It doesn’t look good.
There’s only one thing that the entire country of Ireland is taking about right now as the fallout from the latest political scandal continues to be felt.
A massive amount of praise should go in the direction of the RTÉ Investigations Unit after they uncovered a host of wrongdoings from an array of government officials who seemed happy to exert their power and influence on various projects in return for money.
In the investigative report, RTÉ cold-called a ‘select few’ councillors before secretly meeting a handful of members.
The three that featured in the programme were Joe Queenan (Fianna Fáil) of Sligo County Council, John O’Donnell (Independent) from Donegal County Council and Hugh McElvaney (Fine Gael) of Monaghan County Council.
In the report, O’Donnell was filmed discussing zoning decisions and expressing confidence that he’ll be able to lobby the support of other politicians. O’Donnell is filmed saying that he won’t be directly dealing any payment for his help. Instead, he proposed a third-party would need to be involved in any potential project because “there are so many begrudgers out there”.
Newstalk journalist Richard Chambers managed to uncover an old tweet that the Donegal politician sent in May during Vincent Browne’s People’s Debate from the Headfort Arms Hotel, Kells and it doesn’t make for good reading.
Presented without comment #rteinvestigates https://t.co/0mprQJNhl3
— Richard Chambers (@newschambers) December 7, 2015
The rich get richer and the poor just seem to get poorer rotten to the core. #vinb
— Cllr John O Donnell (@odonnelldonegal) May 11, 2015
Unsurprisingly, this tweet has garnered quite a few replies in the wake of the wonderful piece of journalism and research from the RTÉ Investigations Unit.
When asked to respond to RTÉ’s report, O’Donnell had the following to say;
““I would like to state that I was shocked and disappointed to learn of the deception that had been visited upon me by the means of a person who turns out to be an undercover reporter for the RTÉ Investigations Unit, falsely signifying to me that she was a representative of a foreign investment vehicle that was considering investing millions in Co Donegal on behalf of several investors, when, in fact, the investment vehicle in question was a fiction conceived by the RTÉ Investigations Unit with the clear intent of tricking me as a businessman.
“Secondly, I take grave exception to [a] clear effort of RTÉ to mislead me into engaging in behaviour that they describe as being potentially inconsistent with the proper performance of my functions as a county councillor for Donegal County Council.”
Main image via – John O’Donnell’s homepage
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