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Katherine Zappone Envoy Gig

Yurt2

What in the blue blazes is going on with this sinecure?

https://www.thejournal.ie/donohoe-zappone-un-special-envoy-5507239-Jul2021/

First off, we have a very capable and professional diplomatic service that someone could step into this job if it is a foreign policy priority. The remit of this is so wishy-washy as well - Special Envoy for Freedom of Speech? Are we being serious here? What's she going to do day-to-day? Wag her finger at the Chinese Ambassador to the UN?

Secondly, Zappone took off to the US as soon as she lost her seat. She's no longer resident in Ireland, and she pops up again to take a job that was blatantly carved out for her and wasn't advertised.

Special envoy my backside. Coming to a Michelin Star restaurant near the East River soon...

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ednwireland

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117713866#Comment_117713866

you seriously believe that !!!!!!!!!🙄

expenses in these circles seem to mean very different things to what i have to put in as expenses

seamus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117713876#Comment_117713876

LOL

"Expenses" and "entitlements" are synonyms in political circles. There's a gigantic menu of things which politicians can claim expenses for, for which they don't have to show any receipts nor prove they incurred any cost.

Even when proof is required, there seems to be no real oversight. The Healy Rae brothers were proven to be scamming the expenses system last year by claiming for time spent in the Dail when there was video and documentary evidence proving they were in Kerry and their assistants in Dublin were clocking them in. Absolutely nothing came of it. Bonafide expenses fraud. Nah, no bother, carry on.

Cluedo Monopoly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117713933#Comment_117713933

Marko had never heard of Dara Murphy (FG) and his expenses party. That's some real ostrich stuff right there.

dudley72

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117713876#Comment_117713876

unless you have proof she has managed to put in dodgy expenses for a job she never got a chance to even start then they are just expenses.

McMurphy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117713933#Comment_117713933

Didn't Enda Kenny unintentionally reveal that he had the amazing ability to be in two places simultaneously, via his expense claims?

Two of those trips involved instances where Mr Kenny had also recorded his attendance at Leinster House. In May 2018, he was paid for a speaking event at a two-day conference in Zurich, Switzerland, hosted by Credit Suisse.

https://amp.rte.ie/amp/1085832/

I gotta tell you seamus, for a lad who was adamant others shouldn't be mentioning anyone else (like the shinners) in the zappone thread, you are making great progress at introducing others into it. Bit of a "do as I say, not as I do" whiff coming off you. You're not a member of fine gael by any chance? Similar traits if truth be told. 🧐

dudley72

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117713972#Comment_117713972

Not one party is ireland has TDs who haven’t put in dodgy expenses and in each case it was swept under the carpet. Not only expenses but also getting paid to go to Seanad/Dail and never going is another one.

The independents are worse than anyone as they have nobody to answer to, not even the voters

FrancieBrady

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117714030#Comment_117714030

It's different when they do it, there's probably another term for it in the FG Dictionary.

McMurphy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117714039#Comment_117714039

Independents like Katherine Zappone?

https://www.thejournal.ie/katherine-zappone-travel-expenses-2732813-Apr2016/

dudley72

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117714046#Comment_117714046

Another reference to this famous “FG Dictionary”

Could you please share to the group so we can all review

FrancieBrady

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117714096#Comment_117714096

It's only available in the 'indoctrinated' version Dudley.

dudley72

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117714121#Comment_117714121

So share that version please.

Fann Linn

Leo & Danny Healy Rae, two cheeks of the same ar$e when it comes to Covid guidelines.

Cluedo Monopoly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117714039#Comment_117714039

Yes but FG topped the charts in the last audit I saw. Gold, Silver and Bronze for the Elite Team 😁

TD Alan Farrell (FG) – €4,214.79
Senator Michelle Mulherin (FG) – €2,006.73
TD Maria Bailey (FG) – €1,977.11
Senator Lynn Ruane (Ind) – €978.81
Senator Colette Kelleher (Ind) – €245.85
Senator Jerry Buttimer (FG) – €227.16.

Six TDs and senators forced to refund €10,000 in expenses (thejournal.ie)

dudley72

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117714121#Comment_117714121

Ahh don’t worry about it, I was only joking, we all know it doesn’t exist so no need to spend ages trying to come up with a response to dodge the question like always

dudley72

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117714188#Comment_117714188

I’m not peddling anything, you can’t convict someone of committing expense fraud in a job she never got

FrancieBrady

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117714162#Comment_117714162

You need to be a member. 😉

Exiled1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117713866#Comment_117713866

Zappone now spends much of her time in NY and Portland and very little in Ireland. The expenses involved in this gig would give free business travel and accommodation between all on the pretext of a few 'meetings' in each.

It is never about the salary with these shysters.

seamus

@McMurphy wrote:

I gotta tell you seamus, for a lad who was adamant others shouldn't be mentioning anyone else (like the shinners) in the zappone thread, you are making great progress at introducing others into it.

The Zappone angle is already dead and buried, so I've given up trying to keep it on-topic. Nobody gives a **** about that anymore.

Any road, I picked out MHR because that was the most obvious/recent example I had of expenses fiddling. But across the political spectrum they're all at it to one degree or another. Like civil servants who save up their "sick days" to use at the end of the year, politicians all put in for all of their expenses whether they use them or not. Zappone stood to have a lot more than €15k available to her out of this gig.

dudley72

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117714218#Comment_117714218

Was any of that confirmed? Or made up by some people and nobody ever confirmed

we had days of “oh it’s bumping her pension” which after multiple people said it wasn’t we still had posts on here

The truth and what is posted on here/Twitter etc is a million miles apart

Dempo1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117714162#Comment_117714162

Available at FG HQ, and leading book stores

FrancieBrady

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117714218#Comment_117714218

Isn't that what one former councillor said on the Prime Time exposé of FF FG expenses fiddling - 'some councillors use expenses as a way to earn a living'.

Systemic abuses were people who have abused are given positions to do it again.

ednwireland

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117714206#Comment_117714206

i never said fraud.

i would suspect apartment in ireland , one in manhattan paid for by the irish taxpayer and business class flights around the world would be "expensed" at a minimum, but we will never see the detail of whats covered

dudley72

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117714264#Comment_117714264

Sure while we are at it, why not give her a yacht in caribbean.

Submitting dodgy expenses is fraud

FrancieBrady

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117714278#Comment_117714278

I feel we are heading towards the dismissive 'ah shure it was only 80,000 she got, could have been worse, she coulda put in for a yacht' stage?

Captain_Crash

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117714188#Comment_117714188

This envoy gig would have meant her accommodation, living expenses and travel to from NY would be expensed by the tax payer. Sure I read yesterday that shes back in NY already!

Nothing fraudulent about claiming expenses one is entitled to… but it seems to me this gig was created purely for her to live rent free in the city that never sleeps!

dudley72

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117714370#Comment_117714370

was this confirmed? The confirmation I seen said nothing of the sort

If true then serious question need to be answered

Captain_Crash

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117714388#Comment_117714388

Is what confirmed? That the State pays the accommodation of Irish diplomats abroad? Yes we do, so I’d imagine this gig would have been no different!

seamus

You're getting into the deeper complexities of it now.

Fraud = putting in for expenses which you know you didn't incur

Abuse = putting in for expenses which are technically above board, but far in excess of what's necessary.

Abuse is in essence an systemic issue. If it possible to abuse a system, then the system is broken. People are corrupt and will take what's available to them, and the system needs to account for that.

If your private employer said, "You can claim up to €200/month expenses for your mobile phone and we won't ask for proof", then 99% of people will claim that €200. And will laugh at the people who don't.

Likewise, "If you need to rent a property in order to travel for work, you can do so, and we don't care where you rent or how much it costs, just claim it back", 99% of people will rent out a large, central, expensive property, regardless of whether it is excessive for their needs.

And they will feel justified in doing so, because the employer has effectively told them that it is OK to do that.

The fact that in this case it's a public employer who allows blank cheque expenses, is irrelevant.

That doesn't make these abuses OK, but getting annoyed that people abuse an abusable system is like getting annoyed that rain makes you wet. You will lose your sanity way before anyone gets punished for abusing the system.

FrancieBrady

'Getting annoyed that people abuse an abusable system is like getting annoyed that rain makes you wet. You will lose your sanity way before anyone gets punished for abusing the system.

So give up because this is unfixable?

Did you really type that in and press post?

CDarby

I think I've mentioned before on this site that I'm an ex FF voter, from a family of FF stock. Going in with FG disgusted me, and, so they will never, ever regain my vote unless there's a major leadership overhaul.

Look at the party now. What values has Martin or the party have left, he (Martin) is willing to put his own party in harms way to save the leader of FG ?

He will put his neck on the line for Varadkar but wouldn’t for Barry Cowen and DarraghCalleary. He literally pushed Calleary out for a similar offence.

There's something rotten in the state of Ireland that a govt TD would even dare to come on to the national airwaves and admit that the Tánaiste broke the same guidelines he helped negotiate, and also admitted outdoor events of up to 200 had been allowed since early July, but was never was communicated to the relevant industry? How much will we, as tax payers shell out now in compensation to the event and hospitality industry because they wanted to save Leo's skin?

Imagine the uproar here if it became illegal overnight to drive on a Friday morning between the hours of 9-10, might be in the statute book, but no-one made the public aware of it, - extreme example, but not dissimilar.

This isn't Uganda, this is Ireland. We deserve better than what's being delivered.