Fat cats cream off the system with which we struggle
I was overwhelmed by the humility and modesty of our Ceann Comhairle on Wednesday when he finally decided he should address the fact that he had spent a whopping €100,000 on flights, car hire, hat rental for his wife, hotel bills, and a water taxi to mention just a few miscellaneous items during two years as minister for arts, sport, and tourism.
During a two-day stay at the hotel Le Bristol in Paris in 2006, Mr O’ Donoghue with his wife left a tab of almost €2,000, while a limousine hire bill for one day in the UK for St Patrick’s Day came to an outstanding €8,843.
There are many more figures and luxuries that I could add to this list of extravagances but why bother - you get where I’m coming from.
It has to be said that it is galling for the average person to see the lifestyle that some of our elected representatives were living (and probably still are) with our money. Extravagantly spending thousands of euro of taxpayers money is a disgusting display of wealth - a wealth that is being involuntarily supported by us, the taxpayers.
No wonder people are angry at cutbacks. No wonder they don’t trust that the Taoiseach is doing the right thing because in the government nobody knows what the other is doing. There is no regulation on expenses like there is in any other job. There is no monitoring - it is a carte blanche for ministers to do exactly what they want and more importantly spend our hard earned cash in whatever way they want.
It is despicable that this is allowed to happen but it still goes on. Look at FAS - a very important state agency that does a lot to help those who are out of work - now more than ever. But we will probably see the demise of the agency as a result of a few top cats creaming the benefits and wasting money. Who suffers? Once again it is the vulnerable and the ones with the least.
This government seems to think that the less well off should pay for the mistakes of the fat cats. Well we are paying - every single one of us. But why should we? We are not part of the scandal that has bankrupted our country, but we are a huge part of the solution to the problems because it is the average person that is paying for the mistakes of the government, its incompetence and lack of foresight when it came to the property boom. Even children save for a rainy day. Did our Taoiseach and ministers not ever learn that?
So back to our ‘apolitical’ ceann comhairle. Not unaccustomed to controversy in the past - he is well able to cope with this little hiccup that is his astronomical expenses.
So he tells us that “he sincerely regretted not paying more attention to the cost of the arrangements provided for him.”
Oh dear - naughty boy - you should have been paying more attention to the €1,900 cheque you wrote to the Le Bristol Hotel in Paris - oopsy daisies! Silly you Ceann Comhairle. Try and be more attentive when you are writing cheques in future would you please. It is impacting on every single person living in this country besides you.
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