Month: January 2006

Deadly chickens

The following are some excerpts from the speech delivered in Dail Eireann by the Minister for Justice in defence of his actions in the Frank Connolly case.

 ‘As Minister for Justice Equality and Law Reform it falls to me…to safeguard the security of the State and to prevent the subversion of our democracy.”

‘Undoubtedly, the Centre for Public Inquiry…aspires to be an organ of public opinion, but equally it is one which has, in subversive hands, the capacity to gravely undermine the authority of the State.” Â

Pretty heavy stuff; the subversion of the State and undermining of State authority. Â If it was all true it is easy to see why strong, even illegal action, might be justified to protect the State against such a serious threat.

McDowell’s boss, Bertie Ahern, however, had a completely different take on the matter. Speaking on RTEs ‘This Week’ programme, he said

‘The issue in this case…is that a false passport application was used and that was the key issue in this and the minister was quite right to make that known.’

So, according to Bertie, it was a false passport application that threatened to bring down the State. Are these guys talking about the same events? Are they living on the same planet?

Ahern knows, of course, that neither he nor McDowell will ever have to actually account for their actions/statements. He knows he can spout any kind of waffle; all he has to do is say words.

He could, for example, have said the following:Â

 ‘The issue in this case…is that Turkish chickens, travelling under false passports, were found to have, secreted up their rectums, vials of the deadly Asian bird flu…”

No one would have noticed.

The (Irish financial) Wild West Show

The cracks are getting wider. Slowly but surely the international community is beginning to realise that Ireland is a corrupt state.

In today’s Irish Times, in an excellent analysis of the Cologne Re fraud, Justin O’Brien reveals how Ireland, through the office of its so-called Financial Regulator is increasingly seen as a rogue (financial) state.

The details and background of the case in question can be ignored when reading the article. What is important to keep in mind is that the fraud was organised from Dublin’s International Financial Services Centre (IFSC), recently referred to by the New York Times as the “Wild West’.

In Australia, both executives involved in organising the fraud have been barred from the Australian insurance industry. In the US, one of them is facing a jail sentence. The so-called Irish Financial Regulator has done nothing. It will not even say if it is investigating the matter. (Which means, of course, that it is not)

‘Ifsra would not say whether it was also investigating this transaction, but said it was monitoring Cologne Re from a “fitness and probity perspective.”

Here are just some selected comments/phrases from the article that will give an indication of how the international financial community views a major financial conspiracy hatched in Dublin’s financial “wild west’ – that Ifrsa is apparently just happy to “monitor’.

Dublin…weakest link in the enforcement firmament.

..perceived enforcement weakness (in Ireland) represents a major problem.

…disturbing picture of regulatory incapacity in Ireland

…the response of the regulator in Dublin has been unconvincing – to say the least – in the face of emerging evidence.

“wild west of European finance”

“shock and dismay that Ireland had abdicated its responsibilities for short-term advantage”.

“good luck to Ireland if it thinks it is going to get away with it, but it won’t”.

…wider regulatory community, which now perceives Dublin as a rogue market

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AIB – most corrupt?

Sensationalism is the second charge that the “Saint’ over at The Dossing Times makes against me.

‘I accept that Irish Corruption is solely about Corruption and is wee bit partial to the odd bit of sensationalism. (‘AIB, the most corrupt bank in Ireland“) I mean how does one know that for sure. Its like saying Roy Keane the Greatest Irish Player there ever will be.).’

While the Roy Keane analogy leaves me a bit puzzled, I am totally amazed that anyone could doubt the claim that Allied Irish Banks is the most corrupt financial institution in the State. Here are just a few figures (from recent times) to back up the claim.

€90 million – DIRT fraud.

€34 million – Foreign exchange fraud

€3.4 million – Trust customers fraud

€1.4 million – Student overcharging fraud

Not to mention the executive’s offshore tax-dodging scheme and the recent Prime Time special (This programme is well worth watching) where AIB staff outlined (through an actor’s voice) how they operated a long-standing, well planned criminal scheme that successfully robbed millions directly from customer accounts.

I would be fascinated and delighted if readers could come up with facts and figures that would establish another Irish financial institution as more corrupt than AIB.

I can only conclude that the “Saint’ is not Irish, lives in some remote part of the planet and is therefore unaware of the criminal record of Allied Irish Banks.

Off the rails

‘There will be no cost to the taxpayer, no threat to safety and minimal disruption.”

This is the assurance given by the Railway Procurement Agency (RPA), the State company responsible for LUAS after it was revealed that problems had arisen with the debonding material under the tracks.

We will wait and see…

Frank Connolly/Michael McDowell case

The “Saint’ over at The Dossing Times has taken me to task on a number of points. I will deal with them individually.

First, the Frank Connolly/Michael McDowell case. In theory, our justice system is based on the principle of innocent until proven guilty. Frank Connolly is, as I write, an innocent citizen.

At some point, he was suspected of breaking the law and was investigated by the State. The outcome of that investigation was that there was not enough evidence to proceed with the case. In a real democracy, the matter would end there.

Frank Connolly would be seen and treated as an ordinary and totally innocent citizen. No matter what he works at, no matter what his political beliefs are, no matter how hypocritical he may seem to others, he is entitled to be presumed innocent until and if the State can produce sufficient evidence to charge him.

As we know, the matter did not rest there. The Minister for Justice, with the full knowledge and support of the Government, set out on a course of action that has done serious damage to the reputation and future prospects of Frank Connolly, a man who is still an innocent citizen.

We are told that these actions, which are unprecedented in the history of the State, were necessary to “prevent the subversion of democracy’, and “deal with “a threat to the State’s democracy and authority’. Yet no evidence whatsoever, apart from rumour and innuendo, has been produced to back up these very serious claims.

This so-called threat to the State did not become public until McDowell was forced to admit that he had secretly passed on a confidential police file, concerning a still innocent citizen, to a favoured journalist.

In my opinion, McDowell’s motives were twofold. Firstly, The Centre for Public Inquiry, headed by Frank Connolly is an independent organisation dedicated to investigating and exposing corruption in Irish public life. It therefore represents a serious threat to a state which is itself a corrupt entity.

Secondly, it is obvious that this government, with the implicit support of the main opposition parties, is determined to undermine the growing political support enjoyed by Sinn Fein and anyone connected to this legitimate political party. This has led to some idiotic and hypocritical statements by politicians. (See “Political Joke’ below).

However, McDowell’s actions are no joke. In pursuit of what I believe is a political agenda he has set a very dangerous precedent. It is now generally accepted by the body politic, sections of the media and apparently a good percentage of the public that a Minister for Justice can legitimately decide, without producing any evidence, that a particular person/organisation is a threat to the security of the state.

He can then proceed to take any action he deems necessary, in total secrecy if he wishes, to destroy that perceived threat.

I wonder where that leaves bloggers, especially those who are critical of politicians and the State.

Whistle blowers beware

Surprise and puzzlement has been expressed at the revelation that the Morris Tribunal spent an estimated €250,000 of taxpayer’s money trying to obtain information they already had for two years.

Labour TD, Brendan Howlin, was dragged through the High Court and the Supreme Court in an effort to force him to reveal his source on alleged police corruption in Donegal. Turns out that the whistle blower, Martin Giblin SC had informed the tribunal over two years ago that he was the source.

Of course, there is nothing surprising or puzzling about these events, Indeed, the message is crystal clear – Any peasant citizen out there who might even be considering an act of whistle blowing will be pursued by the full forces of the State until he/she is exposed and dealt with accordingly.

Ah, come on, I hear you say, that’s a bit over the top. The State is not going to target innocent citizens in order to protect itself against possible revelations of corruption. Really? Ask Frank Connolly.

Political joke

To cheer everybody up on these dark cold January days I will begin the year with a joke.

John O’Donoghue, FF Minister for Arts, Sports and Tourism has claimed that

‘Ireland would be a “banana republic’ if Sinn Fa©in was in Government because it still retains a private army.’

This is funny for a number of reasons. Firstly, everybody in Ireland and the international community knows and accepts that the IRA has actually decommissioned their weapons. It’s hilarious that a minister in the Irish Government is apparently completely unaware of this historic development.

Our esteemed leader Bertie Ahern should really bring his minister up to date on the matter. This is how Bertie reacted to the standing down of the IRA.

‘The ‘standing down’ of IRA units and its decommissioning of all weapons had given Sinn Fa©in the status of a legitimate democratic and constitutional party.”

So the Taoiseach thinks that Sinn Fein is a legitimate democratic party and one of his ministers thinks that the party maintains a private army that could overthrow the State.

Secondly, the Minister seems to be under the impression that Ireland is not already a banana republic.

Billions wasted every year through the incompetence and corruption of public and civil servants with no one held accountable.

Financial institutions that regularly rob hundreds of millions from their customers and the State but have never been investigated by the police principally because the same State provides them with “protection’.

The most corrupt politician in Irish history, Charlie Haughey, never brought to justice and allowed to live in luxurious retirement with the full support and fawning praise of Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern.

A health and education system that would embarrass even the most backward third world country.

A Parliament that is deservedly treated as a joke by Irish citizens and even by some politicians as evinced recently by Ivor Callely when he chose to make his case on national radio rather than explain himself in Dail Eireann.

A Minister for Justice, with the full backing of fellow politicians, who sees nothing wrong in secretly providing confidential police files to a favoured journalist in order to promote a political agenda

And the Minister is worried that Sinn Fein might damage the State??