February 1, 2010

Johnny-Cash Gormleys Forty Shades of Greed.

Why does Ireland have Forty Shades of Greed? 

By   

Greed is good.  Greed is green.
  When we think of Ireland, we think of the Green Galway Races, the green cute wee hoor, the green party crony, the financial regulator of the green, the "Wearing of the Greed" and the 37 other almost proverbial shades of greed. But just why do we talk about "Forty Shades of Greed"? 
Some Shades of The Greed Party:
  • Poolbeg Incinerator & Broken Green Party Promises
  • Rossport Five & Broken Green Party Promises
  • Tara & Broken Green Party Promises
  • Energy Regulation  & Broken Green Party Promises
  • The Irish Green Party
  • Teeching Jobs for Failed Green Councillors
Johnny Cash
It is the fault of one man - none other than Johnny-Cash Gormley. The "Man in Green" was so taken in by de Environment that he went green and penned a whole party in celebration of The Green. Cashing-In fooled the electorate he was genuinely in love with green Ireland at the time (2007 election).
Johnny Cashing-In Gormley is now responsible for creating the idea of Ireland being "forty shades of greed". This was stolen from Ireland's seminal rock group "Boomtown Rats", with singer Bob Geldof also mentioning "the purple and the pinstripe" in the "Banana Republic".   Today light-touch green bishops are adopting ideas from light-touch purple bishops.  Failed greens are given jobs in other parishes, teaching.  Or regulating the electricity.
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http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/ireland/article7009549.ece
From
January 31, 2010

Liam Fay: Cronyism shows the Greens are red in tooth and claw


Failure is not an option for the Greens. This is one of Eamon Ryan’s pet maxims and he means precisely what he says. Blithely ignoring the broken branches and torn foliage strewn all over his party’s policy platform, following a succession of humiliating climbdowns, the energy and communications minister evidently believes the Greens should stay in government come what may. After all, patronage is a luxury that can only be indulged by those in power.

Like John Gormley, his fellow Green at the cabinet trough, Ryan seems shameless in his determination to find cushy state numbers for as many as possible of the failed politicians that make up what’s left of the party. Individually and collectively, failure is not an option for the Greens.

Take Vincent P Martin, the Green barrister who lost his seat on Monaghan county council last year. Gormley recently appointed Martin to the Private Residential Tenancies Board (PRTB), which adjudicates in disputes between landlords and tenants. PRTB members receive an average of €25,000 a year in fees and expenses, whereas councillors receive a maximum of €11,000.

Gormley also graced the tenancies board with Gene Feighery, another Green stalwart who’s been rebuffed at the polls. Feighery was co-opted onto Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown council in 2007 but was then unable to win a seat.

Then there’s Niall O Brolchain, elevated to the Seanad after voters ejected him from Galway city council. Green bosses hatched a deal with their Fianna Fail confederates whereby O Brolchain was the only government nominee for a vacancy on the agriculture panel, guaranteeing his ticket to Leinster House.
Poll-wise, the Greens are in freefall but the leadership is pulling every string it can to ensure each remaining party loyalist lands on his/her feet. The jammiest of all must be Elizabeth Davidson, a flop in the Dublin South by-election. Thanks to Ryan, Davidson is paid €40,000 per year to watch movies in her capacity as a classifier with the film classification office. For most politicians cronyism is the aim of the game. But the Greens used to claim they were different and defined themselves in brightly coloured opposition to the nepotism practised with such ruthless efficiency by Fianna Fail.

Only last year, during the shape-throwing that preceded re-negotiation of the Programme for Government, the Greens publicly demanded reform of state-board appointment procedures, calling for what Senator Dan Boyle described as a shift in emphasis away “from party affiliation to qualifications, ability and relevant experience”. Today, however, they sing a different tune.
Gormley and Ryan obviously realise the party faces annihilation at the next election. In government, the Greens have repeatedly betrayed their own principles — on the M3, special-needs education, hospital co-location, corporate donations, Bertie Ahern, the banking inquiry, blasphemy legislation . . .

Having sold out their beliefs, abandoning their distaste for cronyism has become second nature. Even when they aren’t constructing golden parachutes for defenestrated Green party members, both ministers now dispense largesse as though they were feudal monarchs rather than democratically accountable public representatives.

Last week, Ryan appointed a new Commissioner for Energy Regulation (salary: €165,000) without holding an open application process.


Garrett Blaney, an electrical engineer with a background in eco-friendly power generation, got the job after a telephone conversation with the minister. Blaney may be qualified for the position, but the manner of his appointment smacks of the sharp practice that, in opposition, Ryan railed against.
Make no mistake: the Greens do not offer a kinder, gentler version of political chicanery: soya cronyism, perhaps, or tofu stroke-pulling. This is the full-blooded traditional variety, red in tooth and claw. Failure is not an option for the Greens because they’ve become more Fianna Fail than Fianna Failers themselves.



1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Greens taking state board jobs despite vow to tackle cronyism

By Michael Brennan Political Correspondent

Monday February 08 2010

THE Green Party began offering its members the chance to serve on state boards just months after entering Government -- despite previous promises to eliminate "crass cronyism" and "jobs for the boys".

The Irish Independent has seen a copy of a confidential email sent from the Green Party's head office after the party entered coalition with Fianna Fail in 2007.

It stated that the party's "medium- to long-term" objective was to reform the State's public appointments system.

"In the meantime, we are putting procedures in place to help us to nominate suitable persons as positions arise. We would be delighted to receive suggestions of persons who might be suitable for consideration," it said.

Increase

The opposition has highlighted the increase in the number of Green Party members on state boards, which now stands at seven. The most recent addition is former Green Seanad candidate Martin Hogan, who was appointed to the board of Fas last month and will receive around €12,000 in annual fees.

Green Party member Caroline Burrell, who lost her council seat in last year's local elections, was recently appointed to the board of the National Disability Authority.

Green Party Junior Agriculture Minister Trevor Sargent set up a new state quango last year, the Foras Organach -- Organic Food Agency -- and appointed his own special adviser, and former Green Party general secretary, Stiofan Nutty, to it.

The Green Party headquarters email, dated December 13, 2007, said the people nominated "may or may not be politically affiliated" to the Green Party but had to be of the "highest character and integrity".

The confidential email mentioned the formation of a new party group to nominate Green Party members and non-party members to state boards.

Green Party senator Dan Boyle confirmed his party had set up such a group -- made up of a parliamentary party member, a national council member, a party worker and an outside management expert.

Green Party leader and Environment Minister John Gormley last year appointed two former Green Party councillors, Vincent P Martin and Gene Feighery, to the Private Residential Tenancies Board, where they can receive up to €25,000 a year.

Mr Gormley also appointed Green Party Louth county councillor Mark Dearey as chairman of An Chomhairle Leabharlanna -- the Library Council -- although this position is worth just €5,000 a year.

Elizabeth Davidson, who ran for the party in last year's Dublin South by-election, was appointed to the Irish Film Classification Office in 2008.

Mr Boyle published a private members' bill when in opposition in 2007 to give an Oireachtas committee the power to vet state board appointments. He promised it would put an end to "crass cronyism" and "jobs for the boys". But when it was reintroduced in the Seanad last October by the opposition, Mr Boyle and his Green Party colleague Senator Deirdre de Burca voted against it -- and it was defeated by 25 votes to 23.

Fine Gael enterprise spokes-man Leo Varadkar said the Green Party had engaged in the most appalling acts of cronyism "which would bring shame to the sleaziest member of Fianna Fail".

- Michael Brennan Political Correspondent

Irish Independent