FFG Government Ministers caught again

[TheEarlofPearl]

Yep. Reilly.


By the way, in order to pretend you weren't so rattled by this thread into posting to it at 2:30AM, and your inference that you might have been in a different time zone (in yer head you probably are) you've continued to post to PROC throughout the day, including the one above through to past midnight again.

On going sleep depravation might explain some of your "contributions" to PROC right enough

No link so?

By the way, I notice you are lying again with your second paragraph of diatribe. Nothing new there.

 

[SoundMan]

I know the link was posted previously but I think the article bears posting. The Fine Gael TD from Cork North Central, and member of this and previous Governments Colm Burke who is a solicitor. Dirty work but no real surprise that he hasn't been struck off by the legal authorities in this country for his nefarious dealings putting his party politics ahead of the rights of someone who was paying him legal fees. An utter cult!



A Fine Gael TD and health spokesperson was found “guilty of misconduct in his practice as a solicitor” for misleading a client suing the state over the ongoing nursing home fees scandal.

Cork North-Central TD Colm Burke, who is also a partner in Colm Burke & Co. Solicitors, by 2006 had initiated legal proceedings on behalf of more than 70 similar clients. He was a Fine Gael councillor at the time.

Burke, now a Fine Gael health spokesperson who sits on the Oireachtas Health Committee, refused to comment to The Ditch when asked about a 2014 case in which the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal found he had misled one of these clients. Burke failed to tell a client he couldn’t represent her until she legally wasn’t permitted to take it.

The Irish Mail on Sunday last weekend published a story detailing how the state devised a secret plan to force people illegally charged private nursing home fees into accepting payouts smaller than what they were entitled to. “As a result of this strategy”, said the Mail’s story, “compensation was denied to anyone who did not have the resources to fight legal cases.”

A misled presumptive client​

Among Colm Burke’s first clients affected by the nursing home scandal was a Munster couple, who wished to remain anonymous, who’d been wrongly charged more than €100,000 in private nursing home fees.

Commenting on the case at the time, Burke told the Irish Independent, "This certainly is one of the most high-profile cases that we have," telling the paper that, “Since November cases have been flooding in.”

By 2006 Burke was representing more than 70 clients pursuing the state for damages. In 2007 he was elected to the European Parliament for Fine Gael.

A number of Burke’s cases representing clients illegally charged by the state for nursing home fees ran into 2015, at which time he had been in the Seanad for four years, having been appointed by Enda Kenny.

Burke in 2014 was found guilty by a professional legal body for misleading a presumptive client wishing to take a case against the state.

On 1 July 2014 the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal ruled Burke “guilty of misconduct in his practice as a solicitor” for leading the applicant to believe he was acting on her behalf when in fact he wasn’t.

The tribunal found Burke “should not have led the applicant to believe he was acting for the applicant if he was of the view he was unable to carry out instructions” and that he “therefore misled the applicant”.

The case involved Burke’s failure to inform the person in writing that he was unable to pursue her case. Burke waited until after the person’s case was statute-barred to do so, meaning she could no longer pursue the state.

Burke at the time said though he didn’t adequately inform the person in writing, “I am satisfied I verbally communicated the correct legal advice... at all times. I acknowledge the verbal advice was not followed with a written communication.”

He was censured by the tribunal and ordered to pay €3,000 to its compensation fund, as well as pay the would-be client €500.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar appointed Burke Fine Gael health spokesperson in late 2020. The Cork TD on his appointment said,‘’This is an area in which I have had a particular interest for a long number of years.”

When questioned by The Ditch on the number of similar clients he represented and the fees they paid him, Burke declined to comment. He also declined to comment on whether the outcomes of these cases were favourable for his clients and on whether he was aware of the state’s strategy for dealing with these cases.

He wouldn’t say whether any of the cases are ongoing.

 

[SoundMan]

No link so?

By the way, I notice you are lying again with your second paragraph of diatribe. Nothing new there.

Did you post at approximately 2:30AM and infer that you were in a different timezone by way of explanation in your claim you weren't rattled into posting on a thread you claimed was a Fail (you're here again) at 2:30AM given that you continued to post throughout the day up to and past midnight?

 

[TheEarlofPearl]

Did you post at approximately 2:30AM and infer that you were in a different timezone by way of explanation in your claim you weren't rattled into posting on a thread you claimed was a Fail (you're here again) at 2:30AM given that you continued to post throughout the day up to and past midnight?

You really are rattled. When I posted I was in a different timezone waiting to board a flight. I assume you didn't notice that i hadn't posted for a week previous to that post. Oh dear *penny drops*. You really an imbecile, and again unlike you I have absolutely no reason to lie here.
Pwned again.

 

[SoundMan]

You really are rattled. When I posted I was in a different timezone waiting to board a flight. I assume you didn't notice that i hadn't posted for a week previous to that post. Oh dear *penny drops*. You really an imbecile, and again unlike you I have absolutely no reason to lie here.
Pwned again.

Pretended to fly back from "a different time zone" because he'd been rattled into posting at 2:30AM and then continued posting throughout the day beyond midnight again.

You seriously expect us to believe that you were posting over a period of nearly 24 hours and weren't rattled?

Normal people tend to try grab some sleep when they've been travelling and finally arrive back from a different time-zone so removed from our own - but not you

 

[TheEarlofPearl]

Pretended to fly back from "a different time zone" because he'd been rattled into posting at 2:30AM and then continued posting throughout the day beyond midnight again.

You seriously expect us to believe that you were posting over a period of nearly 24 hours and weren't rattled?

Normal people tend to try grab some sleep when they've been travelling and finally arrive back from a different time-zone so removed from our own - but not you

Ah seriously, you can't actually be that stupid.
Take your pwn and move on.

 

[SoundMan]

And now the latest screw up/bit of deviousness/corruption (delete as appropriate) by the FFG Ministers over the years is the outstanding monies owed to those with disabilities who were in nursing homes.

Jebus is there nothing that these suited FFG clowns didn't adversely affect?

https://www.independent.ie/irish-ne...ing-people-disability-allowance-42323182.html


TAOISEACH Leo has said the Government is reviewing a new controversy over the denial of disability allowance payments to individuals when they entered institutions. But there was a difference between this issue and the row over nursing home charges, he said. The legal advice on disability welfare denial in the past was that the State “didn’t have a leg to stand on”, Leo Varadkar said. But he stressed it is "different in substance" to the nursing home charges story.

It comes after RTE Investigates revealed the State denied thousands of vulnerable people in residential care their Disabled Persons Maintenance Allowance (DPMA). A memo which dates back to 2009 reportedly outlined that if families were to take cases, they would likely succeed.

Some 12,000 people are thought to have been affected, and the Government was reviewing the situation, said Mr Varadkar. Separately the Mail On Sunday revealed a legal strategy by the State in relation to families who were forced to use private nursing homes when public spaces were not available.

It has been reported the strategy sought to settle the cases out of court to prevent further cases from being taken, in relation to charges for nursing home care deemed "illegal" by a 2010 Ombudsman's report into the issue. Whether the charges are illegal has never been tested in the courts, but the State maintains there is no obligation on it to pay for private nursing home care.

Speaking in the Dáil today, Mr Varadkar said he had been a member of three Governments that had taken huge steps to put right the wrongs of the past. It had happened with the Magdalen laundries and mother and baby homes, and was now taking place with mica, pyrite and apartment block problems.

Victims of symphysiotomy had gone to court and lost their case, he said, but the State had still established a compensation fund. Yet the Government, as well as doing what was right and just, also had a duty to protect the taxpayer and the Exchequer, he said. Separately, it had not been established that the State had illegally charged any medical card holders in private nursing homes, he said. There was official legal advice on the defence of proceedings, and “you can’t prevent anyone from going to court in Ireland,” he said.

But Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald said efforts had been made to keep the matters “under wraps and out of court". Government had first developed a plan to “hardball the elderly,” Ms McDonald said. There had then been a government decision, later deemed unlawful, to deny people their disability payment when they entered institutions. That was another strategy designed to conceal and cover up, and to protect the government rather than the vulnerable, she said.

The Minister for Health of the day and the entire cabinet had endorsed this strategy, he said. The two approaches amounted to a “sordid tale” of the Coalition parties actively working against the interests of citizens, with many people as a result forced to work into their seventies or forced to get by on less than €30 a week, she said. “People needed Government to stand yup for them, rather than facing them down,” she said. The human cost had been “heavy and deep".

Meanwhile Mr Varadkar has said a paper trail investigation has established that he was not briefed about a legal stonewalling strategy. The strategy was adopted over claims for refunds for private nursing home charges which allegedly had no proper basis in law. Mr Varadkar said it had been suggested that a 2016 document which referenced “the minister” referred to him, since held the Health portfolio at the time. But he said it had now been established that it referred back to the minister in 2014, before he took office that summer. The Taoiseach did not name the holder of the office prior to him, who was Dr James Reilly, also of the Fine Gael party, now retired. But in any case that issue was a “sideshow,” Mr Varadkar said.

Comment has been sought from Dr Reilly.

 

[SoundMan]

Harris on Morning Ireland this morning in trying to excuse his role in the various debacles repeated saying "I have been very clear on this" or "clearly" when he was anything but clear.

The common denominator in all of this seems to be that FFG Ministers think they are above the law and don't REALLY need to worry about the plight of Irish citizens who've been discriminated against and/or illegally/immorally treated at the hands of the state. Ministers who are trusted to run departments for the benefit of the Irish people and are paid accordingly.

Whatever about media darlings like Leo the Liar and Harris bluffing their way through regardless I think the revelations on Burke in CNC has him holed below the water-line both professionally and politically. Even though it happened back in 2014 that he was found guilty the revelations will be difficult to come back from especially after his subsequent appointment by LV to a Healthcare portfolio and Burke stating "This is an area in which I have had a particular interest for a long number of years.”

Wonder why it was kept so relatively quiet for so long.

 

[TheEarlofPearl]

Wonder why it was kept so relatively quiet for so long.

By kept quiet, you mean you didn't know about it? Not at all surprising.

FG Senator explains law body censure

Cork solicitor and Fine Gael Senator Colm Burke has sought to explain the events which led to him being censured by the Law Society of Ireland.

www.irishexaminer.com

 

[SoundMan]

By kept quiet, you mean you didn't know about it? Not at all surprising.

FG Senator explains law body censure

Cork solicitor and Fine Gael Senator Colm Burke has sought to explain the events which led to him being censured by the Law Society of Ireland.

www.irishexaminer.com

Nope. That article was light touch and tried to make out that it wsas Burke's legal practice and another made the discovery that the FFG governments carry on over decades had been illegal. There were various statements in the Oireachtas stating it. This wasn't some great investigative work by Burke.

And Burke's case where he intentionally delayed a client's claim had an even bigger smell about it after Leo Varadkar rewarded Burke with an appointment to Health in 2020 where Burke claimed "This is an area in which I have had a particular interest for a long number of years.”

That article you link would have one believe that it was just a clerical error where Burke claimed he'd verbally advised (rather than in writing) his client that he wouldn't act for them and the client being under the impression that he would.

It was known even back then that there were a number of serious misgivings about the way FFG ministers were overseeing a regime where people were being kept from money to which they were entitled. And this was a case where an elected FFG public representative, pretended to be doing the right thing and getting someone's owed money back for them. Even though he was deliberately running down the clock to ensure that they didn't get the due money.

And then in 2020 he got appointed to a position in Health by Leo the Liar. Looks very much like a payoff for a job not so well done on behalf of a client but well done on behalf of a regime who were trying to ensure that members of the public weren't getting the recompense they were due.



The article you link
"Mr Burke, a former Lord mayor of cork, was found guilty by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal of misleading an applicant client. He was ordered to pay €3,000 to the society’s compensation fund as well as €500 towards the expenses of the applicant.

In a statement, Mr Burke told how, in 2004, his legal practice and another found that the deduction of 80% of the pensions of public nursing home patients was illegal. He said as a result, emergency legislation was passed a short time later by the Government of the day, “to protect the procedure that was in place and also legalised the previous deductions”.

After the firms threatened a constitutional challenge, the legislation was referred to the Supreme Court, which found in 2005 that it was unconstitutional, and the Government was later forced to bring in new legislation to provide for the refund of nursing home charges illegally deducted from pensions. He said the legislation provided for a refund where a person lived on or after December 9, 1998 in a public nursing home or contracted bed in a private home.
Mr Burke said in the case at the heart of the tribunal, the complainant sought advice on the possibility of issuing proceedings in respect of the estate of one of her late parents who had died in 1995. He said given the year, it did not fall under the new legislation. “I am satisfied I verbally communicated the correct legal advice... at all times. I acknowledge the verbal advice was not followed with a written communication. “The Tribunal has found there was a failure of formal written communication in the case but was satisfied and held that I did not give any undertaking to issue proceedings on behalf of the complainant.”