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IF YOU’VE EVER dreamed of being chauffeured in a ministerial Merc, then that dream could be about to come true – the fleet of former State cars is set to be auctioned off.
Most ministers lost their automatic right to a car and garda driver in austerity measures introduced soon after Fine Gael and Labour came to power in March last year, with only the Taoiseach, Tánaiste and Minister for Justice still retaining the perk.
This means that the State owns a number of vehicles which it no longer needs. Minister for Justice Alan Shatter has said they will be sold openly at a public auction in the near future.
He said “very active steps” were being taken by gardaí to arrange their disposal.
A tender competition to retain the services of a vehicle auctioneer is expected to be finalised in the near future and when the auctioneer has been selected the necessary arrangements for the auction will be made.
Former Taoisigh, ex-presidents, the Ceann Comhairle and attorney general also lost their automatic right to a car under the new regulations brought in last March.
The President, the Chief Justice and the Director of Public Prosecutions are still carried in a State car with a garda driver at the wheel.
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Since the Government has facilitated the removal of Sean Quinn from the Insurance sector, and the price of insurance has since sky rocketed, how could anyone insure these high spec cars at an affordable rate?
Sean will get off the bloody journal! It’s not All about you, you know.
*foot note* 123 are wayyyy cheaper!
Quinn direct are still operating without Sean Quinn
Winston, Yeh they are still operating thanks to the 700 million plus that you, I and everyone else has to pay for. None of this would have been necessary if the QUinn proposal had not been inappropriately eliminated.
And just look how their prices have changed.
Gill, I have no connection whatsoever with the Quinn family and dont even live in the same county.
You are right, its not all about Sean Quinn. Its about every man woman and child in this debt ridden country for generations to come who will be paying through the nose for the scam that Anglo and the Government pulled in relation to the QUinn Group.
Anglo propaganda is working on you, but thn you probably dont realize that we are all paying through the nase for that too.
you should learn the true facts. You will be surprised at how gullible you were or better still, why dont you ask your local public representative how much ANglo has recouped to date in the scam on QUinn . Report back on the journal when you find out the answer to that.
Enough of this saint sean quinn tripe.There is 770 million of a shortfall that WE will be paying for god knows how long.Sean if your buddies in cavan have nothing else better to do than bore the pants off the nation about sean this sean that then they should take up a hobby like hill walking.
They should give them to the Gards to replace some if the junkers they’re going round in.
Exactly, the Gardai have an increasing shortage of cars, and these clowns are planning on giving them away to the highest bidder. Let the Gardai keep them ye’ muppets.
If you buy one of these mercs and you crash and it becomes completely unrepairable the government will give you back the money, no questions asked.
Yea if you live in la la land
I’d love to get the bulls old car, there’d be a fortune stick behind the seats id say….
Why not give them away in a lotto draw to make up fore the waste that has occurred in recent years. These cars will of course be very expensive to run as they are heavy on juice. Not that the minsters cared when they were using them.Not forgetting the day each minster drove to Farnely in one car each.That was a disgrace. Auction here we come.How many will bid for the said cars.
I think it’s a great idea, although it should have been done back in march last year when they decided not to use them any more!
I’ll give ye €50 for a merc and a tenner for an e-voting machine.
If they treat their cars like they do the country I’ll take a pass.
why cant they be given to plain clothes units like the special branch and national drug squad. These cars and many others as old as 2002 have been sitting in the phoenix park for as long as 5 years and the cops are pottering around in buckets. App the reason they wont give them to the cops is because they dont want the public to see them in mercs. I for one couldnt give a monkeys once they arrive fast if i call them.
Just on a point of detail, is it the Merc and the Garda driver as a combined package that is be auctioned off ? Can you not buy the Merc without taking the Garda driver as well? I think that, if you have to take the Garda driver as part of the package when buying the Merc, this will substantially devalue the Merc: who on Earth would want a big flat-foot driving your new Merc, whom you would probably have to feed and cloth, when you could have the Merc without any such attendant baggage. Maybe in order to dispose of the Garda drivers they could be separately put up for adoption by same sex couples and thereby we would kill two birds with the one stone: end of the Garda driver disposal question and end of the same sex adoption conundrum.
I think I will purchase one of these for €300 because like the last disposable asset E-voting machines they will be available in 2022 after the storage contract expires and a auctioneer is found.
Better off if they scrapped the mercs, just make sure there’s a minister in each of them.
Why has it taken almost a year to dispose of these cars?
How will Ireland facilitate VIPs at future EU events?? Will they be expected to get a taxi to and from meetings or will that ball be placed at member state Embassies?? Maybe we should invest in a few Hiace mini buses and use them lol
I’ll be at auction with a view to purchasing a couple of these cars!
Jeremy Kyle would sort all this out
have your say