He couldn’t even sort out Kilkenny and Ferrybank.
I’m sure he would have taken on board “learnings” from that conflict
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Aye I’d like to see him threaten to have gas levels at a trickle like he did with elderly peoples water
That was a salutary lesson in the dangers of delegating. Big Phil was off sorting out European and World Trade and he asks the local public representatives Paudie Coffey and John Paul Phelan to sort out the Ferrybank question. The pair of eejits then end up in the High Court in a defamation case.
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Super Oooft !!!
No surprise the forums dinasours have adoptded crooked Phil as their cause célebre. It
has a somewhat endearing quality to it, reminiscint of how Ireland that used to be in the good old days no doubt when our betters were indeed above the law and everyone knew their place. God be with the days
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I wouldn’t trust him to sort the recycling
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Just in case you missed it, Judge Mary Fahy clarified in the Galway District Court a few weeks ago that the whole thing was a load of nonsense.
I wonder were Champ and Dr Leo as prompt in informing Frau Ursula of Judge Mary Fahy’s pronouncements as they were in running to her telling tales the August before last.
Frau Ursula needs to have a quiet word in the ear of the RTE Farming journalist and tell her she was only keeping the seat warm.
You could say ‘back when we were a proper country’. The wheels still continue to need greasing.
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The fat loud cunt thinks he can get a sniff of the trough again. He was having a fucking busmans holiday before he went to the golf. Half of me nearly hopes he sues and gets his fat hole handed back to him
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@iron_mike 22/07/2021 - Hogan is a political colossus, a huge loss.
@iron_mike 22/02/2022 - Hogan is a fat loud cunt searching for another trough.
This from the man who’s been represented by heavyweights like Bobby Alyward and currently served by the likes of Kathleen Funchion and the Pope Phelan.
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You’ve misquoted me on 2021 boss.I could never stand the sight of the cunt
Oh did I - soz 
. Wasn’t he getting you something shady there one time, planning or a permit or something
A fly tipping permit?
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No. Thst was bobby
Can someone do the necessary, thanks
Here you go,pal.
Kathy Sheridan: Big Phil’s apologists fail to see big picture
Social solidarity will not flourish where power sticks thumbs in its people’s eyes
Wed, Sep 2, 2020, 01:00
On Monday, readers might have got a stinging insight into the mindset of an old family firm once regarded with some affection. Eoin Drea’s opinion piece read like one of those confidential assessments ordered up by the boss (the European People’s Party, Fine Gael’s umbrella group in Europe) about a terribly disappointing unit (Ireland) which got emailed to the entire industry by mistake.
Drea’s argument in short is that this minuscule country showed terminal stupidity in “forcing” the resignation of Phil Hogan; as in a country “literally gone kamikaze on its own economic interests”.
It’s arguable, so damned arguable that it has been argued incessantly and exhaustively and depressingly to the point of falling down and begging a dancing barman to empty a barrel of 176 proof Balkan vodka down its open mouth. But we have this little local difficulty that Drea refers to just once: “That is not to downplay [Hogan’s] actions or minimise the impact of the pandemic on Ireland, but . . .”
That’s the height of it.
This is relevant because of Drea’s position. He is a senior researcher at the Brussels-based Wilfried Martens Centre, “the official think tank of the European People’s Party of which Fine Gael is a member” or, as described in the Guardian, “a centre-right think tank dedicated to promoting European integration”. It’s also the 10th biggest think tank worldwide by its own measure. So think on.
Every single denizen of the Brussels’ “bubble” is gobsmacked at Ireland’s provincial little tantrum, by this account: “MEPs across all parties feel Hogan’s punishment was a totally disproportionate response to his behaviour while in Ireland”.
And indeed Danny Boy – one of Irish Twitter’s treasures – has listed several examples among hundreds of such mésaventures by dignitaries that were met with sweet forgiveness, unlike our lad’s.
‘We’re all human’
They include the Austrian president found on premises after curfew with a round of pints and the New Zealand health minister breaching lockdown for the beach. The upfront “we’re all human” apology worked for all of them, with the odd small fine or minor demotion. To judge by Ursula von der Leyen’s early demeanour, it would have worked for Phil Hogan too. That was until our own triumvirate and everyone including my very provincial Jack Russell got a sniff that the breaches were multiple, growing and – worse – not being declared.
Many of us watched Hogan’s cringe-inducing, slow-motion act of self-sabotage in real time while nurturing a quiet, sincere hope that von der Leyen would find a solution that would satisfy honour while leaving him in place. Drea appears to think that our ignorant bloodlust blinded us to this.
Many of us watched Hogan’s cringe-inducing, slow-motion act of self-sabotage in real time
As well-travelled inhabitants of a small island on an outpost of Europe, the Irish are unusually well-informed. We have skin in the game, lots of it – the peace process, foreign investment, trade, the values expounded by the EU with the common faith that contributing to its budget “is not a commercial transaction [but] is about investing in peace, stability and growth right on your doorstep”. The last line is from a Guardian piece by Drea and is one we cherish. We also know that those values and their indispensable sibling, social solidarity, will never flourish where power sticks its thumb in the people’s eye.
As Henry Mance points out in the Financial Times (let’s call this the non-provincial view), “the Irish Government rejected Mr Hogan’s multiple explanations. He eventually quit. EU honchos aren’t unaccountable after all. Compare that to the UK. Amateur optician Dominic Cummins is still chief adviser to Boris Johnson . . .” Which of these countries is best placed to call for more sacrifices as the virus resurfaces across Europe ? Does social solidarity, frayed as it is, matter a toss ?
Important ‘details’
As for who “forced” Hogans’s resignation? That stomach lurch when von der Leyen read Hogan’s first report and responded that “details are important” and requested a “time line” was a hint. The commission president was not obliged to demand further information or to authorise the publication of the time line. Eurosceptics, used to obstruction and secrecy at home, must have been stunned. Yet there it was, an official document of a top-flight commissioner’s Irish holiday, posted on social media without delay and performing as intended. People examined the dates, checked their memories and rang journalists.
Mr Hogan eventually quit. Amateur optician Dominic Cummins is still chief adviser to Boris Johnson
What should the commission president have done with that fresh information, itself incomplete as it turned out, while retaining her authority and trust in her cabinet in the face of a watching world?
Could she have salvaged the situation with some stern disciplinary action that stopped short of resignation ? What would have sufficed at that point? I for one would like to know.
Drea’s suggestion that it took Hogan’s resignation to highlight Ireland’s grievous healthcare failings versus Europe’s enlightenment is a step too far. A dozy cat following Ireland’s wildly popular general election debates could have recited our health, housing and education record versus Europe’s by rote.
Drea’s final phase – “Dublin has blundered badly. It may take us a generation in Brussels to repair this damage” – is fascinating in its condescension. Us ? The EPP think tank?
Only a dozy cat would deny that Ireland and the EU were lucky to have Phil Hogan in Brussels. But we are lucky too in the calibre of candidates pitching for the job to take his place. Now let us remind ourselves who precisely the Brussels “bubble” is there to serve.
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Phil is clearly the man to guide Europe through this shaky patch.
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I’ll happily send Phil to dnipro
Mairead McGuinness on Primetime here.
Lightweight.
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