unwanted properties built, and in general it has received the shitty end of the stick.

The only exception is Peamount Hospital; but this is more of a legacy hangover thing, as there are plenty of other hospitals within a 10 mile radius.

Mary Harney is from Newcastle, though you'd never think it. N'ere a bypass or a Leisure Centre in sight. If that was John O'Donoghue...

liammur

n97 mini wrote: »

I'm familiar with Newcastle. It got the wrong sort of parish pump politics in that it got a load of unwanted properties built, and in general it has received the shitty end of the stick.

The only exception is Peamount Hospital; but this is more of a legacy hangover thing, as there are plenty of other hospitals within a 10 mile radius.

Mary Harney is from Newcastle, though you'd never think it. N'ere a bypass or a Leisure Centre in sight. If that was John O'Donoghue...

In that case, O Donoghue was a vastly superior politician to Harney in every respect. Harney was inept both nationally and locally.

murphaph

liammur wrote: »

But the thing is, most constituencies actually do need/deserve most of these items.

Does Kerry need good roads? How about a multinational moving in some where, every constituency could claim they need them in. Medical facilities, the people of donegal could claim they need a health centre there etc

Well, there's a difference between needs and wants.

Not every constituency needs a multinational. We've seen what happens when towns have one big factory that goes wallop. It's a disaster.

Many people are too silly to realise that the place for factories is concentrated in towns and cities, not spread about the country in a "one for everyone in the audience" manner.

liammur

murphaph wrote: »

Well, there's a difference between needs and wants.

Not every constituency needs a multinational. We've seen what happens when towns have one big factory that goes wallop. It's a disaster.

Many people are too silly to realise that the place for factories is concentrated in towns and cities, not spread about the country in a "one for everyone in the audience" manner.

I'm quite interested in hearing which constituencies don't need multinationals.

n97 mini

liammur wrote: »

In that case, O Donoghue was a vastly superior politician to Harney in every respect. Harney was inept both nationally and locally.

I think anyone from Newcastle and beyond would agree.

The irony is that it is quite possible Mary Harney put the national interest first, and Newcastle second*, whereas the Bull always put his own re-election first.

Which makes the case for the removal of gombeens from local politics, and let them argue on a national stage, and in the national interest only.

* It is my own personal opinion that Mary Harney was usesless, and didn't serve Newcastle even to the average standard.

Jimoslimos

liammur wrote: »

I'm quite interested in hearing which constituencies don't need multinationals.

Most of them, consider what a multinational requires

1) Abundant workforce - towns & cities
2) Highly educated workforce - universities
3) Good public transport and road links - both for workforce and import/export of goods

So the ideal location for 90% of multinationals setting up in Ireland would be close to Cork, Dublin, Limerick or Galway.

john reilly

Jimoslimos wrote: »

Most of them, consider what a multinational requires

1) Abundant workforce - towns & cities
2) Highly educated workforce - universities
3) Good public transport and road links - both for workforce and import/export of goods

So the ideal location for 90% of multinationals setting up in Ireland would be close to Cork, Dublin, Limerick or Galway.

good idea so if your not from one of these you can look forward to a five hour commute or living off benifits. nice one

john reilly

murphaph wrote: »

Well, there's a difference between needs and wants.

Not every constituency needs a multinational. We've seen what happens when towns have one big factory that goes wallop. It's a disaster.

Many people are too silly to realise that the place for factories is concentrated in towns and cities, not spread about the country in a "one for everyone in the audience" manner.

theres nothing like a bit of patronisng to put those pesky contry folk in there place. so your point is that these towns where better to have no employment in case the factories might close. interesting point

murphaph

john reilly wrote: »

theres nothing like a bit of patronisng to put those pesky contry folk in there place. so your point is that these towns where better to have no employment in case the factories might close. interesting point

John, go to any rural area in Germany, Denmark, Poland, Spain, Italy and show me all the multinationals. It's a FACT OF LIFE that cities provide the critical mass of employees, services, markets etc. that facilitate multinationals etc.

"Country folk" have been moving to the cities since the industrial revolution began. Perhaps it's because the industrial revolution largely passed Ireland by that Irish rural dwellers often feel hard done by that factories aren't set up there for their convenience.

Go visit rural western Denmark (one of the wealthiest EU states) and you'll find an area devoid of employment opportunities and largely devoid of people-houses can be bought for next to nothing. It's all concentratred in Denmark's cities, mostly Copanhagen. Denmark doesn't even rely on multinationals-it has many indiginous companies we could only dream of, but they aren't located in rural areas to keep the locals happy. Indeed the rural dwellers have a tough enough life of it but they have a saying that translates as "good enough". In Ireland it's the opposite, it's never good enough.

liammur

Jimoslimos wrote: »

Most of them, consider what a multinational requires

1) Abundant workforce - towns & cities
2) Highly educated workforce - universities
3) Good public transport and road links - both for workforce and import/export of goods

So the ideal location for 90% of multinationals setting up in Ireland would be close to Cork, Dublin, Limerick or Galway.

Ideal location, yes.
Complete Nonsense to suggest constituencies don't need MNC's.

I would say there is not 1 constituency in the country without a multinational. Our entire economic model is built around MNC's so for the other poster to post that constituencies don't need MNC's really shows his limited knowledge in this field.

liammur

n97 mini wrote: »

I think anyone from Newcastle and beyond would agree.

The irony is that it is quite possible Mary Harney put the national interest first, and Newcastle second*, whereas the Bull always put his own re-election first.

Which makes the case for the removal of gombeens from local politics, and let them argue on a national stage, and in the national interest only.

* It is my own personal opinion that Mary Harney was usesless, and didn't serve Newcastle even to the average standard.

Plus, O Donoghue penned the legislation which set up CAB. Harney ran the health service into the ground.

murphaph

liammur wrote: »

Plus, O Donoghue penned the legislation which set up CAB. Harney ran the health service into the ground.

How exactly did she make the HSE worse than it was?

liammur

murphaph wrote: »

How exactly did she make the HSE worse than it was?

'National disgrace' Harney's major legacy
[Posted: Tue 04/01/2011 by Niall Hunter, Editor www.irishhealth.com]
Our beleaguered health service broke some records this week. But don't expect to see this particular historical event listed in the HSE's list of achievements in 2011.
A massive 511 patients were on trolleys in hospital emergency departments on Tuesday. This seemed bad enough - then the figure started heading nearer the 600 mark on Wednesday, with 569 on trolleys, according to figures from the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO).
We are now seeing largest trolley wait number ever recorded by the INMO's "Trolley Watch", which counts the numbers of patients awaiting admission on hospital trolleys in EDs each morning.
Trade unions are often accused of engaging in hyperbole, but it is difficult to argue with the INMO's assertion that this clearly is a "national disgrace." It's a healthcare system failing to function at its most basic level and collapsing under the type of seasonal and other demands it should be able to absorb.
It must be remembered that the latest crisis is occurring nearly six years after Health Minister Mary Harney declared a national emergency and instituted an action plan due to the fact that at the time 495 patients were on ED trolleys.
Like much of Mary Harney's ambitious reforms, her A&E improvement plans have clearly failed.
And it is not just an emergency department or trolley problem. Every patient lying on a trolley is symptomatic of our chronic health service capacity issues.
Despite all the lecturing and spin about reform and doing more with less, the current Minister has failed to deal with this core issue after nearly six-and-a-half years in office.
In Mary Harney and the HSE's virtual reality world, we apparently have too many beds. Not only that, but fewer people will in future need to be treated in hospital thanks to an ambitious reorganisation of care into the community that may of may not happen sometime.

Did her plan of action work? Did her reforms work?

Good riddance to her. But we are gone off the original subject in the thread.

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n97 mini

murphaph wrote: »

How exactly did she make the HSE worse than it was?

Was it better or worse when she finished than it was when she started as Minister for Health?

n97 mini

liammur wrote: »

Plus, O Donoghue penned the legislation which set up CAB.

Not sure that was his own idea. Like the tobacco warnings weren't Pee Flynn's idea, but they were credited to him so as to not make him look completely useless.

liammur

n97 mini wrote: »

Not sure that was his own idea. Like the tobacco warnings weren't Pee Flynn's idea, but they were credited to him so as to not make him look completely useless.

Don't get me wrong, I don't rate O Donoghue at all, but it's something positive I can find that he did. Apart from that, he was a complete waste of space like the rest of that cabinet.