Séan Kyne with just 17 votes was elected to the Dáil back in 2011. It was subterfuge that got him in and kept him in. He believed that the people of the Gaeltacht were fickle and said they would not have elected him if he could not speak Irish. I suppose honesty and integrity might have helped because they also believed in that most of all. From then on his life utterly changed for the better and ours for the worse in that nothing has changed at all in Connemara. Let’s go reeling in the years for a bit.
Kyne is paid a salary today of €125, 739 a year plus an un-vouched allowance of €34,065 for travel and accommodation. On average he has already grabbed since 2011 well close to €1.5 million in salary and expenses. This simply was not enough for him for he lobbied hard in late 2018 for even more money in order to pay his hotel bills.
Kyne developed ‘Vehophobia’ after he got elected and decided to hire a car and driver to drive him around instead which was paid for by you and I. If one is going to milk a new fat cat position you might as well keep it in the family for he then hired his brother-in-law, Tom Mc Donagh, to do the driving. Just over a quarter of TD’s applied for this perk.
Bless him, he has put on a few pounds since those leaner times and given up the evening strolls too lest he be admonished by some irate Connemara pensioner in the wilds who cannot make ends meet on €234, or a farmer that earns less than the minimum or living wage. Yes, Kyne is a very privileged man indeed. In all transactions there must be a benefit in kind. What has Kyne done for Connemara???
Little or nothing is the the shortest answer and this I will detail a little later. Knowledge is power and we will need all the knowledge that we can get in order to remove this man from power because much wants more while we get less and less.
Barry Clifford
