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A FINE GAEL Senator has complained to the GAA after failing to obtain any tickets for the All-Ireland Final.
Mayo senator Michelle Mulherin has effectively accused Croke Park of discriminating against unelected representatives, after being told her Seanad seat does not guarantee her two tickets for this weekend’s Dublin-Mayo showdown.
The GAA allows TDs from participating counties to buy two tickets at full price. Mulherin claims senators from participating counties were allowed to buy a ticket last year.
TheJournal.ie has established that the GAA are open to granting requests from senators in certain circumstnaces – for example, with proven track records of contributing to their local clubs.
“To clarify, I sought to buy two tickets from Croke Park,” Mulherin said on Twitter.
Each year until this their policy gave option to both TDs and Senators. Maigh Eo Abu!
“This isn’t about me,” she told Drivetime on RTÉ this evening. “I’m a very proud supporter of the Mayo team.”
The former Fine Gael TD said she attended the Mayo-Tipperary semi-final, and was at one of the earlier Championship rounds, although she failed to specify which match.
“Myself and the rest of the county are just so behind this team…,” she said.
“This isn’t about Michelle Mulherin, this is about a policy of the GAA at Croke Park, which is discriminating against Senators in the Houses of the Oireachtas.
Basically, every year, senators and TDs from competing counties could write in, send in a cheque to purchase a couple of tickets, and they were accommodated.
“That has been the precedent every year. This isn’t about me. I didn’t dream this up. This was standard practice.”
Mulherin, a Taoiseach’s nominee to the Seanad, said “there is blue murder for tickets in Mayo”, but was told by the GAA that the pressure for tickets was coming from Dublin.
Asked whether TDs or senators should get this special deal, she said: ”That’s a matter for Croke Park.”
“It’s a special arrangement,” she added, although said she didn’t believe the arrangement should be abolished, and called the ticket arrangements “a mystery”.
Prerogative
The GAA does not put tickets for All-Ireland final on public sale, but instead distributes them to every club in the country – with a larger proportion doled out to clubs from counties competing in the All-Ireland.
A Croke Park spokesman said it is GAA policy to give free tickets for any game outside the final.
It’s unclear how many of Mayo’s games in the League and Championship Mulherin attended year. The Senator failed to return calls from TheJournal.ie today.
Irrelevant
A GAA spokesman said that it’s not true to say their ticketing rules have changed since the 2015 final, when Dublin dethroned champions Kerry.
“Every year we review our ticketing policy,” a GAA spokesman told TheJournal.ie.
Regardless of whether senators got them last year or not, it’s irrelevant as it’s the GAA’s prerogative to decide who gets tickets when.
It’s my information that senators weren’t all covered – it’s decided on a case-by-case basis.The idea is to manage the massive volume of requests we receive every year.
It’s understood that elected public officials or senators, whether appointed or elected, who demonstrated a track record of promoting gaelic games are prioritised by central GAA headquarters when it comes to applications for tickets.
It’s also understood that the GAA feels a greater obligation towards TDs who are elected, compared to politicians appointed to the Seanad by the Taoiseach.
A number of TDs from counties not competing in the final have also had ticket requests turned down by the GAA.
The GAA added that there is nothing to stop any politicians who failed to get tickets from contacting their local county board or their local GAA club.
Demand
On Monday, GAA Árd Stiúrthóir Páraic Duffy sent a letter to Mulherin rejecting her request for tickets for Sunday’s match, stressing the high demand for tickets.
“Unfortunately, we are unable to facilitate your request as the demand for tickets exceeds the number available,” Duffy wrote.
At central level, we can only make tickets available for purchase to TDs of competing counties.
A Croke Park spokesman told TheJournal.ie that it was more than happy that it caters for public representatives – pointing out that the Taoiseach, Ministers and TDs and councillors from both competing counties are allowed to buy tickets.
Discrimination
However, Mulherin has accused the GAA of discriminating against certain members of the Oireachtas.
Earlier this week, Dublin councillor Mark Ward criticised fair-weather GAA “spectators” for taking All-Ireland final tickets, and depriving year-round supporters of gaelic games from attending the most important match of the year.
He also criticised ticket-touting. Backbench Fine Gael TD Noel Rock is preparing to publish a private member’s bill which would ban the above-cost reselling of tickets for gaelic games matches and other events.
In the meantime, the gouging continues. Tickets for this Sunday’s final between Mayo and Dublin were for sale for up to €590 on the controversial site needaticket.ie earlier this week.
The tickets appear to have been bought in the interim.
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It’s not all about cuts. We are less family orientated and have less time to look after older relatives. Simple fact is that the day of taking an elderly parent in and looking after them to the end of their days is getting rarer. There were absolutely no supports years ago and it was far more common. The article takes the lazy route of blaming Government for everything and ignoring any sense of individual responsibility or individual choice. My grandmother looked after her aunt and mother till they died and my mother her mother. Not a carers grant in sight. I think we got a commode and a special bed from the HSE and that was it!
So Gavin How many elderly relations are you looking after.
As I’m unmarried and in ireland I’ll probably be looking after my widowed mother as it happens. Have you any reply other than a facetious one?
Probably ?
I think you are somewhat right Gavin, but there are a lot of other reasons why a lot of elderly people end up in nursing homes, lack of family members being one, work commitments can impede ones ability to provide sufficient care, also the nature of the illness or ailment the elderly relative may be suffering from and the relatives ability to provide a sufficient level of care in that instance. I cared for my mam last year when she was diagnosed with inoperable pancreatic cancer, as she needed round the clock care she came to live with us, I am fortunate enough to own my own business so could rearrange my work commitments, it was intensely tough going but I do not regret one minute of it. The carers allowance takes on average 6 months to process and even if I had applied by the time it would have been received mam had died.
@ molly coddled, 100% agree with you also sorry for the loss of your mum.
Gavin you have taken the bait like so many others, we have been led into the debt trap by our capital pupit masters. It now takes two working to maintain our modern debt dependent lifestyles which dosent allow for stay at home carers
Gavin. There are situations when it is just unsafe and irrisponsible to keep an elderly person in their own home. Particularly with mid/late stage dementia. Sometimes a family will think they’re doing the right thing but in fact are doing more damage as they are not qualified or skilled to deal with a person with this illness 24 hours a day 7 days a week. Dementia sufferers will often wander or get up in the middle of the night to put the kettle on. I have seen a person with dementia trying to drink tea directly from a tea pot as they were confused. Can you imagine what would have happened if that wasn’t caught in time. Also the time spent visiting a person can be better quality time. No matter who you are. If you have to look after somebody on your own 24/7 you will begin to resent it.
As a carer for my Great aunt and Grandmother who both have Alzheimers and need 24/7 care, I can see exactly why people would chose to residential care. It is a horrendously hard job. Besides that though it takes an insane amount of time to get supports in place. One has a catheter bag. it took a couple of years for that to happen. Her skin was in shreds from being constantly wet no matter how often her pad was changed.The other has only recently become incontinent and it took nearly 6 months of washing urine and faeces out of bed sheets and clothes and even furniture and the floor for the pads to arrive. Cash cow!! As IF. The cost and strain on the family is immense. Someone has to be here 24/7 in case one of them has an accident or tries to wonder off. I gave up my career and moved home to make life easier on my parents. We are saving the government thousands by keeping them at home and we cant even go on a family holiday for a week. Respite has be cut to shreds. You get it once every 4 months approx., for 4 days. not even 4 full days. On the Monday you bring them in before lunch so maybe 11/12 then on the Friday you have to collect them by 4pm or else an ambulance is called and they are sent up to Loughlinstown hospital. A contract has to be signed to that effect. My 3 younger siblings are still in education on top of everything. My mother is an only child so it falls down to us to make sure that my Granny and my Aunt live the remainder of their lives in what comfort we can provide them. Family friends dont visit like they used to because my aunt gets so agitated that she screams when anything is different. So tell me again why people would choose nursing home care instead?
Neither of them ever owned a house by the way. Cash cows. How god damned insulting.
Because we all want to sell granny’s tiny little bedsit that’s lucky to be located in the city centre that’s worth mega money so we can divide up the cash and party..!
Because they are cash cows and we steadily losing touch with values that were linked to the human spirit. No values no spirit. Well selfies and self gratification are on the rise that’s good though.
the old woman next door from me should be in a home she suffers from dementia and her family just leave her there she takes her car out regularly a d it always comes back with damage. it’s only a matter of time till she kills someone. she is 93 and will die in there alone surly a home is the best option
Sounds like her family should be In a him too. Government policy is to force old people into the lucrative homes a few owned by their buddies. As for my point about values it is about setting them and normalising the right to old age with dignity. It is self preservation because as far as I know the human physiology still suggests ae will all grow old eventually I dread to think how we will be treated if the mean spirited society continues. You made a valid point there but the bigger picture needs to be looked at.
Try getting a home care package for an elderly relative. It’s a nightmare. Our case was considered urgent yet I had to get reviews three times to finally get the help we needed for my father. It’s helps a great deal but I am still on call for everything and with my own disabled teenager to care for its still overwhelming sometimes. Sometimes elderly people just require too high a level of care for relatives. Having spent the weekend in hospital after my father had yet another fall and trying to juggle care for my son at home I feel I am at my limit to.be honest.
Kids just want their houses.
You obviously don’t know how much nursing homes cost.
Jason nursing home cost is over 4000 per month, under the HSE’s fair deal scheme when the money saved runs out the HSE picks up the tab for however long the person remains in the nursing home, however, in the event of the patient passing the house and assets have to be sold so as the HSE can recoup the costs. Usually nothing is left.
Cost of nursing home 80% of disposable income ie pension and 7.5% of assets per year over €36,000 charge on family home for 3 years only. Family still left with 78%.
One reason that the elderly sometimes need nursing home care is that there is the element of distance. An elderly person may want to stay where familiar friends can visit. The children may well be living in a different part of the country. This sometimes causes the last resort to become the first resort. Medical necessity should be the first criterion to be used when a decision in favour of nursing home care is taken. The home care element should be properly resourced particularly where an elderly person is living alone, although some elderly might find this intrusive.
More and more so different generations live in countries or cities other than their elderly parents and also working longer hours.
I’m sure you were all well able to take care of your parents, living around the corner and clocking off from your civil service job at 5pm everyday.
Unfortunately that’s no longer reflective of reality for a family who’s 4 kids live on different continents.
Taxing Family Homes (LPT) is forcing elderly out of their homes. This tax is a regressive 12th century serf law tax and should be abolished like inheritance taxes are beginning to be across Europe. 12th Century Serf Laws are not acceptable in any modern Democracy.
Political Parties are just private clubs, financial predators who max citizens taxes. Bring your brains to the polling booths if you want to stay in your Family homes when you retire.
Because the kids are scared of her moustache and I want to put a snooker table in her room.
Because we need to recycle to homes for a new generation
She never does
Because low life scmbags have to put them somewhere before they take their house, red thumb all you like, it won’t make it any less true.
Why are we ? How about some people instead .
ALSO ANOTHER QUESTION IS WHY DID THEY PAY TAX ALL THEIR LIFE FOR?
As well as what is the mass medication used in some of these homes to sedate these inmates???
have your say