Interested in maladministration. Estd. 2005
“Fine Gael’s foreign affairs spokesman Billy Timmins said the Minister for Foreign Affairs should lodge a formal complaint with his Czech counterpart over Mr Klaus’s “inappropriate behaviour in creating a very definite perception that he is strongly sympathising with groupings and individuals who are opposed to Irish Government policy.”
(Irish Times).
What would be the basis of such a complaint? That Mr. Klaus was democratically engaging in free speech?
Copy to:
Fine Gael
On yesterday’s Drivetime Journalist and author Olivia O’Leary told a story of how Bertie Ahern ruthlessly damaged her reputation and good name in order to protect his corrupt friend Haughey.
A vote of no confidence was due to be taken by the Fianna Fail Parliamentary Party on Haughey’s leadership. In a cynical tactic to frighten anti Haughey TDs Ahern lied to the meeting by saying that O’Leary had informed him which anti Haughey TD had been her source of information.
One TD later angrily challenged her:
“So much for journalists protecting their sources.”
According to O’Leary, it took a very long time for her to clear her good name.
She finished the story with this amazing remark.
“I don’t hold it against him; his achievements as Taoiseach wipe these things out.”
It is this attitude, especially when held by those of influence in the media; that make it possible for corrupt politicians like Haughey, Burke etc. and self proclaimed mafia bosses like Ahern to safely live out their careers of enrichment for themselves and friends.
As the ‘Bertie’ documentary continues we see more and more parallels between the corrupt Haughey and the chancer Ahern.
When Ahern came to power he immediately put his personal fundraiser, Des Richardson in charge of Fianna Fail finances. The corrupt Des Traynor did the same job for Haughey. Some very dodgy activities occurred during both regimes.
When Haughey was in financial trouble Traynor approached five or six businessmen for a dig out. On last night’s documentary we heard from one Ahern supporter how Des Richardson approached six or seven businessmen to give Bertie a dig out.
When Haughey became Taoiseach he called in the corrupt banker and property speculator Patrick Gallagher to beg for money. Disgracefully, this actually happened in the Taoiseach’s office. Gallagher was only 26 at the time.
On last night’s documentary we heard how a 25 year old builder, with no connection to Ahern whatsoever, contributed £5,000 to one of the dig outs. When the builder was asked about his motives he said:
“It doesn’t do any harm to be publicly known as a friend of Bertie Ahern. This guy has helped the country, helped us become the nation we are.”
And Ahern has indeed made a major contribution to the kind of country Ireland has become. Unfortunately, millions of Irish citizens have and will continue to suffer well into the future as a consequence of his contribution.
The PDs came into existence in the mid 80s in reaction to the ruthless and corrupt leadership of Haughey.
They were a party of courage and integrity while Des O’Malley was leader but as soon as Mary Harney took over the party reverted to its Fianna Fail roots of ignoring corruption in Irish public life in exchange for power.
In part two of ‘Bertie’ Harney effectively confirmed that she has always been a closet Fianna Failer. Asked about the controversy that saw Haughey sack Brian Lenihan as demanded by the PDs she said:
“It’s an issue many in our party would feel bad about, about the stand we took and the way we did.”
Genuine PDs should be proud that they got Lenihan’s head on a plate. Unfortunately it was the last occasion in which the party stood by the Republic.
I can’t let the Russell Brand/Jonathan Ross affair go without comment.
There was a great deal of tut tutting in Ireland in response to the affair but, curiously, hardly a word of criticism of Tommy Tiernan’s obnoxious performance on the Late Late Show in which he exploited the suffering of disabled people for a few cheap laughs.
When it’s one of our own we tend to analyse the incident to death and then make excuses but we seldom actually admit that anything wrong occurred.
In stark contrast our sense of outrage is immediately triggered when such behaviour occurs in other countries. Truly, our hypocrisy is world class and none better than Irish Independent columnist Kevin Myers.
In his column Myers tells us that civilisation as we know it is in danger if the likes of Ross and Brand are not permanently banned from the airwaves. He tells us that the BBC is a corrupt organisation, that in addition to Ross and Brand, Simon Cowell and Jeremy Clarkson are also abusive bullies.
Phew, heavy stuff and to cap it all Myers tells us that 9pm is far too early a watershed for the broadcasting of sexually explicit remarks. Are we seeing the emergence of an Irish Mary Whitehouse here?
Myers’ hypocrisy is of a particularly obnoxious kind because if he was to adopt the standards he demands of the BBC he himself should be permanently excluded from writing in newspapers.
The Ross/Brand affair was in the halfpenny place in comparison to his infamous ‘Bastard’ article in the Irish Times in February 2005 in which he accused unmarried women of
“Consciously embark upon a career of mothering bastards because it seems a good way of getting money and accommodation from the State.”
There was massive and sustained outrage over the article eventually forcing Myers to issue what he called an unconditional apology. It was, of course, nothing of the sort. We can see this clearly by simply comparing two contradictory quotes, one from his article and one from his apology.
“And how many girls – and we’re largely talking about teenagers here – consciously embark upon a career of mothering bastards because it seems a good way of getting money and accommodation from the State? Ah. You didn’t like the term bastard? No, I didn’t think you would.”
Obviously, Myers was fully aware that his use of the word bastard would cause outrage but he tries to cover that up in his apology.
“In tackling this subject, I deliberately used the word “bastard” because I genuinely feel that the word has no stigma attached to it; and because I feel this with such a passion, I did not allow for other people’s sensitivities over it.”
Russell Brand was fired from his job and Jonathan Ross was suspended for twelve weeks which will cost him £1.7 million in lost wages but that’s not enough for Mr. Myers, he demands that:
“The only punishment for a such a studied and deliberate assault both on their lives and on the standards by which the rest of us live must be a condign and permanent exclusion from the airwaves.”
The ‘Bastard’ article by Myers was a much more serious incident than that of Ross and Brand and yet he demands nothing less that the total destruction of their careers as punishment.
Obviously, Myers is of the opinion that his offensive article required nothing more than a shallow and dishonest apology.
As I said; Irish hypocrisy is world class.
Copy to:
Kevin Myers
It seems that a majority of taxi drivers are against the recent increase in fares imposed by the Taxi Regulator, Kathleen Doyle.
The matter was hotly discussed on Liveline during the week but despite numerous contacts from RTE the regulator refused to discuss the matter on air.
Ms. Doyle’s press office is as far as RTE got before being contemptuously pawned off to a public relations company. This is the modern day equivalent of asking the peasants to use the workman’s entrance.
Ms. Doyle is a public servant and therefore, in theory, should be accountable to consumers. There has been a disturbing tendency in recent times for people like Ms. Doyle to adopt a certain royal distance from the great unwashed.
When public servants adopt such arrogant attitudes consumers are entitled to form their own conclusions. Here’s how I imagine Ms. Doyle would address the general peasantry if she ever deigned to dismount from her high horse.
Dear Peasants,
I have been elevated to a position of great importance and therefore feel it is entirely inappropriate that I should deal directly with ordinary people.
I have therefore, at great expense to you, employed a public relations company to deal with all awkward questions from an impertinent media. All questions of a suitably respectful and non awkward nature will be dealt with by my underlings – eventually.
Of course, I do acknowledge and indeed, on rare occasions, feel a degree of gratitude, that my high status, large pay packet, very generous expenses and myriad other perks are all paid for out of your meagre resources.
I would like to take this opportunity to wish all of you the very best of luck in your struggles during the coming economic depression.
I would ask you not to worry too much about my prospects as I am guaranteed regular pay rises, total job security and a very generous pension on completion of my reign.
Yours etc.
(Note to private secretary: Make sure that fellow Duffy gets a copy, it might keep him quiet)
Copy to:
Taxi Regulator
Liveline
Did Condilessa Rice vote for Obama? I’d bet a month’s wages on it.
Letter in yesterday’s Irish Times.
Madam,
The National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF) has a budget of of €100 million in taxpayers’ money for 2008.
According to the NTPF’s latest report, some 20,000 “in-patients” were treated in 2007 at a cost of €92 million. The report does not provide precise details of the procedures performed or of their individual cost, but at least two-thirds of the procedures listed, such as endoscopy, tonsillectomy and dental extraction, would normally be carried out as day-case procedures, which are relatively inexpensive.
Some 10,000 out-patient consultations and some 2,000 MRI scans were also provided. Excluding the out-patients, the cost per in-patient treated was therefore €4,600. Four private hospitals shared €49 million of the fund.
The Mid-Western Regional Hospital complex in Limerick, which includes three hospitals – the Regional Hospital, the Regional Maternity Hospital and Croom Orthopaedic Hospital – has a budget of €195 million. In 2007, it treated 33,000 genuine in-patients, about 75 per cent of which were emergency cases, of all levels of complexity, and 19,000 day-case “in-patients”; 29,000 new out-patients were seen along with 109,000 review out-patients. Again excluding this massive out-patient activity, the cost per-inpatient treated was €3,750.
There is something radically wrong here. On the basis of these numbers and the case mix, the NTPF figures suggest a waste of, at the very minimum, €20 million.
Those who are committed to eroding our public hospital system in favour of creeping privatisation might take note.
Yours, etc,
Dr GERRY BURKE, Riverside Clinic, Steamboat Quay, Limerick.
The figures quoted in this letter are astonishing and outrageous. The NTPF was originally set up to treat seriously ill patients languishing on long waiting lists. The idea was to treat these patients outside the jurisdiction in order to relieve pressure on a creaking and inefficient health service.
But as always in Ireland the scheme has been corrupted. Here’s how it now works.
A consultant in a public hospital treating a public patient will be paid X amount for his work. If that patient is put on the NTPF list the consultant’s fee is considerably increased.
So, we can have a situation where a consultant, working in a public hospital paid for by the taxpayer, treats a patient in the morning and decides to put him on the NTPF list. The same consultant returns in the afternoon and because the patient is now on the NTPF list and therefore judged to be a private patient the consultant’s fee is multiplied.
As the above letter reveals many of the treatments are not of a serious nature and therefore should not qualify for NTPF. I suspect that the €20 million wastage mentioned is a fraction of the total cost to the long suffering taxpayer.
See here for more on this scandal.
I think it’s likely that the election of Barack Obama will see a positive response from the global market, maybe even the beginning of a recovery.
Yet another report from the HSE outlining the suffering and death of patients because of bureaucratic incompetence. A delay of 14 months in cancer diagnosis had serious consequences for nine patients and resulted in the death of at least one of them. In my book this is manslaughter at minimum.
The HSE reacted in its usual sly and callous manner, releasing the report on a day when the media were focused on the historic events unfolding in America.
It’s long past time that somebody in the HSE was hauled before the courts on a charge of manslaughter.