wtf is going on? Bizzarre
Also being reported in Trinity News now according to their Twitter. Their website is unavailable as overwhelmed with requests!
They're saying he married his wife in April 2000 and not 2010. That would be significant!
I hope TN has done their due diligence and not just reposted whatever the Ditch fed them!
Well, the Ditch said she was his "wife". They are wrong, she wasn't his wife at the time.
No wonder other media isn't touching this. There may well be something dodgy about this, but so far there seems to be an awful lot of muck-throwing by the Ditch, but much of it isn't true.
He voted to sell the piece of land on the open market, not to sell it to his "wife".
To really answer the question asked by the OP, you need to forget about the particular issue, and ask yourself why the mainstream media ignore stories on a website. To me, the answer is simple, the credibility of the Ditch is the issue.
Fianna Fáil junior minister and ex-county councillor Niall Collins voted to sell council-owned land that was bought by his wife.
Literally the first line of the article.
Deleted due to acknowledgement of poster.
How am I a fanboy of anyone? I got confused by drafting.
I've included the definition of spouse under the PART 15 Ethical Framework for the Local Government Service a few posts above. Can the FFG fanboys learn to read!
Edit: "spouse" is defined as cohabitant under the LCGA as including a cohabitant. I was wrong, apologies.
No they didn't. You are wrong.
lol, the Ditch are welcome to try and sue me.
They said it was his wife. They were not married. They were wrong.
Why not answer the previous question posed to you about whether his wife was his spouse (i.e. living with him) back in 2006 - since you've claimed she wasn't and that the ditch was lying on this point (and quite likely defamed the ditch in the process)
She doesn't have to be his wife, just his spouse. His spouse had made enquiries to the council about buying the land before it was placed on the market. He then voted on the decision to sell the land. This is a clear conflict of interest and if she was his spouse at the time, a failure to declare such a conflict of interest is a criminal offense.
The point is more that 2006 is eons ago in terms of the pervasion of the internet into daily life and its not at all unusual that a site for sale would only be put in a paper. Did Daft even do development land at the time?
There is nothing particularly weird about how the land was sold from what I can see.
Bebo and MySpace were not property sites but I'd wager Daft was the most visited property site at the time.
More trouble for Neil/Niall O'Connor/Collins.
Also even if she was his wife, a future intention to buy land on the open market isn't on the extensive list of "declarable" or "beneficial" interests under the Local Government Act 2001 (as amended). I have gone into detail on that point here: https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058293765/niall-collins-or-the-apparent-weakness-of-the-local-government-act-2001
The Ditch also should have known that she wasn't his wife at the time of the vote, as they apparently had a copy of his marriage certificate from the previous story they did on him:
The reason his no reputable media outlet has picked this story up is that it is defamatory.
Yeah I know. Funny isn't it.
To be honest I haven't a rats who Cosgrave is apart from some IT conference some years back. I don't really care who he is.
And I still buy the Independent and sometimes the Irish Times! They have become rags in recent years. I don't know who their Editors are either anymore.
B-b-but the shinners, paddy Cosgrove.. conspiracy nuts the lot of ye...
Pop quiz - is there anyone here who thinks Collins is clean and has no questions to answer?
Does the format or the messenger impact the validity of their statements? Which fact did they get wrong in the past?
It's worrying that they are exposing a bias in our media.
It's fascinating how the Ditch irks the FFG fanboys so much. Status Quo at risk alert!!
...
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Not sure what point you're trying to make with your post - the spousal definition I included above is from PART 15 Ethical Framework for the Local Government Service, a breach of which is a criminal offence.
Are you saying she wasn't living with him in 2006?
No she wasn't his spouse, because spouse has a definative meaning in Irish law. There is no such thing as common law husband or wife in Irish legislation, and civil union legislation wasn't introduced until 2015.
Try to pull the "cohabiting couple" card for property rights after a breakup in an Irish courts. You wont get far.
Deflect much?
Was Eimear O'Connor his spouse at the time - yes or no?
Why not Myhome or Daft?
Because it was 2006 and Bebo and MySpace were the most popular websites in Ireland?
She was his partner then, no and she became his wife, no? She doesn't have to be his wife for it to be a criminal offence, just a spouse as defined below:
“spouse”, in relation to a person, includes a person with whom the first-mentioned person is cohabiting.
It was put up for public sale in the Limerick leader - is that the usual place to advertise such property to prospective investors? Why not Myhome or Daft?
He was conflicted yet he voted on the matter and didn't declare that conflict of interest. It's for the criminal courts to determine whether there was a crime committed and it is far from a clear-cut no from where I'm standing. How is it a lie to claim it is possibly criminal when that is the case? You are really stretching to claim someone is lying when they say something is possible - especially when it is possible to any objective bystander.
Anyone who thinks this is some deliberate attempt to not report on the story is a bit of a dimwit tbh.
It is a criminal offence, punishable by up to two years’ imprisonment, for a councillor to vote on a matter where his spouse has a material interest.
She wasn't his spouse at the time
The land was put up for public sale
It is charitably a poor framing of the issue. I would call it outright lies trying to claim a councillor committed a crime when they did not.
Please provide details.
I don't read the independent so no.
I don't have much time for the creator of the painting or anyone purporting it to be either good satire or intelligent public commentary, but their political editor could have handled the situation better.
Yes, I am comfortable saying that the legacy media, whatever their faults, are not as politically driven as The Ditch, who appear to lack anything remotely approaching journalistic standards. I am not arguing that they are always wrong either I might add, however the legal framework within which legacy media works has been developed over a long period for a reason.
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