You may remember one of the more salacious details in F�?Sgate is the payment of a bill via a FAS credit card to Solutions Nail and Beauty Bar in Florida in August 2005.
How many Government Ministers were in Florida in August 2005? We know Mary Hanafin was there – but was Mary Harney also away at that time with her husband Brian Geoghegan? – who as you may remember was the Chairperson of F�?S at the time (appointed by .Minister Harney before they married.) Harney now says that she had a blowdry or two in 2004 paid for by F�?S.
Give it a few hours and I think we’ll be hearing rather more about ministerial hairdos and the like!
Update
RTE reporting on Harney hairdo but she says no…not in 2005 anyway!
Harney denies $410 bill
Responding to rumours that the $410 bill related to Mary Harney her spokesman said she was not in Florida in 2005.
However she did go to a F�?S event the previous year and had a wash and blow dry in preparation for some events but that this would not have amounted to $410.
Update 2
Leo Varadkar was on to this earlier today.
I’m looking for Hanafin’s denial now.
Update 3
Minister Harney did have her hair done and it was paid for by FAS but says it did not cost $410 – Cowen says she has explained her part of it. Varadkar wonders why it did not come out the Minister’s personal expenses and why did F�?S pay for it?
Which leads me to wonder what do Ministers claim for as expenses? And are they all FOIable??
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=3835d33d-c47a-4acc-90fa-848fea903cae)
That beauty salon visit in Florida | Gavin's Blog // Nov 26, 2008 at 21:49
[...] you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!Maman is hinting and I can’t say. Suffice to say it will be the lead with all the newspapers [...]
If it’s a haircut that hangs Harney after helicopters and Health I’ll heat my hat.
heat? chilli sauce?
Green Ink, it’s about giving the scandal a face. Fifty million blown on useless machines? Obscure advertising contracts handed out by FAS? Those involve monopoly numbers, they’re a reason for intellectual outrage, no more. People are irritated by it, but not surprised. But put a face on waste, and people react emotionally. Your granny losing her free medical card? Four hundred dollars for a haircut? That’s the kind of thing that gets people angry.
Just keeping the alliteration going. You don’t expect me to eat it, do you?
Gerard, I argree, but I think the crucial shift has been in public reaction is the economic collapse. 18 months ago the public wouldn’t have given a fuck if Mary Harney ate babies in the Dail bar.
twould take a lot more than €400 to beautify mary harney.
A centre for the mentally disabled down here requires 1.5 million to keep what staff it has while this greedy bastard Molloy gets a half million euro golden handshake.
He resigned he should get nothing, he should wait six weeks for the dole like the rest of those people who resigned from their jobs.
*passes chilli sauce to Green Ink, crosses fingers*
I thought it was nine weeks to get dole if you resign? Can you imagine him been sent by the Welfare over to FAS to see what skills he has/needs to get work!!! Oh to be listening in on that queue!!! LOL.
Jasus, I thought you said Harney’d been beatified! Grooming Shep from Blue Peter comes to mind (sorry, but I’m calling it like I see it. Hillary C can wear pant suits, but Harney just doesn’t get the fashion thing).