I propose that Cullen's pension is paid to him by way of eVoting machines. Give him all €54 million worth of the machines he ordered, and let him sell them off to generate his pension.
The sound of breaking brass could be heard for miles, I'm told....he broke his neck in a car crash some years back.
The sound of breaking brass could be heard for miles, I'm told.
Martin Cullen is a public figure and he was very publically and very unfairly humiliated.
Yes, it's another thread about TD pay and benefits.
Martin Cullen will receive a severance payment of nearly €80,000 (per today's Irish Independent):
PLUS a salary of nearly €200,000 for the remainder of 2010, and nearly 100K for 2011;
PLUS a combined TD and Minister pension of €106,000 FOR LIFE! (per Vincent Brown last night)
Everyone is entitled to a decent pension, but this sort of thing is making fools of us all. MC has only been a TD since 1987.
Then again, when you dedicate yourself to the work of the constituency, with absolutely no thought for your own benefit, you deserve to be recognised as a true patriot. A leader. A role model.
According to some political commentators, the real agenda behind MC's resignation is not ill health, but that it affords MC the opportunity to pursue certain newspapers for damages for alleged libel in relation to the "Monica Leech Matter". This is something that he would be unlikely to do as a sitting TD. ML was awarded nearly 2 million in damages (still under appeal by the newspapers), and MC reckons he is entitled to some of that action too. Watch this space.
The 'luddites who got their way' include many people and organisations who know quite a bit about implementing information systems. The 'luddites' (including the Irish Computer Society, experienced IT professionals, leading IT academics) could see that;As for the E-voting fiasco, the fiasco for me is that people are so quick to knock the idea. The fiasco was not addressing the shortcomings of the system. Unfortunately the luddites got their way and it will be decades before it is tried again.
Why? What benefit(s) will result from e-voting?We should have e-voting.
I'm starting to think that Warren is actually the bould Martin himself come back to haunt us. This is one of Martin's classic tactics - when he runs out of arguments (which generally doesn't take very long), he moves to attacking the man, not the ball.The Irish Computer Society - that much respected, recognised and lauded institute.
Quicker and more accurate results? Why do use computers for anything?Why? What benefit(s) will result from e-voting?
OK - let's look into this further.Quicker and more accurate results? Why do use computers for anything?
That's not what happened. It is not a case of 'the wrong system'. What happened here is that there was no business case or rationale for the project. There was no project governance. The system was tested, but the test results (specifically the results of the end-to-end tests) were not published, until FOI requests were made years later. The full results of the trials in the 2002 general election (including the huge gap between the number of votes cast and the number of votes counted) was not published until FOI requests were made years later. When the gaping holes in the project started coming into the public domain (Dec 2003), the Minister rushed through the purchase of the hardware, costing the state about €50m.I think it a shame we just gave up on the idea because the wrong system was chosen.
There are times when the right thing to do is to abandon a project. It takes more guts to stand up and say 'this is wrong' than to rumble on with a project that has no business case. This was a solution looking for a problem, a 'toys for boys' project. It cost the state €50m, and Minister Cullen is responsible.Any proper IT project is subject to testing and will not be abandoned after the first batch of tests highlight problems
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