The Irish Indo is obviously gunning for John McGuinness these days - for what reason I don't know (because his work as Chairman of the PAC is threatening to somebody?).
Anyway, he's not helping himself by what he's saying. Here's a flavour:
Spending watchdog asked to bring wife on trips
THE chairman of the Dail public spending watchdog tried to bring his wife with him on foreign trips while he was a junior minister – and argued that the taxpayer should foot the bill for ministerial spouses to travel abroad.
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‘Ministers should be allowed take spouses on foreign trips’ – McGuinness
THE chairman of the Dail public spending watchdog claims there is a case to be made the taxpayer to pay for ministers to take their spouses abroad while on official travel.
from
here.
Then he goes on RTE and digs himself in deeper:
Fianna Fáil TD John McGuinness said the rules on spouses travelling abroad with ministers should be updated to take account of "the modern family context".
...
speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, Mr McGuinness said it was always his intention to pay for his wife.
He said there was case to be made sometimes for ministers to bring their spouses on foreign trips and for the 1959 regulations governing the area to be revised.
He said: "In terms of trade missions, the protocol is that the wife does not travel.
"But there are circumstances that should be considered when ministers are away on State business for long periods of time and, where they believe that their wife should travel, they should pay.
"There may be other circumstances where the minister can then make a case, within a new set of guidelines, where he believes the State should pay because work practices have certainly changed.
"The family is now central to everything and it may be that a minister might want to make that case."
Mr McGuinness said the minister could make such a case on family or health grounds.
leading to
calls for him to resign from the PAC.
Call for McGuinness to consider PAC position
There have been calls for the chairman of the Dáil Public Accounts Committee to consider his position after he said the State should pay for ministers' spouses to travel on some trade missions.
...
Independent TD Finian McGrath called on Mr McGuinness to resign as chairman of the committee.
Fine Gael TD Simon Harris, who is a member of the committee, said Mr McGuinness should consider whether its credibility is being undermined.
He said the "revelations" about Mr McGuinness are "hugely distracting" to the work of the committee.
Minister of State for European Affairs Lucinda Creighton described the revelations as "bizarre", especially as Mr McGuinness has "very much taken the high moral ground on these issues" as chair of the PAC.
People Before Profit Alliance TD Richard Boyd Barrett has said Mr McGuinness's positon as chair of the Public Accounts Committee is "pretty untenable".
Mr Boyd Barrett said it was absolutely pathetic that a leading figure in the Opposition is still defending his position that overpaid ministers should be allowed to bring partners on trips abroad.
John McGuinness has always come across to me as a very straight talker - someone who is genuinely trying to do good work, and, in the unlikely event that I'd ever vote Fianna Fail, the only FFer I'd ever vote for. However, these comments are bizarre, and smacks of someone who still believes the Celtic Tiger is alive and well.
