Declan Ganley Prime Time

Was it just me or do the "investigators" at prime time always just fly kites and leave things hanging. The only subject i know much about is LOI Football and on 2 previous programmes they have done on this were laughable. In the first of these programmes i recall rte "investigator" interviewing local sligo soccer official about the state of irish football at the grassroots, this particular gentleman had a gripe against the powers that be at the fai at the time so he was suitably interviewed beside a grotty container in a boggy field used as a dressing room. The previous week the same man was proudly showing me the span new facilities in another part of sligo with astro turf, top class pitches and floodlights and spanking new dressing rooms. Hilarious. The last LOI "investigation" must have been sponsored by fintan drury as it quickly got in to all the deadpan grounds but left the likes of Terryland or Turners cross out. Tonight they turn the guns on Ganley and throw up all sorts of stuff even showing a body on the ground and vaguely associate the man with the body on the ground. They look at albania and show some sort of paper that ganley gathered but ended up been wortlhess and they interview a blabbering old chap in albanian tongue and expect us to believe the subtitles?
Some irish guy in riga for 14 years claims he knows everyone there, Im in Galway for 40 years and i still dont know "everyone"

The cranky cow doin the investigating traversed the globe and seemed to find nothing. I hope she didnt lavish herself with hairdos and fancy hotels out of public money in the interest of public service.

Dangerous stuff, better vote yes the next time or else...

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Dangerous stuff, better vote yes the next time or else...

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We gave our answer 6 months ago.

It was a programme with an agenda, but that doesn't mean that it wasn't right to ask questions. They couldn't find answers, Ganley wouldn't provide answers, so what else could they do but leave it hanging. Lovely house he has though, so there's money from somewhere.

tbh I thought they would've had more to dedicate a whole programme. Still, probably a licence fee increase earned...

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Originally Posted by Macy

Lovely house he has though, so there's money from somewhere.

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To be fair, there's hardly a question about whether he's rich or not. The question is how he's using his and other people's money to fund a political agenda.

adam

It was just an aside really. I don't think it went into the political side enough tbh.

thats the best those "investigators" can do its very bad. Maybe they hey should get someone to investigate prime time "investigates".

I think the most bizarre was when Ganley denied all knowledge of the dead Albanian guy despite the fact he was a Director in Ganleys company. Don't know why he was saying he did not know him as it wasn't like RTE were suggesting he had him killed.

He could not answer the source of his funding for Libertas. If he is funding it entirely himself why does he not just say that.

I would think impossible to do business in the parts of world he has been involved in without shady dealings. If he was involved in politics I doubt anyone would care.

Ganley just blames everything on the EU bogey man. They are out to get me! :rolleyes:

Prime Time having an agenda-now theres a shocker.Some of their reporting is just weak and only half decent at best.Ganley is an upstart rocking the establishment of which RTE and Independent Newspapers are fully paid up members so they naturally try to smear him anyway they can.Why cant he and others be good brainwashed little citizens and just stay watching their soaps and football on tv and getting hammered at weekends instead of fighting for what they believe in,tut tut.

Yes, all very fair. But what exactly is it that Declan Ganley believes in? As much as RTE had an agenda there is still a lot of questions over who this guy is and where his substantial finances have come from. Though it is also hard to believe that he is some sort of gangster overlord from Glenamaddy which it seemed Prime Time were hinting at.

It reminded me of Charlie Haughey. Loads of money, but no real source for it. He was being very evasive. I don’t have an issue with him using him own money to push his agenda, but please be honest about it & just say that he’s funding it himself. What is his real agenda. :confused:

Haughey was a politician on the take. Ganley is a businessman. There's no comparison.

I thought he handled the interview well, given the provocative questions thrown at him.

Ganley is trying to be a politician, while not having been elected. His source of wealth & his use of it is questionabl. Far from being good in the prime time interview , he came across as having alot to hide.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Declan_Ganley

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Originally Posted by mypost

Haughey was a politician on the take. Ganley is a businessman. There's no comparison.

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Almost sweet in it's naivete.

Ringo:why is what he does with his money questionable????Its his money and entirely his own business what he does with it.

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Originally Posted by mypost

Haughey was a politician on the take. Ganley is a businessman. There's no comparison.

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Ganley is a politician now. RTE would not be interviewing or investigating him if he was a businessman.

There is no doubt he is a smooth operator & seems well disposed to politics.

Good profile here

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Originally Posted by eamo1

Ringo:why is what he does with his money questionable????Its his money and entirely his own business what he does with it.

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Declan_Ganley
In a point of order on 22 September 2008, Daniel Cohn-Bendit (the French born/German elected co-chair of the Green/Regionalist European Parliament group called G/EFA) asked the President of the Parliament to investigate media reports that linked Ganley, as principal funder of the Libertas campaign, with the Pentagon and the C.I.A. The President, Hans-Gert Pöttering, replied: "According to the reports, he now has admitted that he himself has lent € 200,000 of his personal assets to his organisation, and it has also been confirmed in the meantime that Mr Ganley has signed contracts with the Pentagon over the execution of military orders amounting to about 200 million - I believe - dollars. Other estimates are much higher." [26] The President also said that "The facts must be put on the table. We cannot allow Europe to be harmed by people who demand transparency but do not provide it themselves.".[26][27]http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2008/0923/1222105125507.html

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Eh , no it isn't. If he was giving it to FF there would be a tribunal. He has an agenda, probably to aid his business interests.

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Originally Posted by Ringo

He has an agenda, probably to aid his business interests.

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Possibly to aid his business interests Ringo, be fair. But that's why he needs to be open and transparent about how his political campaigns are run.

adam

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RTE's Prime Time on Thursday night purported to be a profile of Declan Ganley, the founder of Libertas and irritant of the European body politic. Instead, it broadcast an elegantly produced hatchet job that failed to shed light on his ambitions, his motivations or, more crucially, the source of his political movement's funding.

At the very start of the programme, Miriam O'Callaghan described Ganley as an enigma, and asked whether his "incredible life story actually stacked up". There were, she said, more questions than answers, and then Prime Time proceeded to deliver yet more questions -- some of very dubious quality -- and very few answers.

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http://www.independent.ie/opinion/an...?service=Print

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Originally Posted by eamo1

Ganley is an upstart rocking the establishment of which RTE and Independent Newspapers are fully paid up members so they naturally try to smear him anyway they can.Why cant he and others be good brainwashed little citizens and just stay watching their soaps and football on tv and getting hammered at weekends instead of fighting for what they believe in,tut tut.

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I think that post best sums up the saga.

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Originally Posted by Ringo

http://www.independent.ie/opinion/an...?service=Print

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So, in conclusion, Prime Time is yet again shown to be a staggeringly inept piece of 'investigative journalism'. I'm shocked. :rolleyes:

Ganley finally lost patience with RTE,hes suing them,nice one.Programs like Prime Time cant be given free reign to apparently say what they like about someone.

http://www.rte.ie/aertel/114-01.html

My response on being told this earlier:

What's he suing them for, an inability to conduct rudimentary investigative journalism?

adam

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Originally Posted by dahamsta

My response on being told this earlier:

What's he suing them for, an inability to conduct rudimentary investigative journalism?

adam

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There's definite precedent there!

(I didn't see the show, just heard about it here. So my point was that, if anything, they didn't go far enough.)

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Lawyers acting on behalf of Mr Ganley have recently sent legal letters to Fine Gael MEP Jim Higgins and Labour TD Joe Costello about comments they claim are "unlawful, unjustified and a gross slur on our client's good name and character".

The letters advised both politicians that they should offer a public apology within seven days and also make a substantial donation to a charity of Mr Ganley's choosing.

At the time, Mr Higgins told the Irish Independent that he was determined to defend himself.

Given that Libertas is now registered as a political party, the MEP said that the organisation should recognise that "much of what happens in the political sphere invariably involves political charges and counter charges".

"If Mr Ganley pursues this matter any further, I am determined to steadfastly defend myself," he said.

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Ganley might regret this one. Everyone will be out to dig up dirt on him now.

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Originally Posted by eamo1

Ganley finally lost patience with RTE,hes suing them,nice one.Programs like Prime Time cant be given free reign to apparently say what they like about someone.
http://www.rte.ie/aertel/114-01.html

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I can't see what grounds he has for legal action. It may not have been a great programme but RTE had numerous interviews backing up each query. They had strange eastern european characters but they also had americans supporting Ganley. The fact that Ganley was unwilling to answer questions made it a little difficult for RTE. Always looks suspicious when Politicians start suing the media.

Seems he had no problem when RTE gave him a platform via One to one interview the week before the Prime Time program.

:rolleyes:

It has the effect of silencing RTE for the duration of the legal action.

One thing I've noticed about the man is that he seems to have a very short term outlook. He was misleading about his money in the lead up to the referendum knowing that he'd be found out soon afterwards. I suspect the same thinking is going on here, he'll keep RTÉ quiet for a year or so with this but the cac will hit the fan if he ever sits in a witness box.

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Originally Posted by Bald Student

One thing I've noticed about the man is that he seems to have a very short term outlook. He was misleading about his money in the lead up to the referendum knowing that he'd be found out soon afterwards.

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That would have worked if he was satisfied with Lisbon defeat. However he now has plans for pan-Europe party so fairly predictable people will ask questions about him. He is very naive if he expected political rivals & media across Europe not to ask questions about an Irish businessman setting up a party (or at least an affiliate) in their country when he has little or no business interests in Ireland.

RTE should have described him as Irelands Olighark :p

I think the wider public aren't the least bit bothered how Ganley funded his campaign. For decades now, politicians and other leading figures have been on the take, even Father Ted had a long-running skit on Ted's "Lourdes" Account. :rolleyes::D

Seriously though, people are sick of hearing, and listening to stories of financial irregularities, they're fed up with tribunal after never-ending tribunal. What people want to know is how are the health, transport, job crisis etc, going to be tackled, by those responsible for tackling them. That's what licence-payers pay RTE good money to investigate the government on, not whether Declan Ganley raised his funds in America or Albania.

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Originally Posted by mypost

I think the wider public aren't the least bit bothered how Ganley funded his campaign. For decades now, politicians and other leading figures have been on the take, even Father Ted had a long-running skit on Ted's "Lourdes" Account. :rolleyes::D

Seriously though, people are sick of hearing, and listening to stories of financial irregularities, they're fed up with tribunal after never-ending tribunal. What people want to know is how are the health, transport, job crisis etc, going to be tackled, by those responsible for tackling them. That's what licence-payers pay RTE good money to investigate the government on, not whether Declan Ganley raised his funds in America or Albania.

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But the two are related. One of the main reasons we have crap transport systems in this country is because politicians in west Dublin were on the take, giving planning to cheap housing in exchange for a few bob. Equally, one of the main reasons we have a terrible health service is because it was cut apart to save money at a time when billions of pounds were hidden away from the tax man.

Keeping an eye on where politicians get there money is an important part of running a country.

Well said mypost and also if Ganley hadnt sued then guys on here would be asking "well if RTE were wrong then why isnt he suing them"?.Hes a threat to the establishment and they want to bring him down.If this was Russia Ganley would have a bullet in his head or poison in his meal or lets just say i wouldnt want to start his car in the morning.:)

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Originally Posted by pete

That would have worked if he was satisfied with Lisbon defeat.

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That's another thing about him that I haven't seen written down anywhere.

He said during the campaign that he had no definite plans to continue Libertas as a political party, that he'd decide that after the event whether to wind it up or not. He's also claiming to have a repayment schedule for the loan he gave which must involve some form of regular income for Libertas after the referendum. There seems to be a contradiction between the two.

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Originally Posted by Bald Student

Keeping an eye on where politicians get there money is an important part of running a country.

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The most important part of running a country is getting on with the job of running the country, not to get bogged down in who spent what, when, where, and why.

From what I've seen and heard, there is no illegal evidence as yet that nails Ganley. All there is is rumour and counter-rumour about his business practices.

There are 4,000 people losing their jobs per week. Those responsible for that situation should be held to account. There are frankly far more urgent issues facing the country now, than the state of Dec's finances.

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Originally Posted by mypost

I think the wider public aren't the least bit bothered how Ganley funded his campaign.

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Indeed, which is why this country is where it is today. If the media and people like yourself asked a few more pertinent questions of our politicians instead of blindly following them like starstruck sheep we might have a few less shysters and liars in government.

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Originally Posted by mypost

From what I've seen and heard, there is no illegal evidence as yet that nails Ganley. All there is is rumour and counter-rumour about his business practices.

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From what I've seen and heard, there's no legal evidence that nails Bertie, Charlie Haughey, Liam Lawlor or any other number of people that did wrong by this country. It's perfectly correct for RTÉ to look into these people and doing so doesn't help or hinder the task of finding new jobs for the country.

For anyone who watched the Prime Time show can they tell me what in that program was false or Ganley might object to?

:confused:

IMO like most Primetime "investigations" I have watched they seem to be just presenting the information that is already available elsewhere.

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THE ANTI-LISBON Treaty campaigner Declan Ganley has not responded to a request for information from the Standards in Public Office Commission in relation to a loan he has said he gave to Libertas during the recent referendum.He also said his loan to Libertas "involved a detailed legal agreement with a repayment plan in accordance with commercial lending norms and signed in accordance with the relevant section of the electoral acts".

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http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/...515635297.html

I don't mind saying it in public: This man definitely has something to hide.

Not a show I ever watch but caught Ganley on TV3 Politics show. He got a fairly good grilling even though he would not discuss what parts of the Prime Time show he was suing on. He claimed he could not discuss because they were part of an ongoing legal writ. Handy way of avoiding questions.