John O’Donoghue TD – AKA – ‘Junket John’ AKA ‘Mr Zero Tolerance’
When Green Party, Minister, Eamon Ryan put forward proposals that the big six games such as Heineken Cup fixtures involving Leinster and Munster should be aired free on our national channels such as RTE and TV3, the now disgraced John O’Donoghue TD was vocal in his opposition. John O’Donoghue TD was supporting the view of the IRFU that such free to view games could have a significant impact on the revenue of the IRFU, however, like O’Donoghue the IRFU has enjoyed the benefits of vast sums of Irish Tax Payers money to feather their own nest, and the majority of us think its time we got something in return.
Still John O’Donoghue AKA ‘Mr Zero Tolerance’ AKA ‘Junket John’, has never been afraid to speak out both sides of his mouth when it comes to feathering his own nest. During O’Donoghue’s five years as Minister for Arts, Sports and Tourism, O’Donoghue enjoyed dozens of games free to view as he was invited to red carpet treatment by the IRFU to both Landsdowne Road and Croke Park. The Kerry wind bag certainly knows how to spend tax payer’s money, but would deny the same tax payers an opportunity to watch the IRFU games free on national television.
O’Donoghue was forced to resign last year as Ceann Comhairle (Chairperson) of the Dail when it was uncovered that he had spent vast fortunes of tax payer’s money paying for himself and his wife to stay in top hotels and charge everything to the tax payer including Gondala rides and fancy hats. O’Donoghue did not only enjoy games free to view at home, indeed, he has also travelled abroad for big matches, on one occasion requesting the Government jet at a cost of 30,000 Euro to the tax payer.
One could say that Junket John’s squandering of tax payers money is laughable, however, this squandering and waste took place at a time when Irish children were being abused as they had no access to child care professionals due to lack of funding, it was at a time when prisoners with the potential to rehabilitate were denied that rehabilitation due to lack of funding, a time when our elderly are being abused in places of ‘care’ due to lack of funding, the list is endless and the furnace of hell will burn well into the night.
When I tried to contact John O’Donoghue today I was told that he was gone to a match.
