'The department's initial response to a Freedom of Information request left out around 40pc of the €66,000 in costs run up by Mr Gormley on 22 foreign trips since he was appointed minister in 2007.
The omitted expenses included over €8,000 in fees for the use of VIP airport lounges in Dublin, London, Brussels and Frankfurt.
A further €3,000 was spent chauffeuring Mr Gormley between terminals at Heathrow Airport. The controversial limousine service was used by the minister six times in the course of four different foreign visits -- despite the availability of a free shuttle between terminals.'
John Gormley the widely discredited leader of the Irish Green Party is in very hot water, it looks increasingly likely that he will have to step down.
Despite calling for transparency his travel expenses omitted a large chunk of his bill according to Irish media sources which add up to €26,500
http://www.independent.ie/national-news/gormley-expenses-list-omits-836426500-spent-on-travel-perks-1964049.html
Now I guess for official functions you are going to spend some travel cash but on chauffeurs between different terminals in Heathrow is obscene.
I am guessing given how unpopular he is with the green movement he feared being pied by a member of Plane Stupid on the way to another flight to another climate event.
He would hide in the VIP lounge and then be chauffeured to avoid protesters armed with a real understanding of green politics and pies to throw at him.
The idea of Green MPs flying constantly and being chauffered around in large limos is sure to be picked up and used to discredit efforts to tackle climate change.
If John Gormley was serious about global ecology he would ditch the limo, in London I have run into Ken Livingstone a couple of times on public transport and while I am pretty critical of his policies I have seen Boris out cycling. If they can ditch the limos why not Gormley.
Irish people are facing huge cuts because of the economic crisis, politicians with gig expenses are unlikely to be popular.
The biofuels opt out is obscene, the main source of biofuels in the EU is palm oil from Colombia, in Colombia indigenous people and Afro-Colombians are murdered to get the land for palm oil.
If you use biofuels you aid in this extermination.
The Irish political system has corrupted the Green Party, this is a lesson we must all learn. Unless we want to see rising climate chaos and injustice, we must study it well.
6 comments:
Derek,
1) The Irish Independent is a notoriously anti-Green newspaper.
2) Gormley has never used the Government Jet, nor have our other Ministers.
3) Gormley cycles to a from work most days, incl to his Department
4) Dan Boyle, the Party Chair, was this evening reelected despite opposition from two other members.
5) Donegal Greens met last week and elected a new officer board
Derek, if you must continue your constant having a go at the Irish Green Party, please get a better source of information than the total rag that is the Independent. If it were in the UK you would be unceasingly attacking it for it's right wing, anti-Green agenda. John and Eamon have spent immensely less in government than their counterparts and predecessors and have made efforts to cut back their expenses and usage of government perks. But then the Indo has no interest in writing about that, and you have no interest in trying to get an accurate picture of a country you clearly know nothing about. Please, less of the political tourism and less of the righteousness.
Derek
You are correct in your opinion of John Gormless. He is a total disgrace as an environment minister and an even worse disgrace as a green party leader. Poll ratings and last summers local elections clearly show what the majority of Irish people think of his leadership of the greens. Their credibility is poor in a time where it is fashionable and popular to be Eco friendly. As regards his cycling to work: I have seen staged photoshoots of him on a bike on a sunny day. I doubt he is as good in the rain as essentially I believe him to be a dishonest, lazy, selfish and hypocritical person. After 2 years of dealing with his department and trying to get John to pay some attention to quite serious heavy metal pollution including grossly high levels of arsenic in drinking water I can tell you that he has refused outright to meet over this issue. Despite being directed by DG environment in the EU commission to do so. As I say he is a total disgrace.
Hi Derek. I'm curious to know how you think that by building an agenda-soaked, crank-fuelled, ego-massaging blog article around a biased, lazy, unresearched and spurious 'news' story from a discredited tabloid with a proven anti-Green bent you are in any way contributing to proper public discourse, let alone the advancement of the Green cause?
I would say that I'd enjoy seeing you founder in elected office but then again I'd be horrified at the obtuse windbaggery you'd emit if you ever manage to convince someone to put you there.
do you drive John's Limos
Wow Derek, great comeback! You cant actually engage with anyone, you just rehash whatever anti-Green propaganda you come across.
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