Author: Anthony

Sir Anthony rescued

What a difference a little three letter word can make.

When the Mahon Tribunal was required to state in writing what matters would go to public hearings. Instead of saying “We are going to investigate”… (the infamous Fitzwilton £30,000 payment to the corrupt Ray Burke), those silly, very well paid legal people slipped up and said “We may…”

The Supreme Court zoomed in on this tiny word and zapped any further investigation.

You could say that these good members of the legal fraternity rode in like knights in shinning armour to rescue Sir Anthony from any potential embarrassment.

Low standards at SIPO

My complaint to the Standards in Public Office Commission regarding the illegal activities of Minister of State, Pat the Cope Gallagher, has been rejected.

Last April, in a cheap publicity stunt, Gallagher illegally erected posters around Croke Park. (Previous posts: one, two, three, four)

The correspondence from SIPO is mostly impenatratable bureaucracy speak but when translated amounts to the following.

SIPO decided to consider my complaint under section 4 of the Standards in Public Office Act 2001. Section 4 states that a complaint may be made if the matter is one of significant public importance.

Significant public importance is defined as a person receiving an alleged benefit of not less than €12,697.

On that basis, the Commission decided that Gallagher’s illegal activities were not of sufficient gravity to warrant an investigation.

We can make the following assumptions arising from this disgraceful decision.

The Litter Pollution Act, 1997 does not apply to government ministers.

Government ministers can, under certain situations/conditions, break the law with impunity.

The State/SIPO does not consider certain law breaking by government ministers as a matter of significant public importance.

Skin and hair flying

The skin and hair was really flying on today’s (Tuesday) Liveline.

The discussion concerned a drug that’s legal here but illegal in other countries. Two contributors hung up, that must be some sort of record, and Joe himself lost it, calling one of them a liar.

Great live radio.

Glad to be out of the Progressive Democrats

The post concerning the PDs and integrity was also published in Letters to the Editor in the Irish Independent on June 21st last. It drew an interesting response from a founding member of that party.

Like Mr. Peers, I’m sure there are many serving and former party members who are disillusioned by the total abandonment of the party’s founding principles in order to accommodate the low standards of Fianna Fail. Here’s Mr. Peer’s letter.

I am glad I left the PDs

Saturday June 23 2007

Anthony Sheridan excellently sums up the Progressive Democrats as a Party (Letters, June 21).
Paul MacKay, honorary treasurer, must be a slow learner after ten years of the PDs having been in Government with Fianna Fail as he finally realises his party is too close to Fianna Fail.
Like Paul I was a founder member and candidate for Dail and Council elections. I resigned ten years ago because of the issues that Paul is now raising, and in particular when Mary Harney stated she trusted and respected Bertie Ahern, a man who supported the crooked Haughey, Burke and Lawlor. Also at that time I was angry that members of the party were not given the opportunity to vote on going into Government with Fianna Fail or not. At least the Green Party gave their members a vote to decide or not on this occasion. The PDs were virtually wiped out in the election because instead of being watchdogs they became lapdogs of Fianna Fail.
Equally and unfortunately the Green Party will be decimated in the next election if they last in government.
I understand the Progressive Democrats are having a meeting on Sunday. A proposal should be put forward by the membership to resign from Government and Mary Harney should rejoin Fianna Fail. I am glad that I had the intelligence and savvy to resign from the PDs 10 years ago and not have it on my conscience that I assisted what has now become a dictatorship of Fianna Fail.

NOEL PEERS,

CARIHUELA, SPAIN

Myers gets it right

I rarely agree with Kevin Myers but his views on the Flynn scandal in last Wednesday’s Irish Independent hits the nail right on the head. (Emphasis mine)

On Irishness;

“So, perhaps rightly, Fianna Fail sees itself as the true voice of Irishness. The party is at bottom a political assertion of that – and those who guard that identity are not to be judged by lesser, imported concepts, such as the “law“.”

On Fianna Fail he says;

“Even today, Fianna Fail’s morality is that of a conquered people, for whom law is a conqueror’s instrument, and secret conspiracies the cultural norm. Loyalty, not law, is the abiding characteristic of the Fianna Fail family.”

On Flynn he says;

“And the extreme, female embodiment of that culture is the unspeakable Flynn-woman, a proven liar, a fraudster, a creature of no integrity, and a traitor who, in any state with a clearly defined public morality, would be in jail.”

The Flynn deal

The Director General of RTE has assured us that no deal was done with Beverly Flynn. Bertie Ahern has also claimed that no deal was done. I don’t believe either of them.

Given the way things are done in this country it is likely that some sort of deal was agreed. Next Monday, when the case comes up again in court, we will know the extent of the deal.

If there is any secrecy whatsoever regarding the amount Flynn has ‘agreed’ to pay then it will be obvious that RTE did a complete cave in under political pressure.

Fr Ted speak

One of the funniest episodes of Fr. Ted involved teaching Fr. Jack to answer any difficult question he might face from three visiting bishops with the universal phrase

“That would be an ecumenical matter.”

Fr. Ted loved the idea saying,

“That’s the great thing about Catholicism, it’s so vague, nobody really knows what it’s about.”

Bertie Ahern adopted the same strategy recently when questioned about the secret deals he did with the Independents.

“They’re political agreements” or in Fr. Ted speak, “That would be a political matter.”

When asked did he give anything special to the Independents he brought vagueness to an extreme.

“No, these are, but important issues that people lobby for them, you know, sometimes things are in the National Development Plan and are at the end of National Development Plan and people lobby for them and that’s the norm that every politician elected or that supports a government department does.”

Deals done, arrangements made

Beef baron Larry Goodman was well known as an astute businessman who had an uncanny ability of keeping tabs on every detail of his huge empire. But when the Beef Tribunal reported in August 1994 it found that Larry knew nothing of the massive fraud and tax evasion rampant throughout his company. Deals done, arrangements made, blind eyes turned.

Tax cheat Michael Lowry had a massive extension built on to his house courtesy of the Dunne family. The extension was illegal as it had no planning permission and therefore should have been demolished. Michael managed to get retrospective planning permission. Deals done, arrangements made, blind eyes turned.

Corrupt politician Charles Haughey should have been brought to justice for lying to the McCracken tribunal. It was decided, however, that he was too well known to get a fair trial and was, in effect, placed above the law. Deals done, arrangements made, blind eyes turned.

Beverly Flynn encouraged tax evasion. She sued RTE for saying so and lost. She owed RTE/taxpayer nearly €3million as a result of her actions. Now we’re told that she will only have to pay a fraction of this. Deals done, arrangements made, blind eyes turned.

Real accountability, no matter what it costs the taxpayer or the reputation of the country, must be avoided.

Depressing sleaze

Many of the callers to Liveline today (Monday) were depressed as well as angry by the outcome of the Beverly Flynn/RTE scandal. They seemed genuinely puzzled that yet again a politician has got off the hook for wrongdoing.

Later on, on Questions and Answers, there was even more depression when Alan Shatter of Fine Gael received high praise from Willie O’Dea for his strong defence of Flynn.

Shatter claimed that Flynn was the victim of a lynch mob; that people were getting over excited about the whole event and that she should be allowed to get on with her life.

He was pure Fianna Fail on tax evasion when he trotted out the ridiculous argument that all the banks were at it at the time.

The only real passion/anger on the show came from Willie O’Dea when he strongly attacked Eamonn McCann for suggesting that Fianna Fail supported tax evasion.

How could anyone even suggest such a thing?

The price of profit

I see members of the Saudi religious police, officially known as The Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (Echoes of the Inquisition there), are to stand trial for the deaths of two men in custody.

The dead men were accused of the ‘horrendous crimes’ of socializing with an unrelated woman and alcohol peddling.

In February 2006, after criticism of a proposed visit to Saudi Arabia by President McAleese a government spokeswoman said

“The visit to Saudi Arabia by the President represented a clear expression of the values of Irish society and people and also respected the culture of a friendly nation.”

I’m certain that the Government and President McAleese would totally condemn these events in Saudi Arabia but the fact that they admire and support this ruthless theocracy cannot be ignored.

The hypocrisy is all the more odious because the admiration and support is entirely based on business profit.

Here’s what some of our esteemed political leaders had to say about dealing with this ruthless regime.

“They’re not the same kind of open society as we are, they haven’t got the same parliamentary democratic process as us and we have to understand those sensitivities. It would be very wrong of us other than to understand and doesn’t take away from the fact we pointed out areas where there is concern internationally.”

Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, (Six One News 18th Jan 2007)

“It is also the case that we have to have respect for other cultures and societies in a world of difference. It is all a bit more complex than saying this is just a simple matter of human rights.”

Enterprise and Employment Minister, Michael Martin. (Irish Independent)

“On what basis would we not talk to them? We can’t go around the world judging people,”

Frank Ryan, the chief executive of Enterprise Ireland. (Irish Independent).

On what basis would we not talk to them? Apparently, there is no basis that would overrule the profit motive.