Yet another scandal, spawned by a previous scandal, that’s going to be ‘scrutinised’, by yet another useless state ‘watchdog’ (Irish Independent).
This latest scandal concerns payments of €30 million to legal firms, over a nine month period, for advising the government on the banking bailout.
The so called watchdog is the Public Accounts Committee.
Like all government committees the PAC is nothing more than a talking shop, it has no power to act on its investigations and there’s not the slightest hint that our corrupt political system is about to bestow any such powers.
Politicians, (Pat Rabbitte in this instance) are, yet again, outraged at such waste and are demanding immediate action.
Is there anything we can do about these extraordinary fees or do these guys just think they can name any figure?
Well, yes Pat, they can and that will remain the case for so long as our political system remains a dysfunctional entity.
Yet again, we see a super highly paid civil servant coming out justifying the scandalous payments because the super highly paid government ministers who should be answering the questions have absconded in their super expensive Mercedes.
Department of Finance secretary general Kevin Cardiff admitted it was not possible to monitor how many hours were worked by the firms or how many staff were assigned to the task.
Having admitted his department’s total ignorance of the matter he then went on, bizarrely, to state.
I can tell you honestly that the money spent was well worth the money. The risk of not taking that legal support could have cost us a lot more.
Mr. Cardiff also admitted that the firms hired had a potential conflict of interest given that they also carried out work for banks and wealthy clients but, don’t worry, he assured destitute taxpayers, they all had Chinese Walls to avert any problems.
Phew, that’s a relief, for a moment there I thought destitute taxpayers were in danger of being ripped off.
Mr. Cardiff further assured impoverished taxpayers.
We haven’t come across instances where they felt compromised
I can just imagine Mr. Cardiff approaching a staff member at the legal firm Arthur Cox, which got more than €10 million for ‘advice’.
Eh, excuse me sir. Are feeling compromised?
No, oh that’s great, the taxpayer’s will be so relieved.
“Public servants face pay and job cuts as the IMF moves in” [Irish Independent 20/11/2010]
What a wonderful day for Ireland, at last someone is going to run the country. The gombeen men will disappear, too embarassed to to be shown up for what they are. The unions will no longer run the Government. Finally, maybe just maybe, the Irish electorate will vote for people of true ability and not the wineo’s and lunatics that currently reside there.
Yes, “What a wonderful day for Ireland”