Going to be late for a flight? Call the gardai

nice_guy80

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/politics/it-was-a-quiet-night-minister-defends-taking-lift-from-onduty-gardai-to-airport-31557427.html

A JUNIOR minister has defended his use of a garda escort from Cork to Dublin Airport, saying the officers were having a quiet night and he had no other option.

*****************
Bit cheeky of the junior minister

especially as the meeting in Brussels wasn't until 24 hours later

and wasn't really that important

and a taxi driver offered to bring him for €300 (which he would have billed to the taxpayer anyway)

golfball37

The guards are very accomodating to TDs as long as they are of the right creed.

For Reals

If the AAA or Sinn Fein had a member doing that, glassing someone in a bar brawl, lying about constituents calling to commend them, elbowing a member of the public, there'd be calls for prison terms, stepping down and public apologies. But not a whisper from the pro status quo moral police.

BaronVon

nice_guy80 wrote: »

and a taxi driver offered to bring him for €300 (which he would have billed to the taxpayer anyway)

So the headline should now read, "Junior Minister Saves State €300 Taxi Fare!"

Dubwat

Not sure what the big deal is. European Minister going to EU meeting later in the day... If it was an important meeting, fair play to him for using his initiative.

If it were me, I would have flown over the day before so I would have been fresh for the meeting. Feck getting up at 2am...

Not sure why his wife had to be there though for a business meeting?

Quote from Indo...

European Affairs Minister Dara Murphy is under pressure to pay for the cost of having two gardai drive him and his wife from Fermoy in Co Cork to the capital.

He sought help after his car broke down on the side of a motorway outside Mitchelstown in at 3am on Sunday, September 13.

The Cork TD was on his way to the capital for a 6.40am flight to Brussels for a meeting later that day.

Sand

golfball37 wrote: »

The guards are very accomodating to TDs as long as they are of the right creed.

The guards aren't going to get the full respect they deserve while they are at the beck and call of some jumped up second string yokel who happens to have been elected as the most conniving thief in the village. The gardai ought to have told the minister to call a taxi company. Whilst those guards were acting as taximen, who exactly was on call to respond to calls to help victims of crime? The taximen?

People say Irish politicians aren't corrupt, but that's only a relative measure.

non issue

Hotblack Desiato

"Do you want a pint to tell the junior minister to fcuk off with his ridiculous request, or do you want a transfer?"

Stheno

They did the same for the families of the children who were hurt or killed in the Berkeley tragedy

jay-me

Whatever about his use of the donut guzzlers to escort him to the airport.. At least the tax payer didn't foot the bill. But the 30 grand flight back from Latvia to vote on the referendum for gay marriage is a total joke! What a scummy little sh1t abusing his seat on the gravy train before his time! It won't bode well for him in the future! He should have waited till he had a better position to abuse his powers from!

jay-me

jay-me wrote: »

Whatever about his use of the donut guzzlers to escort him to the airport.. At least the tax payer didn't foot the bill. But the 30 grand flight back from Latvia to vote on the referendum for gay marriage is a total joke! What a scummy little sh1t abusing his seat on the gravy train before his time! It won't bode well for him in the future! He should have waited till he had a better position to abuse his powers from!

we can hope the taxpayer isnt footing the bill for your exclamation marks

jay-me

Deleted User wrote: »

we can hope the taxpayer isnt footing the bill for your exclamation marks

They're free so use in abundance!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Apostrophes are free too so you may use them at will also! You're welcome!!!

Seth Brundle

From what I can see:
* he only called gardaí after contacting the AA and failing to get a taxi.
* the gardaí offered to take them to Portlaoise at which stage they could continue their journey
* it was established with him that there was cover available to the gardaí, it was a quiet night and the sergeant had other available gardaí and cars
* It was discussed that if that were to change, their assistance would be terminated; to which Murphy said fine
* As they continued north, there was a phone conversation between the passenger guard and the base and then the offer was made to continue to take us to Dublin; Murphy accepted the offer

In fairness, I wouldn't get too worked up with this incident. What else was he to do? Sit at the site of a motorway for several hours (which is dangerous)?
I'd be more worked up over the €30k flight!

nice_guy80

Dubwat wrote: »

Not sure what the big deal is. European Minister going to EU meeting later in the day... If it was an important meeting, fair play to him for using his initiative.

If it were me, I would have flown over the day before so I would have been fresh for the meeting. Feck getting up at 2am...

Not sure why his wife had to be there though for a business meeting?

Quote from Indo...

the meeting was 24 hours later

gallag

What's this about a 30k flight?

mikehn

kbannon wrote: »

From what I can see:
* he only called gardaí after contacting the AA and failing to get a taxi.
It was confirmed that there was a taxi available but he declined after hearing that the standard fare would be €300.
The Garda reputation has suffered badly in recent years, they are not really doing as good a job as they could, understaffed and poor morale are being bandied about as reasons. You can now add glorified Taxi drivers to their CV.
Frequent Garda patrols at night are a definite deterrent to crime, in my opinion they circumstances did not justify taking the car off patrol.
The Justice minister should insist on him reimbursing the full cost of the journey to the Dept of Justice and send out a memo the all concerned that this is not acceptable behavior.

Seth Brundle

mikehn wrote: »

It was confirmed that there was a taxi available but he declined after hearing that the standard fare would be €300.

Fair enough, I hadn't realised that and the linked article doesn't mention it

An article in today's Irish Times states

Irish Times wrote:

Mr Murphy said he found it difficult to source a taxi due to the early hour and contacted An Garda Síochána seeking assistance. He rang gardaí initially to ask them to drive him to a taxi base, and they offered to bring him to Portlaoise.

and also...

wrote:

Taxi driver Gerdy Murphy, from Mitchelstown, has alleged that Mr Murphy declined his services on cost grounds. Dara Murphy said he was already on the road by the time the taxi driver came back to him.
Speaking on the same programme, Gerdy Murphy questioned why Dara Murphy would have asked him for a price if he was already on the road.
He also questioned why the Minister of State had not asked the gardaí to drop him off and allow him to pick him up to continue the journey after he offered to drive him.

On he assumption that this is a correct of events, it was not acceptable.

nice_guy80

Considering Enda Kenny and co spent €2300 on limos on his recent visit to the US, is anyone surprised by this use/waste of Garda resources?

hotmail.com

It also highlights the fact that Garda resources aren't exactly stretched.

Seth Brundle

nice_guy80 wrote: »

Considering Enda Kenny and co spent €2300 on limos on his recent visit to the US, is anyone surprised by this use/waste of Garda resources?

In fairness, without context it's difficult to see whether or not this is good value.
What were the limos for?
How many limos?
Was distance a factor in the cost?
How many passengers?
What would an appropriate alternative have cost?

micosoft

kbannon wrote: »

In fairness, without context it's difficult to see whether or not this is good value.

Context doesn't matter when you need to create another scandal. None of this would warrant comment in any other country that I can think of. Next they will argue it's a scandal the president has a state car when he could use his free travel pass :rolleyes:

seamus

kbannon wrote: »

On he assumption that this is a correct of events, it was not acceptable.

Meh. If he was already on the road and believed himself to be heading to Portlaoise, perhaps he thought he could source a cheaper taxi there.

Overall this does seem like a lot of kicking up fuss over something very minor. I wouldn't mind if he'd just demanded a straightforward lift from a Garda car, that would be a big deal. But he seems to have made a genuine attempt to find other ways to get there. And the Gardai could have refused.

For the sake of a one-off incident where two Gardai and a patrol car were occupied for 3 hours on a quiet night, there's far too much noise being made about this.

Seth Brundle

seamus wrote: »

Meh. If he was already on the road and believed himself to be heading to Portlaoise, perhaps he thought he could source a cheaper taxi there.

My take on the quote was that he phoned the gardai after booking the taxi. In that case, it wasn't acceptable.
Still, yes, there are much bigger issues out there.

keno-daytrader

seamus wrote: »

Meh. If he was already on the road and believed himself to be heading to Portlaoise, perhaps he thought he could source a cheaper taxi there.

Overall this does seem like a lot of kicking up fuss over something very minor. I wouldn't mind if he'd just demanded a straightforward lift from a Garda car, that would be a big deal. But he seems to have made a genuine attempt to find other ways to get there. And the Gardai could have refused.

For the sake of a one-off incident where two Gardai and a patrol car were occupied for 3 hours on a quiet night, there's far too much noise being made about this.

If you or I broke down on the motorway, and had an "important" meeting out of the country, would the Gardai take us to Dublin from Cork?

Its an abuse of power, the very thing this govt said they would radically change if elected in 2011.

Ask rural people that are being robbed late at night and losing many local garda stations if a car and 2 gardai being used as a taxi for politicians is a "minor" issue.

Its this kind of attitude that our politicians use to get away with such blatant abuse of power that wouldnt be tolerated in other western democracies.

seamus

keno-daytrader wrote: »

If you or I broke down on the motorway, and had an "important" meeting out of the country, would the Gardai take us to Dublin from Cork?

If it was a quiet night, they would take us to Portlaoise or the next nearest large town, I have little doubt about that. They wouldn't leave anyone stranded on the side of the road in the middle of the night, and practically all Gardai would give someone a dig out if they were trying to make a flight.

There are plenty of anecdotes around the place of times of Gardai helping out someone in a time of need by providing an impromptu escort. At the base of it they're public servants who on the whole just want to help people out. Your assertion that Joe Public would never get Garda assistance to make an important flight is demonstrably wrong.

The fact that this man is a representative of the state who had a meeting on state business to make, is central to this whole thing. If he was off on his holliers, it would be a whole different story.

Its an abuse of power

I disagree. Did he demand the Gardai bring him to Dublin airport? Was it not the Gardai and ultimately the super who made the call to go all the way to the airport?

Ask rural people that are being robbed late at night and losing many local garda stations if a car and 2 gardai being used as a taxi for politicians is a "minor" issue.

How many rural people were robbed late at night as a result of this sortie?

Nonsense rhetoric.

Eric Cartman

For Reals wrote: »

If the AAA or Sinn Fein had a member doing that, glassing someone in a bar brawl, lying about constituents calling to commend them, elbowing a member of the public, there'd be calls for prison terms, stepping down and public apologies. But not a whisper from the pro status quo moral police.

AAA and SF have long lived in this grey area where they only subscribe to democracy when it goes their way, the second a disagreement occurs and its all violence and thuggery. They should not be counted in the same league as an actual democratic political party participating in our democratic system fully and not subverting it on a daily basis for personal gain.

keno-daytrader

seamus wrote: »

If it was a quiet night, they would take us to Portlaoise or the next nearest large town, I have little doubt about that. They wouldn't leave anyone stranded on the side of the road in the middle of the night, and practically all Gardai would give someone a dig out if they were trying to make a flight.

There are plenty of anecdotes around the place of times of Gardai helping out someone in a time of need by providing an impromptu escort. At the base of it they're public servants who on the whole just want to help people out. Your assertion that Joe Public would never get Garda assistance to make an important flight is demonstrably wrong.

The fact that this man is a representative of the state who had a meeting on state business to make, is central to this whole thing. If he was off on his holliers, it would be a whole different story.

I disagree. Did he demand the Gardai bring him to Dublin airport? Was it not the Gardai and ultimately the super who made the call to go all the way to the airport?

How many rural people were robbed late at night as a result of this sortie?

Nonsense rhetoric.

I am 100% confident that 2 Gardai would not take me or you from Cork to Dublin if we broke down on the motorway. I agree they would probably take me to the nearest town or garda station.

Its the responsibility of our Police force to protect the communities in which they are stationed.

How anyone can justify taking 2 Gardai and a car off the road for 3 plus hours to Taxi a politician to the airport is beyond me.

Maybe Im in the minority of thinking that Gardai working at 3am in the morning should be on patrol in our communities and not providing taxi services to politicians and their wives.

K-9

jay-me wrote: »

Whatever about his use of the donut guzzlers to escort him to the airport.. At least the tax payer didn't foot the bill. But the 30 grand flight back from Latvia to vote on the referendum for gay marriage is a total joke! What a scummy little sh1t abusing his seat on the gravy train before his time! It won't bode well for him in the future! He should have waited till he had a better position to abuse his powers from!

Up the standard a bit please.

JustTheOne

Jesus do people really have such an issue with this?

It's a government rep who was in need to make a meeting and got a little help.

Sake people would give out if the gards left people stranded and didn't help.

They just can't win.

PolaroidPizza

There are plenty of crimes umsolved and warrants unissued in every district in the country. If you dont have a problem with taking a guard away from those duties to ferry a feckless td around i presume you feel the guard has absolutely nothing better to be doing?

JustTheOne

PolaroidPizza wrote: »

There are plenty of crimes umsolved and warrants unissued in every district in the country. If you dont have a problem with taking a guard away from those duties to ferry a feckless td around i presume you feel the guard has absolutely nothing better to be doing?

A feckless td?

Can you elaborate on this and why it means he should be left at the side of the road and miss a flight.

oscarBravo

PolaroidPizza wrote: »

There are plenty of crimes umsolved...

Was it detectives that gave him the lift?

...and warrants unissued in every district in the country.

They should have left him on the side of the road so they could issue warrants at 3am?

golfball37

The meeting wasn't later that day it was the following day.

PolaroidPizza

so the garda that drive him had absolutely no scheduled activities for the day? no matter how poor your image of the gardai is, you cannot think they just sit in the station and wait for a call on the night shift. there is always reports to be written, documents to be filed, training to catch up on, just like any other organisation.
Because that garda got told to be a taximan, in some manner, his actual job got affected.
I for one, think garda resources are stretched, and I would imagine if it got reported once, there are probably 10 more instances that didn't get reported. when you add up all that lost garda time, its going to affect someone somewhere.

jimmycrackcorm

I don't know what the fuss is about considering that not so long ago the gardai had to drive someone who got convicted for not paying their TV licence from Donegal to mountjoy for their two hour stay in jail. Any they can't take direct route via the A5.

katydid

Stheno wrote: »

They did the same for the families of the children who were hurt or killed in the Berkeley tragedy

Are you comparing that tragedy to a guy being late for a plane?

katydid

kbannon wrote: »

. What else was he to do? Sit at the site of a motorway for several hours (which is dangerous)?
I'd be more worked up over the €30k flight!

He could have got a taxi. He just didn't want to fork out the three hundred quid it would have cost him. He was negotiating with a taxi company. When the taxi people rang back to say they would accept to do it for three hundred, he said he was already being taken by the cops

katydid

micosoft wrote: »

Context doesn't matter when you need to create another scandal. None of this would warrant comment in any other country that I can think of. Next they will argue it's a scandal the president has a state car when he could use his free travel pass :rolleyes:

You seriously believe this wouldn't warrant comment in another country? You must be joking - it would be a resigning matter in the UK, and Mock the Week would have a field day.

katydid

JustTheOne wrote: »

A feckless td?

Can you elaborate on this and why it means he should be left at the side of the road and miss a flight.

His fecklessness or otherwise is irrelevant. He could have got a taxi, he just didn't want to pay the money. He wasn't being left on the side of the road; and as for the flight, that was his problem.

By the way, he left his driver by the side of the road ON HIS OWN to wait for the AA...

feargale

For Reals wrote: »

If the AAA or Sinn Fein had a member doing that, glassing someone in a bar brawl, lying about constituents calling to commend them, elbowing a member of the public, there'd be calls for prison terms, stepping down and public apologies. But not a whisper from the pro status quo moral police.

Och aye. Trivial things happen.

danoriordan1402

katydid wrote: »

By the way, he left his driver by the side of the road ON HIS OWN to wait for the AA...

Driver being ex FG Councillor Joe O Callaghan .....

The former Cork City lord mayor made the comments after it emerged he gave former local election candidate Joe O’Callaghan the €631-a week taxpayer-paid job, one of a number of recent controversies over back room appointments involving the Fine Gael TD.

However, Mr Murphy yesterday defended the news, saying the €631-a week role is not of concern as it was not a “high-earner” position and no rules had been breached in the appointment.


http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/minister-defends-hiring-fine-gael-election-candidate-349198.html



Waste of resources, especially when it turned out there was no meeting - at least he had his wife with him, who is his PA...

katydid

danoriordan1402 wrote: »

Driver being ex FG Councillor Joe O Callaghan .....

The former Cork City lord mayor made the comments after it emerged he gave former local election candidate Joe O’Callaghan the €631-a week taxpayer-paid job, one of a number of recent controversies over back room appointments involving the Fine Gael TD.

However, Mr Murphy yesterday defended the news, saying the €631-a week role is not of concern as it was not a “high-earner” position and no rules had been breached in the appointment.


http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/minister-defends-hiring-fine-gael-election-candidate-349198.html



Waste of resources, especially when it turned out there was no meeting - at least he had his wife with him, who is his PA...

In fairness, she paid for her own flight, and was going with him in a personal capacity, according to himself on Sunday.

And this muppet got selected last night to run for FG. Only in Ireland.

feargale

Ok. What should he have done? Can somebody organise a poll here. Some suggestions:
1. Do as he did.
2. Take a taxi and claim for it.
3. Stay on the side of the road and send his apologies to Brussels.
No doubt some of you will want to add other options. Go ahead.

katydid

feargale wrote: »

Ok. What should he have done? Can somebody organise a poll here. Some suggestions:
1. Do as he did.
2. Take a taxi and claim for it.
3. Stay on the side of the road and send his apologies to Brussels.
No doubt some of you will want to add other options. Go ahead.

Take a taxi.
No need to send apologies to Brussels. He could have got there later that day or early the next morning.

Going Forward

danoriordan1402 wrote: »

Driver being ex FG Councillor Joe O Callaghan .....

The former Cork City lord mayor made the comments after it emerged he gave former local election candidate Joe O’Callaghan the €631-a week taxpayer-paid job, one of a number of recent controversies over back room appointments involving the Fine Gael TD.

However, Mr Murphy yesterday defended the news, saying the €631-a week role is not of concern as it was not a “high-earner” position and no rules had been breached in the appointment.


http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/minister-defends-hiring-fine-gael-election-candidate-349198.html



Waste of resources, especially when it turned out there was no meeting - at least he had his wife with him, who is his PA...

What do you mean by no meeting?

katydid

Going Forward wrote: »

What do you mean by no meeting?

The meeting of ministers was on Monday. He had a pre-meeting briefing with the Irish Ambassador on Sunday , which in the event was cancelled, but it wasn't that important that he couldn't have had it by phone.

Going Forward

katydid wrote: »

The meeting of ministers was on Monday. He had a pre-meeting briefing with the Irish Ambassador on Sunday , which in the event was cancelled, but it wasn't that important that he couldn't have had it by phone.

Ok thanks, it had already ocurred to me that the world wasn't going to stop if he'd never made it anyway!

listermint

feargale wrote: »

Ok. What should he have done? Can somebody organise a poll here. Some suggestions:
1. Do as he did.
2. Take a taxi and claim for it.
3. Stay on the side of the road and send his apologies to Brussels.
No doubt some of you will want to add other options. Go ahead.

Ring a relative like any other blood normal person would do if they were in trouble.

Christ on a bike, is this even up for question!?!

This again shows the contempt these lads have, they dont live in the 'real' world. The Civic resources appear to be used at their whim and they have no understanding of where and when they cross the line.

But sure 'he is sorry that people perceived he was in the wrong'

PolaroidPizza

it doesn't sound like a big deal...its only a trip to the airport, but the fact is that this is indicative of the disregard these politicians have for public finances.

This sense of entitlement is akin to what you see in many 3rd world countries with respect to nepotism, wasting public resources, diversion of public funds and the feeling that the state security/administrative services are tools to get them favours for friends and make improve their own general lot.

at least in Nigeria/Honduras/North Korea etc the politicians don't deny that they use the system for personal gain. for some reason here the 100K+ a year jobs aren't sufficient for these people, they feel the need to always be looking for more.

until people stop looking at it like....'ah sure its only a few hours up the road' these behaviours will not only continue, but they'll deteriorate.

seamus

listermint wrote: »

Ring a relative like any other blood normal person would do if they were in trouble.

If I was en route to a work trip, the last thing I'd do is call a relative for assistance. I'd get a taxi and bill it to my employer.

If it was the middle of the night and I was in the middle of nowhere and no taxi to be found, would I ring the Gardai first? Yeah, I think I would.

katydid

seamus wrote: »

If I was en route to a work trip, the last thing I'd do is call a relative for assistance. I'd get a taxi and bill it to my employer.

If it was the middle of the night and I was in the middle of nowhere and no taxi to be found, would I ring the Gardai first? Yeah, I think I would.

A. There was a taxi to be found. He didn't want to pay for it

B. Surely you'd ring the AA before the Gardaí?

C. If you did ring the Gardaí, it would presumably be to take you, if at all possible, to the nearest place of safety, while you organised your next step, not to your final destination.