Hard working Irish parliamentarians.

Hard working TDs.

Over the year’s arguments have been put forward by politicians trying to justify their extremely high salaries, and very generous expenses, long holidays etc, as to how hard they work. The general argument that they work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week on behalf of their constituents is the standard mantra they use.

In the past few weeks a debate has opened on their entitlements to pensions even though they are still employed by the same employer i.e. the Irish state. One argument I heard was when an elected member of the Irish parliament likened his pension entitlements to one that would be accumulated by those elected parliamentarians that also ran private commercial companies. In the issue of a privately funded pension, it is dependent on how much you pay and on what terms you sign up to, that decides when the private pension is actually paid (but realistically it will only be paid on retirement), as opposed to the public funded pensions that are ridiculously paid when you are still in work and capable of working, even if you lose your seat, IMHO if you are young and fit enough to work then your pension should not be paid until you reach pension age. If needs be, you can sign on the dole (like everybody else) in the event that you become unemployed.

On the other hand my thoughts turned to their arguments about how hard they work for their constituents. Clearly any parliamentarian that is also working in the private sector is not totally immersed in their constituents needs. You cannot work in a private business and devote 24 hours a day to your civic duties, it’s impossible. Therefore I can only conclude that they are not actually working 24 hours per day, 7 days per week on behalf of their constituents, and on that basis they should refund the portion of their salary on a pro rata basis to those parliamentarians that have no outside private commercial interests.

I could debate the complex revenue scenarios that could arise as to the issue of parliamentarians operating private commercial companies, but I will leave that for another day.

On the other hand I wonder how the normal scenario where if you pay peanuts, you get monkeys, implying a certain level of competence. We do not pay peanuts and yet we still ended up with monkeys, with no competence what so ever. How did that happen? So that’s the peanuts theory debunked.

Fianna Fail member Jim McDaid ranting and raving.

A couple of weeks ago Jim McDaid Fianna Fail TD was interviewed by Eamon Keane on Newstalk106. During the interview McDaid wondered had Fianna Fail given any thought to the fact that a Fine Gael Taoiseach might be in charge in 2016 which would mean that Fianna Fail would not run the centenary celebrations of the 1916 Rising. Today McDaid was again interviewed widely because of his refusal to give back his pension. His justification for this was he thinks the media are running the country. I think he is right in that issue, however if he really wants to have a go at the government, why does he not clearly call for the resignation of the government (after all he is a party member). Personally I want an election (like millions of others) ASAP, and not when Fianna Fail get around to it, however I do not think that who is in charge of the 1916 centenary really matters as they will have to toe a totally diplomatic line that will not offend any side of the civil war, as we are all, and always have been Irish, and no politician will ever change that, no matter what side they are on, but clearly McDaid is an example of Fianna Fail thinking as to how they play with the Irish state. They seem to believe they are the kings of Ireland, and the subjects will accept anything they hand down. Well I have news for Fianna Fail, those days are gone and you will never dominate this country again like you have in the past.

IMHO A few powerful people in Fianna Fail have destroyed this country, but you will never do it again. Your stranglehold on the institutes of the Irish state will be broken after the next election, and the gravy train will no longer roll into the Fianna Fail bandwagon. New checks and balances will be established to ensure proper account of transparency that will not facilitate any form of hiding information from the citizens. We will find out what has gone on, who gets what, and how much they get, and what for, and where rules have been broken appropriate actions will be taken. The citizens sovereignty will be established like it has never existed before, and the citizens will be the ultimate deciders of just and fair process.

Social partnership Irish style.

Social Partnership the Irish version.

It’s been quite an eye opener to see the amount of money being paid to trade union members of state boards, http://www.independent.ie/opinion/columnists/shane-ross/shane-ross-union-boss-takes-euro100k-fees-from-housing-quango-2151667.html. Membership of these boards (such as Fas, etc) are mirror images of the partnership processes, i.e. they include places for the social partners (ICTU and IBEC) the relevant state agencies, and where relevant the community sector.

In my former role as a community director of a Partnership company I had to meet all expenses that I incurred as a result of representing my community. I was never given any fees to participate, and as my nominating community group was completely unfunded I had to pay the costs of participation and it was substantial. http://www.shane-ross.ie/archives/584/mistress-of-inaction-on-fas/ Extract from this webpage “Headed by trade union leader Peter McLoone, they decided to tough it out. Peter was one of the many lucky luxury travellers to sample the joys of Florida. He also draws €25,000 a year as chairman of the board.

A second trade union representative, Owen Wills of the crafts union, was another to hitch hike on a €7,000 return ticket to Florida.

He is still drawing €14,000 from Fas as a nice little part-time gig.

Des Geraghty, the former Labour MEP and Siptu boss, remains perched at the top of this rotten agency.

None of these boys are budging. Nor is Danny McCoy, the big employers (Ibec) boss, drawing €14,000 a year from his sideline. Danny and Ibec are fond of lecturing us about the need for good corporate governance, national discipline and sacrifice. These noble principles obviously do not apply to any board adorned by Danny.

Danny is joined on the board by three other Ibec staff enjoying the spoils of Fas office.

None of them could have held on without political support. Both social partners — unions and employers — have their snouts in the Fas trough. “

In thinking about the fees being paid to trade union members of these boards I find it galling that they were being paid, while the community sector was not even receiving their genuine expenses.

I did make representations to both the Department of Community Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs (i.e. the relevant department) and also to the nominated state agency (Pobal), however I was not successful in having anything changed. As far as I know nothing has changed in the meantime and I can guarantee one thing that has not changed and that is, community directors are still not receiving fees like the directors of Fas and the other state agencies.

Since its inception Social Partnership always treated the community sector as the poor relation, but when these fees are revealed it is quite clear we are very definitely the poor relations, and we should be grateful that we are allowed to sit at the table with these very important people. They must be very important to justify the level of fees they receive.

One of the really annoying things about this issue is the community sector always seen itself as closest to the trade union sector, however it appears the trade union sector, and in particular those at the top were receiving payments while the community sector was not even getting proper expenses, but the trade union sector never told us they were getting money from the state.

I suspect most of the ordinary trade union members that were participating in various boards were not getting any payments either. This money was only available to the players at the top of the pile, I’ll bet.

Dochas Female prison governor resigns.

Brian Purcell director of the Irish prison services was on RTEs Pat Kenny show trying to defend his organisations decisions in the female prison in Dublin. The governor of the prison has resigned citing various (unacceptable to her) decisions that she says are detrimental to the health and safety of the prisoners.

In defence of his position Mr Purcell stated a number of times, that he was not in control of the number of prisoners in the prison implying that it is judges that are responsible for sending prisoners to jail.

However it is his organisation that decides who gets early release, and therefore he is very much in control of how many prisoners are actually in the prison at any given time, and thus he has every control over the prisoners and their lives.

His arguments clearly show he has a very different philosophy on how prisoners should be dealt with, than the philosophy employed by the governor, an experienced professional of 32 years working in the prison services.

IMHO it is a case of a quango head with legal powers over a state agency, exercising those powers in a manner that says to the governor, if you do not agree with my decision then tough, you will legally abide by it, or go, and unfortunately, she decided to go.

Another interesting point in the debate was how Pat Kenny referred to her retiring as opposed to resigning. You can dress it up in whatever politically correct language you want to, but it is an unhappy resignation to me, not a happy retirement.