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FINE GAEL SENATOR Catherine Noone is holding a €125-a-plate steak dinner fundraiser outside her constituency to raise money for her general election campaign in Dublin West.
Noone is hosting the dinner next Tuesday in the elegant Marco Pierre White steak restaurant in Donnybrook which is in the constituency of Dublin Bay South.
The €125-a-plate dinner will hear from Finance Minister Michael Noonan who has been asked to speak at the event.
The senator has close ties to that constituency having previously lived there and served as a councillor in the area prior to being elected to the Seanad in 2011.
She was selected to run for Fine Gael in Dublin West in April alongside incumbent TD and Health Minister Leo Varadkar.
Noone defended the price, saying: “It’s the going rate. Some charge €500 or €250. I was thinking about charging €100 and I was told I’d be in the tuppenny-ha’penny place.
There’s no point putting it on if you can’t raise money. When running for politics it’s [a fundraiser] generally accepted and I don’t think it’s any indication of being out of touch. All political parties fundraise.
Noone said she had not invited anyone who she didn’t think could afford to attend and said she had nothing but positive feedback about the event. She is selling tickets for the dinner on her website where a table of ten can be purchased for €1,250.
The senator claimed it was not unusual for candidates to hold fundraisers outside their constituencies, saying she chose the location because of its more central location and convenience for attendees.
I’d say I’ll probably have well in excess of a hundred people there, a lot of very good friends and people who don’t feel fleeced coming along.
Noone has previously held public meetings in Dublin Bay South and, until recently, local Fine Gael politicians mentioned that she was a senator for the area on party literature.
Fine Gael's two Dáil candidates in Dublin Bay South have both held €250-a-plate fundraisers in recent months.
Incumbent TD Eoghan Murphy held an event in Pinocchio's in Ranelagh last spring, while councillor Kate O'Connell has already held two fundraisers in Bijou restaurant in Rathgar in recent months.
The party's constituency organisation is also holding its annual €55-a-head business breakfast with the Taoiseach Enda Kenny at the Shelbourne Hotel on 7 October. The event is expected to raise as much as €15,000 which will go towards the election campaigns of Murphy and O'Connell.
In February, protesters turned up outside a €85-a-head fundraising breakfast hosted by junior minister Dara Murphy in Cork where Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald spoke to guests.
TDs, Senators and election candidates are required to open specific bank accounts on receiving donations of more than €100. Any donation above €600 must be disclosed, including the exact amount and the name of the donor.
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As a taxpayer in this country, I would much rather my hard earned taxes goes towards this medicine and help relieve the most awful suffering these patients go through on a daily basis. Put my tax money towards the purchase of this medicine.
People that vote ff fg have blood on their hands children are suffering under this fascist ff fg regime.
6 of these kids would still die because Orkambi is not effective.
while it’s understandable company’s need to make a profit, they will still make one over time without screwing people in dire need of their help. the world is fukked
Nailed it! As much as I despise Trump, when he does negotiate a better deal for Americans the rest of us can expect an increase in prices to cover the loss. It’s called unregulated capitalism which most people here seem to support as a societal choice.
When health becomes profit there’s going to be major problems a public healthcare system for all thats needed badly.
HSE staff inflation – Sean Barrett Economist, Trinity, Dublin
1988 – 50,671 staff
2016 – 105,886 staff …… cost €14,000,000,000 per annum (2107 budget).
increase 109% = 55,215 more staff
1986 3.5 million bed days
2015 3.47 million bed days
So after almost 30 yrs of FF/FG/Labour, 55,215 more HSE staff but less bed days ….
… who are the people who are voting for this political system delivering this Health Service Farce!.
@Neuville-Kepler62F: high 5 for Michael martin and ff the authors of the hse
I have said it before, and I’ll say it again…no minister or any person a part of any government should be part of any of our health department. It needs a proper business person.
So privatise it?
No..just get someone who’s able to to do the job..to do the job. And given that no member of government ever, has been able to run the health department…maybe a proper business person should run it. After all the irish health system is now the biggest health system in Europe..to run. 4.5 million population . Largest health company..bleeding disgrace. Put a new boss in, from the private sector..it would change overnight.
@Neuville-Kepler62F: sad thing is was run better in 1988,,
RyanMed is a possible solution …. outsource to other good EU medical care systems …. RyanMEd will fly them out and back. A lot of good medical care systems abroad which would gladly deliver for €14,000,000,000 per annum or half that!
Otherwise, from experience it would take at least 25 years to reform the existing Irish health care system – clearly unacceptable and even then not guaranteed.
Less useless jollys on St Patricks Day and put the money towards more deserving events like this.
€190million to treat Ireland’s 1,200 CF sufferers with this partially effective drug.
A whole new USC would be required, to line the pockets of Vertex shareholders.
Not every CF patient would be suitable for Orkambi. Also, the money saved on hospital admissions would cover a huge amount of cost of the drug. Jillian McNulty was on Liveline a couple of months back and was saying that she was in hospital for 4 to 6 weeks at a time every couple of months before Orkambi but since Orkambi two years ago she’s had no admissions.
Are you in a bad mood tonight Diarmuid?..
We have the highest rate of CF per capita of any other country..firstly that is not right. Secondly; we all have to help our own..I’d rather help a member of my community than spend one red cent on a quango, commission, group …yada yada.
We just watched a video of a child having severe seizures which can be prevented by the wave of a pen. Irish Cystic fibrosis sufferers have very little chance with a health minister this incapable.
@Niall Lonergan: Simon Harris – Minister for Death
Never mind folks…the Paddy’s Day jolly up is coming…ease our politicians troubled minds.
What would be your upper limit on prices for drugs? At what point would you say it’s too expensive for the country to afford it? Just curious
Go to Europe…tell them we can’t afford the interest on that loan while our children are dying.
Don’t send Enda and co over to negotiate, they will just fold……..send Gerry Adams.
Never mind folks, there’s plenty of money in the HSE.
In 2016 the HSE spent €800,000 on gender reassignment surgery (i.e. Sex changes). So, they have money for imaginary conditions, but not for children with CF.
Disgraceful.
I know Vertex have to make money – they have put millions into developing this amazing new discovery…But how is it possible for their executives to go home at night to their families, and sleep well knowing little children are suffering and dying from this horrible illness?…… Someone very close to me, a beautiful human being, suffered terribly from it – it was painful to watch – it finally killed her – with this new drug she could have lived.
There are ways and means of letting them know what people think of them
@Soccer T’s: You can imagine the Africans, Asians or South Americans on a $1 a day – what can they afford. Time for the European, China, India and other nations to get together and develop the next generation of drugs with a view to avoiding rip off charges. These drugs and rip off charges are going to appear to be more and more regular features. These drugs are public health issues and cannot be put down to capitalism/CEO salaries and shareholder dividends.
Aisling Golden, who is pictured in the article, along with her mother are campaigning tirelessly since they lost their beautiful girl, Grainne, last year.
Orkambi would undoubtedly have helped her, and they are trying so hard to help those who could benefit from Orkambi now.
These negotiations have gone on for far too long now, and my fear is that between a health Minister, who doesn’t want to be in health, and a Taoiseach who’s main mission at the moment is to hang on long enough to deliver a bowl of shamrock to a gobsh!te in America, that the work that has been done up until now will vanish with all the empty promises.
Thay dope Harris needs some of his own medicine in the form of a public flogging to near death.
Between this and cannabis he literally has blood and incalculable suffering on his hands.
Yet we have gombeens like Saint Leo on saying how well the country is doing today, what about those poor suffering Children, Minister? Tow the company line and everything is rosy in the garden…..
A bowl of shamrock is more important !
Kenny is a heartless lowlife with no empathy and that other grease ball Harris has private health insurance and which shows the confidence he has in HIS health system. If their children had cystic fibrosis then there would not be a problem with the supply of this drug…Anyway it is time we set up our own public non-profit making pharmaceutical manufacturing and research facilities, we have the knowledge and knowhow, but it won’t make money for rich entrepreneurs (shysters) and so will not be contemplated by the neo-liberal useless fools in FF or FG
How will it be funded and where would you make the cuts to fund it? Before you mention TDs wages and the usual other rhetoric, bear in mind this would cost billions!
@Soccer T’s: cancel IW, actually do cost benefit analysis on ministerial pet projects, nama sell its portfolio piece by little piece, tax the hell out of vulture funds now
Simple. Increase corporation taxes to a level that it can help plug the holes in our infrastructures. Tell the multinationals that they’re paying social insurance levies exactly like their workers do.
The savings on hospital admissions alone would almost cover it. Out of curiosity, how much would your sons or daughters life be worth? Ten grand? Forty? Half a million? What would you pay to save your child’s life? Remember another thing, the job of any government is to cherish it’s citizens… even the sick ones. In fact, especially the sick ones
If i was responsible for this I would regain immediately.
@Enda Ireland: resign,sorry spell check.
enda is busy getting ready for his junket to meet president Trump call back later.
How much is it costing to send the minister for children home for St Patrick’s day?
Blame the drug companies, not the government. If they come up with a cure for cancer and decide to charge €1 million per patient the health system would crash completely trying to fund it. How many people would die then? It’s all relative. Shameful and sad but relative
Vulture funds have needs.
http://m.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/republic-of-ireland/government-borrowing-could-save-irish-water-14m-euro-a-year-committee-told-35431537.html 239 million is needed in 2017 to prop up Irish Water. An organisation the majority of the country see less than favourably. 187 million to save the life of 1200. And which one is called a waste of money? I for one would rather my hard earned money spent on the people and not big business.
I hear he killed them himself… What a sensationalist piece of crap, yet again the self centered CF group hits out at the goverment while big business gets off the hook. Yes its pretty shit things have to be negotiated but we cannot afford to pay at asking or it sets precedence for the future any time a new drug is on the market. Do we want trial by media for our health care?
no he was not, nor were anyone in gov first they heard of this was on the journal, prove it?, ok, we will have a tribunal….
fg have learnt from ff
A big question should be: how much is this drug in other countries? If in Germany it is a fraction of the price, then source the drug through the German procurement system.
Better to bring in 40 so called juveniles from Calais at a cost of 8 million rather than support own own its a joke,political correctness on the world stage is more important to this farcical government.
Just lay for the drug stop sending our money to other charities . Doesnt charity start at home
You can never put money between the cost of a person and their life.As ever this country does.Result is that more will die in the future
For every miracle drug there is generic equivalent produced mostly in countries which realized long time ago they do not have to pay extortion prices. I understand that money need to be invested in R&D and it is quite often a lot yet there are some medicines which were discovered by chance yet are still being sold for quite hefty sums. Viagra comes to a mind.
Yes, there will be a lot of threats if you try to cross pharmaceutical corporation but as I said there is generic equivalent to anything on the market right now so there is not much they can do apart form what they were doing all the time – going through appropriate channels greasing pockets of people responsible for decision.
@Pat Patovic: There is not a generic for every brand drug – many of them have not run out of patent. Other nations will have to set up their own international drug corporation – it is a public health issue. The cost of the the Epipen product has risen by 600% in the last few years. That is profiteering.
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