dirty tricks in irish politics and media

An organisation styling itself the People Before Profit Alliance has lodged a trumped up complaint with the Senate about Senator Ronan Mullen.

Senator Ronan Mullen is a principled, courageous, decent and honorable man.

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The grandiosely titled People Before Profit Alliance is largely unknown to the general public.

The individuals steering the People Before Profit Alliance are largely unknown to the general public.

The spokesperson from the People Before Profit Alliance Martin O'Sullivan is largely unknown to the general public.

Neither Martin O'Sullivan nor any other representative of the People Before Profit Alliance have ever been elected to anything.

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Senator Ronan Mullen commented a few months ago on the culture of corruption in Irish political life, particularly with regard to claims for travelling and other expenses.

Senator Ronan Mullen made his comments openly to the senate.

Senator Ronan Mullen observed at the time that after his (Senator Mullen's) election a fellow parliamentarian had said to him in private conversation that he could consider the possibility of claiming larger travelling expenses based on the distance from his house in Galway to Dublin rather than on the much smaller distance he was actually travelling to get to work in Dublin from the residence where he resided on a daily basis which like his workplace the senate was also in Dublin.

Senator Ronan Mullen's exact words to the senate about the matter as reported in The Daily Mail yesterday were: "I was told that I would be the better for it financially. (ie Making an inflated expenses claim.) I have no doubt those who made the suggestions meant well and thought it was an acceptable thing to do within the system. But it is not."

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Senator Ronan Mullen turned his nose up at the suggestion.

Senator Ronan Mullen has never claimed inflated expenses.

Senator Ronan Mullen during his two years in the senate has claimed the lowest possible travelling expenses from his residence in Dublin.

His behaviour in this as in other matters has been exemplary.

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The shadowy unaccountable unelected cheats of the self named People Before Profit Alliance have attempted to snear Senator Ronan Mullen with a complaint that is unwarranted, misleading, disingenuous and a lie.

The complaint from Martin O'Sullivan and the People Before Profit Alliance alleges that Senator Ronan Mullen is guilty of wrong doing because he has chosen not to name the parliamentarian whom he mentioned in his anecdote about the culture of corruption in Irish political life.

The complaint from the largely unknown utterly unelected Martin O'Sullivan and the equally unknown utterly unelected self styled People Before Profit Alliance is a malign attempt to smear a genuinely honorable man.

The complaint is indeed frivolous but no less evil for all its frivolousness.

It is a notional complaint based on the twisted idea that the very act of referring to a casual conversation while addressing the Senate, can connote wrong doing on the part of the senator who is speaking if the senator decides not to name someone who has figured in his anecdote and who unnamed unaccountable unelected individuals such as Martin O'Sullivan and Martin O'Sullivan's self styled social club the People Before Profit Alliance arbitrarily demand to have named.

The purpose of the complaint is to create an illusion of wrongdoing around the honest and decent Senator Ronan Mullen.

The express intent of those making the complaint is to mislead the general public into thinking that Senator Ronan Mullen has himself made false expenses claims.

The complaint is a pathetic assault on free speech by worthless nobodies intent on weaseling themselves into a position of some influence over public discourse.

It is a complaint that should have been dismissed outright.

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On Monday the Senate Committee On Members Interests released a press statement saying it was investigating allegations of wrongdoing against four senators.

The statement by the Senate Committee On Members Interests named three of the senators as Ivor Callelly, Ann Ormonde, and Larry Butler.

All of these are members of Ireland's kleptocratic governing party Fianna Fail.

All are suspected of making massively inflated expenses claims.

Inexplicably the Senate Committee On Members Interests also named in the same sentence Independent Senator Ronan Mullen who is a profoundly honest man along with these other three Fianna Fail senators who are profoundly corrupt.

The Senate Committee On Members Interests conflated the honest Senator Mullen with the other three thieves.

The Senate Committee On Members Interests stated with crassly deliberate dishonesty that it had "commenced investigations  into separate complaints made against Larry Butler, Ivor Callelly, Ronan Mullen and Ann Ormonde."

The intent of the Senate Committee On Members Interests can only have been malign in inserting Senator Ronan Mullen's name into the list with these three thieves.

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Senator Ronan Mullen has a reputation as a convinced Christian.

Members of the Senate Committee On Members Interests have effectively colluded with unknown unelected unaccountable elements outside parliament in attempting to smear and silence him.