wtf is going on? Bizzarre
But it wasn't disposed fairly if one of the votes to initially sell comes from the partner of the buyer.
I don't get how this part is so problematic for you.
Do we know it was a fair market price? I know when there's only one bidder it's often below market rate.
You seem to know a lot about this story. Do you know how it came to the council's attention in the first place, or was it just an Irish coincidence?
Firstly it's not clear there was any corruption.
Secondly, The Ditch's sole purpose seems to be to dig up historic dirt on government TDs. Is there any scrutiny of SF or PBP or any other opposition TDs?
Thirdly, if they have the likes of Paddy Cosgrave as their cheerleader in chief, they're obviously to be avoided at all costs.
No, as long as the land is disposed of fairly, openly and at fair market price it quite clearly doesn't.
If you think the manner of disposal was illegal that would of course be a problem, but a completely separate one from the one they are banging on about.
Do you think the council strove to get the best price of the land for the tax payer?
"The bare minimum advertising" ??
I think the words you are looking for are ' statutory requirement'. Did you want a full page in Anglers Monthly?
They say you can't pat your head and rub your belly at the same time, but the amount of concurrent straw clutching and back pedalling going on around the place this morning is quite the feat.
Maybe people should try and stop doing corrupt things that the Russians can't use for disruption?
Russian money used to try to disrupt things in an EU country, and unfortunately there are plenty only too willing to buy into it.
The entire issue is, he didn't recuse himself from the vote, even though he knew his partner was interested in buying it. That should not be allowed. It's too close to being a form of insider trading.
What I'd like to know is how the land to be sold came to the council's attention, and the subject of a vote. If Collins' did bring it up, I believe that raises serious questions over undue influence.
And
How long has other council land been advertised for before being sold.
It seems particularly sus that it had the bare minimum advertisement lest it generated other interest. That cannot have been good for the taxpayer as the council should try and extract as much as they can from land sales.
Right, so land that has just one of expression of interest in it from person A does not present a potential gain to someone voting in the decision to sell it who also happens to be the spouse of Person A🤣
Its definitely not illegal.
The questions about how the land was disposed of seem to be valid ones - the obvious question being is any of it out of the ordinary? Had Collins recused himself from the vote (which he was not obliged to) would this be a story?
People are welcome to find the behaviour unbecoming of what they want in their public representatives and vote him out accordingly. But its not illegal and there is no media conspiracy to cover it up.
I'm fully aware of what it means. There is no pecuniary interest in something you do not own going up for sale on the open market. Had the vote been to sell it to her you would have a point (though that would likely fall foul of other laws whether we was involved or not).
The Ditch is a shining light for Irish journalism. Thankfully they can't be bought and sold like RTE/Newstalk etc... have been by the FFG cartel.
Collins now must go or this will do long term damage to this government.
As bonkers as that sounds it would be no great surprise to hear that AI companies are trialing out their product on forums.
Well that's just crazily disingenuous.
Am I wrong in this timeline?
Niall Collins' partner expresses interest in some council land
The council have a vote whether to sell that land (who put forth that proposition?)
Niall Collins votes to sell that land and the council passes the motion.
The land is advertised twice in the Limerick leader, which comes out 3 times a week, so was advertised for 3/4 days.
Niall Collins' partner buys the land, uncontested as no one else bid for it.
Am I wrong in what I typed up?
What he did may not have been illegal (which is a problem in itself) but it's definitely morally ambiguous, and she definitely profited off the decision as there were no counter bids which may have pushed up the price.
And yet all the media outlets are all over it. There is a misunderstanding of the issue but not in the way you think.
Eh, yes there is - you clearly don't understand the meaning of pecuniary interest and ignore the fact that the only reason the land was put up for sale was because Collins spouse asked to buy it.
There is no financial gain in purchasing property on the open market at market price. Pecuniary interests do not include hypothetical future events.
You may as well state that a councillor can't be involved in planning permission decisions if they have stated they might want to buy a house at some point.
Look everyone needs to calm down.
Something happened while niall was busy serving his constituents that resulted in an oversight which he has not profited from personally and lessons will be learned from this.
Its time to move on to the more important things affecting the people of ireland and lessons will be learned from this thing that isnt a thing that we will learn lessons from.
Thank you.
More likely the conversations are bots discussing things among themselves, with generative Ai that's quite likely. Btw spare a though for the dairy farmer in deepest darkest Roscommon that reads about all this ai stuff....sure the ai man comes round here regularly (no pun intended) I must ask him about this CraicGPT
I think this thread shows, as well as twitter, just how little understanding there is of this issue and also gives an insight into why the media haven’t been all over it to the extent that many want.
Those minutes do not prove what many people think/ want them to prove.
The Ditch appear to be being deliberately ambiguous with the details here, particularly when throwing the word “illegal” around. More twitter likes for that I guess.
Because he had a pecuniary interest at the time he voted in favour of the sale which was not declared
Because this is just the latest in a series of what appears to be lies. Take a look at the image below and tell me honestly, how someone with this record should be in a ministerial position.
why as far as I can See
He voted in the meeting 15th Jan 2007 to start the process of the sale.
He was a TD when the Council Approved the sale in Sep 2008.
They also get things wrong. But people try to sell them as their word is religion.
The timeline and facts have shown them up in this case. Pretty poor effort at journalism, if you can call it that.
Hopefully someone who will be forced to resign from their current position.
Who is 'Neil'?
The real media approached this with caution.
They appear to be wary of The Ditch.
I wonder what happened that after days of silence suddenly all the media are on it? Still a nothing burger supposedly.
Oh dear, The Ditch were doing so well until they were faced with a detailed chronological and documentary explanation of why they were wrong.
Which makes me wonder, are maverick spoofers like The Ditch loons answerable to the Press Council, or are they not? And if they are not, are they not media? Are they just a poor pastiche of Infowars?
Cos if it quacks like a moron....
I love how the Ditch plays it's hand. More lemons for the FFG crew please. Should be interesting now....yet another reminder of how corrupt these power swap TDs are.
