Friday, October 17, 2008

"Independent" TD Finian McGrath took his "eye off the ball"

Non-party TD Finian McGrath who calls himself an "independent," sold his vote to Fianna Fáil after the last election in return for five years of job security.

Having voted for the Budget, he told the Irish Times that he took his "eye off the ball" in advance of the Budget. He said he would be lobbying the Government on medical cards for the over 70s and the imposition of the 1 per cent levy on persons who are not in the tax net.

How pathetic, fatuous and self-serving!

McGrath says the following about himself on his website: "Anyone who meets Finian McGrath gets an immediate sense that he genuinely cares about people.

Shortly after that they perceive his strong sense of community spirit and appreciate he is a man of integrity. Anyone who knows his history knows how deeply ingrained in his personality these characteristics are."

My father used to say self-praise is no praise.!

So McGrath got his Faustian bargain and didn't bargain for the downside. He may well be a better teacher than politician and he should be returned to his old job at the next general election.

The following is an excellent letter on McGrath's associates, from the Irish Times on Oct 16, 2008:

Madam, - Truly we are a very docile people. The dominant political party has behaved in a profligate manner with our resources and has used our unaccustomed wealth in craven attempts to bolster its political position and its chances of re-election — vide its gross favouring of developers, its ridiculous decentralisation proposals, the quangos, the consultants, the advisers and the costly Dáil committee talk-shops. That party's offhand carelessness and lack of application also precipitated the Lisbon Treaty referendum defeat, still lurking off-stage to batter us still further.

Were our rebel spirit still alive, were we to give justifiable expression to a well-grounded rage at how we have been abused and betrayed, we would opt for one of two traditional options. The real choice should be to hang them now or to give them a fair trial and then hang them. I support the more straightforward option.

The brazen, arrogant ones say they are not to blame. The schoolyard excuses abound - it wasn't me, it was the banks, it was the American subprime market, etc, etc. The craven morons should stand up and take the hit. Instead, we are now taking their hit. - Yours, etc,

COLM MULLEN, The Warren, Malahide, Co Dublin.