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Is Waterford served well by it's politicians at the moment?

13

Comments

  • Registered Users Posts: 28,703 ✭✭✭✭Wanderer78


    hardybuck wrote: »
    If SF romp home in 3-4 years time I think it'll set them back 10-15 years and jeopardise their ultimate goal of unification.

    When they step out from the shadows they need more distance between them and the past. They need some of people who were involved in the troubles and different types of skulduggery to move on and another generation to come along.

    Right now they'd have enough competent candidates to be a junior coalition partner, as their squad depth is very thin. They've been forced to rely on a number of candidates with fairly dubious backgrounds, who've had recent run-ins with the guards over social order issues, anti-vaxxers - that sort of thing. You'll notice (or perhaps not) that they're not really out on the airwaves much.

    I think we'll reflect on this period and thank our lucky stars we had an experienced team at the wheel during COVID. While there's always room for improvement, the approach taken here has kept more people alive than our neighbours in the North, the rest of the UK, France, USA et al.

    i wouldnt get too caught up in that, we ve no clue how others would preform under such conditions, better or worse, we ve no clue, all governments would struggle under such circumstances, but you can see ffg defaulting post covid, and that wont work, i think theyre sunk, but i do completely agree with the rest, sf have a lot of growing up to do, but i dont think younger voters truly care about that, theyre just extremely angry now, and rightfully so, so theyll vote accordingly


  • Registered Users Posts: 5,147 ✭✭✭hardybuck


    Well we know how ours got on - less people died here than in those countries I mentioned. Had we not had a land border with the North I think we'd have done even better.

    Bringing this back to local issues, I think the next 12-24 months will tell you a lot more about how they're doing. I'd nearly write off the last year because they couldn't do a huge amount.

    Minister of State for Mental Health and Older People - Mary Butler - what a portfolio to get as Covid took hold. She's got her work cut out - amazing how invisible she has been over the last year.


  • Registered Users Posts: 28,703 ✭✭✭✭Wanderer78


    hardybuck wrote: »
    Well we know how ours got on - less people died here than in those countries I mentioned. Had we not had a land border with the North I think we'd have done even better.

    Bringing this back to local issues, I think the next 12-24 months will tell you a lot more about how they're doing. I'd nearly write off the last year because they couldn't do a huge amount.

    Minister of State for Mental Health and Older People - Mary Butler - what a portfolio to get as Covid took hold. She's got her work cut out - amazing how invisible she has been over the last year.

    oh shes screwed, she doesnt have a clue of her portfolio, its actually disturbing how invisible shes been, very disturbing


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,566 ✭✭✭Yellow_Fern


    Wanderer78 wrote: »
    oh shes screwed, she doesnt have a clue of her portfolio, its actually disturbing how invisible shes been, very disturbing

    The opposition has to be visible to get things done. The gov doesnt. Tweeting and doing interviews doesnt get legislation written


  • Registered Users Posts: 5,147 ✭✭✭hardybuck


    The opposition has to be visible to get things done. The gov doesnt. Tweeting and doing interviews doesnt get legislation written

    Agreed, but how much legislation have her officials written for her?

    I know she's doing public consultation on the Mental Health Act, but Older People and Mental Health are probably the two areas that suffered most during the last year or so, and I'd say if you even surveyed people in Waterford they wouldn't have a clue what her role is.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 454 ✭✭Flow Motion


    hardybuck wrote: »
    Minister of State for Mental Health and Older People - Mary Butler - what a portfolio to get as Covid took hold. She's got her work cut out - amazing how invisible she has been over the last year.

    She has taken the concept of "ghosting" to an altogether new level this past year!

    Sadly the majority of our deaths have been older people and one of the most crippling consequences of the enduring lockdown has been the erosion of the mental health of a nation. Maybe if she spent less time tweeting & re-tweeting stuff she might get some work done. Politics seems to be one big self promotion roadshow these days "I did this.. I did that etc etc". Its just one dirty game for sneaky bare faced liars that like to line their pockets and get a large pension whilst the ordinary Joe Soap bows his/her head in deference.

    Has Cheesy Senator Cummins raised his head above the parapet since unreservedly apologising for Golfgate? Another fella that loves the facebook-instagram-twitter rollercoaster of fame BTW


  • Posts: 3,801 ✭✭✭[Deleted User]


    Wanderer78 wrote: »
    our housing situation will more than likely sink ffg

    Absolutely.


  • Posts: 6,192 ✭✭✭[Deleted User]


    The opposition has to be visible to get things done. The gov doesnt. Tweeting and doing interviews doesnt get legislation written

    The government have made an utter balls of everything they've gone at during the pandemic (PUP aside),they done level best to make a balls of the hotel quarantine,only for it worked inspite of em and caught a good few cases,they would never extended it



    30 odd minister/junior ministers and fcuk knows how many advisors and they stumble from one shamble to the next,only for ecb propping em up with cheap money,this would be a worse performing government than when biffo was in charge


  • Registered Users Posts: 28,703 ✭✭✭✭Wanderer78


    The opposition has to be visible to get things done. The gov doesnt. Tweeting and doing interviews doesnt get legislation written

    oh trust me, from a person that has spent a lifetime dealing with mental health issues, and the last few years interacting with the 'services', she hasnt done much of anything, in fact, many 'services' have in fact declined significantly in the last year


  • Registered Users Posts: 161 ✭✭SeanieW1977


    I see John Cummins made a complete Jack ass of himself again.

    Giving it big ones about SF data base & his own party is at bad.

    In his defense I doubt he came across this issue, likely doing his party bidding for letting him slip back in after golf gate.

    I wonder will Damien Tiernan even bring it up tomorrow? Doubt it somehow.

    God we have some collection of them down here!


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  • Moderators, Regional South East Moderators Posts: 9,022 Mod ✭✭✭✭Aquos76


    I see John Cummins made a complete Jack ass of himself again.

    Giving it big ones about SF data base & his own party is at bad.

    In his defense I doubt he came across this issue, likely doing his party bidding for letting him slip back in after golf gate.

    I wonder will Damien Tiernan even bring it up tomorrow? Doubt it somehow.

    God we have some collection of them down here!

    DT has put in a request for him to appear on the show tomorrow is my understanding


  • Registered Users Posts: 28,703 ✭✭✭✭Wanderer78


    I see John Cummins made a complete Jack ass of himself again.

    Ah shur what do you expect, he's not the sharpest


  • Registered Users Posts: 161 ✭✭SeanieW1977


    Wanderer78 wrote: »
    Ah shur what do you expect, he's not the sharpest

    He would let you believe otherwise


  • Registered Users Posts: 28,703 ✭✭✭✭Wanderer78


    He would let you believe otherwise

    i cant imagine many truly believe him though, i certainly hope not


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,213 ✭✭✭friendlyfun


    Cummins put his foot in his mouth again. Why am I not surprised


  • Registered Users Posts: 5,147 ✭✭✭hardybuck


    I don't believe that he has.

    Sinn Fein are clearly annoyed and maybe a bit threatened by this, as they've sent out Eoin O Broin, their housing spokesperson, to defend their use of their database.

    I'm very keen to see how SF are using the data, and what'd it'd say about me and my family. I'm also curious as to why the data was stored in London initially, and then to Germany after Brexit. Seems strange that it wasn't managed and stored in Ireland but perhaps there's a reasonable explanation for that.


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,313 ✭✭✭Asdfgh2020


    hardybuck wrote: »
    I don't believe that he has.

    Sinn Fein are clearly annoyed and maybe a bit threatened by this, as they've sent out Eoin O Broin, their housing spokesperson, to defend their use of their database.

    I'm very keen to see how SF are using the data, and what'd it'd say about me and my family. I'm also curious as to why the data was stored in London initially, and then to Germany after Brexit. Seems strange that it wasn't managed and stored in Ireland but perhaps there's a reasonable explanation for that.

    I’ve no clue from reading the last few post what ‘Senator Cummins’ has supposedly done/said etc can someone elaborate please...?


  • Registered Users Posts: 10,654 ✭✭✭✭Jamie2k9


    Asdfgh2020 wrote: »
    I’ve no clue from reading the last few post what ‘Senator Cummins’ has supposedly done/said etc can someone elaborate please...?

    SF tried to make a big deal out of this website by claiming it was hosted outside the EU and collects data because it has no cookies enabled.

    https://www.johncumminswaterford.ie/?fbclid=IwAR1dG-Qx1sL53LNWcQDQf8O1UWnX0CbL9NfpQeCe6RmpS2WKBqp3pbIvVU8

    If you click the contact page there is a check box and John said this info was not referenced in the post.

    The website was created by Wix but apparently hosted by a Waterford company )according to John).

    This was the post on FB by David:
    After spending weeks attacking a secure and legitimate internal Sinn Féin database Fine Gael Senator Cummins has a website which apparently is hosted outside the EU by Wix, has no cookies notification or management, has a contact form where name, phone, email and comments are sent outside the EU & no privacy policy. I look forward to getting clarity from John on these matters and of course a full examination by the Data Commissioner.

    No idea who is right or wrong but I do think SF have been caught out with there database and most of there TDs had a different excuse everyday last week.


  • Registered Users Posts: 7,228 ✭✭✭jmcc


    Jamie2k9 wrote: »
    SF tried to make a big deal out of this website by claiming it was hosted outside the EU and collects data because it has no cookies enabled.

    https://www.johncumminswaterford.ie/?fbclid=IwAR1dG-Qx1sL53LNWcQDQf8O1UWnX0CbL9NfpQeCe6RmpS2WKBqp3pbIvVU8

    If you click the contact page there is a check box and John said this info was not referenced in the post.

    The website was created by Wix but apparently hosted by a Waterford company )according to John).

    This is the lookup for his site:

    www.johncumminswaterford.ie is an alias for www20.wixdns.net.
    www20.wixdns.net is an alias for balancer.wixdns.net.
    balancer.wixdns.net is an alias for a9b21bea-balancer.wixdns.net.
    a9b21bea-balancer.wixdns.net is an alias for td-balancer-db4-63-161.wixdns.net.
    td-balancer-db4-63-161.wixdns.net has address 185.230.63.161

    This is from the whois for the IP address range of the site:
    inetnum: 185.230.63.0 - 185.230.63.255
    netname: wix_com_inc
    country: US

    These are the IP addresses returned for the johncumminswaterford.ie site:

    johncumminswaterford.ie has address 185.230.63.107
    johncumminswaterford.ie has address 185.230.63.186
    johncumminswaterford.ie has address 185.230.63.171

    As can be seen, the IP addresses are all between the 185.230.63.0 and 185.230.63.255 limits.

    While it may have been developed by a Waterford company, it is not hosted in Waterford.

    It may initially have been hosted in Ireland. However, it is now hosted on Wix. Perhaps he was unaware of that.

    Regards...jmcc


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,313 ✭✭✭Asdfgh2020


    jmcc wrote: »
    This is the lookup for his site:

    www.johncumminswaterford.ie is an alias for www20.wixdns.net.
    www20.wixdns.net is an alias for balancer.wixdns.net.
    balancer.wixdns.net is an alias for a9b21bea-balancer.wixdns.net.
    a9b21bea-balancer.wixdns.net is an alias for td-balancer-db4-63-161.wixdns.net.
    td-balancer-db4-63-161.wixdns.net has address 185.230.63.161

    This is from the whois for the IP address range of the site:
    inetnum: 185.230.63.0 - 185.230.63.255
    netname: wix_com_inc
    country: US

    These are the IP addresses returned for the johncumminswaterford.ie site:

    johncumminswaterford.ie has address 185.230.63.107
    johncumminswaterford.ie has address 185.230.63.186
    johncumminswaterford.ie has address 185.230.63.171

    As can be seen, the IP addresses are all between the 185.230.63.0 and 185.230.63.255 limits.

    While it may have been developed by a Waterford company, it is not hosted in Waterford.

    It may initially have been hosted in Ireland. However, it is now hosted on Wix. Perhaps he was unaware of that.

    Regards...jmcc

    This is absolute ‘moronic’ school yard stuff from both sides......99.9% of electorate (apart from some tecky anorak geek/nerds/dorks with an interest in GDPR) wouldn’t have a clue what this is all about.....did Damien tiernan discuss this with Cummins recently live on radio...?


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  • Registered Users Posts: 7,228 ✭✭✭jmcc


    Asdfgh2020 wrote: »
    This is absolute ‘moronic’ school yard stuff from both sides......99.9% of electorate (apart from some tecky anorak geek/nerds/dorks with an interest in GDPR) wouldn’t have a clue what this is all about.....did Damien tiernan discuss this with Cummins recently live on radio...?
    It started out with the typical Sindo "get SF" reporting about an electioneering database. This was a distraction from Varadkar being questioned under caution and having his mobile phone seized as part of a criminal investigation. It was just a Sindo/Indo journalist banging on about an SF campaigning document for SF canvassers and it tried to make the SF database sound all creepy. Then the whole aspect of GDPR legislation entered the equation. The Examiner found that other parties had problems as did RTE's Primetime show.

    It turned out that the websites of many FF/FG representatives were in also breach of GDPR legislation. RTE's Primetime programme also found that the main FG website had a hidden Facebook tracking link that it had not disclosed and this was on its cookies consent page and therefore made any user consent invalid.

    Most of the allegations about the SF database were hypothetical apart from what the Data Protection Commissioner suggested should be corrected. This hidden Facebook tracking link on FG's website was hard evidence against FG.

    While SF had to deal with the Data Protection Commissioner and remedy any breaches of the legislation, other parties also had problems and the Sindo/Indo is responsible for landing them all in the crap about GDPR.

    The main problem is that data was being sent outside the EU by some of the sites. This was a charge that the Sindo/Indo had leveled against SF and some particularly stupid Wikipedia "reporting" claimed that the SF database was "hosted" in Philadelphia. The HQ of the hosting company that SF used for its sfabu dot com site is in Philadelphia but the server is in Frankfurt, Germany. It also appears that FG uses the same hosting company for hosting some of its websites and they too are based in Germany.

    Cummins is being used as a disposable attack dog by FG and he has to work hard after screwing up with Golfgate and not getting elected in the GE.

    While this may not mean anything to 99% of the electorate, it has caused problems for political parties other than SF. Data privacy and the tracking of users is a popular topic for the media and "technology" journalists but few of them understand how pervasive it is and how it works. Much like web hosting and where websites are hosted. The intention of the Sindo/Indo stuff appeared to be to make SF look bad and it has backfired and shown the abject hypocrisy of other parties. Now the Social Democrats had to appoint a data protection officer.

    Regards...jmcc


  • Registered Users Posts: 700 ✭✭✭kayaksurfbum


    jmcc wrote: »
    It started out with the typical Sindo "get SF" reporting about an electioneering database.

    Is it not still about the database and what info they are keeping on us voters?

    That's not really the same as where your website is hosted.

    Are Political party's looking at this post and other social media and keeping notes on who is talking about them? And if they are where is that data kept?


  • Registered Users Posts: 28,703 ✭✭✭✭Wanderer78


    Is it not still about the database and what info they are keeping on us voters?

    That's not really the same as where your website is hosted.

    Are Political party's looking at this post and other social media and keeping notes on who is talking about them? And if they are where is that data kept?

    both public and private entities in society are collecting enormous amounts of data on and by us, both using this for activities against our wishes, and our interests


  • Registered Users Posts: 7,228 ✭✭✭jmcc


    Is it not still about the database and what info they are keeping on us voters?
    It is cack-handed pro-FG propaganda from the Sindo/Indo and it has shown that other parties also have their GDPR/privacy issues.
    That's not really the same as where your website is hosted.
    With GDPR and data protection legislation where a site is hosted and if data on EU citizens is being transferred outside the EU are important legal aspects.
    Are Political party's looking at this post and other social media and keeping notes on who is talking about them? And if they are where is that data kept?
    Probably. There are the online equivalent of the old news clipping services. They search websites and Social Media for mentions of keywords and key phrases and then e-mail a list of these links back to their subscribers. It is even possible to set up free Google Alerts on keywords to do much the same thing.

    Regards...jmcc


  • Posts: 6,192 ✭✭✭[Deleted User]


    Is it not still about the database and what info they are keeping on us voters?

    That's not really the same as where your website is hosted.

    Are Political party's looking at this post and other social media and keeping notes on who is talking about them?And if they are where is that data kept?

    Some reason to suspect the government is anyway

    https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.irishexaminer.com/news/arid-40080437.html%3ftype=amp
    Irish Examiner has seen hundreds of pages of analysis from the Department of Health and Department of Education on Twitter, Reddit, and message board activity on issues

    Could never make out,why shinners never made hay on this issue


  • Registered Users Posts: 5,147 ✭✭✭hardybuck


    Is it not still about the database and what info they are keeping on us voters?

    That's not really the same as where your website is hosted.

    Are Political party's looking at this post and other social media and keeping notes on who is talking about them? And if they are where is that data kept?

    There has been a narrative built up about SF being a secretive organisation. some of that will naturally follow on from their history and how they're set up.

    A survey of all the political parties revealed that SF are the only party who store voter information in a national database. They didn't have a data protection officer and hadn't done a data protection impact assessment. I think the Social Democrats have also moved to appoint a data protection officer since this broke.

    I suppose SF will have to satisfy the Data Protection Commissioner now that everything is above board.

    It ties back into the points were made recently about SF being a big machine with big resources. If you have cash to spend as a political party, this is probably one of the things you'd like to spend it on.

    Edit: I see one of their former Councillors has just been charged with a high profile murder, so presumably the data story will go quiet for a bit.


  • Registered Users Posts: 700 ✭✭✭kayaksurfbum


    hardybuck wrote: »
    If you have cash to spend as a political party, this is probably one of the things you'd like to spend it on.

    Your spot on. They all want to do it, but only SF have the cash and muscle. But does that make it ok to take notes on us and share them to every one in the party?

    I'm sure the local councillor has a note on what I said to him or her at the last Local elections, if it stops there that's ok I think but the national database is a bit over the top.


  • Registered Users Posts: 5,147 ✭✭✭hardybuck


    Your spot on. They all want to do it, but only SF have the cash and muscle. But does that make it ok to take notes on us and share them to every one in the party?

    I'm sure the local councillor has a note on what I said to him or her at the last Local elections, if it stops there that's ok I think but the national database is a bit over the top.

    In that scenario the Councillor should really advise you that anything you say to them would be recorded on the database, advise you on how that information will be stored, what it'll be used for etc. Crucially you'd surely have to agree to that before providing them with the information?


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,213 ✭✭✭friendlyfun


    Jesus ****, Sinn Fein are not looking good today


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  • Registered Users Posts: 871 ✭✭✭azimuth17


    The answer to the question posed by this thread is NO.


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