Male TD pulls female colleague into his lap – in the Dáil chamber

username123

Im sure we have all heard the story - its international news at this stage.
For anyone who hasnt - here is a link.

Seriously? This is appalling. If this happened me in work I would be suing for sexual harassment. Its not funny. Its not a game. It is inappropriate behaviour.

Taxburden carrier

username123 wrote: »

Im sure we have all heard the story - its international news at this stage.
For anyone who hasnt - here is a link.

Seriously? This is appalling. If this happened me in work I would be suing for sexual harassment. Its not funny. Its not a game. It is inappropriate behaviour.

It certainly is. Why is this muppet funded by the taxpayer?

Rower2

she actually got her ass patted too.

....great having women in the dail. oh the equality.

Has she commented on it herself?

Chucky the tree

Edit : Afaik she hasn't commented on it Whoops. Very strange to see the reaction. While it's inappropriate it seems that no one cares about what Aine herself thinks.

Crooked Jack

username123 wrote: »

Im sure we have all heard the story - its international news at this stage.
For anyone who hasnt - here is a link.

Seriously? This is appalling. If this happened me in work I would be suing for sexual harassment. Its not funny. Its not a game. It is inappropriate behaviour.

Probably best to wait for the full story before you go gettin all outraged

Chucky the tree

Chucky the tree wrote: »

Edit : Afaik she hasn't commented on it Whoops. Very strange to see the reaction. While it's inappropriate it seems that no one cares about what Aine herself thinks.

All I heard on some discussion show at lunchtime was about how she'd react

paddy145

Couldnt care less myself

Chucky the tree

Chucky the tree wrote: »

Edit : Afaik she hasn't commented on it Whoops. Very strange to see the reaction. While it's inappropriate it seems that no one cares about what Aine herself thinks.

That's the thing, if she's ok with it then there is no issue.

Chucky the tree

bluewolf wrote: »

All I heard on some discussion show at lunchtime was about how she'd react

What did they saw?

Jerrica

[Deleted User] wrote: »

That's the thing, if she's ok with it then there is no issue.

If she has no issue with it then they're BOTH wrong. Accosting a colleague in the middle of a very very serious debate on an issue that directly affects women across the nation is in no way shape or form appropriate behaviour. This is mad-men-esque and was last seen around the time that women were seen as pretty little things to make the office look good and serve the coffee.

if this behaviour is accepted in a political environment how is it possible to expect that women will be seen as equals when that type of chauvanistic bolloxology is taken as the norm?

It's wrong on so many levels.

CaraMay

Ah that's the Aine collins who said she could not live on less than 100k per annum. I'm sure she is well able to look after herself

Jerrica

Jerrica wrote: »

If she has no issue with it then they're BOTH wrong. Accosting a colleague in the middle of a very very serious debate on an issue that directly affects women across the nation is in no way shape or form appropriate behaviour. This is mad-men-esque and was last seen around the time that women were sen as pretty little things to make the office look good and make the coffee.

if this behavioural is accepted in a political environment how is it possible to expect that women will be seen as equals when that type of chauvanistic bolloxology is taken as the norm?

It's wrong on so many levels.

They're on a break from the debate. If they are good mates and it's the kind of relationship they have then I don't see a problem.

If not, then that is a different issue.

Jerrica

CaraMay wrote: »

Ah that's the Aine collins who said she could not live on less than 100k per annum. I'm sure she is well able to look after herself

"Ah, sure she's a right aul sour cow, she deserved it..." Nah, let's not do that.

It doesn't matter what she has ever said or done. No woman or man should have their private space invaded in such a way in the work place, simple as.

.jacksparrow.

The world has got so serious.

HansHolzel

Tom Barry is still the man for the ambush.

CaraMay

Jerrica wrote: »

"Ah, sure she's a right aul sour cow, she deserved it..." Nah, let's not do that.

It doesn't matter what she has ever said or done. No woman or man should have their private space invaded in such a way in the work place, simple as.

We don't know if she has a problem with it. Maybe they do this all the time. No point being outraged unless she is.

Depp

fair play to him!

Jerrica

CaraMay wrote: »

We don't know if she has a problem with it. Maybe they do this all the time. No point being outraged unless she is.

That's not how it works. If it happens all the time then its wrong. If it happens once, its wrong. If she didn't find it a big deal, its still wrong. It's in the WORKPLACE, a place where every individual deserves the right not to feel under threat of harassment from a colleague. By turning blind eyes to this its sending a (disgustingly backwards) message that its ok to pull a female colleague onto your lap and pat her ass for giving you the pleasure.

It. Is. Wrong.

ahnowbrowncow

Jerrica wrote: »

That's not how it works. If it happens all the time then its wrong. If it happens once, its wrong. If she didn't find it a big deal, its still wrong. It's in the WORKPLACE, a place where every individual deserves the right not to feel under threat of harassment from a colleague. By turning blind eyes to this its sending a (disgustingly backwards) message that its ok to pull a female colleague onto your lap and pat her ass for giving you the pleasure.

It. Is. Wrong.

Maybe she liked or didn't mind the attention and being "accosted".

It's not up to you to decide what is wrong or inappropriate for someone.

As Cara has said, if she objects to this behaviour then it is wrong.

Cork boy 55

She extracts herself from his lab with some velocity and nearly falls over
She was clearly pissed off.
Being very tired can have sames effects as drunkenness maybe a lapses of judgement on his part being tired
This was 02:00am why they cannot work normal hours is beyond me.

Crooked Jack

Jerrica wrote: »

That's not how it works. If it happens all the time then its wrong. If it happens once, its wrong. If she didn't find it a big deal, its still wrong. It's in the WORKPLACE, a place where every individual deserves the right not to feel under threat of harassment from a colleague. By turning blind eyes to this its sending a (disgustingly backwards) message that its ok to pull a female colleague onto your lap and pat her ass for giving you the pleasure.

It. Is. Wrong.

Seriously, who are you to tell a pair of friends what sort of relationship they should have?

LizT

Ah sure it's all fun and games, not like there was anything important going on at the time, just a normal day in the Dail.... Oh wait.

She seems completely embarrassed by it when she gets up and walks away. They might be friends but there's a time and a place for that type of behaviour. Even if they normally mess around like that, it's completely inappropriate to do it in a workplace setting imo.

GalwayGuy2

I actually completely disagreed with Woopsydaisles first comment, but I kind of did agree with her second comment.

It's kind of akin to it happening during a lunch break and, while grossly inappropriate in a dail, might just be the relationship they have.

And, what does it being in an abortion debate have to do with it? It's inappropriate to begin with and it doesn't really matter what debate is happening.

Edit: Tbh, it does look pretty awful in the video.

CastingCouch

Seems like they're carrying on. I don't think a man in public eye would do that to someone otherwise.

I'd like to hear her comments on it before condemning the man for sexual harassment.

byhookorbycrook

So it 's ok because it was 2 am?? Tell that to every shift worker so. And the reason this went so late is due to the short terms of sitting in the dail, if they worked like everyone else this bill would have been sorted ages ago.

Thoie

ahnowbrowncow wrote: »

Maybe she liked or didn't mind the attention and being "accosted".

It's not up to you to decide what is wrong or inappropriate for someone.

As Cara has said, if she objects to this behaviour then it is wrong.

Some people like being spanked, but we still don't do it at work. I don't think anyone's deciding what is wrong or inappropriate for someone else on their own time, most people seem to be saying it's wrong and inappropriate in the workplace, which it is.

There's all sorts of things I'd actively enjoy, but it would be wrong/inappropriate for someone to do them to me in the office.

Das Kitty

If it happened in my workplace between two colleagues there'd be written warnings. There are a lot of married couples in my place and even between them it's not acceptable. Even during lunchbreak.

And that's a private company, not a national parliament with the eyes of the world focused on it.

Grand if it happened elsewhere, socially. It's between the pair of them. But they're at work.

Jerrica

Crooked Jack wrote: »

Seriously, who are you to tell a pair of friends what sort of relationship they should have?

When they are representatives of my government and it happens in a public forum during one of the moat polarised debates that the nation has seen in recent years and being televised then I have every right to voice my opinion. If they did this in the pub on their own time then you might have a point, but when its during the working hours that I help pay for then their behaviour is entirely open to public scrutiny.

Crooked Jack

Jerrica wrote: »

When they are representatives of my government and it happens in a public forum during one of the moat polarised debates that the nation has seen in recent years and being televised then I have every right to voice my opinion. If they did this in the pub on their own time then you might have a point, but when its during the working hours that I help pay for then their behaviour is entirely open to public scrutiny.

Yeah the debate would have went a whole different direction if this hadnt happened.

Jerrica

GalwayGuy2 wrote: »

And, what does it being in an abortion debate have to do with it? It's inappropriate to begin with and it doesn't really matter what debate is happening.

The attitude of many in government in the debate thus far has been at times extremely dismissive of women. This incident encapsulates that attitude.

Jerrica

Crooked Jack wrote: »

Yeah the debate would have went a whole different direction if this hadnt happened.

Nice try putting a wholly irrelevant spin on my words Your point is void, I never said anything of the sort.

ahnowbrowncow

Thoie wrote: »

Some people like being spanked, but we still don't do it at work. I don't think anyone's deciding what is wrong or inappropriate for someone else on their own time, most people seem to be saying it's wrong and inappropriate in the workplace, which it is.

There's all sorts of things I'd actively enjoy, but it would be wrong/inappropriate for someone to do them to me in the office.

I agree it's inappropriate behaviour in the workplace, I somehow missed the workplace part in Jerrica's post even though it was in capital letters

Hitchens

Would it be as bad if she had pulled him?

Das Kitty

Hitchens wrote: »

Would it be as bad if she had pulled him?

Of course!

Crooked Jack

Jerrica wrote: »

Nice try putting a wholly irrelevant spin on my words Your point is void, I never said anything of the sort.

You needlessly brought up the issue of the topic of the debate. so either you were implying it would have some effect on the debate or, more likely, you were just using an emotive subject to give more weight to your ridiculous outrage. Why else would you bring up the topic of the debate

Crooked Jack

Im not singling anyone out and im not referring to this situation in particular because all the details arent available, but it would be a cold joyless world we lived in if some of the people here were in charge

Hitchens

Crooked Jack wrote: »

Im not singling anyone out and im not referring to this situation in particular because all the details arent available, but it would be a cold joyless world we lived in if some of the people here were in charge

she didn't exactly jump up immediately and slap his mush

Mariasofia

Is it just me or did anyone else giggle at all? Like it was so inappropriate that it was just a teeny bit funny? ........ No I guess its just me then......

CastingCouch

Mariasofia wrote: »

Is it just me or did anyone else giggle at all? Like it was so inappropriate that it was just a teeny bit funny? ........ No I guess its just me then......

It's like the drunk uncle at a wedding making a young niece sit down on his lap saying "Who's my favourite girleen?!"

Hitchens

Mariasofia wrote: »

Is it just me or did anyone else giggle at all? Like it was so inappropriate that it was just a teeny bit funny? ........ No I guess its just me then......

no, not giggled.............maybe sniggered :P

Neeson

It's a joke. They were even moaning on joe Duffy about it. You just knew the goody two shoe type meant women would be on raving about equality.

Jaysus. I suppose it was an appropriate setting for that sort of carry on especially when the whole country can see you.

However it was during a break and both seem to be fine and the woman herself didn't take issue with it.

worded

Imagine if she got pregers over this !

It's in the Lap of the gods now

CastingCouch

worded wrote: »

Imagine if she got pregers over this !

It's in the Lap of the gods now

Radioactive sperm.

Femme_Fatale

Bet if he had done something similarly oafish that didn't involve a woman there'd be hardly anyone defending him, and people would be expressing their embarrassment at the lack of dignity, especially for a public representative in a historic Dáil debate with massive implications.

But because his oafishness involved slapping a woman on the arse and sitting her on his lap, "Ah shur he was only having a laugh" gets trotted out in order to take a swipe at teh feministz, even though lots of women who object to the incident aren't even looking at it from the sexual harassment angle (including myself).

Sad really...

Hitchens

worded wrote: »

Imagine if she got pregers over this !

It's in the Lap of the gods now

It can happen

CastingCouch

Femme_Fatale wrote: »

Bet if he had done something similarly oafish that didn't involve a woman there'd be hardly anyone defending him, and people would be expressing their embarrassment at the lack of dignity, especially for a public representative in a historic Dáil debate with massive implications.

But because his oafishness involved slapping a woman on the arse and sitting her on his lap, "Ah shur he was only having a laugh" gets trotted out in order to take a swipe at teh feministz, even though lots of women who object to the incident aren't even looking at it from the sexual harassment angle (including myself).

Sad really...

The feminists would love this though.

Did I hear the national womens council made a comment on this? It's a nothing incident. Shouldn't have happened but it did, politicians are people too.

RobbingBandit

CaraMay wrote: »

Ah that's the Aine collins who said she could not live on less than 100k per annum. I'm sure she is well able to look after herself

If not I'm sure a whip and chains around will be arranged for the lady in question;)

Femme_Fatale

So what if "the feminists" would love it? That doesn't justify brushing off unprofessional behaviour that would piss people off if it didn't have an angle for feminists to get annoyed about.

CastingCouch

Femme_Fatale wrote: »

So what if "the feminists" would love it? That doesn't justify brushing off unprofessional behaviour that would piss people off if it didn't have an angle for feminists to get annoyed about.

There's a difference to getting pissed off about something, and getting pissed off about something because it's happened to a woman.

Hitchens

123 LC wrote: »

"Ms Collins apparently said she was ‘freezing’ and Mr Barry joked that he would warm her up, before pulling her on to his lap"
(http://metro.co.uk/2013/07/11/irish-politician-apologises-for-pulling-female-deputy-on-to-lap-during-abortion-debate-3879527/)

Stay classy Dáil.

'freezing......................in a heatwave?