"I did not profit", our Ceann Comhairle is obviously an absolute idiot...

[darragh30]

"I profited nothing", says John O' Donoghue. "That money was paid to the service provider and not to me directly", says John O' Donoghue.

It's gotten to the stage where I'm starting to ask myself if these people are snorting cocaine or something???

Whether he personally profited is not the issue here. What is at issue, is not whether he profited personally from the expenses associated with his travel, but whether he enjoyed lifestyle benefits, fully paid for by the taxpayer, that were vastly in excess of those that were necessary for him to do his job, in all of the circumstances.

The man has clearly been living the kind of lifestyle that one would associate with a Saudi prince, and this is the issue that he needs to resign for, not some stupid irrelevant point about him having personally profited from the expenses associated with his travel..

The money might have been paid directly to a service provider, but he was clearly the beneficary of the payments made to these providers, him and his free loading wife have clearly misused taxpayers money, by living a lifestyle that is way way in excess of the kind of lifestyle that should be associated with government ministers travelling abroad on behalf of the state.

How on earth he has the neck to come out and say, "I profited nothing", does he think we are all fu*king metally retarded or something???

As for the spineless WIMP who came out from Fianna Fail and said he disagreed completely with the expenses but then refused to call for him to resign, get back under whatever rock you came out from under you little fu*king parasite!

[MrFunkyBoogaloo]

Seen this on 6.1 this evening.. "I did not profit..."

Sure!! lavish accommodation, expensive trips, limos around airports, 1st class flights etc etc etc.

None of these btw are in anyway seen as 'profits' of any sort!?!?

The scrounging b*stard should be made / pressured to resign and if no party / TD calls for his resignation, well it will only prove that they all have their snouts in the trough and have each, equally, something to hide!!

[Pauli]

This gombeen still doesn't get it, does he? The silence of the other parties on this issue is a bit unsettling.

Either

a) they have something much bigger on Junket John and are waiting for the Dail to reconvene to deliver the knockout blow. Because he has to go, of that there is absolutely no doubt,

or

b) they have a lot of skeletons in the grossly over the top expenses cupboard and are hoping this will blow over. In which case, the whole expenses set-up is a lot more squalid than we have been led to believe and needs root and branch reform.

The usual "solution" to a problem of this nature, "Let's do what the Brits do", is NOT an option this time since their expenses system was also subjected to gross and chronic abuse as we discovered recently.

Maybe we could learn something from the Germans. When Gerhard Schröder was Chancellor, he went on an official trip abroad and took his wife. When he returned he claimed expenses for both of them. He was called in by the Bundeshaushaltausschuss (the Bundestag expenses watchdog), and was told that as his wife was not representing the German state, he had to pay for her out of his own pocket. There was no way they could allow him, the head of government, stiff the German taxpayer for her bills.

Proper order.

[vanla sighs]

He has to go, no doubt about it. Did you see him hiding like a schoolboy behind another Fianna Failure when the cameras were following him, absolutely pathetic. Did he honestly think he could go to the races while the country is falling to pieces and Lisbon is being shoved down our throats and try and squirm his way out of it all. F*ck off O'Donoghue.

And the sorry excuse for an opposition won't even call for his head. Compliant and complacent eejits.

[lostexpectation]

that was thomas bryne's line to on VB, it was his just his job, oh no i've got to go to Cheltenham, oh no i've got to go to canne (and back to kerry and back to canne), oh no i've got to go to world cup football matches, oh no i've got to go the winter Olympics in turin, oh no i've got to go to Cheltenham again the place is falling apart without me.

of course its a bit of PR to have minister of country visit places, those recieving will be impressed and some of our athletes might be impressed to see the minister with em, but if it not of national political importance to each country, theres no need for minster to go. it can be done by officials, on each case it has to asked does he need to go, can we do without him? is there something or someone he really needs to see in person?
ask the question don't just presume it

[TradCat]

So if someone gives you a new BMW it's not you that profits from it but the BMW dealer who sold it. There goes the logic of benefit in kind tax.

[darragh30]

"I did not profit", grand, now get off the chair you fu*king RETARD.

Seriously, where is our line in the sand going to be with these absolute utter c*nts??? What more do they have to do, how more brazen and brass necked do they have to get before we finally say enough is enough???

Clearly Fianna Fail have gone so far and so deep into the moral cesspit that there is no recovery or rehabiliation possible for them, I think we know this....

BUT WHERE THE F*CK IS ENDA KENNY, EAMON GILMORE, UNION LEADERS, WHERE ARE ALL THESE PEOPLE WHO CLAIM TO BE THE LAST CHANCE SALOON FOR THE COMMON GOOD OF IRELAND?!?!?!?!?

Is there something going on here that the rest of us are just not aware of at the moment???

[reknaw]

When he fails to recognise that he profited in any way from the taxpayers' money spent on his junketing, it just goes to show what a sense of entitlement he and his ilk have. For them, the best is just barely adequate and belongs to them by right because they are special and better than the eejits they govern.

It really is way past time to toss those hoors out on their ears.

[flavirostris]

I heard that on the radio yesterday, it's an entirely irrelevant point by JOD.
"I did not profit" is almost like a plea that there was no corruption or favours involved in return for cash.
He misses the point completely which is the gross abuse of his office and waste of public money.

[He3]

We lost.

Who profited is beside the point.