The Greens are becoming expert Gombeens ...

[OceanFrog]

From Derek Wall's blog 4th Nov 2009 "The revenge of the Gombeen men and women?"

It looks like the Greens are learning well at the feet of their FF masters.

From the blog ... "Bronwen (Maher) told me that one of the methods of ensuring loyalty is dispensing jobs with the party machine. This tradition of 'placemen' has a long history in Irish politics and dates back to the 18th century Irish Parliament which was encouraged to vote itself our of existence and pass the Act of Union in 1801 by a combination of bribery and appointments to sinecures."

This has been alledged since the Greens came to power in 2007. An Irish Independent article "Gormley is accused of getting 'jobs for the boys" outlines Gormleys team ...

"Mr Gormley's team is:

Programme Manager Donall Geoghegan, on a salary of €161,000, a former Green Party general secretary;

Special adviser Ryan Meade, paid €82,016, formerly a Green Party member of Dublin City Council;

Special adviser David Healy, on the same wages of €82,016, who is a Green Party councillor since 1991 and was a party candidate in the last three general elections.

Mr Gormley also employs two former experienced journalists with no past connections to the Green Party, John Downing and Liam Reid, as his press officers on salaries of €113,000 and €95,000."

And this is just Gormley. There are many other examples of this Gombeenism from Ryan and the other Greens in Govt.

Well done lad's ... ye have learned well at the feet of your masters. You are now more Gombeen that the Gombeens themselves ...

[soubresauts]

... An Irish Independent article "Gormley is accused of getting 'jobs for the boys" outlines Gormleys team ...

"Mr Gormley's team is:

Programme Manager Donall Geoghegan, on a salary of €161,000, a former Green Party general secretary;

Special adviser Ryan Meade, paid €82,016, formerly a Green Party member of Dublin City Council;

Special adviser David Healy, on the same wages of €82,016, who is a Green Party councillor since 1991 and was a party candidate in the last three general elections..."

David Healy is an interesting case since his reaction to the post-election Mansion House vote was so strong:

A bad deal

Jun 14, 2007 at 12:46 AM
A number of people have been asking me my views on the decision by party members to support the Greens going into government with FF and PDs.

I voted against. Unfortunately my name was not among those picked by lot to speak at our Convention. In conscience there is no way I could support a programme for government which will see a continuation of military use of Shannon Airport.

But even if I were to ignore my conscience, and the victims of war, the deal struck is a terrible one. No key Green demand has been met:

No end to corporate donations
No change to M3 through Tara valley or to any of the road-building programme
No new public transport commitments
Hospital co-location to go ahead

What about climate change? The programme for government contains a 3% target for annual reduction of greenhouse gases. There is no earthly way that this will be met without a fundamental change in transport policy. And there is no change to transport policy. Presumably that's why its just a government target instead of the legally binding commitment NGOs have been looking for.

As to why a majority of those at the Convention voted for this, I don't know. I remain amazed.

A few months later, Healy was justifying his role as a Ministerial adviser to Gormley.

I was thinking of saying that "I remain amazed", but very little amazes me these days...

[Digout]

Great post, and very true. I'm sickened that I voted for Gormley.

[Likely Lad]

David Healy is an interesting case since his reaction to the post-election Mansion House vote was so strong:

A few months later, Healy was justifying his role as a Ministerial adviser to Gormley.

I was thinking of saying that "I remain amazed", but very little amazes me these days...

Sure Hypocrite Healy was on The Week in Politics a few weeks back filmed at GP convention at the RDS enthusiastically promoting his approval of the new programme for government, he's well able to ignore his conscience and victims of war but when it comes to stealing 54bn of public money he suddenly feels its the right thing to do, hmm wonder why that is...... well turkeys don't vote to put themselves on the dole queue do they...

[Eamonn76]

Now that I have seen the Green leadership behaviour on Nama, and given their performance in the local elections, I make the following prediction:
The Green heartland of South Dublin, where 3 of their TDs and their two cabinet ministers come from,
will be deluged with money and Green job offers.
Dublin North with Junior Trevor Sargent will do very well also. The two other Green constituencies will be similarly boosted.
With high unemployment as many party people as possible will be bought off with jobs.
The Green leadership are worse than FF - more dishonest AND self-righteous too.

[Hal]

Great post, and very true. I'm sickened that I voted for Gormley.

I imagine he is too.