Category: Body Politic

Pat Rabbitte: Desperately ill citizens are just trying it on?

Councillors get pay-offs of up to €64,000 (Disappointment money).

Right wing (formally left wing socialist) politician Pat Rabbitte was on the Marian Finucane Show yesterday morning defending the Government’s ruthless treatment of those who desperately need but are being refused medical cards.

His overall opinion seems to be that people are simply trying it on, trying to put one over on the system and the government. In effect, they’re lying.

His approach is backed up by his strong opinion that such services are no longer possible due to the country’s dire financial circumstances.

(Councillors get pay-offs of up to €64,000 disappointment money)

Rabbitte:

I talked to James Reilly last week and he told me that there was never (heavy emphasis on ‘never’) a case where somebody phoned somebody who was the mother of a Down’s syndrome child to say, had the condition recovered or whatever was alleged (heavy emphasis on ‘alleged’) every day during the election campaign. He said he was satisfied that it never happened.

The clear suggestion here is that these are false claims leaked to the media as part of a political smear campaign against the Government coalition parties.

Marian Finucane responded by saying she heard a spokesperson for Down’s syndrome say that it had happened.

So, who do we believe, politicians whose default position is to lie or the Down’s syndrome spokesperson?

Rabbitte:

All kinds of things were alleged and urban myths grew up over the course of the campaign. No doubt some of them are true but no doubt some of them are not true.

A Dr. Ciara Kelly was on the panel and she challenged Rabbitte’s views. She related a case where a 7 year-old child with leukemia was contacted by officials to check about her condition.

Rabbitte:

Is it unreasonable given the straits we’re in that the situation ought to be examined. As the figures show, there are quite obviously a number of people who didn’t even bother engaging to reply.

(Councillors get pay-offs of up to €64,000 (Disappointment money).

This is a change of tack by Rabbitte. He’s now attacking the small number of people who failed to follow up with their claim for a medical card, possibly out of sheer frustration and stress.

Dr. Kelly responded:

I had patients who didn’t bother to reply as you put it. They were too sick, terminally ill or had learning disabilities. It’s unfair to describe them as not bothering to apply.

Rabbitte:

The fact of the matter is that we’re in the most difficult economic circumstances that we have ever been in and that every area of government expenditure has to be probed in order to try and keep the country viable.

(Councillors get pay-offs of up to €64,000 (Disappointment money).

Sinn Fein: Will they cooperate with the corrupt political/administrative system?

It is now almost certain that Sinn Fein will be part of the next government and that means – decision time.

Will they accept power and cooperate with our corrupt political/administrative system?

Labour in 1992, the Progressive Democrats, the Green Party and Labour again in 2011 all decided to cooperate with the corrupt system in order to reap the benefits of power rather than challenge the rotten system for the good of Ireland and its people.

I hope Sinn Fein resist the temptation but I fear they will not.

Alan Shatter: A pompous, self-regarding, egotistic arsehole

I felt physically sick as I listened and watched that little prick Alan Shatter preen himself in front of my parliament and announce ‘his decisions’, on how he was going to disperse my money.

The €70,000 so called disappointment money for ministers who retire or, like Shatter, find themselves forced out of office for incompetence or worse, is nothing short of shame money granted to the incompetents by a corrupt body politic.

Any human with even a smidgen of decency, with even a hint of morality would make a discreet phone call to quickly disassociate themselves from the taint of such a disgusting payment.

But Shatter is not a decent human by any measure. He’s nothing but a pompous, self-regarding egotistic arsehole.

Like many, I thought the prick was going to make a significant announcement in front of Leinster House, that perhaps he was going to help clean up Irish politics by resigning.

But no, this excuse for a public representative cynically stretched out his ego circus for two days before telling the nation of his ‘decision’.

Have a look at the prick’s face as he informed the nation that he had decided to keep the severance payment before announcing that he was going to donate our money to his favourite charity.

This was supposed to be his big dramatic moment, when the media and nation would gasp in shock at his decision to keep the money quickly followed by deep gratitude and admiration for his unstinting generosity.

It seems, however, that his tiny, principles free brain wasn’t given a copy of the script and so, instead of looking like a great national hero, we witnessed a moronic sneer spread across the prick’s face.

All hail the generous idiot

Wolf of Wall Street: Getting it wrong about Ireland

The real Wolf of Wall Street, Jordan Belfort, is advising Irish citizens to quit the blame game.

Here’s some of his advice:

One of the messages I want to say to the Irish people is that you can’t blame yourselves.

You’ve got to say it’s okay, we made a mistake and we are going to learn from that and grow stronger from that.

Yeah, people screwed up but they screwed up all over the world so you owe it to your children and your grandchildren to not dwell on that.

And remember it wasn’t Ireland where people overspent. You are no different from the United States and Spain and England.

The problem with Mr. Belfort’s advice is that it’s based on ignorance about what’s really going on in Ireland.

Here’s the minimum Mr. Belfort needs to learn.

All our problems were caused by our corrupt political/administrative system.

Yes, the global financial crisis had a massive impact but it could have been contained and managed if we had a functional democracy.

Mr. Belfort is completely unaware that our corrupt system is not into learning lessons from the disastrous consequences of its actions. To do so would not be in its interests.

The corrupt system did wobble a bit when the global financial crisis hit but it is now firmly back in the saddle of power and ruthlessly doing what it does best – screwing Irish citizens into the ground.

Unwittingly, while describing his own descent into a life of debauchery and fraud, Mr. Belfort pinpoints exactly how our political/administrative system evolved into a corrupt monster.

You don’t lose your moral compass overnight. You take tiny steps where you become desensitised.

This has been happening in Ireland since the corrupt/criminal politician Haughey came to power in 1979. Tiny step after tiny step until eventually the country fell over the cliff in 2008.

The first time you step over the line you feel bad and try to make things right again but then the next time you take that step further and further and before you know it you are doing things you never thought you would do.

This accurately describes the reaction/attitude of our politicians/administrators. Politicians and officials are now at a stage where they don’t even bother to make up excuses anymore.

They are supremely confident that accountability/transparency is a joke. They know they can do pretty much as they please, even break the law, which they do now on a regular basis.

I know myself now if you create wealth without ethics or integrity its not going to last.

The disaster for Irish citizens is that while the political sector is an ethics and integrity free zone it is, apparently, going to last well into the foreseeable future.

Leo Varadkar storms into the mid 1980s

Congratulations to Leo Varadkar.

Riding on his trusty steed the young buck has stormed into the mid 1980s, looked around and immediately summed up the dire situation – I quote.

The Department of Justice is not fit for purpose, it is clear that big changes are required.

We need cultural change. You know, too much in Ireland, and it’s not just a Garda issue, we still have the culture of doing favours, the nod and the wink, the use of discretion and those types of things.

Oh Jesus, save me. I’m going weak at the knees to witness such incisive analysis, such vision, and such cutting edge assessment of what’s happening in our country.

Why, I ask, why did we have to wait so long for the chosen one, for our saviour?

And of course, it brings me back to the mid 1980s too.

The time I realised that the banking sector was robbing customers and the State with total impunity, they still are, bless them.

It was the time I realised that the criminal Haughey was corrupt and the principal carrier of the disease that would eventually infect every level of Irish society but in particular the political, administrative and financial sectors.

I wonder how long it will be before Leo arrives in the 21st century?

Who know, but when he does he’ll see, I’m sure, with equal clarity, that every government department is unfit for purpose, that civil servants and particularly senior civil servants no longer serve Ireland and its people but are loyal to the anti principles of arrogance, incompetence and corruption.

But most of all he will see that the disease of corruption that has infected our law enforcement and other regulatory agencies is carried deep within the system in which he lives – the body politic.

Michael Martin and the steel in his spine

Some quotes from Pat Kenny’s show last Friday.

Paddy Duffy on how he judges politicians.

I really judge politicians on how clear they are on issues and how they deal with them.

What? Surely this is not the man who worked for the bumbling, grossly inarticulate, chronically incompetent Bertie Ahern?

Terry Prone on Michael Martin

This is a man who writes history, this is a man who care about history and the history of his party. He will go down in flames if he’s forced to go down, he’ll fight to the last. And he’s quite a gentle man but his spine is steel.

It’s difficult to believe that Prone has spent her entire working life mixing with incompetent, cowardly and self-serving politicians like Martin and still cannot see what’s right in front of her face.

Elaine Byrne and judge Nolan: Clueless regarding the reality of white-collar crime

What do corruption expert Elaine Byrne and the Anglo trial judge have in common?

Both of them are utterly clueless about the reality of how things are done in our corrupt state.

Byrne tells us that our poor white-collar crime laws must be overhauled.

Despite writing an enormous tome on the subject of corruption she remains blissfully unaware that it is the State itself that is corrupt.

It is the State that ensures that those who inhabit the Golden Circle are protected from the laws that are rigorously enforced against ordinary citizens.

She seems blissfully unaware that the State will never, ever act against white-collar crime because the State and the white-collar fraternity are joined at the hip; they are both members of the same corrupt club.

The evidence for this fact is overwhelming and is outlined in great detail in her book.

Judge Martin Nolan seems to be similarly clueless of the connection between white-collar crime and the corrupt political/administrative system that (mis) governs the country.

We can see this from his comments.

I am totally surprised that the regulator did not give some warning to Anglo Irish Bank.

It seems to me incredible that the regulator did not take advice from other state agencies. I find it incredible that red lights didn’t go off in the office.

Like Ms. Byrne he seems to be totally unaware that the so-called Financial Regulator/Central Bank does not regulate at all when it comes to white-collar crime – ever.

I don’t mean light touch regulation; I mean zilch, zero, Nada regulation when it comes to crime within the Golden Circle.

To be genuinely surprised by the behaviour of the so-called Financial Regulator judge Nolan would have to be completely unaware of the decades long failure of the various so-called Financial Regulators to act against white-collar criminals.

And perhaps that is the case, perhaps he is so unaware.

Copy to:
Elaine Byrne
Financial Regulator

Prendergast: Living in a parallel universe

It’s hilarious to see Labour MEP Phil Prendergast call for the replacement of Eamon Gilmore with Joan Burton.

Prendergast, in common with almost every TD in the body politic, operates in a parallel universe where she believes that replacing one conservative, non-visionary leader with another conservative, non-visionary leader will, somehow, stop the corrupt political/administrative system from screwing ordinary citizens into the ground.

Garda corruption: The elephant in the room must be ignored

Despite the best efforts of the Minister for Justice, Alan Shatter, the Garda Commissioner, Martin Callinan, the Government and others it has now been established that there was widespread corruption within the Gardai in relation to the handling of the penalty points system.

Alan Shatter and Martin Callinan are also guilty of attempting to cover up the corruption. In a functional democracy such behaviour would result in immediate dismissals, a proper police investigation and likely prosecutions.

Let me repeat that:

In a functional democracy Alan Shatter and Martin Callinan would be immediately dismissed from office and become the focus of a police investigation.

In a functional democracy those police officers that acted corruptly would also find themselves out of a job and under investigation.

But because Ireland is an intrinsically corrupt state, that is, a state that actively tolerates, facilitates and protects the corrupt, no action whatsoever will be taken.

The response to this latest incidence of corruption is exactly the same response to every other incidence of corruption over the past several decades.

Our Prime Minister:

The Taoiseach expressed confidence in the Garda Commissioner and the Minister for Justice. He claims that the dysfunctionality and inefficiency in the force is now being addressed.

This is to completely ignore the fact that corruption has occurred.

The Garda Inspectorate, Robert Olsen:

It’s a very minor piece of the huge remit that the Garda Siochana has and it kind of slipped by the wayside.

This is to completely ignore the fact that corruption has occurred.

The Opposition:

Various opposition spokespersons have called for apologies and resignations but nobody has called for a criminal investigation

This is to completely ignore the fact that corruption has occurred.

It doesn't matter who's in power when the entire body politic is corrupt

The following quotes are taken from an Oireachtas debate on October 22 2008.

The current Minister for Justice, Alan Shatter, is strongly criticising the then Minister for Justice, Dermot, Ahern, after the publication of the Morris Tribunal which dealt with corruption in the Gardai.

The point to note is that when a body politic is corrupt, as ours is, it doesn’t matter who’s in power when corruption is uncovered.

The sitting minister simply waffles in defence of the corrupt system while his opposite number makes the obligatory noises about accountability and transparency.

When power changes the roles are simply reversed and the corrupt system remains firmly in place.

Everybody knows and obeys the golden rule – You may waffle all day about corruption but you must never, ever actually act on the matter as that would be damaging to the interests of all who prosper within the corrupt system.

Shatter’s comments are, effectively, comments about himself.

(My emphasis in the quotes)

My only conclusion is that the Minister is a political gurrier unfit to hold ministerial office.

The speech delivered by the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform in the House this morning and the attack by him on a Member of this House and a former Member was a disgrace.

To make that his main offering on the Morris report shows the level of political stupidity to which the Minister can descend.

I was the Fine Gael spokesperson on justice in the 12-month period leading in to the formation of the Morris tribunal… and formed my own view that there was a need for a public inquiry.

I emphasised on that occasion the importance of such an inquiry… in the public interest in order to restore confidence in the force.

I said at the time that these matters should not have been left festering.

On that occasion, the then Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform kicked essentially to touch.

I then made the point in this House that a banana republic would not deal with an issue as serious as this in such a manner.

In my view, the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Deputy Dermot Ahern, is not only unfit to hold the office he holds, but he should resign.

(His) Arrogance is extraordinary.