only in ireland!

…the opposition also questioned why, in an effort to save €13 in subsistence payments, members of the dublin garda motorcycle unit, who deal with the city traffic, go for their tea at rush-hour and return when it is over.

fantastic, gave me a good laugh this morning. ah ireland. how i love thee so. there is three ways of doing things in ireland. the right way (done very very rarely), the wrong way (surprisingly pretty rare too) and then “the irish way” which is the wrong way done really really slowly and a hell of a lot more expensively and with some tribunals in there too. also helps if the end result is pretty crap too.

labour’s finance spokeswoman, ms joan burton said that the minister of state for justice had promised a “garda bicycle” for blanchardstown, when she asked how many bikes would the dublin west town get and when, mr naughten quipped: “does a garda come with them?” the minister’s response was: “you can cycle away on that one.”

“you can cycle away on that one.” ah, a try at a witty statement there. sometimes it feels like the irish times is getting pretty close to the slate in the funny lines hidden in it.