Following on from
this thread
Please remain civil or posting privileges will be removed
It's not up to you or Leo to decide what is or isn't a homophobic statement, especially when it is a commonly used phrase and never been used as a homophobic slur by anyone ever - unless you can prove otherwise.
It's only a handful of buffoons that seem to want to find offence in it, and to use it as a tool. If that's what they want to do, well then maybe they should crawl back into their holes underground, or wherever it is trolls live and discuss it there.
There is zero evidence that a common phrase was used in a homphobic way. Taken in it's commonly used form it isn't homophobic so the onus is on those claiming homophobia is to prove he intended it that way.
It was a homophobic statement in the context that MHR used it. Given that, you can figure out the severity of it.
Lest we have another few pages of arguing with dictionaries again.
Fine Gael New Politics document 2011
In Government we will deliver stronger, more accountable Local Government, and dismantle the public sector’s “command and control” model where everything is run from the top and local voices and concerns are ignored.
Fine Gael wants to build on that community spirit and champion the cause of the Citizen by: • Building a stronger, more democratic Local Government that is accountable to local citizens and their communities;
Utter bullshit. All lies.
This part was the most frustrating. The fake accountability.
Council chamber secrets: Misconduct, falsehoods & waste (rte.ie)
Our investigation details failures in the local government sector, including allegations of employee fraud, false accounting, the misleading of other public bodies in grant applications, and the shocking waste of taxpayers' money.
In our analysis, two predominant themes persist in the local government sector.
One is the lack of accountability. Another is the persistent absence of real transparency.
Each year, every local authority is subject to an audit from the Local Government Audit Service, a division of the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, which publishes its reports.
And while the Local Government Auditor highlights examples of poor practices or waste of public money, its impact can be limited.
It can make "recommendations" to local authorities to get their act together – but that's about it.
"The implementation of recommendations made is a matter for the management of the local authority," the department told RTÉ Investigates.
"However, the lack of action on recommendations made at previous audits may be referred to in subsequent audit reports."
But our analysis of audits from the Local Government Auditor indicates that there are no repercussions for councils that habitually ignore audit recommendations.
The absence of accountability and transparency is evident at several councils in recent years.
In examining various council-related controversies, a distinct pattern emerges.
A controversy erupts, painting the council, or a council employee, in a less-than-favourable light.
The council – or in some cases, a government department – responds and says it is investigating the controversy.
Sometimes, it appoints an external investigator to do this – for example, a retired senior official from another local authority. And sometimes it does this in-house.
It is seen to be doing something.
While the investigation is taking place, the council can easily swat off any Freedom of Information requests, media queries or queries from its councillors by saying that it cannot comment on the matter or provide any further information until its "investigation" is completed.
Time marches on. Media and political interest in the controversy wanes.
Eventually, with the investigation completed, the council often refuses to release the investigation report, perhaps because of privacy grounds or because the report contains "personal information".
On other occasions, a Garda investigation provides the council with a rationale for not disclosing information about a particular issue – a situation that can sometimes last over several years.
And there, the matter is put to bed – but with no answers given to the public.
This Septic Isle.
It's on RTE Player. Will you be pushing your local FG and FF TD to resurrect the 2015 Public Sector Standards Bill that got shelved even though it had broad support?
Fair enough and will you be pushing your local FG and FF TD to resurrect the 2015 Public Sector Standards Bill that got shelved even though it had broad support?
So who do you blame for a patent lack of reform when reform was promised?
blanch, there is simply NO 'light side' to homophobia.
I have given my views on local government many many times and am not a bit surprised by what I have heard of that programme.
I never said light homophobia. I described it as being on the lighter side of homophobia. There is a difference between the two uses of the language. All homophobia is wrong, just some examples are worse than others.
Joe Dufy had to explain to MHR yesterday the difference between adjectives and nouns, do I have to explain the different use of language to you? Not the first time you have taken my words and twisted them into a different meaning. Away with that sort of behaviour.
Didn't watch it Anyone surprised the county councils are corrupt
They done plenty of studies over the year and found them all to be corrupt. Report from 2019
By the way this should have a thread of it's own as it is across ALL parties in local government.
Even the favourite independent at the moment is neck deep in a county council which is called out in this report. How can a TD have family member in the county council and then run multiple companies who win contracts from the county council. Like how corrupt is that?
Wrong ill-considered language. Would you say 'light racism'?
Thoughts Blanch?
Did you watch it? It wasn't about low paid council workers dossing. This was high level fraud, corruption, waste of public money, false accounting, forgery, mismanagement, and lack of oversight and accountability. Who is to blame for the lack of reform? Mahon was 10 years ago.
Disgraceful. Both County Councillors and Council staff need drastic reductions. Whenever I see County Council workers er working, it makes my blood boil. As an elderly relative said of them “They’re masters at breastfeeding a shovel”
There is a world of difference between a single one-off offensive remark and say a punishment beating as examples of homophobia. Calling one lighter than the other is not unreasonable.
blanch, I can assure you that the vast majority experiencing homophobia of any degree would NEVER refer to it as 'light'. Maybe you need to 'reflect' on your language because you don't seem to have given the subject much thought.
That you don't know about degrees of offence is no surprise. Some reflection ala MHR would be warranted.
Whatever Maryanne. Any comments on the rife corruption in local government at huge cost to the taxpayer?
Maybe they didn’t like the accommodation offered? From news reports, Ukrainian refugees are being housed in disused convents around the country. I’m not sure how habitable these buildings are, but may not have been suitable for long term use.
It was optics. I believed in New Politics in 2011 and voted for FG. Fool me once.
Mr Donohoe said that this was necessary because of the "public interest in implementing the recommendations" of the Mahon Tribunal.
But this request had little impact.
When asked for an update on the legislation in June 2019, an Oireachtas official replied that the Dáil term was due to finish the following month and that "All our remaining meetings are fully accounted for, and there are no plans to deal with this Bill in the remaining time".
The delays continued, and once the 2020 General Election was called, the bill died.
With the Public Sector Standards Bill now a distant memory, the Government's latest initiative is a "review" of ethics legislation. In November 2021, the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Michael McGrath, told the Dáil that this review had begun, describing it as "a very significant body of work".
"We still have outstanding recommendations from tribunals of inquiry that reported several years ago, and I am determined to make progress in that area," said Mr McGrath.
Given the pace of reform, it doesn't appear that anything meaningful will happen anytime soon.
As John Devitt of Transparency International Ireland put it, "Turkeys don't vote for Christmas."
"And politicians are not inclined to want more meaningful or thorough oversight."
I don't know. I just thought Pascal came out of it okay from the programme
You'd hope that it will gain some traction again now and finally get over the line but with all that's going on in the world, there's a reasonable chance it will just fall by the wayside again
They are completely blinded by their hatred of Leo and of other posters.
MHR was a disgrace, no surprise to anyone who has ever listened to him that he holds such opinions.
I have been the biggest critic of our councils on here so I am not surprised.
Yes but why wasn't the 2015 Public Sector Standards Bill put on the program for government when FG got back into power in 2020? Why didn't Pascal highlight that? It was stalled and then dropped quietly by FF&FG. As the academic said, turkeys don't vote for Xmas.
I thought from the clips shown that Pascal was doing his best to push it through but it was delayed by Calleary's intervention about liaising with the representative groups and subsequent blocking by the committee for local govt - "we've planned all our meetings for this year and it's not on the agenda" or something to that effect
They are Syrians. They left war torn Syria and were supposed to be in Lebanon temporarily. They were refugees. Same as the Ukrainians in Poland now waiting for relocation. Have you seen how much Aleppo was bombed? Absolutely flattened by the Russians.
Housing shortages, Covid restrictions...yeah right. It is double standards.
Did you actually read the article you posted? The first two paragraphs read “A group of Syrian refugees in Beirut have experienced a two-year delay with their planned resettlement to Ireland due to Covid-19 restrictions and housing shortages.
Many of the families sold their possessions in anticipation of departing for Ireland last year, but instead are facing the cold season in Lebanon without basic household goods and furniture.”
Then consider the Ukrainian refugees. Most only have the clothes on their backs. They didn’t have time to sell their possession. Their homes were bombed to rubble.
Syrian refugees in Lebanon waiting two years to get to Ireland (irishtimes.com)
Syrian refugees in Lebanon waiting two years to get to Ireland
Sourcing of long-term accommodation taking longer than anticipated, says department.
Did you see what Russia did in Syria?
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