Irish politics: they're special!

From That's Ireland

1. In October 2007, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern became the highest paid Prime Minister in the democratic world at €310,000, more than US President George Bush at €279,000. Fianna Fail Ministers such as Willie O’Dea are paid more than US Vice President Dick Cheney.

7. In September 2007, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, while being questioned at the Mahon Tribunal, said that he must have given £30,000 to somebody else (to make a transaction that the bank had no record for), but he didn’t know who he gave the money to.

11. In July 2007, after a strenuous seven days of work since being elected in mid-June, the Dail adjourned for a three-month summer holiday.

14. In June 2007, Fianna Fail changed the law to create three new Junior Ministers with salaries of €150,000 a year. They had previously done this in 1977 and 1980. When Fine Gael did the same in 1995, Fianna Fail called it an abuse of the taxpayer and an act of hypocrisy, and Bertie Ahern vowed to abolish the new posts.

And so much more. Read the whole post.

Why do they keep getting voted in? Truly incomprehensible. Enough to make one stew in impotent rage, being so far away.

Irish expats have no voting rights. Prisoners can vote. Non nationals can vote. Almost every other developed country (France, Finland, Sweden, Germany, UK, US...) has an overseas voting system; Fins can even vote any Swedish embassy if there is no Finnish presence. Poles can vote in the UK.

Irish abroad have no voting rights. It is a shameful state of affairs for a developed democratic society. The Irish I know would travel to vote. There are Irish embassies in Vietnam, China, Malaysia and Singapore. If the citizens of so many other countries can manage then why cannot the 'second most globalised country in the world', as we so proudly boast, get the finger out and organise voting for its citizens abroad?