Susie Long died over the weekend. Every politician and bureaucrat who could have saved her life should hang their heads in shame
Author: Anthony
Frustrated Mary
Just came across this article from the 5th October (Sub. Required).
Mary Harney is expressing frustration with the media for asking questions about waiting lists. Like all Irish politicians Mary has an amazing capacity to drift off into wonderland when reality tries to encroach on her world.
According to Mary being on a waiting list is no different than waiting for a bus.
“Every day of the week there’s people waiting for buses but we don’t talk about people waiting for buses”.
Mary doesn’t have to wait for a bus; neither does she have to wait for health care.
She will never find herself in Susie Long’s position, waiting to die because she couldn’t afford health care.
Mary is just frustrated, she’s lucky
A disgraceful decision
In a functional democracy former Fianna Fail TD, Michael Collins would be facing at least five years in jail with fines and penalties running into millions.
In Ireland, he was let off with a 12 month suspended sentence and a pathetic €25,000 fine.
Judge Carroll Moran said that what Mr. Collins did was very serious, TD’s after all, he said make the laws of the land, including the tax laws and Mr. Collins had violated those laws.
The crimes committed by Collins are indeed serious but it is obvious that the judge is of the opinion that a man of Collins’ ‘calibre’ should not have to actually suffer the indignity of paying for his crimes.
Here are the excuses accepted and given by the judge. (My comments are in brackets).
Collins had settled his liabilities with the Revenue Commissioners.
(This was after Collins had turned his nose up at two amnesties in 1993 and 2001. Failure to comply with the 1993 amnesty carried a mandatory jail sentence. The word ‘mandatory’ is still not understood in Ireland).
He had suffered public disgrace, the humiliation of the court proceedings which had effectively ended his political career.
(Every citizen hauled before the courts suffers disgrace and humiliation. This excuse is invariably accepted by judges, when it involves a white collar criminal).
He also added that this was a severe punishment for a man in Mr. Collins’ position.
(This is an outrageous statement for a professional judge to make. It effectively confirms what many have often suspected, that there is one law for the rich and powerful and another for the poor).
Had there been no case he most likely would have stood for Fianna Fail in Limerick West and probably would have won.
(Again, this is an outrageous view to take. Are we to take it that a hardened criminal will also escape justice if he pleads that if it wasn’t for his crimes he would probable have joined the priesthood?).
He had severe health difficulties, diabetes, high blood pressure and severe anxiety. His doctor said that it could lead to a stroke if he was agitated and given a prison sentence.
(This excuse has the same credibility as the infantile ‘dog ate my homework’ plea. Again, this ridiculous excuse is almost always accepted when made by a white collar criminal. Neither does the judge explain how a man, with health problems so severe that he was in danger of a stroke, could fight a gruelling election campaign).
This case once again demonstrates that judges have little understanding of the damage done to society by corrupt politicians and even less understanding of the greater damage done when the legal system fails to properly punish white collar crime.
'Lucky' Councillor
Fine Gael councillor, Frank Kilbride was shocked, not because he had just overturned his car while being chased by Gardai. No, Frank was shocked at the outrageous suggestion that he was drunk while driving.
“Do you know who I am, you can’t do me for drink driving”
he sternly warned the forces of law and order.
But what about the strong smell of alcohol from the good Councillors breath?
That smell wasn’t from my breath, it came from a bottle of wine that broke and somehow spilled over me after I crashed while being chased by Gardai at 2.50 in the morning.
What about refusing to provide a urine sample or allow a blood sample to be taken and what about your non cooperation with the Gardai on the matter?
Can you prove that allegation?
Well, no, because somehow, somebody made a technical error in the wording of the charge, making it inadmissible.
Do you consider yourself lucky, Cllr?
Lucky that I live in a country where the law is a joke?
Well, yes, but also lucky that you didn’t have to take time off from your important work as a councillor to attend somebody’s funeral.
Insider trading? No problem
On 15th August last I spoke to Paul Appleby, director of ODCE about the DCC/Fyffes case. He informed me that they were examining the Supreme Court decision before deciding what action to take.
The case involves Jim Flavin, executive chairman of DCC who was found by the Supreme Court to have broken the law on insider trading (Analysis here).
One of the judges, Mr. Justice Fennelly, was clear.
“To trade on the use of inside information is recognised for what it is. It is a fraud on the market.”
(Full Supreme Court decision here).
Towards the end of September and beginning of October I made further enquiries to ODCE and eventually got through to Mr. Appleby’s legal advisor.
I expressed the view that the case seemed like an open and shut case and wondered why it was taking so long to come to a decision. He informed me that not every case is as easy as it seems to the general public.
Coincidently, on the same day that the Irish Supreme Court made its findings another case of insider dealing was reaching a conclusion in the United States, a jurisdiction where law enforcement is taken seriously.
Joseph P. Nacchio, former chief executive of Qwest, was sentenced to six years in prison, fined $19 million and ordered to forfeit $52 million he earned from illegal stock shares in 2001.
There is, of course, not the remotest possibility that Mr. Flavin will ever have to face such traumatic law enforcement in Ireland.
If the ODCE decide to act against him and by some miracle, actually win the case, Mr. Flavin, if he’s not retired by that time, will probably receive a small fine and be restricted from acting as a director for a short period.
To be fair to the ODCE, it is the only state agency showing even the slightest interest in the case. The Director for Public Prosecutions, Financial Regulator, Stock Exchange , Revenue Commissioners, An Gardai and body politic have all, apparently, decided that insider trading is not really a serious issue.
Gunfight at OK Corral
What exactly happened in Limerick last Saturday night between Minister for Defence and Shannon airport campaigners, John Fahy and Geraldine Morrissey?
Here’s the story as related on RTEs Today with Pat Kenny (Thursday), Drivetime and on Today FM, The Last Word with Matt Cooper.
Fahy/Morrissey version.
Minister O’Dea stopped at their table with his two minders.
Morrissey:
Minister, why didn’t you take part in the Dail debate on Aer Lingus last Thursday?
O’Dea:
I was in McKee barracks.
Morrissey:
That was Wednesday you were in McKee barracks, you were in the Dail on Thursday, why didn’t you take part in the debate?
O’Dea:
I am the Minister for Defence.
Fahy;
Well, you didn’t defend the people of the West of Ireland very well.
O’Dea:
Who’s this big prick?
Fahy:
Excuse me.
O’Dea:
I would like to hit you.
Fahy:
Well, if you were a little bigger maybe I might let you.
O’Dea: (Speaking close to Morrissey’s face)
I don’t give a fuck about you.
O’Dea’s minders then took him away
O’Dea’s version on Today with Pat Kenny.
What happened here was, I listen to people, I try to explain my position, I was shouted down and in the end I will admit I was dismissive and said sod off or words to that effect and walked away. I did not use the word prick.
I might have used the words feck off at the end, I’m not quite sure. I think I said sod off or get lost or feck off…of that I’m absolutely clear in my mind.
O’Dea’s version on The Last Word.
Two people approached me in a very, very aggressive manner shouting about Shannon. I attempted to explain myself and I wasn’t allowed to and basically I told them to hump off and walked away and there was a number of people with me who can testify to that and that is all that happened.
There are a couple of curious aspects to the incident.
Why did O’Dea feel it necessary to escort Minister for Finance Brian Cowen to his car? Perhaps, given Limerick’s reputation, Willie felt that Cowen’s minders needed some extra muscle power. Or perhaps, Willie is keeping very well in with the ‘anointed one’?
The “very, very aggressive” attack on Willie took place while on his way back to his wife and after he left the (Big strong) minister. Could it be a case of Willie being caught in the open without enough minders?
On a more serious note, the media seem to have missed the clear attempt by the Minister’s spokesperson to smear the reputation of Fahy and Morrissey by accusing them of trying to sell their story to several newspapers.
It’s possible that this spokesperson is a private citizen but it is more likely that he/she is a civil servant. If that is the case then such tactics are indeed disturbing but, alas, not at all surprising.
Bureaucracy, responsibility and confusion
Some years ago I had occasion to make a complaint to the then Southern Health Board regarding the abuse of a patient by hospital staff. I remember being angry when my letters were completely ignored and subsequently experiencing total confusion on the phone in my attempts to track down the person responsible for dealing with such complaints.
I can therefore, to a degree, sympathise with Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, Eamon Ó Cuív who has admitted that he cannot make head nor tail of the Health Service Executive (HSE).
Speaking on Drivetime (3rd Oct.), the Minister was clearly frustrated at the level of impenatratable bureaucracy in the HSE. He spoke about giving millions to the HSE and now he can’t even get an invoice from them.
I say sympathise to a degree with the minister because, of course, he and his colleagues are fully responsible for creating the rampant bureaucratic monster that the HSE has become.
When it became obvious that politicians had neither the courage nor ability to resolve the chronic mess they had made of the ‘health service’ they simply abdicated all responsibility by creating an ‘independent’ HSE.
Minister like O’Cuiv and Harney are now lining up to complain about this incompetent bureaucratic monster as if they had nothing to do with its creation and have no responsibility in bringing it to heel.
This matter and some other political shenanigans are cogently analysed in today’s Irish Examiner.
Cowen the Great and a starry eyed journalist
“A magnificent, spontaneous, and from-the-heart contribution, we witnessed an immense force, an outburst of deeply impressive moral authority that is rare in an age like this.”
Impressive words; who could Irish Examiner journalist Harry McGee be writing about? The revered Nelson Mandela or perhaps the heroic Aung San Suu Kyi fighting for democracy in Burma?
No, these heroic words were penned in praise of our very own Finance Minister, Brian Cowen. What, you may ask, could Cowen the Great have done to deserve such high praise?
Well, he made a five minute speech in our national parliament in which he strongly defended the indefensible activities of our Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern.
Ahern accepted large wads of cash from businessmen and ‘friends’ while he was Minister for Finance. Despite numerous opportunities he has failed to provide a satisfactory explanation for the payments.
His ‘stories’ have become so bizarre that only a gullible fool, a fanatical Fianna Failer or perhaps a starry eyed journalist could believe them.
For McGee, the crowning moment came when Cowen the Great declared;
“I know right from wrong.”
McGee writes;
“It was utterly believable and made his case as a natural leader for his party. What we witnessed was a person who was the personification of the heart and soul of his party and what it represents and stands for.”
Unwittingly, McGee is spot on here. Cowen is the personification of what Fianna Fail represents and has represented for many decades now; arrogance, a total disregard for ethical values in public office, an easy acceptance of corruption and a chronic inability to tell right from wrong.
A little light relief
Sometimes, the sheer level of corruption is this country can be a bit depressing. So, to provide a little light relief here’s a brilliant fairy tale as related by journalist Sam Smyth on the Marian Fincuane Show (15th September). My comments are in brackets.
In the early 1990s Bertie Ahern was going through a horrendous marriage breakup. He was cashing his cheques in the local pub and making maintenance payments and all the rest. He was sleeping on a camp bed above the office in Drumcondra. His wife’s family, his own family, even his own mother was deeply angry at him.
(What did Bertie do to generate all this anger?)
(Things were really looking bad for one of the best paid men in the country. Ahern, as Finance Minister, was earning about £80,000 per annum. Banks and building societies would have trampled over each other to give him any amount he wanted. Any citizen on his wage at that time could easily have afforded a substantial mortgage/property).
Smyth goes on:
Then Albert Reynolds got into trouble and it looked like his government was going to collapse. (It looked like our hero Bertie was about to become Taoiseach)
Bertie’s friends were saying, You have to have a house Bertie, you can’t be Taoiseach with no fixed address and so because it’s so easy for a Minister for Finance to raise funds by hosting (awful) dinners, every accountant and business in the country will gladly pay two, three, four grand for a table. I think this is how a lot of money was raised, probably in the name of Bertie’s O’Donovan Rossa Cumainn.
(Cleary, Sam Smyth is a citizen/journalist who sees nothing wrong with a serving Minister for Finance prostituting his office to raise funds for his local Cumainn or even to raise a couple of bob for himself)
(Marian Fincuane asked, isn’t that money supposed to go to the party? Smyth conceded that it probably was but immediately slipped into Fianna Fail speak and justified the possibility that Bertie might be stealing party funds by citing all the great things he (Bertie) had done for Drumcondra – Remember, in fairy tales all explanations are acceptable).
Anyway, Sam continues:
Bertie’s friends said ‘how can we buy this house, there’s the whole marriage thing, this could really open up things again in the family courts, people will ask, where did Bertie get the money to buy that and all the rest, these things happen in family law cases.’
So, it may well have been decided that he needed somebody to buy the house in trust. Therefore, his name is not on the deeds which would suggest that if you buy a house in trust for somebody you also have to leave it to them in the will in case you die and it goes on to your next of kin, so that’s what I think happened there.
Sometime later, relations with Miriam, (Bertie’s ex wife) and his own family warmed. He got a mortgage and took over the house.
(Ahhh, a truly happy ending to a great story but wait what does this say about the character of our hero Bertie? If Smyth’s theory is true then the much praised/compassionate/tearful Bertie is nothing more than a scheming chancer who wanted to do his ex wife out of her just desserts.
In other words, Bertie is actually a baddie. Anyway, nobody would ever have known this if the big bad wolf, in the guise of Tom Gilmartin, hadn’t appeared on the scene).
(Here Smyth, in an angry and outraged tone, described the outrageous allegations made by the evil Gilmartin against poor Bertie. And while Sam clearly doesn’t believe a word of what Gilmartin says he does concede that the allegations led (the Tribunal) onto the trail).
Somebody then came up with a ‘dog ate my homework’ excuse. They had to explain the difference between gifts and loans; there were tax implications.
The problem now is that poor Bertie cannot give the ‘simple’ story. He’s more likely to be done at the end of the day for the cover up than he ever would be for the money.
So, according to Smyth, Bertie’s story is simple. When he was holding down one of the most powerful and best paid jobs in the country he was unable to deal with the financial implications of a marriage breakdown in the same way that countless thousands of ‘ordinary’ citizens have done.
Instead of being honest with his wife and children he conspired with friends to weave a web of lies and deceit in order to keep as much money as possible for himself.
Part of this conspiracy included the prostitution of the office of Minister for Finance and the diversion of money properly belonging to Fianna Fail into Bertie’s own account. (I’m getting Haughey flashbacks here).
Tune in next week to hear another amazing story from a guy called Occam who alleges that Bertie actually took bribes. With razor sharp logic he claims that;
“All things being equal, the simplest solution tends to be the right one,”
Regulators and rip offs
In the United Kingdom, GMTV has been fined £2 million (€2.853 million) for “widespread and systematic deception” in premium rate phone-in competitions.
In Ireland, it has been revealed that the Electricity Supply Board has been systematically stealing from its customers for years.
The so called regulator was completely unaware of this theft; it was even ignorant of the billing system used by the ESB.
Only customers who challenge the ESB will be repaid, all others will remain victims.
The regulator has promised an investigation but given the pathetic record of so called regulatory bodies in Ireland it is highly unlikely that those responsible will be held accountable.