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Updated 12.15
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Everyone’s talking about…
Tánaiste Joan Burton has appointed David Begg, former general secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU), as chair of the Pension Authority – and the opposition are not happy.
Begg will make just over €20,000 a year for five years in the role. He was appointed directly by Burton in her role as Social Protection Minister. There was no public service advertising and appointments process. A spokesperson for Burton said this was permitted under state board guidelines.
Opposition TDs have expressed their frustration at the move, with Sinn Féin’s Martin Ferris describing it as “cronyism”.
Meanwhile Independent Alliance member Shane Ross questioned Begg’s credentials for the role.
Labour TD Ciara Conway was also unhappy with the news. She told Today with Seán O’Rourke:
Why have the rules in place if you’re not going to abide by them? There’s no doubt that he’s a very good person, he’d be excellent at it, but why not go through the procedures? I don’t understand that, even as someone in government, even as somebody in my own party. Why set a rule and then break it?
There is a procedure there and if people are interested they should fill out the form like everybody else.
The Tánaiste said Begg will bring “wide-ranging public sector, business and economic experience to the role combined with a strong background in policy and strategy development”.
As former general secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, Mr Begg’s demonstrated ability to work with different perspectives will prove invaluable in identifying strategic opportunities as well as developing solutions to the complex challenges currently facing the pensions sector.
Begg recently took on the role of Director of TASC, a think-tank. He is chair of the board of Barnardos, and has experiences on boards with Concern and Trócaire. He has also served on the boards of Aer Lingus, the Central Bank and the National Economic and Social Council.
He will take over his latest position from Jane Williams, who has been in the role since June 2010.
ELECTION 2016
Need to know who’s running in your area and what they stand for? TheJournal.ie‘s candidate database is now live.
The agenda
What the others are saying
In case you missed it
Good day for…
Micheál Martin: The Fianna Fáil leader received criticism for his party’s ad mocking Enda Kenny. Whether or not the billboard will work remains to be seen, but it has got everyone talking about Kenny’s unfulfilled promise of ending “the scandal of patients on trolleys“.
Bad day for…
The Social Democrats: Longford councillor Gerry Warnock withdrew from the election.
On the Twitter machine…
Aodhán Ó Ríordáin has been enjoying the football.
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If by ‘won’ you mean ‘rigged’ then yes she did. Bernie should have win fair and square but the Wiki leaks email archives show us that they were actively conspiring against him this whole time, it’s no surprise people are currently protesting this at the convention.
Exactly the same thing happened with the republicans but in that case it didn’t work. They favored another candidate, they all do it every election. Why the outrage now?
people forgot the past fairly quickly and presume this is doing something novel
Explain to me spoilt little child…Rigged it how exactly?
Apparently to voice your opinion within the party regarding the unsuitability of the of another candidate is ‘rigged’ it in Hillary’s favor…
If anything I would think stealing and releasing party officials email in an attempt to launch a smear campaign would be the unsavory or unethical action here.
“people forget the past fairly quickly” Ok so move along, ignore the corruption within the Democrat party and the collaboration between the party and mainstream media all exposed by these emails.
Do you listen to yourself?
Why would she want people voting Sanders? Sanders didn’t want people voting for Clinton. That’s how an election works.
Séan, New York primaries have always been that way. They didn’t change. Also, they declared for Hillary before the race began because Bernie had been a Democrat for about a week by then
Drew you are not making an iota of sense!
Séan, why should an independent voter have a say in the choice of candidate for a party they are not a member of?
@drew I think the point is she shouldn’t get to decide who can vote because they wouldn’t have voted for her.
Hillary is like a fortune telling machine on a holiday promenade
You put enough money in and she will tell you what you want to hear
Bill Clinton: I choose other women over Hilary and so should you.
Whenever that man is portrayed in a positive light it’s important to try ignore the spin and remember the poor women he molested etc.
Molested!!! Christ sake. She was a consenting adult. If he had molested her, he would have been punished for it.
Juanita Broaddrick, Kathleen Willey, Paula Jones.
Rodrigo look it up, there was more than just Monica, the number is closer to 15 than to 1
Never substantiated
All speculation. No charges were ever brought! You can’t convict someone on
All rumours and stories that were never substantiated.
“Every survivor of sexual assault deserves to be heard, believed, and supported” — Hillary Clinton. https://twitter.com/HillaryClinton/status/668597149291184128
And Robert Maxwell was never convicted of fraud. Bill Clinton did, however, settle the Paula Jones lawsuit, paying her more money than she was actually asking for.
Don’t forget that Trump was also accused of rape under oath.
While in 1975 Hillary defended a child rapist.
http://www.snopes.com/hillary-clinton-freed-child-rapist-laughed-about-it/
Lawyer defends client. It’s the states job to ensure conviction not the defense attorney
Trump n Clinton are one and the same.Just corporate puppets.
Like Jill Stern?
Who gives a fuk other than sexist feminists and right wing democrats. Hillary Clinton is part of a small group of people who are directly responsible for the Iraq war, a million dead people, and the current shitshow in the mid east which has accelerated Islamic terror around the world.
How small do you think that group of people is? Everybody from Daddy Bush and W’s presidencys, the Senate on both occasions.
“Crooked” Hillary won the nomination. Big deal.
are you five years old? because thats who uses childish name calling
Will we have Michelle OBama running in a few years. Would probably be a better option than both Hillary and Donald.
Why would she be better than Trump or Clinton . What has she achieved ?
Clinton has achieved lots, it’s just that it’s mostly bad stuff. Maybe they need somebody who doesn’t achieve anything.
Michelle Obama tried to rescue children kidnapped by Boko Haram with a hashtag… hardly indicative of a great future president.
I find it hilarious that anyone thinks that whoever gets elected is going to make a blind bit of difference. It won’t.
Just look at job growth under a Democrat versus a republican president and you will see that democratic policies are good for the economy and help individuals while republican policies cause stagnation.
This will be as good ad it gets for Hildabeast. Democrat party continues to implode as Trump continues to lead every major poll. Can’t wait for the debates :)
hildabeast? name-calling is for playground bullies
I bet you don’t mine name calling when Trump is the target, amirite?
Hopefully yoju’ll all get see two horns pop out of her head on live television during the debates. ‘Hildabeast’ will seem pretty apt.
Ross what names has Trump been called?
An oaf? An idiot? A dinosaur? Criticising Clinton is not mysoginist, even when it’s a bit vulgar. She’s been immune from criticism because if get gender for too long now, time to man up
I’ve seen people mock Trump about his hair and his skin tone quite frequently, if the same was done about Clintons appearance there would be howls of misogyny.
two wrongs do not make a right
But three rights make a left
Nice source, they even take the time to point out that there’s an error in the dates but rest assured, your “neutral” source would never edit or sensationalise anything. Let alone the fact that the headline is not contained in the email
Illuminati 1 plebs 0 :)
plebinati? 100!
Go Hillary. Best candidate for the job. Really hope she wins in November.
Your joking I hope?
Trump is better????
Maybe Stein or Johnson?
Same, inspiring women what she’s stood up to. I hope she takes it all the way.
As the current First Lady said don’t let the bullies win.
You mean she ‘rigged’ the win
Posted this too soon and it was an error ignore!
It’s amazing how America is falling for Trump. Then again GWB got in twice.
I expect one presidential term of Trump, and if he does leave office and doesn’t decide (for people who love America) that he should continue as an unelected dictator, then it’ll be Eva Langoria or George Clooney.
They also fell for the Kenyan Muslim twice.
Tommy, are Muslims not allowed to run for office or something?
Why do right wing religious nuts get everything wrong?? FFS
this comments section will fill up with bile fairly quickly
Much like Lance Armstrong, will history look back and invalidate her win after proof of cheating was discovered?
history doesn’t look anywhere
Seth, nowhere is it mentioned that she was involved. Also, I have another theory, how dare the Democrats want a Democrat as their nominee!!!
@Dave they wanted it bad enough to subvert the democratic process it seems! I’m sure that’s going to work wonders for them.
I’m not saying it’s right by any stretch of the imagination. Bernie, who was the best candidate for presidency only got there by jumping on the DNC machine
I can’t believe the Americans are so fcuking dumb, Donald Trump is an egomaniac that can barely string a sentence together and Hittlery is a Zionist puppet who’ll willingly send pumped up teenagers and young men n women to the Middle East to get killed, them again is it true the President/Puppet has to swear an oath of allegiance to Israel ? due to their influence in the government.
A Goldman sucks HO
“And if there are any little girls out there who stayed up late to watch, let me just say, I may become the first woman president but one of you is next.”
If you’re a young or middle aged woman, you have no chance of being President. It’s all about meeee.
Never mind God bless America God help America.
Give that woman a cigar!
Unfortunately for her, Donald trump will be the next president. Showing showing the world just how gullible Americans can be.
Bill’s still able to charm and talk BS anyway! Still, the nomination is finally done and hopefully he can win Hillary a few votes in the swing states.
Ye there’s a trail of women in his wake who could tell you all about his “charm”.
Whereas old Donnie has been nothing but saintly to women. Assault, rape, misogyny, sexism, all accusations that were paid away
Oh really Dave?
I’ve been digging on some of these complaints about Trump lately.
You know the one legit case brought against him (from the 90′s) resulted in a recent statement from the victim completely exonerating him! but i’ll let you find that yourself.
They would have loved to have tied him to Epstein scandal, too, but then it turned out to be a bigger problem for Billy boy. Let me know when it goes to court, already thrown out in one state.
So, The world’s greatest power and economy has two choices – fascist, racist Trump or Wall Street puppet and war monger Hillary. Just goes to show how gullible, idiotic and brainless the majority of voters are there.
Have you seen the rally and conventions? Flags waving glarey eyed fruitcakes screaming for what ever sociopath is on stage, bleating on about “Let’s make America great again ” and ” Hilary the powerful elegant first woman president” diatribe. There’s something not quiet right about any of it. Black v white, us v them mentality cheering on their favourite personality like it’s X factor competition they are at. I know the media has a large part to play in rallying support but perhaps it’s in the American psyche to be so easily led with blinkers ignoring the glaring flaws in their choice of candidates. Honestly there’s worrying global consequences having either candidate elected as President.
She rigged the whole process , she’s a cheat and a liar
She was in no way implicated in the emails
Trump Trumph Trumph!
Between these 2 (Clinton-Trump). who is the worst? One of them will become president.
Scary thought
Clitler is the worst. Any criticism or misdeeds of Donald Trump can’t even come close to her.
That goose be goosed.
have your say