Katherine Zappone Envoy Gig

Richard Hillman

She was on Coveneys campaign to get him that Security Council Gig. She clearly said you owe me one for it and then went to Coveney for this madey up job.

They'll downplay the 15k but it's pure cronyism. It's also a message to other independents in the dail that if you play the game and vote our way, you'll end up with a nice gig after the parliament game is up.

But as I said earlier there are tons of madey up jobs like Zappones with the UN and EU. And because they pay less than X, they don't have to release the names. If you dig deep, there are more to be found.

Yurt2

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117676420#Comment_117676420

I doubt Zappone had any real hand in securing the Security Council seat. That canvassing work is done over the course of years by Department of Foreign Affairs diplomats flying to every Pacific Island and Central Asian country you can think of to lock-in votes.

Floppybits

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117676420#Comment_117676420

They are downplaying the 15k a year and you can see the government lacky's on here doing the same thing "ah sure its only 15k" but when you get into the detail and Varadkar said this yesterday and it was glossed over like the disingenious posts on here, she is being paid 15k for a maximum of 60 days work a year. Also the fact that it was Zappone that came up with this position all for herself and it was never advertised just smacks of more of FG cronyism and jobs for their mates.

dudley72

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117675543#Comment_117675543

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117675316#Comment_117675316

To try and clear it up here is the details released. I will confirm she still isn't a member of FF or FG which seems to have caused a level of confusion.

She will be remunerated on a pro-rata basis, up to a maximum of 60 days a year.

• A salary for up to a maximum of 60 days a year worth €15,000 before tax
• International travel and hotel stays paid for by the taxpayer;
• Access to a secretary
• The Department of Foreign Affairs has said there are no additional payments toward Ms Zappone's ministerial pension, clarifying what had been earlier reported.

mariab21

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117677358#Comment_117677358

What duties does the job involve considering you state she is the best candidate

Billgirlylegs

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117677358#Comment_117677358

She went to work on the Biden campaign

She moved to USA but travels back to Ireland regularly

She now gets her flights , travel and expenses paid for so she can "do" "this job" . I think this is the real reason for "this job".

€15000.00 / 7000.00 my orse

dudley72

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117678010#Comment_117678010

That's your opinion, mine is different so let's agree to disagree.

titan18

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117673215#Comment_117673215

Do Dunnes pay people their expenses back? Provide them with lots of international travel and staying in luxury hotels (guaranteed it won't be a Travelodge here tbf) Provide them with a secretary?

expectationlost

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117674924#Comment_117674924

they were correctly described as counterparts, stop being so condescending.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117678010#Comment_117678010

I think yous have hit nail on head there,we're being taken for mugs

dudley72

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117678187#Comment_117678187

Depending on the role in Dunnes or any company of course they would.

dudley72

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117678263#Comment_117678263

Edit

Floppybits

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117678273#Comment_117678273

Yeah but would they pay your expenses if you lived 25Km from the store you worked in.

Billgirlylegs

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117678312#Comment_117678312

You are correct - no refund for personal expenses but........

The lady lives in US and has to report to Dublin.

Or The lady lives in Dublin and makes presentations to UN.

I hazard a guess at up to 60 "official" (expenses refunded trips) per year.

dudley72

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117678329#Comment_117678329

You would need to contact the relevant company and ask their policy

dudley72

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117678384#Comment_117678384

A lot of guess work and opinion on this thread without facts and hence why I removed my comment. As I said I will agree to disagree and leave you to it.

Yurt2

You can say what you want, but Fine Gael's job-creation credentials are impeccable. 😛

DenMan

Is this a job for life or is there an expiry date on it, i.e. the lifetime of this Government?

mariab21

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117678738#Comment_117678738

Once the vaccines are out, the protests will heat up on this govt. The housing one in Dublin on 2 Oct supported by most trade unions and plenty of the opposition will be the start of it.

The Mica protest by the people in Donegal, Mayo, Sligo and others in Sept is going to leave Dublin at a standstill. Lorrys coming from donegal planning to block the M50 to cause as much disruption as possible as well as the city centre blocked off.

This Govt is on borrowed time

Shebean

She created a job that will cover her flights from New York to Europe. Coveney and Varadkar organised it behind Martin's back, Martin rubber stamped it anyway.

While the department will get no extra funding, it says nothing about her getting extra should she work more than 60 days. Technically she's getting free flights for as long as she holds the position, a pension bump and 15,000 for two months work.

Also Varadkar said she'd be doing hundreds of hours of work so will she be due overtime?

Also being a U.S. resident she will likely not be taxed.

Anyone defending this has no business whinging about waste or cronyism IMO.

Nobody seems to have details of her work or need she will be filling.

FrancieBrady

The big loser in all this electorally will be FF and the clueless, harmless and rudderless Micheál Martin.

FG will retain their vote mostly because FG's voters are basically ok with this power swap arrogance.

Martin will lose votes mostly for being weak and in the pocket of FG again. His voters will be more concerned he didn't get to hand out the freebies/place at the trough not because it was simply the wrong way to do business on behalf of the taxpayer.

dudley72

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117678822#Comment_117678822

Eidt

Yurt2

I don't know why people are bothering to defend this. Same as the Deasy appointment in Washington, who achieved the square root of f*ck all while being on the lamb from his Oireachtas duties.

We don't have a history of special envoys in our diplomatic tradition in this country and for very good reason. The Department of Foreign Affairs has always been hostile to them, because it means one thing and one thing only, sweetheart sinecures for intellectually underpowered political hacks stuffing up our foreign policy objectives.

Any outside expertise that is hired into the department (legal specialists etc) are put through a competitive hiring process. That's how it should be, and how it should stay. Our civil service was formed and run on the principle of not being corrupted by sleeven hiring practices, and for the most part that's how it operates.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117678873#Comment_117678873

Deasy was by FG standreds,quite a good politian,but backed wrong side in a heave againest enda kenny and was sidelined politically afterwards

For someone with reasonable talent,if a bit grubby,his most famous contribution to irish politics was smoking in dail bar after the smoking ban

Yurt2

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117678954#Comment_117678954

Don't know much about him, bar that he landed in DC like a bull in a China shop. He was sent there to get him away from Dail Eireann as he was dead wood and could have turned into FG's version of Mark MacSharry, that and his 'expertise' on American politics because he was a tea boy in the Washington Ireland Programme when he was a student. An American political memoir recalled he managed to p*ss off more than a few on the Hill as he thought he could roll in and change immigration policy in Irish illegals' favour with no regard to the ethnic makeup of representatives constituencies and sheer bluster.

This is why we leave matters to the department and don't send political inconveniences around the world to muck things up.

MrMusician18

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117678795#Comment_117678795

Whatever about the housing one, the mica one is not solvable by government. The protesters demands are simply off-the-wall in terms of the cost they expect the State to pay.

Blocking the M50 is never a smart move.

Ninap

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117678795#Comment_117678795

Sorry? Mica protests? I have some sympathy for affected home-owners. And they are being offered a generous scheme, considering the problem was nothing to do with the government. But if these cowboys come down and start blocking roads in Dublin, they will quickly lose all sympathy here.

mariab21

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117679003#Comment_117679003

Was there not a similar situation with houses in Dublin and 100% redress was giving?

One rule for inside the M50, one rule for the rest of us mugs.

MrMusician18

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117679057#Comment_117679057

I don't want to take this off topic but the scale of the problem in Donegal is far far far larger than the pyrite one. €5bn is a conservative estimate for the total cost of the protesters demands, when the State had no role in the failure.

Pyrite was outside the M50. Fire safety problems, which are largely inside the M50 are not getting any State help, at all.

basill

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117675168#Comment_117675168

The reality is she lives in USA. She essentially just got free return airfares to Ireland in Business Class. Don't for a minute think that each time she wants to come home for a "personal trip" that she won't schedule a meet/lunch to provide her trip the necessary authenticity. As another poster states above this gig is all about improving her networking for bigger and better things.