Author: Anthony

Legislation on a stream of consciousness

I see we have yet another critically important bill being rushed through the Dail so that our esteemed leaders won’t miss out on their traditional St. Patrick’s Day global junkets.

The Criminal Justice Bill will change the law on such critical issues as mandatory sentencing and the right to silence yet it is to receive only five hours of Dail time.

The Labour party’s justice spokesman, Brendan Howlin, described this type of rushed legislation (5th item)as being “like a stream of consciousness from Justice Minister, Michael McDowell. The ideas he has overnight, present themselves in amendments.”

Howlin claims that McDowell looks at whatever is in the newspapers and legislates accordingly. For example, in response to the recent spate of gun murders McDowell’s proposes that a gun murder suspect can be held for seven days but as Howlin points out, if someone is butchered with a knife the holding period is still only 24 hours.

The god of ruthless greed

Prof Ray Kinsella is on the faculty of the Smurfit Graduate School of Business and is author of the forthcoming study “Regulation, Corporate Governance and Ethics” – He is also a man who has no idea what he’s talking about.

Writing in the Irish Times on 1st March last in response to the controversy concerning staff numbers at the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement (ODCE), Prof. Kinsella made the following assertions.

“The ODCE was established in 2001 against the backdrop of a perceived culture of “non-compliance” within parts of Ireland Inc.”

What the Prof calls a ‘perceived culture of non compliance” was and is a culture of widespread fraud and criminality that Irish authorities have steadfastly refused to challenge. The New York Times was not exaggerating when it recently described Dublin as the ‘Wild West’ of European finance.

“The ODCE is a crucial component in an entirely transformed regulatory landscape in Ireland.”

Clearly, the Prof. operates in a mental twilight zone. The regulatory landscape has indeed been transformed but to the advantage of white collar criminals. We learned recently, for example, that the Competition Authority (3rd item) consumed all its resources over a three year period investigating just one case in one industry. Not much to fear from this toothless tiger.

Recently, the ODCE itself, which operates on a laughable budget of €5 million, very politely asked 900 (yes, 900) company directors if they wouldn’t mind paying pack loans that they had illegally obtained from their firms. In a real democracy these law breakers would be taking instructions from a prison guard.

“The Financial Regulator, whose principles-based model is in sharp contrast to the over-prescriptive and fragmented US system.”

Fintan O’Toole, writing in 2004, analyses this principles based model in which Roger Acton, national director of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants claimed that a system based on “broad principles backed up by strong codes of ethics” is superior to the American system that puts white collar criminals behind bars. As O’Toole puts it

“The Irish system works, apparently, because, since there are no rules, breaches of the rules are extremely rare.”

A clue to the professor’s somewhat bizarre and naïve understanding of the Irish business sector can, perhaps, be more sympathically understood by his closing remarks where he invokes the ethical business values of Islam and the Jews as a basis for corporate compliance.

These cultures/religions may indeed live by such standards but there is no doubt that, for the most part, the Irish business sector worships and obeys only one deity – The god of ruthless greed.

Meanwhile, people are dying

The chief executive of the HSE, Prof Brendan Drumm has announced yet another task force charged with the mission of reducing the incidence of MRSA in hospitals by 30 per cent over the next five years.

This is sure to be followed by a cabal of committees; a conundrum of very expensive consultants topped off by the inevitable and most terrible monster of them all – a tribunal.

Meanwhile, people are dying.

Wondering…

“Mr. Libby did not tell the truth to the system. If someone doesn’t tell the truth to the system everyone suffers. The legal system suffers because you don’t know what the actual facts are and frankly lots of other people suffer since when you don’t know what the truth is people draw all sorts of conclusions.”

This quote is from special prosecutor, Patrick Fitzgerald in response to the verdict that found Lewis ‘Scooter’ Libby guilty of obstructiing justice and perjury.

I often wonder, (yes, yes, I know, I have a sad life), but anyway, I often wonder what Irish politicians and civil servants think when they read about how justice is seen to be done in real democracies.

Are they genuinely oblivious to the stark fact that Ireland is the only Western ‘democracy’ that doesn’t actually arrest, charge and jail its political and big business criminals through the judicial system.

Do they genuinely believe that the very expensive and shambolic system of tribunals will ever deliver justice?

Do they ever wonder why numerous powerful people who obstruct justice and perjure themselves on a regular basis are not held to account?

Do they ever wonder who made the decision that prevents Irish police from investigating certain areas of society such as the body politic and financial institutions?

Do they have any idea of the damage done to the credibility of the State as a whole by their absolute refusal to take effective action against the disease of corruption?

I wonder…Do they wonder…?

Crying (out) for justice

I cried while watching the Dean Lyons story on RTEs excellent Scannal programme yesterday.

The tears were provoked by the dignified but anguished words of Dean Lyons’ mother as she pleaded for justice for her son and family. The tears were coupled with a deep anger at the realisation that she will never get justice because she lives in a corrupt state, a state that utilises all its powers and spares no expense in protecting itself against citizens who demand and deserve justice. It is a state whose police force is totally discredited and yet still enjoys the full support of all the main political parties.

Dean Lyons was an innocent man set up by the police. While they were pursuing Mr. Lyons for a double murder he did not commit another two people were brutally murdered by a man who is almost certainly the real killer. This man, Mark Nash admitted to the first two murders and was able to give exact details to the police that only they and the killer could have known.

Dean Lyons, a well known Walter Mitty character, only gave details after he was led on by the investigating police. But even after obtaining the confession from Mark Nash the police still pursed the innocent Dean Lyons.

As Jim Cusack, the then security correspondent of the Irish Times, said on the programme:

“There’s an extraordinary degree of arrogance and even stupidity at a high level in the force and there are people there who are making ridiculous decisions and instead of confronting the reality of what happened, their preference was to try and ignore it and hope it would go away.”

The families of the four murdered people lost out, the family of Dean Lyons lost out, the credibility of the justice system lost out, the body politic lost out because of its failure to demand an acceptable level of professionalism from our police force and the State itself lost out through its inability/unwillingness to provide a basic justice system for its citizens.

But in true banana republic fashion, the State has promoted all the senior police officers connected with the case. There are times when all you can do is cry.

Bloggers – Howling at the moon

The Blog Awards last Saturday night were a memorable occasion. It was fascinating to meet and listen to the ‘real life’ people behind the various blogs. I say listen because I have to admit I am not a blogger, not a real one anyway. I was lost to a good extent when conversation turned to the technical side of things and I have never been bitten by the bug of surfing through the blogosphere.

Gavin (my nephew) over at Gavinsblog and The Story, set up and maintains Public Inquiry. He is also a source of great encouragement and inspiration, especially when I’m suffering from a serious bout of procrastination. The bottom line is that I see blogging as a means of getting across the message on Irish corruption. Doing this on a public forum forces me to think carefully about quality of writing and accuracy of content, and thus, I hope, improve my writing/communications skills.

Was it coincidence, I wonder, that the event occurred on the night of a lunar eclipse? Do such astronomical events trigger the bloggers psyche onto a higher astral plane? (All queries to the event organizer, Damien Mulley, who was universally and deservedly acclaimed on the night).

Certainly, the ‘after’ socializing at the aptly named ‘Howling at the Moon’ pub/nightclub would indicate that there is some truth in the idea. I was anxious about this part of the night as I was obviously the ‘most senior’ member of our party and knew I would not be comfortable in the standard nightclub environment.

But Howling at the Moon turned out to be an experience in itself. A four storey Alice in Wonderland type labyrinth of oversize furniture, massive chandeliers, outsize (real) plants and heavy velvet curtains created a Victorian like setting for the large, buzzing but not crushing crowd The setting made it possible to enjoy the music but still engage in good conversation and the craic.

As I mentioned, the whole experience was a memorable one and I certainly look forward to next year’s event.

Be very afraid

For some time now Karlin Lillington of the Irish Times has been writing and warning about the State’s draconian data retention laws. Under this legislation the State can retain details, but not the content, of every phone, mobile and fax call for three years.

The legislation was, in the best traditions of a banana republic, imposed rather than by open democratic debate and introduced in virtual secrecy.

Now Digital Rights Ireland is challenging the legislation. According to DRI, this type of monitoring is a breach of Irish citizens’ rights to privacy and is a complete reversal of the assumption that people are innocent until proven guilty.

So, should we be worried? Most certainly, under the legislation the Gardai are making an incredible 10,000 requests a year for access to information on innocent citizens.

It would also be wise to remember that the legislation was introduced by a Justice Minister who has no scruples about leaking confidential police files that can destroy the good name of an innocent citizen.

Celtic Tiger on a hiding to nothing

Bertie Ahern’s performance in the Dail yesterday clearly demonstrates that he has no idea what he’s talking about.

He expressed surprise that the Office of Corporate Enforcement would need 20 extra staff to the 35 it already employs. He seems to be ignorant of the fact that corruption in Irish corporate life is practically endemic.

The very fact that ODCE is looking for extra staff so that it can take action in more than 500, mostly criminal cases, should be a strong indicator that something is seriously wrong. He said ODCE would have to wait its turn because the priority was to appoint more labour inspectors.

He seems to be ignorant of the fact that these labour inspectors were promised over three years ago in response to the Gama case.

During this case, which involved slave labour and the unauthorised ‘transfer’ by Gama management of €30 million of workers pay to a secret bank account in Holland, it was found that there were only 21 badly trained and for the most part legally powerless labour inspectors to watch out for the rights of nearly 2 million workers.

He seems to be ignorant of how embarrassing it is, that one on the wealthiest countries in the world cannot appoint sufficient staff to ensure workers are not exploited.

He seems to be ignorant of the fact that if rampant corruption in the corporate sector is not properly dealt with then the Celtic Tiger is on a hiding to nothing.

Killing the Golden Goose

There was a glowing account of California tech firm SanDisk in last Friday’s Irish Times. The firm set up in Ireland in April 2005 and within eight months had taken in revenues approaching €762 million and, according to the article, had “helped boost employment in Ireland.

But the firm had no direct employees whatsoever in 2005 and yet its newly established Irish base accounted for nearly half of SanDisk’s revenue of $.2.3 billion for that year. Since last April the firm has increased its staff from 12 to 35, hardly a massive boost to national employment.

All very odd and mysterious until TCD Prof. Anton Murphy enlightened everybody on RTEs This Week programme last Sunday. (First item) In effect, SanDisk, along with numerous other multi-nationals, is using Ireland as a profit/tax laundering base to avoid paying billions in tax obligations.

It should be emphasized that there is nothing illegal about these activities but as Prof. Murhpy says they are giving Ireland a Cayman Islands type financial reputation and could eventually “kill the golden goose that’s laying plenty of golden eggs here.”

Personally, if I was a Cayman Islands citizen I would consider it an insult to be associated with the ‘Wild West’ financial culture of Ireland.

In an echo back to the DIRT and Ansbacher scandals, Prof. Murphy says that the Government, political parties, the IDA and other State agencies are effectively colluding in this profit laundering but because of various short term interests nobody is saying anything – Why am I not surprised?

Powerless warning

Hilarious to witness the Competition Authority flexing its scrawny muscle in a warning to Food Drinks Industry Ireland (FDII) and the Irish Auctioneers’ and Valuers’ Institute. The authority has warned the two groups about recent indications of price rises.

The warning is hilarious because we know from the most recent investigation into the cartel at Irish Ford Dealers Association that the authority can only afford to carry out one investigation at a time. That particular investigation consumed all the authority’s resources over a three year period.

Despite the best efforts of staff at the Competition Authority they have no hope of dealing with the greed and skullduggery that is virtually endemic throughout Ireland unless they are properly funded