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Going to be late for a flight? Call the gardai

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    #32
    oscarBravo
    Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 28,792 Mod ✭✭✭✭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?


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    #33
    golfball37
    Registered Users Posts: 4,529 ✭✭✭golfball37


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


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    #34
    PolaroidPizza
    Registered Users Posts: 130 ✭✭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.


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    #35
    jimmycrackcorm
    Registered Users Posts: 14,329 ✭✭✭✭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.


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    #36
    katydid
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 6,351 ✭✭✭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?


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    #37
    katydid
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 6,351 ✭✭✭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


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    #38
    katydid
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 6,351 ✭✭✭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.


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    #39
    katydid
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 6,351 ✭✭✭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...


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    #40
    feargale
    Registered Users Posts: 8,636 ✭✭✭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.


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    #41
    danoriordan1402
    Registered Users Posts: 694 ✭✭✭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... :)


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    #42
    katydid
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 6,351 ✭✭✭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.


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    #43
    feargale
    Registered Users Posts: 8,636 ✭✭✭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.


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    #44
    katydid
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 6,351 ✭✭✭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.


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    #45
    Going Forward
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 8,224 ✭✭✭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?


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    #46
    katydid
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 6,351 ✭✭✭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.


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    #47
    Going Forward
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 8,224 ✭✭✭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!


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    #48
    listermint
    Registered Users Posts: 33,648 ✭✭✭✭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'


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    #49
    PolaroidPizza
    Registered Users Posts: 130 ✭✭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.


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    #50
    seamus
    Registered Users Posts: 68,317 ✭✭✭✭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.


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    #51
    katydid
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 6,351 ✭✭✭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.


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    #52
    seamus
    Registered Users Posts: 68,317 ✭✭✭✭seamus


    katydid wrote: »
    A. There was a taxi to be found. He didn't want to pay for it
    Not until he'd already contacted the Gardai.
    B. Surely you'd ring the AA before the Gardaí?
    I'm not a member.
    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.
    Yep. And that was the plan here. But the super told them to bull on, apparently. In those circumstances I wouldn't say, "nah, nah drop me off here". I'd let them carry on.


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    #53
    katydid
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 6,351 ✭✭✭katydid


    seamus wrote: »
    Not until he'd already contacted the Gardai.

    I'm not a member.

    Yep. And that was the plan here. But the super told them to bull on, apparently. In those circumstances I wouldn't say, "nah, nah drop me off here". I'd let them carry on.

    No, he contacted a taxi firm first, and was negotiating with them about the price. Then he rang the Gardaí. He was on his way in the Garda car when the taxi company rang back and said they'd do it for three hundred euro. He told them he was already on the way. (This is his own words on the radio on Sunday)

    He was a member, he called the AA and left his driver on his own by the side of the road while he went off to the airport. If you're not a member, you can join on the spot, then they will come to you. That's what I had to do when I came back to the car park at Dublin airport only to find I had left my lights on and my battery was flat. It would never cross my mind to ring the Gardaí, I have to say. (Not that I could have in a private car park, but I mean in general) My problem, my job to solve it myself, not to call the Gardaí.

    So just because the Superintendent said it was ok, he was happy to go along with it? Even though his using those Gardaí as his personal chauffeurs could have meant they were not where they were supposed to be if they were needed in an emergency like a road traffic accident? Selfish enough for an ordinary member of the public, super selfish and very stupid for a government minister.


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    #54
    feargale
    Registered Users Posts: 8,636 ✭✭✭feargale


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

    Was that said?


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    #55
    listermint
    Registered Users Posts: 33,648 ✭✭✭✭listermint


    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.

    You would ring the Gardai for a lift?!

    You are more off the wall than that TD, In what world do you think its okay for the Gardai to give you a lift home or wherever?

    I dont think you believe your own words tbh.

    And 'stranded' in the middle of nowhere? there is no middle of no where in this country it takes less than 3 hours to cross it.

    Phone a relative if you are stuck. The guards are not a taxi service.

    Or as you said phone a taxi service or the AA.


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    #56
    micosoft
    Registered Users Posts: 2,359 ✭✭✭micosoft


    katydid wrote: »
    A. There was a taxi to be found. He didn't want to pay for it
    The state would have paid for it through expenses. Why should a politician pay for transport costs out of his own pocket?
    katydid wrote: »
    B. Surely you'd ring the AA before the Gardaí?
    He was on the way to the airport. Do you really think waiting for the AA to come, diagnose the problem works in that situation?. What if they couldn't fix it (which is 99% of the time now if the problem is not out of fuel or puncture repair?

    katydid wrote: »
    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.
    He is not Joe Public though. He is a Junior Minister of the Irish State travelling on State business to Europe.

    This would not make the news in any other country. Any politican in the US and certainly the UK and Germany would have been able to avail of this in these circumstances. It has more to do with begrudgery and anti government populist claptrap.


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    #57
    katydid
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 6,351 ✭✭✭katydid


    micosoft wrote: »
    The state would have paid for it through expenses. Why should a politician pay for transport costs out of his own pocket?


    He was on the way to the airport. Do you really think waiting for the AA to come, diagnose the problem. What if they couldn't fix it (which is 99% of the time now if the problem is not out of fuel or puncture repair?



    He is not Joe Public though. He is a Junior Minister of the Irish State travelling on State business to Europe.

    This would not make the news in any other country. Any politican in the US and certainly the UK and Germany would have been able to avail of this in these circumstances. It has more to do with begrudgery and anti government populist claptrap.

    You're right, the state would have paid. But he still tried to bargain the taxi company down, and in the end didn't use them.

    Yes, he was on his way to the airport. Yes, he should do what any of the rest of us would have done, and wait for help from the AA. Or relatives or friends. Us ordinary plebs wouldn't get a three hundred euro taxi fare refunded.

    Are you seriously suggesting that every citizen who breaks down on the way to the airport should ring the guards and get a lift? The fact that he is a government minister doesn't give him a free pass to get to the airport by whatever transport is available. If he had to miss a pre-meeting briefing, tough luck. It could have been done over the phone. It wasn't the G7 summit.

    In any other country, a politician who abused his power like this would have resigned by now. Instead he gets re-selected to run for office.


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    #58
    listermint
    Registered Users Posts: 33,648 ✭✭✭✭listermint


    katydid wrote: »
    You're right, the state would have paid. But he still tried to bargain the taxi company down, and in the end didn't use them.

    Yes, he was on his way to the airport. Yes, he should do what any of the rest of us would have done, and wait for help from the AA. Or relatives or friends. Us ordinary plebs wouldn't get a three hundred euro taxi fare refunded.

    Are you seriously suggesting that every citizen who breaks down on the way to the airport should ring the guards and get a lift? The fact that he is a government minister doesn't give him a free pass to get to the airport by whatever transport is available. If he had to miss a pre-meeting briefing, tough luck. It could have been done over the phone. It wasn't the G7 summit.

    In any other country, a politician who abused his power like this would have resigned by now. Instead he gets re-selected to run for office.

    Seem Seamus thinks thats what we should be doing.

    Sure Rural Burglaries are up by thousands, whats the point having Gardai Vehicles out patrolling they can be ferrying the good citizens around.


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    #59
    seamus
    Registered Users Posts: 68,317 ✭✭✭✭seamus


    katydid wrote: »
    Are you seriously suggesting that every citizen who breaks down on the way to the airport should ring the guards and get a lift? The fact that he is a government minister doesn't give him a free pass to get to the airport by whatever transport is available.
    No, but exceptional circumstances notwithstanding, I see no issue with it.

    As said, the AA will take time to get there, fix and diagnose (in fact, they may not be able to fix).

    Likewise, you could call a relative, but they could be on the other side of the country and will take 90 minutes to get to you.

    Would I ring a local Garda station and ask for assistance? Hell yeah. I have a flight to catch. Even a lift to Portlaoise would be a massive help.

    I love how you're all pretending that it's like he demanded a Garda car bring him from his house to the airport for a family holiday.

    I can guarantee the same complainers would be critcising him for expensing the €300 taxi or paying €1,000 to rearrange flights at short notice.
    Sure Rural Burglaries are up by thousands, whats the point having Gardai Vehicles out patrolling they can be ferrying the good citizens around.
    There's this language of fear and nonsense rhetoric again. How many buglaries took place because of this?


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    #60
    listermint
    Registered Users Posts: 33,648 ✭✭✭✭listermint


    seamus wrote: »
    No, but exceptional circumstances notwithstanding, I see no issue with it.

    As said, the AA will take time to get there, fix and diagnose (in fact, they may not be able to fix).

    Likewise, you could call a relative, but they could be on the other side of the country and will take 90 minutes to get to you.

    Would I ring a local Garda station and ask for assistance? Hell yeah. I have a flight to catch. Even a lift to Portlaoise would be a massive help.

    I love how you're all pretending that it's like he demanded a Garda car bring him from his house to the airport for a family holiday.

    I can guarantee the same complainers would be critcising him for expensing the €300 taxi or paying €1,000 to rearrange flights at short notice.

    There's this language of fear and nonsense rhetoric again. How many buglaries took place because of this?

    Language of fear and rhetoric.

    Why Seamus, do you keep calling facts 'Rhetoric'

    Is that the only tool you have to wave bad press away?

    Is this Rhetoric ?

    http://traleetoday.ie/tralee-area-burglaries-rose-by-just-under-20-in-two-years/
    THE amount of burglaries in the Tralee area rose by 19.4% in between 2012 and 2014.

    New figures from the Central Statistics Office reveal that in 2012 there were 454 burglaries in the Tralee division, in 2013 there were 453 and in 2014 there were 542.


    Is this Rhetoric ?

    http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/one-in-every-222-people-a-victim-of-burglary-219814.html
    One in every 222 people in Ireland was the victim of a burglary during the first nine months of 2012 as the number of household break-ins increased by over 5%.

    Is this rhetoric?
    http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/burglaries-on-rise-in-16-of-28-garda-divisions-356753.html




    And Frances has the neck to blame Fine Fail 5 years on.


    http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/news/fianna-fil-to-blame-for-increase-in-burglaries-says-minister-fitzgerald-31518636.html
    Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald has blamed the burglary epidemic sweeping rural Ireland on the "appalling" economy the Government inherited from Fianna Fáil.


    I mean seriously! get off that horse Frances and own up to your decisions.


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    #61
    seamus
    Registered Users Posts: 68,317 ✭✭✭✭seamus


    listermint wrote: »
    Language of fear and rhetoric.

    Why Seamus, do you keep calling facts 'Rhetoric'
    I didn't dispute any facts. Your statement about burglaries is irrelevant bluster. If it was the case that Garda cars were ferrying TDs around the country day and night, you'd have a point.

    Do you complain about rural burglaries every time a Garda car is used to drive a wayward teenager home? Or when they make a run to the chipper to feed a prisoner?

    Unless you can prove that the use of this Garda car in this one-off exceptional instance directly allowed a crime to be committed, then all you've got is bluster and rhetoric.


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