Enda and Co came to power on a wave of reform promises. Scrapping compulsory Gaeilge after Inter Cert, abolishing the Senate, being the new broom to sweep away the corruption and cronyism of the Fianna Fail years. But Irish politicians can't help themselves, it seems. Or maybe it's just the Irish in general - the public that sets the bar so low for its political class in the first place?
Only last week we had the crooked Lowry boasting how his political machine would continue even if he was hit by a bus (if only... and Bus Eireann has cut back on services). The arrogance is incredible, but his public love him. They vote him in because, it may be assumed, they are shysters too.
And now, according to the Indo, we have a disproportionate amount of National Lottery money winging its way to Mayo - old stamping ground of Pee and Bev Flynn. Oh, and Enda Kenny.
Plus ça change
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Kim Bielenberg
Tuesday May 08 2012
TAOISEACH Enda Kenny’s home county has hit the jackpot with funding from the National Lottery since he became Taoiseach, an Irish Independent investigation can reveal.
The constituency was the biggest winner of Lottery-funded capital sports grants last year – getting double the allocation of Dublin city.
Lotto grants to Mayo surged by 70pc to €1.8m – leading to accusations that the funding scheme is open to being operated as a political slush fund.
Mayo moved from ninth to fourth in the rankings of total Lottery grants paid per head of population after Mr Kenny became Taoiseach.
The funding covers sports, youth, education, environment,health and Irish language projects.
It jumped from the equivalent of €8.36 for every person living in Co Mayo in 2010 to €14.03 per head last year.
And €678,000 of the €1.8m the county received was channelled through the department of Mr Kenny's constituency colleague – junior tourism and sport minister Michael Ring.
The biggest Lotto bonanza was bestowed on Westport, which is Mr Ring's home town.
The junior minister's department approved three sizeable grants totalling €230,000 for the town last year, a bigger allocation than the whole of south county Dublin.
Meanwhile, some other counties received no grants from the sports fund at all.
A spokesman for the minister last night denied he had favoured Mayo and his home town or that the capital sports programme was used as a slush fund. Although his department approved them, the spokesman said: "Minister Ring did not have responsibility for selecting individual projects.''
The Westport sports grants have been gleefully announced by Mr Ring in local media, where he was recently dubbed the "Minister for Fun".
They include:
- €85,000 for an outdoor fitness trail.
- €70,000 for the upgrade of sports facilities at Westport Leisure park.
- A further grant of €75,000 for the minister's local park.
Castlebar, the home town of the Taoiseach, has also received grants of more than €100,000 for an outdoor gym and games area. The Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht approved a grant of €120,000 to Gno Mhaigh Eo, a Mayo group supporting local businesses that want to use the Irish language...
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If you buy a Lottery ticket, you might think you are buying a dream. It could be you, and all that. But it's a lot more mundane, I'm afraid.
The only real beneficiaries are those nurturing themselves from the local parish pump.
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