Author: Anthony

Please, stop accusing us of being ethical

After ten years in power with Fianna Fail it is clear that the Progressive Democrats have abandoned their core value of defending high ethical standards in politics. Here are two examples of how things have changed.

PD senator, Tom Morrissey speaking on RTE 24th January 2005

“We’re not in the business of asking for heads on plates anymore. When we did, what thanks did the electorate ever give us? We’re not there as a watchdog anymore.”

Former PD TD Fiona O’Malley speaking on RTE 4th October 2006

“It’s something that’s always annoyed me, that the PDs are watchdogs. We have our own standards. Every other political party is responsible for their own standards within their own party. We are not watchdogs for any other political party.”

Given that the PDs are now very comfortable doing business at a Fianna Fail level of integrity and accountability and given that they have been virtually wiped out as a political party, Mary Harney should give serious consideration to moving, lock, stock and barrel (minus political integrity), back to her origins.

Back in bed with Bertie she could concentrate on her Americanisation of the health system and not be worried about all this nasty ethical business.

GAA Gladiators

There was an interesting piece on RTE Six One News last evening. (Sports, 1st item)

As the Clare and Cork hurling teams ran out onto the pitch in the Munster Hurling Championship they immediately got stuck into each other in violent conflict. An investigation is expected and the reporter suggested that the wisdom of allowing the teams out together will be questioned.

Perhaps the GAA should consider how the ancient Romans handled such events. Wild animals were released into the arena from separate tunnels, thus preventing violence until the games had properly begun.

Another solution to GAA violence could be to actually take effective action against players found guilty of serious violent assault.

PD self destruction

Without doubt the most positive outcome of the election was the virtual destruction of the Progressive Democrats as a party and in particular McDowell’s banishment from the political scene.

As the most arrogant and dangerous politician since Haughey I was delighted when he was elected leader of the PD’s because it was a virtual certainty that he would seriously damage the party.

In September 2006, when Mary Harney resigned as party leader I sent the following email to General Secretary, John Higgins

The people of Ireland can only hope that Michael McDowell is elected
as the new leader of the Progressive Democrats. His arrogance,
incompetence, giant ego and extreme right wing views are sure to cause
the PDs even more damage.

The passing into history of the PDs can only be a good thing for the people of Ireland and especially for the quality of Irish democracy. For a party that started out with such high ideals and integrity it has been sad to witness its descent to Fianna Fail levels of tolerance of sleaze and dishonesty.

Yours etc.

Quiet Mary

It’s not surprising that Fianna Fail is once again back in government. What is surprising is the strength of the surge towards the party as the campaign drew to a close. It seems that voters were simply not willing to take the risk of putting the economy in the hands of a new administration.

It is likely that the new government will consist of Mary Harney and Fianna Fail leaning independents which, in effect, will be a Fianna Fail majority administration.

Mary Harney, who long ago learned to turn a blind eye to the FF way of ‘doing business’, will be keeping very quiet. She will be only too happy to concentrate on her campaign of setting up an American style health system where personal wealth will be the deciding factor in the quality of treatment received.

Hilarious claims of honesty and integrity in Irish banking sector

Watching the Irish performance at Eurovision was very funny. Finding out that the religious fanatic Jerry Falwell disapproved of Tinky Winky, one of the Teletubbies, on the suspicion that he was gay was very, very funny. But the funniest thing I’ve heard in years has to be the report today that the basic currency of (Irish) banking was honesty and integrity. (Also reported in the Irish Independent)

Here’s the background. For over a decade National Irish Bank, in a premeditated and well executed criminal plan, robbed millions from its customers and the state. After six years of investigation by two High Court inspectors (Irish police don’t ‘do’ white collar crime) a report was published outlining the full extent of the serious crimes committed.

In keeping with the great Irish tradition of never prosecuting white collar criminals it was decided to let the entire criminal gang off without charge.

Enter poor old Paul Appley, Director of the hilariously named Office of Corporate Enforcement. Paul’s organisation is just one of dozens of so called ‘enforcement agencies that, for various reasons, are really just toothless tigers with fancy names.

Anyway, to his credit Mr. Appley decided at least to try and get some of the NIB mafia banned from involvement in the management of any company on grounds of unfitness.

But his modest efforts were thwarted by Mr. Justice Roderick Murphy who decided it would be ‘inappropriate’ to make a disqualification order against Kevin Curran who was a regional manager and later head of retail banking at NIB. The judge gave the following reasons.

There were no findings against Mr. Curran in relation to the commission of any improper practices within the bank (‘Improper practices’ is white collar speak for massive theft and tax evasion.).

It appeared that Mr. Curran did not have the authority to bring about a cessation of certain improper practices at the bank (If a senior manager doesn’t have the authority to stop major criminal activity, who has?).

He did not appear to have a line of communication to the audit committee or the Board of Directors (Telephone had yet to be invented?).

He had to work “within organisational difficulties” (Ah, so vague. Perhaps it means – spill the beans and you’re fired?).

Mr. Curran’s defence was that “given that the basic currency in banking was honesty and integrity” his career would come to an end if a disqualification order was made against him.

So, Mr. Curran, who failed to take effective action against serious criminal activity when he was a senior manager at NIB, is claiming that he should not be disqualified because his honesty and integrity might be damaged.

What makes his defence so funny and bizarre is the idea that honesty and integrity are even remotely connected with Irish banking practices.

A tale of two victims

The Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation has started an inquiry into an alleged irregularity at Vodafone (9th item). The police were called in after an internal investigation suspected that a large sum of money may have been misappropriated.

On the face of it there is nothing unusual about this story. Suspected crime; police called in; investigation: If a crime was indeed committed then the next step will be the justice system, possibly resulting in severe penalties perhaps even prison. That’s the way things are done in every accountable democracy in the world.

But Ireland is not an accountable democracy; white collar crime is very rarely investigated by the police. Irish financial institutions, for example, rob their customers on a regular basis with confident impunity. The so called Irish Financial Regulator never acts against these rogue institutions. When caught, they are merely required to return stolen monies.

What is it about this alleged crime that is different from the many other white collar crimes that are never acted on? A quick comparison may help to provide an answer.

On the 16th March last, the RTE Investigative Unit reported that a customer had been defrauded of about €585,000 by Friends First. The company, like Vodafone, carried out an internal investigation and found that a crime had been committed. But unlike Vodafone, they did not report the matter to the police.

Instead, they informed the Financial Regulator who also decided not to inform the police. The Friends First fraudster was quietly disqualified from the provisions of financial services for a period of five years. No action was taken against the company. The customer/victim was ignored.

The crucial difference seems to be that in the Vodafone case the company is the alleged victim whereas in the Friends First fraud it was the company who defrauded the customer. The comparison speaks volumes.

CRH, disappointed with law enforcement

I see a Polish subsidiary of Cement Roadstone Holdings (CRH), Grupa Ozarow has been fined €530,000 (Sub required)by the Polish Competition and Consumer Protection Office.

The massive fine was imposed because of an attempt to delete information from a PC during a raid by the Polish authorities who were investigating cartels in the cement industry. Yes, €530,000 for attempting to interfere with evidence, no messing there.

In Ireland, interfering with evidence is not seen as a serious crime, indeed, such activity has become an integral and acceptable part of our culture of corruption.

CRH has expressed ‘disappointment’ with the fine. The company was also ‘disappointed’ in January 2004 when the European Court of Justice upheld a €2 million fine for its part in a cartel to fix cement prices across Europe.

Obviously, CRH suffers a lot of disappointment when confronted with law enforcement agencies outside Ireland. But I’m sure the company takes great comfort in the special status it enjoys right here at home in Ireland. Here are just two examples.

Environmental disaster:

Over 100,000 tons of waste was illegally dumped on Roadstone land at Dillonstown near Blessington lakes. It is thought that this waste has contaminated an important regional aquifer which was to be used as drinking water.

CRH have been completely absolved of any responsibility for this major environmental disaster by simply claiming they didn’t know anything about it, and the state is happy with that. The Director of Public Prosecutions, the Environmental Protection Agency and Wicklow County Council have all accepted that CRH has no case to answer.

But all is not lost; the Minister for the Environment has warned that landowners who ‘knowingly’ allowed an illegal dump on their land would be prosecuted. Obviously, this doesn’t apply to CRH because they didn’t know.

Massive tax evasion:

Des Traynor, a notorious criminal and bagman to another criminal Charles Haughey, was also chairman of CRH. Traynor operated an illegal bank from the headquarters of CRH at Fitzwilliam Square, Dublin.

The main activity of this mafia type operation was to facilitate massive tax evasion for a golden circle of ‘very important people’. At least eight board members of CRH were on Traynor’s books.

Of course, when the sleazy operation was exposed everybody, including Traynor’s CRH clients, was shocked to learn of such dastardly deeds going on right under their noses.

Needless to say, none of these important gentlemen have ever been questioned by a policeman, sure they didn’t know.

Secrecy protecting the system

Cover up, denial, secrecy, bureaucracy, non accountability, endangering life, corporate arrogance, corporate ruthlessness, political weakness, political cowardice

The above descriptions are just some of the obstacles that face Irish citizens on a daily basis when dealing with arrogant and self-serving bureaucracy in this corrupt state.

Rebecca O’Malley’s case is typical. She was told that a lump on her breast was benign but it turned out to be malignant. The error cost her 14 months in wasted time. She had to have a mastectomy which probably would not have been necessary if that time had not been wasted.

We are now told that the misdiagnosis was the result of “an interpretative human error”. Nobody will be held to account for this misdiagnosis. Neither will anybody be held to account for Mrs. O’Malley’s mental and physical suffering.

Concerned about the possibility that other women could be in danger, Mrs. O’Malley requested that the HSE carry out a review of recent cases. The first reaction of the HSE was to ignore her request and ‘encourage’ her to keep quiet.

This is a crucial point that we have to stop and think about. Somebody in the HSE decided that no action should be taken. Somebody decided that there was something of a higher importance than the health and possibly the lives of approximately 300 women.

Somebody decided that it was better to risk the health of these women rather than admit that an error had been made. That person/s should be named and shamed; he/she/they should be hounded from office and never again allowed to hold a position of responsibility. Because Ireland is a corrupt state, this will not happen.

Already, the usual strategies are being activated to protect the various interests. The first internal investigation is a whitewash, nobody has been held accountable.

Harney has now ordered another internal investigation which should get her over the election. This ‘investigation’ will also be a whitewash. We will get the usual waffle – ‘systems error’, ‘must never allow this to happen again’, ‘new procedures’, blah blah.

The person/s who decided to keep the original scandal a secret will still be there, in the system, protected by the system.

Tinky Winky – Guilty

Humour, I really believe is the best medicine. You just cannot beat a good belly laugh for dispelling the blues. And sometimes reality or perhaps mad reality provides the best laughs.

Most people, after they depart this existence will only be remembered by their friends and family. Some will be remembered because they achieved greatness but leading US conservative evangelist Rev Jerry Falwell, who died yesterday, will be remembered because he believed that one of the Teletubbies; Tinky Winky was homosexual.

Jeez, this coming after Ireland’s Fr. Ted performance at the Eurovision is just too much. You just couldn’t make this stuff up.