Author: Anthony

Defending Bertie Ahern

“Chaos and confusion is being created willfully and wrongly by the most senior and powerful figures in the State.”

The above quote is how Bruce Arnold sums up his article on the reaction of some Government ministers to the latest developments at the Mahon Tribunal. His views are largely in line with my own (See previous two posts).

Ireland is the only country in the Western world where Government ministers could launch a cynical and dishonest attack on the very foundations of the State in an effort to defend a politician who received vast sums of cash from wealthy businessmen.

Serious charges and unaccountable politicians

The Prime Minister of our county has accused the Mahon Tribunal that was established by our National Parliament, of trying to frame him on very serious charges. This is, in effect, what Bertie Ahern meant when he accused the tribunal of trying to ‘stitch him up.’

In addition, several Government ministers, people who were elected to represent the people of Ireland and defend the integrity of the people’s parliament, the Oireachtas, have also made serious allegations against the tribunal and, by extension, against the State.

Minister for Foreign Affairs, Dermot Ahern, made a direct attack on the tribunal by questioning the length of time it was taking to complete its work. He also expressed astonishment at the line of questioning the tribunal was taking against the Taoiseach (Six One News, 1st item).

An even more serious attack on the tribunal was made by Minister for European Affairs, Dick Roche. He angrily declared that he was not happy with the way Bertie Ahern was being treated by the tribunal. He said it was petty, personal, prurient and at times bordered on voyeurism.

Even more seriously, he accused the tribunal of being biased against Ahern and trampling on his rights as a citizen (Morning Ireland, 1st item).

These are very serious charges and in a functional democracy would result in an immediate political and constitutional crisis that would see the immediate closing down of the alleged rogue tribunal or the immediate forced resignations of the politicians who made the attacks if they failed to substantiate their allegations.

Because Ireland is a dysfunctional democracy we got what we always get – a large gaggle of journalists talking among themselves about the matter before we all head off for the Christmas celebrations.

On Six One News we had John Kilraine, Samantha Libreri and Charlie Bird. Later, on a Primetime special, we had Miriam O’Callaghan, Katie Hannon, Michael Clifford and Stephen Collins discussing the matter between re-enactments of tribunal evidence.

On Drivetime, we had Mary Wilson, Fergal Keane, Brian Dowling Justine McCarthy, Harry McGee and others participating in a major fest of incestuous journalistic analysis and not an accountable or even an unaccountable politician in sight.

Corruption? Not in Ireland

The manner in which the Today with Pat Kenny Show (Friday) handled the latest serious developments at the Mahon Tribunal is also a good indication of how blind we are to what we are.

Again, it was all journalists talking to each other. No Government minister to defend or explain to the people of Ireland what was going to happen as a result of the very serious allegations made by the Prime Minister and others.

The matter wasn’t even mentioned until the 53rd minute when we had yet another report from a journalist.

My point is that if Ireland was a functional democracy this story would have eclipsed all others for days and within days there would have been serious developments for the politicians who made the allegations or for the tribunal itself.

But apart from the reports from Dublin Castle all we got was yet another analysis by a cabal of journalists. There was, however, a very interesting and telling exchange during this debate which demonstrated just how far removed many Irish people are, including journalists, from admitting that Ireland is a corrupt state.

The discussion had turned to the situation in South Africa and the possible consequences for South Africa after the election of Jacob Zuma as leader of the African National Congress. Zuma is seen by many as a dodgy character and could soon be in court on corruption charges.

Pat Kenny referred to Zuma as a Dell Boy character and expressed the view that he would bring his country into disrepute and make the leadership a laughing stock.

Michael O’Regan of the Irish Times who had earlier expressed sympathy for Bertie Ahern and the difficult time he was having spoke of Zuma in an altogether different tone.

“I find him quite sinister, the fact alone that he’s facing corruption charges in the New Year I would have thought precluded him from any kind of public office. He’s quite dangerous, I would have thought.”

When RTE journalist, Katie Hannon, made the obvious connection between Zuma and Ahern O’Regan defended the Taoiseach by claiming he wasn’t facing corruption charges. Hannon replied that neither was Zuma, as yet.

The very fact that a young country like South Africa actually puts corrupt politicians on trial in a proper court of law means that they are light years ahead in their understanding and acceptance of what corruption actually is.

Many Irish people, including journalists like Michael O’Regan, exist in a world of denial where corruption is an activity that only occurs in other countries.

Santa and the Little People

Fianna Fail TD and Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism Seamus Brennan was on Saturday View this weekend defending the Government.

Here’s part of the discussion concerning the alleged rendition flights through Shannon.

Brennan:

There’s no evidence whatsoever that anyone has been subject to extraordinary rendition through Ireland.

Saturday View presenter Rodney Rice:

You can’t have that knowledge unless you go on the flights and we don’t do that.

Brennan:

We do have an inspection regime. The Gardai Siochana have, and I know this sometimes raises a smile, but it shouldn’t, we have very skilled, specialised gardaí who have been particularly trained in this area.

Rice:

But they’ve never been on a plane.

Brennan:

But they’ve been given extra training in this area, the legislation has been brought to their attention and there is now in place trained Gardai who, as I say, has this legislation brought to their attention and they’ve investigated a number of allegations, they have done that and they have found that there is no basis on which to pursue.

Rice:

How have they investigated it if they haven’t been on planes?

Brennan:

The information supplied to the Dept of Justice is that they have investigated a number of allegations and they have found that there’s no basis on which to proceed.

Rice:

But we don’t know how they have come to that conclusion.

Brennan:

Well, we don’t, I don’t have that information but they’ve been trained specially, the law has been brought to their attention, they have investigated allegations and back have come the story that there is no evidence of any extraordinary rendition taking place.

And later…

Brennan:

We have an inspection regime.

Rice:

Which we haven’t implemented.

Brennan:

We have trained Gardai who assure us that they have investigated a number of allegations and found no basis on which to proceed.

Rice:

You keep saying that but we don’t know how they’ve done it.

Brennan:

We don’t ask the Gardai how they do lots of things, they get in and investigate and then they come back with their assurances to the Department.

(Yes Minister; that’s why we have the Morris Tribunal).

Brennan’s story can be likened to a father attempting to reassure an increasingly skeptical son that Santa really does exist.

Son:

Dad, I don’t’ believe in Santa, I think the truth is that you and mum buy the gifts.

Dad:

Now son, there’s no evidence whatsoever that Santa doesn’t exist.

Son:

But how can it be true, flying through the air, squeezing down narrow and very hot chimneys all over the world. It just doesn’t seem believable. You can tell me the truth dad; after all I’m 35 years old and always vote Fianna Fail.

Dad:

Listen son; and I know this sometimes raises a smile, but Santa has special skills, he’s specially trained and can do all kinds of magic things.

Son:

But I’ve never actually seen him do magic things.

Dad:

Of course you haven’t son. Santa has been given extra special powers for the duration of the Christmas period so that when his sleigh is on the runway, er I mean the roof nobody can see what’s going on. It’s all written down in his instructions and this has all been brought to his notice.

Son:

What about all the people on the street who say it’s all an elaborate hoax, to fool the gullible?

Dad:

Don’t mind that rabble son, they’re just ignorant peasants who are jealous of our luxury lifestyle which I might add also comes from a very generous Santa.

Son:

But I still don’t understand how he does it, I find it so, so hard to believe.

Dad: (Becoming exasperated)

Look son, you know uncle Bertie believes in Santa, that Santa is, in fact, a close personal friend of uncle Bertie.

Son:

Yeah, s’pose so.

Dad:

And you know that uncle Bertie always tells the truth, so if uncle Bertie believes then it’s ok for everybody to believe.

Son:

Yeah, guess I shouldn’t be so suspicious; can I have a raise in my pocket money?

Dad:

Not at this time son, Santa’s little helpers might become agitated. Best to defer it until after Christmas when the little people have gone away.

Copy to:
Fianna Fail
Seamus Brennan

Greedy, dishonest politicians

Brennan also strongly defended the scandalous pay rise that politicians have awarded themselves.
Brennan:

We had a discussion and made a decision and then we followed the public debate, very clearly we followed what guys like you had to say, what thundering went on in editorials, what statements were made by union leaders, what statements were made by other people in the queue for pay rises and we did what intelligent people do, we took account of all that.

Rice:

Couldn’t you have done that before if you’ve been in power for so long?

Brennan:

They hadn’t made the statements before that.

Rice:

I know, but you knew what people were going to say.

Brennan:

Well, did you? Because this system has been in place since 1969, I mean this is 2007, isn’t it?

We can be criticised for being weak or admired for taking the message but after weeks and weeks of debate we listened carefully to what was said and we said, ok pay talks coming up, the November figures that came in were not as good as expected and it’s a good thing to show example, to make a gesture.

The following is my interpretation of what the Minister said.

We greedily awarded ourselves a massive pay rise but miscalculated the extent of public anger.

To get ourselves out of the mess we are dishonestly claiming that the decision to defer the pay hike for a year was made in the interests of the Irish people.

We are hoping that our ‘gesture’ will be enough to fool the people and in a years time we can continue to stuff our wallets with taxpayers hard earned money.

Copy to:
Seamus Brennan

The (non) Regulators

The Government is to hire consultants to review economic regulators including the financial watchdog (Irish Examiner). I presume financial watchdog here means the Financial Regulator. The consultants should start by asking the so called regulators to actually regulate.

We know, for example, that the Financial Regulator has yet to impose even a small fine on any financial institution or official. This is despite the fact that theft and fraud is rampant throughout the sector.

We also know that the Financial Regulator’s claim of always acting in the interests of consumers is questionable to say the least. Secrecy laws, strictly enforced by the regulator, have the effect of protecting the thieves and exposing consumers to serious risk of financial loss.

A recent operation by the regulator proves the point. Apparently, ‘undercover financial watchdogs visited a number of financial institutions and were overcharged by up to €15,000 on transactions.

Instead of cracking down on these institutions with heavy fines the regulator merely asked them to pay back the money ‘overcharged’.

This strategy is in keeping with the regulator’s unofficial but widely used ‘pay back’ policy. When banks or other financial institutions are caught robbing or ‘overcharging’ consumers they are merely asked to pay back the sums involved with appropriate interest – no fines, no police, no regulation.

Copy to:

IFSRA
Dept. of Finance

King Bertie

This letter in today’s Irish Independent gets it just about right

Never one to choose his words carefully, our Great Leader has announced that deferring the Government pay rises is “a good example of our goodwill” (Irish Independent, December 12).

Goodwill? Is it me or does this language suggest the actions of a kindly monarch who deigns to bestow favours, unasked and undeserved, on his lowly subjects?

Like Marie Antoinette’s people who might eat cake, we are a fortunate lot of peasants that Bertie would stoop to bless us with such signs of his goodwill.

I wonder was that the royal “we” he used?

Newsflash, Bertie — you were chosen by (some of) the Irish people to serve your country, and they would expect more from such a person than “goodwill”. On a salary of €270,000, the Taoiseach is no more a man of the people than was the Sun King. Not since the excesses of Versailles has so much been paid to so few for doing so little for so many.

DAVID ROBINSON
MAIN STREET, COLLON, CO LOUTH

Rock hard necks

Minister for the Environment, John Gormley, when asked about (2nd item) the heavy burden of water charges on schools said he would be encouraging them to save water and thus reduce their bills.

Unfortunately, it was an EU law and had nothing to do with him.

When it was suggested that perhaps he could ease the burden on schools by persuading his cabinet colleagues to increase capitation grants he replied.

That’s a matter for the Dept. of Education, nothing to do with me.

The Minister was in Bali preaching to the entire Western world about their gross dereliction of duty in failing to reduce greenhouse gases.

Only Irish politicians are born with such rock hard necks