Thread by @nwl88444048

This week’s vote of no confidence will be dominated by delivery failures, housing, health,cost of living but time should really be devoted to the sleaze and entitlement of this govt. A reminder of our recent past -

Katherine Zappone makey-uppy critical appointment for a role that’s still vacant a year later, getting the Attorney General to publish his advice on Leo’s attendance at Zappone’s party, Attorney General advising on residential rent freezes while being a landlord himself,

Attorney General continuing to act for private Russian clients until exposed by a newspaper, leaking Cabinet meetings and stings conducted in connection therewith, Tony Holohan €20m appointment at Trinity, Micheal Martin telling the Dail he was worth far more than his €200k

salary, Leo Varadkar covertly giving a confidential govt document to his good-looking friend at a rival union which was threatening to stand candidates against FG in local elections,Sean Fleming justifying the leak because it aided transparency, concealment of Barry Cowen

unlawful driving licence, evading Gardai and drink driving, #picnicgate and the subsequent appointment without competition of Stephen McNamara to the media commission, interference in animal cruelty prosecutions, Paul Hyde appointment and conduct,

, eight veteran govt politicians taking all-expenses jollies to the races paid for by the gambling lobby, knowing they wouldn’t have to declare it because it was worth <€650 and branding the source of the Irish Daily Mail expose a “snitch”, cash-for-visas scheme and payments of

commissions to agents, secret deal to release scion of FG royalty Richard O’Halloran from China with govt underwriting recovery of assets, leaking of Mother and Baby Home report, not reporting the leak to Gardai, Micheal Martin not “getting to the bottom of it” after 18 months

solo-run by Foreign Affairs minister Simon Coveney to spend €120m buying from his schooldays friend the right to host a yachting regatta - now abandoned, appointment of AG and FG activist Seamus Woulfe to the bench of the Supreme Court without reference to party leaders,

Helen McEntee receiving underhanded donations from Tayto whose business she lobbied to protect from Covid restrictions – donations since returned, #Golfgate and a judge who didn’t realise there was a group of 36 people 8 ft behind him through an opened partition,

retaining #Golfgate and ex-FG senator Imelda Henry as an inspector of prisons, a record 70 special advisers costing us €35m in a Dail term with around 25 recruited from media, keeping the FAI board vacancy open until Shane Ross left govt and he couldn’t continue to object to

to Robert Watt appointment on conflict of interest grounds, Robert Watt and his 40% salary increase from €200,000 to €280,000, sitting on the Donegal planning report for five years, govt by commission with the Nama commission on its 11th extension

with no findings after seven years since Mick Wallace revealed sleaze if not corruption and bribery, the only commission not extended was the Mother and Baby commission despite pleas from survivors and politicians who wanted scrutiny, strong-arming RTE to make specific board

appointments which subsequently turned out to be unsuitable, promoting privatisation which benefits businesses linked to FG, Richard Bruton’s land holding in Meath which was sold to his brother and has now been rezoned for a huge solar farm netting the Brutons a profit of €20m,

secret meetings with the leading bidder for the State’s biggest contract, review of broadband procurement by the embedded 1-man band procurement auditor, giving €4m a year to a charity run by businessman who is under investigation by CAB and the corporate watchdog and who paid

paid for the hacking of journalists at Ireland’s biggest press group and was found by a Tribunal to have given money to a minister who awarded him a lucrative mobile phone licence, Maria Bailey, Alan Farrell, Deirdre Conroy

, running party lotteries without a licence, abandoning a lottery after a court challenge, forcing through last minute changes to proposed legislation to allow super-lotteries,

The Shinners may be no better, and may even be worse than FF on steroids [though you'd hope the clean response to Elisha McCallion is a sign of things to come]. But unless this sleaze and entitlement results in people losing their jobs, what's the point of democratic politics.