the mumbai massacre doesn't make the front page of any of tomorrow's irish newspapers. they all lead with the story that minister for health mary harney charged a $410 wash & blow dry to the government training agency FAS.
the story is a continuation of the FAS scandal that broke at the weekend, in which senior officials were discovered to have been charging outlandish personal expenses to the agency. the marie antoinette touch was $400 for some as yet unnamed official - then "very close to the boss", we hear, but since transferred from the department - to get her nails done during a trip to florida.
FAS
the head of the agency, rody molloy, tried to defend himself yesterday, telling pat kenny on radio 1 that it was OK for him to charge his wife's business-class transatlantic flight to FAS, because if he had been travelling alone he would have flown first class "as [his] right". hours after taoiseach brian cowen declared that molloy retained his full confidence, public outrage forced his resignation.
while these expenses were being debated in the dail harney sat tight and said nothing, but was then forced to deny she was the one who'd had her nails done, which is when this wash & blow story emerged. there remains some doubt over whether the $410 was incurred in a single visit to the stylist, or whether there were three separate grooming incidents.
mary harney:
i always thought she had a touch of general woundwort about her
but i wouldn't have thought her personally corrupt. dangerous and incompetent sure, but she doesn't seem like she's in it for the money.
that said, she never objected to any of the record-breaking pay increases irish politicians awarded themselves over the last few years, so as tanaiste she was making about €225,000. it pisses me off that the best-paid deputy leader in the world doesn't pay her own personal discretionary expenses and submit her receipts, like i have to do if i want the company to pay for anything when i'm away on business.
the story is a continuation of the FAS scandal that broke at the weekend, in which senior officials were discovered to have been charging outlandish personal expenses to the agency. the marie antoinette touch was $400 for some as yet unnamed official - then "very close to the boss", we hear, but since transferred from the department - to get her nails done during a trip to florida.
FAS
the head of the agency, rody molloy, tried to defend himself yesterday, telling pat kenny on radio 1 that it was OK for him to charge his wife's business-class transatlantic flight to FAS, because if he had been travelling alone he would have flown first class "as [his] right". hours after taoiseach brian cowen declared that molloy retained his full confidence, public outrage forced his resignation.
while these expenses were being debated in the dail harney sat tight and said nothing, but was then forced to deny she was the one who'd had her nails done, which is when this wash & blow story emerged. there remains some doubt over whether the $410 was incurred in a single visit to the stylist, or whether there were three separate grooming incidents.
mary harney:
i always thought she had a touch of general woundwort about her
but i wouldn't have thought her personally corrupt. dangerous and incompetent sure, but she doesn't seem like she's in it for the money.
that said, she never objected to any of the record-breaking pay increases irish politicians awarded themselves over the last few years, so as tanaiste she was making about €225,000. it pisses me off that the best-paid deputy leader in the world doesn't pay her own personal discretionary expenses and submit her receipts, like i have to do if i want the company to pay for anything when i'm away on business.
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