Cork South Central - How have the TDs been doing so far?

[jd26]

I'll do these for the other Cork constituencies, but I don't want to overwhelm the board, so I'll go on a week be week basis.

Anyway, my opinions

Micheal Martin - I guess he has the cushiest job in government now, but it's not one where he can show much generosity to the constituency. His career seems to have stalled and I wouldn't be surprised to see him nominated for an EU commission spot.

Michael McGrath - He promised the world in his election campaign and didn't even deliver a small field. An awful politician, the kind who gets politicians a bad name. Worse than John Dennehy and that is really saying something.

Ciaran Lynch - He made a slow start, but has been doing good work on the ground and has been quite prominent on the Haulbowline issue lately. Not spectacular, but so far, so good.

Deirdre Clune - Has been better than people said she'd be, but can still do a lot better. Being a backbencher in an opposition party isn't the easiest of roles, but we still need to see more effort.

Simon Coveney- Has been very quiet so far, especially considering he's on the Fine Gael front bench. Somewhat disappointing really. I can't understand why he's spoken of as a future party leader.


Over to you.

[Cork Extremist]

Ciaran Lynch was on national raido (forget which one) last week and I was very impressed by him. Very articulate and straight forward. Not one of the Noel O'Flynn or Clune fudgers.

I think McGrath is working at a local level so youre not likely to hear as much from him week-to-week. People Ive spoken to in Passage West and Carrigaline are fond of him. I liked him the few times I heard him speak and its not an easy job being over shadowed by Michael Martin in the same consituency but you could be right.

With respect I dont think you've gone into much depth. Youve possibly got something against Michael Martin. you could argue that he's getting experience at Foreign Affairs which will be useful for international relations if he ever becomes Taoiseach. How he handles post-Lisbon relations with the EU will potentially make or break him.

I think Clune is a pretender from any anecdotes Ive heard and thats all you can go on really. Ive seen Coveney mouth off at Cowen and Lenihan in the Dáil so I wouldnt write him off. Fine Gael are a wishy-washy opposition party short of original ideas if you ask me.

If Cowen steers us through the downturn and unemployment is kept to a minimum he could be back again at the next election possibly with Labour. His cutbacks seem pretty logical so far and leaving Health and Education out of them neutralises any opposition politics. He might look sour, fat and ugly but he might have a talent for leading the country and we'll need at least a year to find out.

[Arcadia]

I'll do these for the other Cork constituencies, but I don't want to overwhelm the board, so I'll go on a week be week basis.

Anyway, my opinions

Micheal Martin - I guess he has the cushiest job in government now, but it's not one where he can show much generosity to the constituency. His career seems to have stalled and I wouldn't be surprised to see him nominated for an EU commission spot. Can he get any quieter ?

Michael McGrath - He promised the world in his election campaign and didn't even deliver a small field. An awful politician, the kind who gets politicians a bad name. Worse than John Dennehy and that is really saying something. Went back on his Cork Airport debt free promise on day 1.
Worse than Dennehy is indeed saying something.

Ciaran Lynch - He made a slow start, but has been doing good work on the ground and has been quite prominent on the Haulbowline issue lately. Not spectacular, but so far, so good. Meh

Deirdre Clune - Has been better than people said she'd be, but can still do a lot better. Being a backbencher in an opposition party isn't the easiest of roles, but we still need to see more effort. Potential that will never probably realised in a government
Simon Coveney- Has been very quiet so far, especially considering he's on the Fine Gael front bench. Somewhat disappointing really. I can't understand why he's spoken of as a future party leader. Quiet in the dail but in the media a lot.style over substance I reckon so far.

Over to you.

Poor overall especially McGrath

[corkoniense]

I have an unbearably close up view of these guys, and I can honestly say that Ciaran Lynch is streets ahead of the rest. He is in opposition and there is very little that he can actually do, but he has called for the development of a Cork Transport Authority, a proper expansion of the city boundaries, a directly elected mayor (Oh Dan Boyle how you've let me down!), and has performed competently if not spectacularly on the hawlbowline crisis.

Watched an interview with Peter Barry the other night and just cannot get over the fact that Clune is his daughter. She may be competent in a junior ministerial portfolio for all I know (and I don't), but she cannot string a coherent sentence together in English. Absolutely pitiful and a lesson on the dangers of nepotism in politics.

Simon Coveney also disappoints. A very poor, hesitant speaker, with no bite at all in his attacks on the Government. As spokesperson on communications and natural resources, I thought he put forward some good ideas on broadband, but his inability to articulate them clearly is another example of Fine Gael's listlessness at the moment: whatever policies they might have, we just don't know about them. And this from what is supposed to be a policy driven party.


Messers Martin and McGrath: To be honest, I couldn't be bothered. They are elected cos of the FF monkey vote that exists in every constituency up and down the country. Martin is seen at all the nemo matches, and I'm sure McGrath does something similar with carrigaline. McGrath beat Dennehy in the last election probably because of the growing population of carrigaline, rather than any meaningless promises or policies (remeber the echo headline on a luas for carrigaline!!!) Neither of them stands for anything.

Going back to that interview with peter barry, he pointed out that haughey opposed the anglo-irish agreement, divorce (of all things!) and even the single european act. As Bertie Ahern once put it: Our ethics is to get into power and our ethics is to stay in power. Wankers all!

[Cork Extremist]

Martin is seen at all the nemo matches, and I'm sure McGrath does something similar with carrigaline.

What do you mean by that? Should they not attend games like that?

All politicians need to be seen in public because they are public respresentitives. If they're not out and about, people say they never see them and assume they're doing nothing and dont vote for them again.

You can't just say 'ah sure he's only looking for votes'. You might be right on one hand but you could just as easily walk up to him and tell him about a problem you have and he might be able to help you. Politics is politics but so few of us take advantage of it by telling our TDs what our problems are.

[jd26]

You can't just say 'ah sure he's only looking for votes'. You might be right on one hand but you could just as easily walk up to him and tell him about a problem you have and he might be able to help you. Politics is politics but so few of us take advantage of it by telling our TDs what our problems are.

I guess you're into a problem with the clientelist nature of Irish politics then. Ideally, public services should function and people shouldn't need to get a politician to intervene on their behalf. Then politicians could get on with what their job should be, which is legislating and creating a country where the public services provide what the people need :rolleyes:

[corkoniense]

Of course there's nothing specifically wrong with it. It's just that FF are better at it than anybody else, and it's what gets them elected, even tho they stand for nothing. I prefer parties with ideas, although I acknowledge personality is important. However, if you scratch a bit under the surface of a lot of these serial match and funeral goers, you find their support is sham. Michael Martin shoved my sister outta the way a few years ago in an effort to shake hands with billy morgan after nemo's AI club win. While Bertie Ahern, the great dubs fan, hasn't declared allegience to any club on dublin's northside, because he of course he "supports" them all. Nothing wrong with being popular per se, but these people are shameless hypocrites.