The Sins of Fine Gael - Tax Default, Corruption and Inappropriate Behaviour

[C. Flower]

Fine Gael has pursued Mick Wallace TD with vigour over VAT default.

There have been a number of regrettable occurrences involving Fine Gael Councillors and TDs, and the Party itself.

I'm opening this thread so that an overall picture can be gathered, over time, of any proven cases of Fine Gael transgression.

Just to get the ball rolling -

6 Dec 2011 The Irish Times PAUL CULLEN
Fine Gael yet to hold inquiry on tax default

FINE GAEL has yet to hold a promised internal inquiry into the case of one of its county councillors who was declared a tax defaulter six months ago.
Last June, the party expressed regret after Co Offaly councillor Percy Clendennen reached a €125,000 settlement with the Revenue Commissioners for underdeclaration of VAT.

http://irishtimes.newspaperdirect.co...er/viewer.aspx

[Andrew49]

FINE GAEL HAS declined to comment after one of the party’s former councillors was found guilty of corruptly accepting payments totalling €80,000 at Waterford Circuit Criminal Court. Source

He had denied all the charges in the case relating to a 32-hectare site near Dungarvan which Forsey was said to have tired to get rezoned.

[Andrew49]

In 2006 Fine Gaeler Michael Fitzgerald (50), a member of Tipperary South County Council at th etime, criticised the drink-driving laws as too severe. Fitzgerald, who has a conviction for drink driving, argued at a council meeting that people living in rural areas should be entitled to drive home after drinking three or four pints. He also bemoaned the demise of the rural pub and thought it quite wrong that drivers on their way to work in the morning should be breathalysed and perhaps convicted as a result of drink taken the previous night. The councillor repeated his beliefs on local radio

[Andrew49]

In 2006: Fine Gael TD, Pat Breen, said he did not seek to represent a convicted paedophile when he asked a question in the Dáil about a possible early release date for the man.

Source

[antiestablishmentarian]

If memory serves correct was not a current FG senator recently in the news for not filing tax return,s and for his lack of a tax clearance cert? Funny how the party remained schtum on that, while being so vocal on Wallace. Double standards one might almost say, if such a thing could be believed of Fine Gael....

[PaddyJoe]

If memory serves correct was not a current FG senator recently in the news for not filing tax return,s and for his lack of a tax clearance cert? Funny how the party remained schtum on that, while being so vocal on Wallace. Double standards one might almost say, if such a thing could be believed of Fine Gael....

This chap, perhaps

Saturday, May 26, 2012
A Fine Gael senator is facing separate Seanad and party investigations after failing to provide a tax clearance certificate to the State’s ethics watchdog.
Pat O’Neill has breached the law by failing to provide the required documentation to the Standards in Public Office Commission (Sipo).

Mr O’Neill, who is based in Kilkenny and regarded as an ally of Environment Minister Phil Hogan, last night told the Irish Examiner he had a capital gains tax bill that he had spent the last year paying off.

"But it has been cleared," he said. "I’ve been paying it off for the last year and I paid the last instalment of it last Thursday."

He said he would now seek to obtain the tax clearance cert from Revenue for Sipo.

http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland...rt-195258.html

[Slim Buddha]

Lest we forget..............Cllr. Anne Devitt

http://www.fingal-independent.ie/new...s-3062252.html

[Slim Buddha]

Lest We Forget...........................Cllr Tom Hand.

http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/kfididkfcwmh/rss2/


http://www.independent.ie/opinion/co...l-3060496.html

[Baron von Biffo]

If memory serves correct was not a current FG senator recently in the news for not filing tax return,s and for his lack of a tax clearance cert? Funny how the party remained schtum on that, while being so vocal on Wallace. Double standards one might almost say, if such a thing could be believed of Fine Gael....

FG double standards are no different from SP double standards.

If the day ever comes when a TD caught doing wrong isn't defended by his own side on the basis that 'There's bigger crooks on the other side' we'll have started on the road to a genuine democracy.

[antiestablishmentarian]

FG double standards are no different from SP double standards.

If the day ever comes when a TD caught doing wrong isn't defended by his own side on the basis that 'There's bigger crooks on the other side' we'll have started on the road to a genuine democracy.

Won't find me arguing with you on that one, Wallace deserves to be investigated a la the Garlic-Man, and prosecuted if there is sufficient evidence.

[Andrew49]

From 2009/10 - Tribune archives: A MARRIED couple, who are both serving TDs, double-claimed on overnight allowances worth almost €120,000 during the first three years of their marriage, details of their expenses claims have shown. The claim forms, released by the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission, show that Fine Gael's Joe McHugh and Olwyn Enright were double-claiming for three years until they ended the practice last summer. During the period in which they both put in for the overnight allowance, Joe McHugh took home an estimated €58,800 in overnight expenses while his wife Olwyn Enright made €61,600 on the tax-free allowance. The expenses forms, released under the Freedom of Information Act, show that the couple have claimed more than €509,000 in overall expenses during the past five years. Detailed figures released by the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission show that Joe McHugh and Olwyn Enright have been claiming up to €50,000 a year each in tax-free expenses.

The massive expenses payments include the dozens of overnight allowances that the couple claimed even after they got married and despite the fact they were able to share accommodation.

In a 10-week period from 12 September 2005 to 19 November 2005, Donegal TD Joe McHugh made a total of 33 overnight claims, copies of his expense claims show. The claims would have yielded him in the region of €4,620.

[Slim Buddha]

From 2009/10 - Tribune archives: A MARRIED couple, who are both serving TDs, double-claimed on overnight allowances worth almost €120,000 during the first three years of their marriage, details of their expenses claims have shown. The claim forms, released by the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission, show that Fine Gael's Joe McHugh and Olwyn Enright were double-claiming for three years until they ended the practice last summer. During the period in which they both put in for the overnight allowance, Joe McHugh took home an estimated €58,800 in overnight expenses while his wife Olwyn Enright made €61,600 on the tax-free allowance. The expenses forms, released under the Freedom of Information Act, show that the couple have claimed more than €509,000 in overall expenses during the past five years. Detailed figures released by the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission show that Joe McHugh and Olwyn Enright have been claiming up to €50,000 a year each in tax-free expenses.

The massive expenses payments include the dozens of overnight allowances that the couple claimed even after they got married and despite the fact they were able to share accommodation.

In a 10-week period from 12 September 2005 to 19 November 2005, Donegal TD Joe McHugh made a total of 33 overnight claims, copies of his expense claims show. The claims would have yielded him in the region of €4,620.

What an absolutely incredible waste of money on two nobodies!!!!!!!!!!!

[morticia]

Has anyone asked them for a refund, dating back to the date of marriage?

[Slim Buddha]

Has anyone asked them for a refund, dating back to the date of marriage?

That IS the question! Who IS "anyone"? There is a thing called the Bundestagausschuss in Germany which audits Bundestag members expenses. Gerhard Schröder went to Moscow to sign a deal in 2004 with Putin. He brought his wife. Claimed for her too. The Bundestagausschuss decided she was not there in any kind of official capacity. Schröder had to pay her bills himself. And he was the Bundeskanzler at the time.

Another example of "Ireland as a failed state".

[Baron von Biffo]

That IS the question! Who IS "anyone"? There is a thing called the Bundestagausschuss in Germany which audits Bundestag members expenses. Gerhard Schröder went to Moscow to sign a deal in 2004 with Putin. He brought his wife. Claimed for her too. The Bundestagausschuss decided she was not there in any kind of official capacity. Schröder had to pay her bills himself. And he was the Bundeskanzler at the time.

Another example of "Ireland as a failed state".

What Enright and McHugh did was grubby but not illegal, it's not even going to feature on the consciousness of voters who elect outright crooks even in the full knowledge that they're crooks.