We need your help now
Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.
You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.
If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.
Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
By continuing, you are indicating that you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
WITH SILLY SEASON over and the Dáil resuming the week after next politicians are beginning to focus on the upcoming general election.
For Fine Gael and Labour the prospect of a voting pact is now the subject of much discussion. The idea is simple: When Fine Gael canvassers hit the doorsteps at election time they would tell voters to give their first preferences to their candidates but to give their following preferences to the Labour candidate, and vice versa.
Each party would have their own distinct manifestos to put to the people, but would be making clear to voters that they’d like to be re-elected to government together. This, argue some, would be the best way of ensuring that happens.
Both parties have, publicly at least, made the argument that there is no alternative to the current coalition and that re-electing Fine Gael/Labour is the best way of ensuring economic stability in the years ahead. Obviously the likes of Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin see it differently.
Here’s a quick run down of the reasons why a vote transfer pact between Fine Gael and Labour is a good idea, and why it isn’t…
A good story to tell
As they are not shy of reminding us, the coalition has turned the economy around in the last four years. Unemployment was hitting 15 per cent in its first few months in office, but is now under 10 per cent. The Troika are gone, tens of thousands of jobs have been created and Ireland’s economy is among the fastest growing in Europe.
Some argue that the coalition has simply implemented the four-year plan drawn up by Fianna Fáil at the height of the crisis. That may be true but the point is that this government has implemented it and along the way has progressed important social issues like legislating for X and successfully passing a referendum on same-sex marriage.
Fine Gael would not have done anything on either of those two issues were it not for Labour in government. In short, there’s a good story to tell voters when it comes to election time. As Brendan Howlin writes in the Irish Times today, Fine Gael and Labour have “a proven track record of working together”.
It could save Labour seats
The simply reality of the polls right now is that Labour is facing an electoral calamity unless things improve. Even if they do there is no chance of the party returning with as many seats – 37 – as it did in 2011. But a pact with Fine Gael could conceivably help save seats in key constituencies.
For example, it’s no surprise that Labour minister Alex White favours a pact when he faces an uphill battle to retain his seat in the Fine Gael stronghold of Dublin Rathdown. Getting re-elected on the coattails of Fine Gael might not be ideal for many Labour TDs but they wouldn’t turn it down if offered it now.
The common platform is already written
The coalition has done a lot of work in recent months to lay out the economic landscape in the years ahead. The Spring Statement was much criticised but it set out the sort of growth we can expect over the next five years on the basis that the current economic strategy is stuck with.
The government has already committed to tax cuts in the Budget next month and more tax cuts in the one after that if re-elected. To some extent while Fine Gael and Labour have different priorities they are already agreed on some of the things they would do if returned at the election.
It didn’t work last time
In 1997, the Rainbow Coalition of Fine Gael, Labour and Democratic Left was pipped by Bertie Ahern’s Fianna Fáil despite having achieved a budget surplus and laid the groundwork for the economic boom that was to follow. John Bruton, Dick Spring and Pronsias De Rossa had as good a story to tell, but it didn’t convince voters.
More recently when Enda Kenny and Pat Rabbitte struck the Mullingar Accord prior to the 2007 general election it was thought to be the best way of getting Fianna Fáil out of office. But it also didn’t work. Two very distinct electoral platforms in 2011 led to the both parties winning more seats than they had ever done before.
Labour unease… and Fine Gael’s too
As Joan Burton prepares to put her pact proposals to a meeting of the Labour parliamentary party meeting next week plenty of backbenchers have been making their unease known, believing past experience is a cautionary tale.
Others think that Labour has been too beholden to Fine Gael over the last four years and that going to voters on a common platform would do little to enhance the party’s electoral prospects. Meanwhile, some in Fine Gael argue that the party should go it alone simply because it could, like the Conservatives in Britain last May, win an overall majority.
Could they last another five years together?
Relations between the coalition parties aren’t great at the moment. Enda Kenny does not enjoy the solid working relationship with Joan Burton that he had with Eamon Gilmore. Issues like water charges, which has dragged on for nearly two years now, have hardly helped matters. Meanwhile, the fallout from the Fennelly report has demonstrated an unease in both parties over the actions of Kenny and the Attorney General Máire Whelan, who was a Labour appointee.
This is to be expected after nearly five years together and with an election in the offing, but could the two parties do it all again for another five years? Labour expects progress on issues like the 8th Amendment in the next government, but abortion makes Fine Gael very uncomfortable. It’s just one of potentially many sticking points facing the two parties in negotiating another programme for government.
Updated at 6.15pm
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
So when he gets out and the rest of us aren’t bringing him presents – what then?
We line his back pocket with social welfare money so he can drink and bet to his hearts content.
He will take what he wants and then go back to his goldfish .
Absolutely disgraceful that this situation exists. The bleeding hearts civil rights crowd have an awful kot to answer for here. While its right that prisoners should be taken care of this is just a joke. The whole situation needs to be re balanced
Ah but ya know, not being able to look at some pretty flowers or feed his fish is a massive breach of his human rights. Bless him
Just softening the process – Denis is used to all the comforts in life and the law is all about precedent is it not …?
When a farmer has a bull calf that goes around the place pucking and fightin’ they take out the Burdizzo and quieten him …
It work every time !- Absolutely every time ….
We’d be giving the like of Frankie Feighan and Tom Barry a rub of it now – if they were cattle like – that kinda thing !
That’s not anything to do with civil rights activists, its the prison management who are responsible for this nonsense!
The b******d should be fed TO the fishes not FEEDING them.
As I pointed out on many other threads the lunatics are/have taken over the asylum.
Everyone now has their “right” ( no responsibilities mind you)
I feel I was born as a bird (to fly) now in going to sue for the taxpayers to fund a surgeon to attach a pair of “f*****g wings so I can be a bird!!!!
(Singing softly to myself….”If I were a blackbird I’d whistle and sing and follow my true love……”)
just googled ‘Burdizzo’. Sweet Jaysis. Poor bull.
the term ‘for the birds’ springs to mind, Bill
guards cant carry batons? how are they expected to defend themselves?
Don’t Guards carry torches about a foot long that are the same as batons?
Your watching to much tv
No they font
Why don’t they learn how to defend themselves? Would that not be about the best thing you could learn in that line of work? Should it not be a prerequisite? Eejits
Guards can… Prison Officers can’t, presumably as it could be used against them
What am i doing?! What’s the point in me going to work, being flat broke and depressed not knowing where the next meal is going to come from for my daughter and here lies a great a little life behind bars! It sounds more like a feckin retreat than prison!
Ffs the mind boggles with this country!
There is an answer Sam. Do not pay the TV licence and you get a warm cell, meals and TV. No,paying out at all.
Qi am surprised that most people aren’t opting for this now as it may be the only way to get these things in the future.
Absolute bullshit! Prison is supposed to be punishment!
Prison is punishment but it’s for the prisoner officers who have to take his outbursts.
Prison is a punishment his freedom has been taken away from him!!! So what if a prisoner gets a TV / playstation or special diet they are such trivial things he can’t go out , movements are restricted under constant supervision etc. I find it odd nobody has mentioned the high recidivism rates in this country , why most of our prison population are from the same areas , why people commit crime , etc we are locking up human beings and criticising because he gets a playstation FFS ! Prison should be about rehabilitation not just punishment!
They should sedate him next time he has an outburst and keep him that way
A playstation? That’s an absolute disgrace. Why doesn’t this man have a playstation 4? What sort of a hell hole is he living in?
There really is something wrong with this country’s justice and penal system. You seem to be rewarded more the less you contribute to society.
Happens in every facility we have now. Europe demands we treat prisoners better than the general populous meaning there is no deterrent to crime and is the reason we are seeing growing rates of more dangerous crimes. We’ve been doing it for years though. Go on a tour of spike island, as a barracks for our armed forces it was cold damp and miserable. To be used as a prison it was refitted with new windows, proper heating and new toilets.
The irony is endless. If you go to prison for not paying your RTE subscription (aka TV licence) you get to watch TV in your cell without the need to ever pay.
If it wasn’t so sick it would be funny
Arm the prison officers. Retaliating with bare hands when prisoners might access weapons is crazy. A good battering would sort out this fellow’s attitude. Totally justified for prison officers to defend themselves with force. Batons cost a lot less than gardens and fish tanks.
Handcuffs and shackle him every time he has to leave his cell just like the Americans do he won’t assault anyone then.
The truth is the IPS and the management have so much to answer for. They are like the politicians, they don’t live in the real world. These big wigs in suits sit behind their desks and tap a away on their keyboards and engage on a constant basis with all these PC groups. The emphasis is only ever on the prisoner and how they can recoup savings in the system. They don’t have to stand face to face with these dangerous prisoners on a daily basis. The same script is always read out “what about their human rights”, well what about the officers “human rights”, what about the poor officers that have been stabbed and sliced and injured ? What about the mental and physical damage that they have acquired ? Imagine their wives/husbands and childrens anguish when their partners arrive home battered and bruised and cut on a regular basis. I used to believe in the system but the IPS have shown that by not giving staff the basic equipment such as stab vests, pepper spray, tasers etc that they really don’t care about their own staff. They are on the side of the prisoner. The question I would ask anybody is “Over the last 15 years has the do good approach worked ? Is our society a better and safer place ? The answer in my opinion is no. The justice system needs an overhaul from the Minister down. Proper sentences and punishment should be applied. Our jails are a good representation of what dangerous people our on our streets. PC brigade needs to go.
Ah leon Wright…..ran down Grafton street slashing people indiscriminately. Absolute psycho. If the prison system was tougher, people might think twice before they went back there. As it is they do their time “on their back”. This lunatic though, he will get out kill someone, and then get life. Not if but when….
The legacy of John Lonergan. Touchy, feelie former Governor.
Exactly, all the left are the same.
JOKE COUNTRY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! There was a warden from the US on radio a few years back….his inmates get one item in their cell….the holy bible. They are too tired from the manual labour they do during the day to even bothar starting a fight.
Sheriff joe arpaiao in Arizona
He’s the one who is proud of the fact that the food budget for the dogs is higher than the inmates.
Good for them.
Also makes them wear pink underwear and sleep in tents. Has a neon sign above the jail that constantly flashes Vacancies
Shame we cant send him to Australia nowadays
He commits crimes then the victims of his crimes subsidise his prison life with their taxes, he gets the best of medical care and education while pensioners lie on trollies for days , he gets a warm safe bed and good hot meals while kids go to school hungry and men women and children sleep on the streets .
Keep quiet ,don’t protest about anything and pay up people .
Just slip a couple of tablets in his yummy brown bread and put him to sleep for 23hrs a day…The other hour could be time sitting on the toilet with the laxatives you put in it too..
Eh whatever happen to solitary confinement? ? This is beyond ridiculous.
My thoughts exactly.
Wtf! So punishing someone for doing something wrong is now not ok, instead we have to “build them up” with goldfish and PlayStation games??? The word’s gone f*cken mad ted…mad!
Jesus I’d love a playstation! I work everyday and I can’t afford one! That peice of shite should be thrown in a dark hole and left to rot, not pampered like a princess, it’s disgusting, the governor of the joy should be sacked and handed his arse on a plate!
Instead of the prison management buying a ps4 they should have bought a few tasers for the guards.
Every time he gets violent……zap.
Job done.
On final comment on the topic above. If the softy soft approach worked then surely the above named prisoner when he finished his sentence and was released would not of been on bail for assaulting two guards and furthermore when on bail would not of stabbed two innocent people. Obviously the gold fish didn’t do his job in being a calming influence and the playstation games didn’t work. Sure I suppose the next logical thing to do is send out a few officers to purchase this poor chap a little puppy and upgrade his playstation to an X Box. No doubt this will fix the problem. I would love to see a group set up by victims of crime ……. a group where the victims of murder and rape decide on the rehabilatation of these prisoners. Then and only then will justice be served. The worst part is we let certain people out come their expiry on their sentence and we know that these individuals are “evil and depraved” and that they are being freed to wreak havoc on more innocent people and ruin more peoples lives, yet we are powerless to stop it. If the government were serious they would open a prison for all these violent inmates and have both army and prison officers run it with all the protection and equipment required and trust me this country would be a safer place.
Good idea there Chris. I am all for it. The world is so violent most of us oldies live in fear.
That’s ridiculous,
I was talking to a bloke that worked in port Laois jail years back,said these days you can’t do anything,everybody is looking at you and grassing up people,
Years back you could give a lad a hiding and nothing was said about it,
This lad is walking all over them.
“Every time he opens the fish tank there has to be three officers in riot gear, he’s that dangerous.”
That goldfish has a serious chip on his shoulder.
last year he got a punchbag fitted in his cell to “curb his agression”
Spare a thought for these prison officers who have to go work and deal with this everyday . its like an abusive partner , victims in that situation try to everything they can just to keep the abuser happy . if this bloke is that dangerous and a risk to others then the only solution is solitary confinement . forget about his human rights !
God help those prison officers and any other victims of this guy but he is as just as much as a victim as they are. He is a victim of the brutal mental health system in Ireland. If he had cancer he would have a better chance of getting help but it’s Ireland. We are in the dark ages when it come to mental health assistance.
To equate this to an abusive partner is ridiculous. If you want to work as a prison officer you are going to have to deal with prisoners. A prisoner is a person who does not live by the rules and is often violent. If you don’t want to get shot at don’t join the bloody army. Some people working in the prison service aren’t up to the job but they passed the test. You have to be physically and much more importantly mentally strong to work in this job and unfortunately an awful lot of these officers are not.
*Dumbfounded*
Lethal injection. Problem solved
Sorry to burst Mr Donnellan bubble but since he taken over assaults on staff have increased because of his hug a tug policy, A TUG IS A TUG YOU CAN’T CHANGE HIS DNA. Under this present regime the bigger the tramp is the more he get. Birthday cakes,fish tanks the louder they cry the more they get. Mr Donnellan is misleading the public by saying this is not happening it is, he should verify his facts before he makes comments on staff. It is a waste of time getting these prisoners charged as little or nothing will happen. I have been assaulted on several occasions including the prisoner in question with little or no consequences for the increase question, because of this he has gone on to assault staff again, same as most prisoners that assault staff they know that they can get away with it plus get special treatment
,
The D.G hadn’t a clue how to deal with violent criminals . They will reoffend
Pacify him? Why? Just lock him in solitary and feed him through a hole. Couple of years of that and he’ll b quiet and if he isn’t then just keep doing it. There is no need for human contact with this thing. It’s not rocket science lads ffs.
A play station and a gold fish?.
So If I got assaulted or stabbed,I sit in hospital,pay my medical bills,while he sits in a cell with a play station and other luxuries to make him comfortable!
Where is they comfort for they victim?!
if he has attacked that many prison officers
the soft approach is certainly not working
it all sounds bloody ridiculous
soft irish jail system
Going inside is like going on holiday for these scrotes
Whatever happened to a Thorazine drip….
We’re teaching people with the impulse control and decision making skills of children that attacking police officers is the way to be rewarded with computer games..
There used to be par aldehyde, awful stuff but effective.
This guy obviously just needs loving.
‘misunderstood,passionate,reclusive male,seeks like minded female to share his love for gardening and goldfish admiring.must bake own bread’. GSOH essential.
I’m going on a crime spree I want me some of that easy livin, if there’s any prison officers reading this please book me grand theft auto
Embarrassing and pathetic.
Disgraceful , and the elderly being neglected in hospital trolleys/care homes and these dirtbags get the luxury treatment. This is screwed up
I waited to see what comments ye would put up and I was right. This make does not belong in the prison population . He has serious mental health difficulties. I know his situation and his family and they have pleaded with the authorities to get them to give him the help he so badly needs. He’s not a scam bag. He is a very sick guy who needs professional help.
How do you know he has serious mental health issues ?
I don’t mean offense here, this is a genuine question, i just cant think of any other term… is there a facility in Ireland for the “criminally insane”?
Central Mental Hospital Dundrum would be my guess .
Get one then would be the answer for the safety of the rest of the country. But of course, the TD’s and the rich all have good safe places and protection so what does it matter in the scheme of things.
@Derry Seery Yes, we have. Its called The Dail
Marie , give it a rest will you , Derry asked a genuine question .
Lads like this are given the “all clear” from the lunatic asylum to be put back amongst the “normal” prison population. The doctors out there don’t want to have to deal with the likes of these crazy b##stards so declare that they’re sane enough to carry out their sentence in prison.
Is there any value to society by this guy’s continued existence at all? This ‘every life is equally special’ malarky is quite clearly wrong so why don’t we just change the rules…
Well ” mammy” I’m sorry for his families troubles but does that excuse the fact he has been given a playstation , a fish tank and a punchbag . He should be locked away from other prisoners and staff because he is such a danger . Clearly if he has those mental issues prison is not the place for him but the article is about the fact of all that has been bought for a single prisoner and now no doubt all other prisoners will see it as their right to get the same . As I say I’m sorry for his problems but it’s an absolute disgrace he or any prisoner gets those privileges. They are not there for a holiday
Has anyone spent time to read up on this, norway has the lowest reoffending rate in the world less than 30% (compared to the UK which is 70%) because the prisons there are actually for rehabilitation. They are right to try something different.
And there are those extremely violent prisoners even in Norway Matthew that cannot, or are unwilling to be rehabilitated.
This method of ‘reward for anger’ is clearly sending the wrong message to this individual.
I know what special brown bread I would give him. A nice dose of lethal poison. Savage.
I’ve just seen a photo of him, I see he gets his hair done specially, as well ( his fringe). Looking at him, I’m wondering how, they have to have riot gear on to deal with him!
There should be a lethal injection in cases like his
I agree, or flick the switch. What a waste of time and space this cretin is.
Our justice system is more concerned with the supposed rights if criminals than victims.
Who said prisons are not like hotels, some seem better than hotels now?
I think i’ll commit a crime you get more on the inside than you would on the outside, i don’t have a gold fish.
Having read all the above comments it’s clear that the majority of people think that this Leon Wright fella should not be given special treatment after carrying out 150+ assaults on staff members of the prison service, personally I believe that this MONSTER should be given the DEATH SENTENCE as he clearly has no place in society. It’s high time in this Republic we the people of Ireland stop being led by PC Groups and treat like for like these barbaric creatures, eyes for eyes & teeth for teeth, death for murder etc. Arab nations take no shit why should we.
have your say