Poll: Will this Dáil see a full term? - Support for FF falls 15% (Joe Behan Resigns from the Party)

cactus flower wrote:

Respvblica wrote:

cactus flower wrote:

Respvblica wrote:

Michael Creed has said a few good things all right! hmm. But if you look around there is plenty of nepotism in Fine Gael as well. Its greatest strength is that it is in not corrupted so much by power and yet it is still a broad, large movement in Ireland.

As to what auditor says- well I completely agree. Fg have complained, but sometimes its not been strong enough. To be honest I dont know what Labour, FG and the media are at when they let the kind of carry on of FF-PDs 1997-2008 go ahead without getting together in some kind of allaince for democracy.
Why not?
Sometimes its like being Cicero again watching the age old republic fall around him, shouting to an uninterested populace who have been bought off by bread and circuses.

The lack of a real opposition was a big part of the problem imo. All T.D.s were given big rises in pay, payments for opposition roles and so on - they all, including Labour, looked too well-upholstered and content to be bothered with the hassle of governing. They did know what was happening back to at least 2005. And then maybe like you say, Respvblica, we were corrupted or hypnotised by the ready money floating around to hold our tongues and go about our daily lives.

Good times definetly make it hearder to changebut there was also a bit of divide and conquer going on.

Their still at it with the division between public and private sectors.

Today's S.Independent was rooting today for a plutocracy with government by a select group of non-resident tax avoiders instead of an elected government. Jody Corcoran named Peter Sutherland and Dermot Desmond as suitable people to rule us in default of effective government.
Its the likes of Sutherland that accelerated this whole mess in the first place.

Kidding? That would be entirely predictable, and yet I still cant believe it. This is defintely where we are being taken to and its a far cry from polular sovereignty(rome) and democracy(athens).

Respvblica wrote:

cactus flower wrote:

Respvblica wrote:

cactus flower wrote:

Respvblica wrote:

Michael Creed has said a few good things all right! hmm. But if you look around there is plenty of nepotism in Fine Gael as well. Its greatest strength is that it is in not corrupted so much by power and yet it is still a broad, large movement in Ireland.

As to what auditor says- well I completely agree. Fg have complained, but sometimes its not been strong enough. To be honest I dont know what Labour, FG and the media are at when they let the kind of carry on of FF-PDs 1997-2008 go ahead without getting together in some kind of allaince for democracy.
Why not?
Sometimes its like being Cicero again watching the age old republic fall around him, shouting to an uninterested populace who have been bought off by bread and circuses.

The lack of a real opposition was a big part of the problem imo. All T.D.s were given big rises in pay, payments for opposition roles and so on - they all, including Labour, looked too well-upholstered and content to be bothered with the hassle of governing. They did know what was happening back to at least 2005. And then maybe like you say, Respvblica, we were corrupted or hypnotised by the ready money floating around to hold our tongues and go about our daily lives.

Good times definetly make it hearder to changebut there was also a bit of divide and conquer going on.

Their still at it with the division between public and private sectors.

Today's S.Independent was rooting today for a plutocracy with government by a select group of non-resident tax avoiders instead of an elected government. Jody Corcoran named Peter Sutherland and Dermot Desmond as suitable people to rule us in default of effective government.
Its the likes of Sutherland that accelerated this whole mess in the first place.

Kidding? That would be entirely predictable, and yet I still cant believe it. This is defintely where we are being taken to and its a far cry from polular sovereignty(rome) and democracy(athens).

The Independent has gone into overdrive this week - there is a link to the online version on this page. There are a good few writers leaning towards a coalition. The problem with coalition imo is that it removes choice and debate - in fact it removes democracy - from government.

The Green Stalingrad -

12000 people spent the evening in Dublin yesterday protesting against the education cuts due in this Government budget. As someone on p.ie said, there were no banners saying "No Pay Rises For Teachers" but nonetheless the marchers seem to know what they want and the country can afford and that is to reverse the education contractions included in the Budget namely the reduction in class sizes to 2007 levels, restrictions on employing substitute teachers, petty cuts in children's book allowances about to be implemented by "Batt O'Thief". Now Green TD Paul Gogarty is getting some spotlight on himself and the Greens over this and it'll be interesting to see what happens next.

Brian Hayes of FG said in the Dáil yesterday that it was the Green's Stalingrad unless they we assume, bring this Government down. Gogarty, as being reported on the news, revealed in an email to a constituent that the Greens would have to pull out of Government unless all avenues of reversing these cuts were exhausted. Gogarty seems to know that there could be plenty of cuts in other departments and areas to keep the education ones from coming in. He's right of course as we saw with the Greyhound Grant a week ago not to mention killing off a couple of Quangos that do nothing, like the National Consumer Agency and their agents. However, it wouldn't be tasteful for some people to see Celia Larkin signing on so this might not happen any time soon. She can surely pull off the stunt of getting her dole through her banks accounts though, couldn't she ? Since she would be a new applicant she'd have to sign on once a week at the Post Office unless Mary Hanafin can pull a trick for her.

The Dole Office should be made a lot cooler and attractive now - maybe they could put up a temporary booth in Brown Thomas for a short period to get people used to the whole thing ? It's not that bad - think of the kiddies Celia, the kiddies.

I don't know if Paul Gogarty or the teachers understand what is going on here.

The idea that you can make cuts in some departments only while on the other hand borrowing 40% of the National Debt and blowing the Maastricht budgetary constraints out of the water is total nonsense. The EU isn't going to stand by while we destroy the Euro.

The teachers know what the country can afford and where the cuts can come from? Perhaps we should put them in charge! Cutting 20 quangos, abolishing the greyhound and horse industry and liquidating the builders isn't going to save near enough money to keep our head above water with the banks, the construction workers, increased social welfare payments, the global credit crunch, slowing inward investment, personal debt, negative equity, freezing business credit, the costs of saving the environment, future pensions obligation and the lack of the emigration safety valve like concrete around our ankles.

The teachers and everybody else are just going to have to get real. The opposition are just doing what FF would do to them. That doesn't mean it isn't disingenuous, opportunistic and unhelpful.

Paul Gogarty's party is in Government at one of the most important times for Ireland and the World that has existed for generations. If he can't live up to that then he might as well jump ship. He is only weakening the structure as things are. The Greens already have FF bythe short and curlies. There is no need for posturing at the moment. In fact, he is taking the Labour bait and posturing himself into a corner as things are. I'm starting to think that he is a bit f a muppet to be honest.

There is certainly a problem that a lot of people still don't understand how serious this is.
Unfortunately, the evidence of the failure to act to curtail public spending over the past 12 months suggests that this Government is part of that problem.

The present budget is also a totally inadequate response in terms of racking up further unneccessary indebtedness that will affect every man, woman and child in this country. Ireland, in acting the way we have in relation to the Guarantee and failure to recapitalise is seen now as a financial rogue state. When the siucra hits the fan, that will haunt us.

We are one of the most personally indebted States in the world and government is about to rack up the National debt as well, in a very poorly planned set of Estimates. If the way things are being managed doesn't change in the next few days or weeks, we will be back to hedge schools in five years time.

What people are outside the Dail about is not that there are cuts, but about the sheer unfairness and wrongness of targetting of them. The Oireachtas costs could be and should be cut in half imo, before this Government, almost entirely responsible for the seriousness of our situation, turn to any other group of persons to accept cuts.

Cutting the Traveller children's education fund is a direct hit on the most impoverished and vulnerable group of people in the country. It could have been funded by cutting back on the Dail Bar costs.

The call to patriotism would be fine if it applied to everyone but it doesn't - some are more patriotic than others of course e.g. the bank CEOs with quarter of a million to two million in salaries - each. Nationalisation of banks and curbing of salaries, bonuses etc. should have come into effect a month ago and endure for two to three years while things are settling. A department which renegotiates mortgages terms might also have come into this for the hard-pressed in co-operation with MABS as is done in the UK according to Prime Time the other night. Confidence needs to be restored in that sector and boring normality allowed to flow as normally as possible and I'd say no small saving could be made either if eyes were turned in that direction.

Teachers and other public servants now need to re-negotiate those pay deals which were agree a little while back - every stone needs to be turned on this one and everyone needs to chip in which is why we have those Maastrict constraints Europe-wide in the first place: to make sure we have a shot at living within our means. We need to have a good think about our systems here and how we pay people and so on by comparing it to European models. We don't do enough of that - I suspect the European funding we receive isn't being spent on researching that anyway. Here is a website which shows how teachers are paid in other countries

http://www.cafebabel.com/eng/article/26790/poland-italy-germany-france-spain-teaching.html

I'm not convinced we're giving a better service here at all for the same money - we need to feel a bit of pain in the short term but the level of pay above is what we'll be looking at in the medium to long term. But neither Fianna Fáil nor the Greens have balls enough to come out and grab it by the throat and negotiate those deals and those cuts and I doubt if FG or Labour have either. The public needs to be the one to judge on this and I think there is some validity in the suspicion that Fianna Fáil have created this budget to use a stick to beat the better paid and to open the eyes of the public in the process. I think there might be merit in that if they designed it that way because, though it might be more manly to meet it full on by re-negotiating the pay deals, it would be political suicide and you'd have to see a domino effect through all the public service if one leg were to be targetted. They'll argue that the cost of living is too high which is true to some degree so we see there are systemic issues about the entire edifice.

But the renegotiations might have to be done. Either that or wait for growth to recur and freeze wages in the meantime. By that stage we could be out of the Euro and feeling interest rates of 10 to 15% on our mortgages like Iceland.

cactus flower wrote:

Cutting the Traveller children's education fund is a direct hit on the most impoverished and vulnerable group of people in the country. It could have been funded by cutting back on the Dail Bar costs.

I don't think you can look at things that way. ALL svings have to be made - Dail Bar, Travellers, the lot. We can't get by otherwise. People don't want to acknowledge that the Ministers took a pay cut, that the repair works on the Oireachtas buildings have been abandoned. Those measures are an indication that everyrthing in Leinster House is being looked at too. If a sacking a couple of barmen will placate the masses then don't worry, it will be done. They aren't paid a million a year though.

The teachers are worried about going back to 2007 figures! The education budget actually increased! It will be a success if they are not sent back to 1997. The teachers are protesting out of concern for children and out of self interest. They see it as the thin edge of the wedge. They see themselves having to do the tougher task of controlling more children and having to take other students into their room - I remember it from when I was in school. They are fighting hard now to warn the Government that they are a hard bunch to take stuff off. If they cared so much about their students they would realise that you need a job to use what you learn at school - it's no good being a doorman with a doctorate a la Russia at the turn of the century. I nkow most of them do care about students and are passionate about their jobs but I see those marches as being primarily (though not wholly) motivated by self-interest.

I agree with A#9 that the bankers and regulators need to be held to account. I also agree that the danger is expulsion form the Euro, national bankruptcy and another generation thrown out of the country.

Auditor #9 wrote:

The call to patriotism would be fine if it applied to everyone but it doesn't - some are more patriotic than others of course e.g. the bank CEOs with quarter of a million to two million in salaries - each. Nationalisation of banks and curbing of salaries, bonuses etc. should have come into effect a month ago and endure for two to three years while things are settling. A department which renegotiates mortgages terms might also have come into this for the hard-pressed in co-operation with MABS as is done in the UK according to Prime Time the other night. Confidence needs to be restored in that sector and boring normality allowed to flow as normally as possible and I'd say no small saving could be made either if eyes were turned in that direction.

Agreed, Lenihan needs to get tough with the banks sooner rather than later. And part of the process has to be capping salaries as has been done in the US.

Auditor #9 wrote:

Teachers and other public servants now need to re-negotiate those pay deals which were agree a little while back

The 6% pay rise given to public servants now seems obscene! I imagine it will have to be renegotiated in the new year.

Auditor #9 wrote:

I think there is some validity in the suspicion that Fianna Fáil have created this budget to use a stick to beat the better paid and to open the eyes of the public in the process.

I was saying this to a girl at work the other day.. that the government may have deliberately targeted the young, sick and old in this budget in order to "soften up" the taxpayer for the next budget. I think the idea blew her mind. This is the kind of thinking that I don't put beyond FF though.

Just reading back over my own post.. perhaps not only is the idea to soften up the taxpayer, but to soften up the unions too, with renegotiation in mind?

Fianna Fáil don't do long term thinking (re: peak oil, etc) but they do medium term thinking!

eoinmn wrote:

Auditor #9 wrote:

The call to patriotism would be fine if it applied to everyone but it doesn't - some are more patriotic than others of course e.g. the bank CEOs with quarter of a million to two million in salaries - each. Nationalisation of banks and curbing of salaries, bonuses etc. should have come into effect a month ago and endure for two to three years while things are settling. A department which renegotiates mortgages terms might also have come into this for the hard-pressed in co-operation with MABS as is done in the UK according to Prime Time the other night. Confidence needs to be restored in that sector and boring normality allowed to flow as normally as possible and I'd say no small saving could be made either if eyes were turned in that direction.

Agreed, Lenihan needs to get tough with the banks sooner rather than later. And part of the process has to be capping salaries as has been done in the US.

Auditor #9 wrote:

Teachers and other public servants now need to re-negotiate those pay deals which were agree a little while back

The 6% pay rise given to public servants now seems obscene! I imagine it will have to be renegotiated in the new year.

Auditor #9 wrote:

I think there is some validity in the suspicion that Fianna Fáil have created this budget to use a stick to beat the better paid and to open the eyes of the public in the process.

I was saying this to a girl at work the other day.. that the government may have deliberately targeted the young, sick and old in this budget in order to "soften up" the taxpayer for the next budget. I think the idea blew her mind. This is the kind of thinking that I don't put beyond FF though.

Also to give them time to regroup before the local elections. I think that people who want to do things a different way should be prepared to stand for election in the locals.
It is no good sitting on the sidelines giving out.

Zhou, we are not going to convince each other on priorities and fairness. I could easily have found the savings from Travellers education in claptrap waste and mismanagment 1,000 times over. I was reading Stiglitz on the Far East crash yesterday. He said that Thailand recovered far better and quicker than some other countries because they had protected education no matter what. Whether on fairness grounds or strategic grounds, we should do the same.

I really despair of this Government. In my mind, the good will and honesty of the vast majority of FF members and supporters has been sold out to the interests of a few high rollers.

cactus flower wrote:

I think that people who want to do things a different way should be prepared to stand for election in the locals.
It is no good sitting on the sidelines giving out.

Trying to tell us something Cactus Flower?

Quote :

I really despair of this Government. In my mind, the good will and honesty of the vast majority of FF members and supporters has been sold out to the interests of a few high rollers.

Well that could it be it in a shell. Did I hear this morning on the early morning radio that the sinking of the stock market will have implications for us borrowing internationally ? I know countries issue bonds to investors - bonds are another name for loans let's face it (do local councils get loans too? interesting if they do - they do in the states) - and either those bonds may be bought less with such a valueless stockmarket or the interest rates will be higher.

Now, I'm not a great one for borrowing myself but I don't think there is hardly anyone in the country who doesn't have some loan and anyway it's good to know you can pay it back, in my view, if you need to borrow in the first place. It's just a little bit of extra room you have and an extra option.

Thus I wonder if our stockmarket isn't being treated right with regard to the banks ? The hallmark of Capitalism is that companies fail and are replaced by others or consolidation happens. However bad or good Capitalism is what we are living under is not Capitalism and looks like Crony Capitalism where businesses are not being allowed to fall down and new stuff go in but are being propped up by friends in Government.

This is nothing less than a recipe for disaster.

Auditor #9 wrote:

Quote :

I really despair of this Government. In my mind, the good will and honesty of the vast majority of FF members and supporters has been sold out to the interests of a few high rollers.

Well that could it be it in a shell. Did I hear this morning on the early morning radio that the sinking of the stock market will have implications for us borrowing internationally ? I know countries issue bonds to investors - bonds are another name for loans let's face it (do local councils get loans too? interesting if they do - they do in the states) - and either those bonds may be bought less with such a valueless stockmarket or the interest rates will be higher.

Now, I'm not a great one for borrowing myself but I don't think there is hardly anyone in the country who doesn't have some loan and anyway it's good to know you can pay it back, in my view, if you need to borrow in the first place. It's just a little bit of extra room you have and an extra option.

Thus I wonder if our stockmarket isn't being treated right with regard to the banks ? The hallmark of Capitalism is that companies fail and are replaced by others or consolidation happens. However bad or good Capitalism is what we are living under is not Capitalism and looks like Crony Capitalism where businesses are not being allowed to fall down and new stuff go in but are being propped up by friends in Government.

This is nothing less than a recipe for disaster.

This is happening everywhere. In Spain today on the radio there was a businessman who was railing against the conspiracy of silence between the two major parties with regard to helping the banks. The amount of money being made available as liquidity is being kept a secret!!!!!!!!!!!!

So much for democracy in Spain and Ireland!

I've just typed up a transcript from the Morning Ireland you mention Auditor #9. You would want to listen to it to hear how seriously this guy is taking it.

Emma MacNamara this morning on RTE Morning Ireland. Link: javascript:showPlayer('/news/2008/1030/morningireland_av.html?2442470,null,209')

"Ireland has slipped in the eyes of the International investor. Bank shares listed on the Irish stock exchange are down 80-90 per cent over the last 12 months.

The economic outlook is bleak and details about Government borrowing in in our recent Budget and the Bank Guarantee Scheme have left investors cold where Ireland is concerned.
As a result Irish Government bonds have been trading very cheaply and the cost of insuring irish debt has become very expensive and is trading at a level between Italy and Greece for the first time. Those countries have much higher debt burdens that Ireland has.

Kieran O'Hagan watches the bond markets and is head of strategy with Societe General in Paris:"

"The Government intends borrowing 19.4 bilion on the international capital markets. To give that a sense of perspective that is almost 5,000 euro for every man, woman and child in the Irish State. That is a massive sum. To put it in another persective that is over two times the limits allowed under the Maastricht Treaty and to give another idea of the size of it, that represents some 40% of the outstanding Irish Government debt. So the roll over and the new borrowing is going to represent some 40% of the total debt already outstanding for Ireland. Whatever way you look at it, these are massive sums".

"The market is obviously questioning is that repayable"

"I am sure it is repayable, the liquidity crunch at the moment means that investors are very wary of extending unsecured credit lines and now increasingly to Sovereigns let alone banks. And we've seen what that can do for the likes of Iceland, Hungary and several other states outside the Eurozone.

What is particularly troubling is that these are unparalled figures within the Eurozone. I have never seen a Eurozone Sovereign borrow so much on a per capita basis or borrow so much relative to the total outstanding of its debt or exceed and intentionally exceed several times the level the that the Irish State agreed to when it signed the Maastricht Treaty and that is very worrying indeed."

Zhou mentioned Ireland being put out of the Eurozone. I can't read between the lines to hear exactly what he is suggesting, but it appears to be along those lines.

This Government needs to come clean with the public, recapitalise the banks, revoke the Guarantee, to make a new budget that takes on public priorities and to do it fast.

The governments voted expenditure is very high at €42b. It was projected to grow to that amount, years ago even though we more or less knew we were going to head into a recession at some stage.

This is depressing because we have made the same mistakes as 1977, by living beyond our means and if we get expelled from the Euro-zone - well that would wreak hell, even though the devaluation would probably make us eventually cheaper and more compeitive again.

We should never ever allow public services to grow to such levels. In the short term taxes need to hiked by a lot more then the 1 or 2% levies and the banks need to be re-capitalised. In the long term we need to dismantle the bloated monster that is the bureacracy which grew and grew under the Ahern-Cowen administrations. 40billion now! We should be aiming for 20billion in 5 or 10 years. Then we can have lower taxes and build employment through the private sector.

We spend a billion on local government and the environment. Heres a thought: reform local government in its totality and give the people in the counties the ability to vote for rates or not. That way, if they are cheapskates they can live in their pothole infested counties and no one will invest in their county. All money related decisions must be decided by direct vote in teh county.
Also directly elect mayors for towns and townlands.

Now we've knowcked off a billion.

From my point of view I would start moving the nationally controlled things to the counties. Take Health. Each county has a hospital and pays for it through rates. That means national income tax can come down, although the oridinary punter is still perhaps paying the same thing. It also means that people locally have a better say in where their priorities are. We could still have some national health centres but now we've knocked off another few billion.

I think the whole financial problem in government and in the markets is boiled down to two things: Transparency and Accountability.

Res, the voted exp. is 64 Billion. 56 Bill for current and 8Bill for capital.




Lots of dismantling to be done. It needs medium to long term vision. Get the toolbox out ...

8 billion seems very low for capital.

Social Welfare will be going up.

Thanks EVM. Got the figures by googling and finding them on www.finance.gov.ie, but they are actually out of date.

64billion...hmmmm bad that. Lots of dismantling. I've started with the idea of localism on another thread.

cactus flower wrote:

Zhou, we are not going to convince each other on priorities and fairness.

We might agree if we were both in cabinet . I'd be all on for firing all the spin doctors hired as advisers, re-examining all junior minister positions and all that. I'd be more than happy to see a few senior bankers lose their jobs, having to repay bonuses and going on trial. I also think good education primary and secondary education is very important in an egalitarian society.

My basic point is that people have to understand that there has to be cuts in everywhere. If people are going to throw the rattle out of the pram at the first bit of pain then we will never come together in the way that we need to to beat this.

Stiglitz said the biggest problem in America was that the country was borrowing to meet spending at anational level, i.e. even though they were wealthy the nation was living way beyond its means. I think the same goes for Ireland. We are paying ourselves too much and consuming too much. If we don't stop we will go bust.

The radio clip you transcribed from Morning Ireland really brought it home to me this morning when I heard it. Other scary commentary includes Hugh Hendry saying Ireland would sink the Euro (search on Youtube) and Robert Peston talking about runs on countries(Robert Peston: Now There Are Runs On Countries). I also heard them say on the money show on BBC Radio 4 (when talking about which bank to deposit with) that there was a state guarantee for Irish Banks but that the Government would not be able to honour it if push came to shove.

I would also be more than happy to see them recapitalise the banks and then withdraw the guarantee. That is despite the fact that for the last number years I thought I was paying toward pensions for my generation, as well as for the grey vote pension, as well as for my private pension.

Eh-up - more throwing stuff out of prams or some real juicy news this time - Micheál Martin set to resign ? In a one-line post, "truthisback" says Martin is unhappy with the direction of the party at present and intends to launch a challenge to Cowen. What's up with them all ? Are factions congealing inside the Party now - the Troika being one obvious one but who are the others ? Martin has been fierce quiet lately. Maybe he dressed up as the invisible man for Halloween ?

http://www.politics.ie/current-affairs/36850-martin-set-resign.html

Auditor #9 wrote:

Eh-up - more throwing stuff out of prams or some real juicy news this time - Micheál Martin set to resign ? In a one-line post, "truthisback" says Martin is unhappy with the direction of the party at present and intends to launch a challenge to Cowen. What's up with them all ? Are factions congealing inside the Party now - the Troika being one obvious one but who are the others ? Martin has been fierce quiet lately. Maybe he dressed up as the invisible man for Halloween ?

http://www.politics.ie/current-affairs/36850-martin-set-resign.html

The good point was made today that the Greens are far more loyal to the Cabinet than most FF back benchers. Brian Cowen is so disastrous ( as a Minister of Finance - that will not go away) and as a Taoiseach, that a heave is inevitable. Those involve may calculate that the choice is between a quick heave and a badly timed General Election. I caught Cowen yesterday making a coy reference to not really understanding these Banker boyos "other people understand this better than I do". Did anyone else hear that? I am going to email him and ask him who those people are. It would be nice to know who is running the country.

Auditor #9 wrote:

Eh-up - more throwing stuff out of prams or some real juicy news this time - Micheál Martin set to resign ? In a one-line post, "truthisback" says Martin is unhappy with the direction of the party at present and intends to launch a challenge to Cowen. What's up with them all ? Are factions congealing inside the Party now - the Troika being one obvious one but who are the others ? Martin has been fierce quiet lately. Maybe he dressed up as the invisible man for Halloween ?

http://www.politics.ie/current-affairs/36850-martin-set-resign.html

Let me get this straight Martin is unhappy with the direction the party is taking? Away from the corrupted serial liar is it?

anmajornarthainig wrote:

Auditor #9 wrote:

Eh-up - more throwing stuff out of prams or some real juicy news this time - Micheál Martin set to resign ? In a one-line post, "truthisback" says Martin is unhappy with the direction of the party at present and intends to launch a challenge to Cowen. What's up with them all ? Are factions congealing inside the Party now - the Troika being one obvious one but who are the others ? Martin has been fierce quiet lately. Maybe he dressed up as the invisible man for Halloween ?

http://www.politics.ie/current-affairs/36850-martin-set-resign.html

Let me get this straight Martin is unhappy with the direction the party is taking? Away from the corrupted serial liar is it?

I listened to Jacke Healy Ray on the radio this week. He is telling his voters he is going to get special treatment for Kerry schools. If the INTO and its Kerry had any principles they would get on air and tell him to take a running jump.

Jackie Healy-Rae is a slímhín. The only good thing about him is that he`s not his idiot son.