Category: Body Politic

Why should citizens remain loyal to a corrupt state?

Letter in today’s Irish Times.

This is a letter from a man who has been betrayed by our corrupt political system.

The key question he asks is:

Why should I go on being an honest taxpayer…to pay for the mistakes of corrupt politicians, greedy bankers and golden circles who scammed us since so-called independence?

How this question is answered will decide whether Irish citizens get a new republic free from corrupt gombeen politicians or sink ever deeper into poverty and despair.

Sir,

I filled in the online return for the local property tax on the same day that I received the Revenue’s letter telling me about my liability.

In good faith, I also gave it my bank account details so that it could deduct the amount due “no earlier than 21 July 2013” as stated on the website.

I have just been to my bank account and found that it deducted the property tax immediately.

Why should I go on being an honest taxpayer, coughing up hard-earned money for more than 40 years of my working life, paying every cent (and pingin before the euro) in income tax and PRSI and VAT and Dirt and youth levies and health levies and all the other taxes and levies and deductions, and now this house tax and the water tax next, in order to pay for the mistakes of corrupt politicians, greedy bankers and golden circle who have scammed us since so-called “independence”? Not to mention them putting their grubby fingers into my pension fund and levying that too.

Why? Why? Why?

If ageing, middle-class, quiescent, blameless citizens like me, who have never scammed a penny nor hidden a single nixer from the taxman, can get as deeply angry as I am right now at this final straw, then what hope is there that we can sort out the financial mess?

The very roots of participatory democracy are threatened when people like me finally make up our minds to give up on voting and paying tax and all the other duties that come with citizenship.

We are in perilous times indeed.

Yours, etc,
Tim O’Neill
Dublin 7.

Another attack by the State on freedom of expression

It is not at all surprising that the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) is introducing draconian rules to further control the media by banning broadcasters from expressing a personal opinion.

The (free) media is, after all, the only power within the state that has the power and will to investigate and expose political and business corruption.

All so-called State law enforcement authorities, including the police, are entirely under the control of the body politic. We only have to look around to see how damaging that is for Ireland and its people.

RTE welcomed the new restrictions, which again, is not surprising as the station is already a fully compliant government broadcaster.

The response by TV3, which is probably seen by politicians as the most dangerous (free) media outlet, best sums up this latest government attack on freedom of expression.

The State now seeks through its regulator to control content on channels it does not own, limiting news and current affairs programming to arid lists of facts.

It prevents non-State broadcasters from having a different view from the State and thereby restricts essential roles of media as watchdog, as court of public opinion and as provider of informed analysis.

At best this is unnecessary ‘regulatory creep’, more harshly it could be called state censorship.

If such a code was introduced in countries like Russia or China it would be regarded as an attack on free media.

Corrupt system still supporting the vermin

In an article about the greed and hypocrisy of developer Sean Dunne Sunday Times journalist Justine McCarthy accurately outlines the complete failure of the state to reform the corrupt system that allows low life like Dunne to breed like rats.

The same support system that rendered them untouchable during the boom still prevails.

There has been no public banking inquiry, no debate about the probity of a legal system churning out gagging writs to suppress information; no investigation of the media’s sycophantic coverage of the property market and its players; no criticism of estate agents who acted hand in glove with developers; no sanctions for auditors who signed off on Walter Mitty-esque financial accounts; nobody from the ‘golden circle’ sent to jail.

Just a country full of worn-out citizens who have been punished, beyond endurance in some cases, for believing what they were told by Establishment Ireland.

The support system Ms. McCarthy speaks of is, to make it clear, the corrupt political/administrative system that has destroyed our country.

I would dispute just one detail with Ms. McCarthy.

The (corrupt) system that supports the vermin who rule our country is not a product of the boom years.

The rotten system has been sucking the life-blood out of Ireland and its people since, at least, 1979 when the criminal politician Haughey gained power.

New prison wing for Leinster House?

From the Attic Archives.

Letters to the Editor. Irish Times September 29 2003.

Madam,

Another good week for the Oireachtas (on holidays, of course).

A sitting TD in jail for contempt of court, a sitting TD convicted of tax offences, a sitting TD involved in a drink driving offence, an ex TD facing possible perjury charges.

It really strengthens one’s respect for our parliamentarians: aren’t they just worth the salary increases and benchmarking.

One has to worry if there will be enough left to fill the benches by the end of the year.

Maybe it’s time to add a prison wing to Leinster House to make sure that we can make up the numbers for the vote!

Yours etc.,

Michael Jeffers
Co Kildare

I wonder who that ex TD was facing possible perjury charges? The only thing we can say with absolute certainty is that no such charge was ever brought forward.

In Ireland the crime of perjury only applies to the peasantry.

And that prison wing idea – there’s plenty of idle builders around these days?

Ireland: A land of political plunder

A recent letter in the Irish Independent.

We must remember as well, that no formal banking inquiry has been undertaken, to let us know what actually really happened on that fateful night in September 2008.

This must not be swept under the carpet. We must demand an immediate independent inquiry.

I could not agree more with Brendan O’Connor when he states how historians would look back on this era, and say “how did people allow that to happen?”.

As Frederic Bastiat once said:

“When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men living together in society, they create for themselves, in the course of time, a legal system that authorises it and a moral code that glorifies it.”

This is just what we have allowed to happen.

Olivia Hazell,

Co Kildare

Fingleton: The most important question was not asked

The RTE documentary on Michael Fingleton should not have been about Fingleton. Nor should it have been about what was, effectively, his private bank, Irish Nationwide.

It should have been about those responsible for permitting ruthless and greedy individuals like Fingleton to do pretty much as they pleased.

It should have been about the abject failure of the Central Bank and the now defunct Ifrsa to rein in this rogue banker.

Fingleton was just a greedy banker. He was good at manipulating people and the political/business environment in which he operated.

In that respect he was no different from all the other greedy bankers who were allowed to suck the lifeblood out of the country for generations to come.

Instead of broadcasting sensationalised documentaries that seem to be designed solely to trigger the anger of viewers the media should be ruthlessly focusing on those responsible for creating an environment where people like Fingleton can thrive.

That secretive, sleazy financial environment was created and is still strongly maintained by our corrupt political system.

So-called regulatory authorities like the Central Bank do not act independently of the political system.

There may be no direct instructions (although I suspect that there are) from politicians to regulators but over many decades a culture has evolved whereby regulators ‘know’ what is expected of them.

This is not just my opinion. The actions and non actions of regulators over many decades points clearly to a policy of looking the other way when it comes to white collar crime.

In Ireland it is not a case of soft-touch regulation, it is a case of no regulation whatsoever.

Here’s one of the very few references to the Regulator from the documentary.

So here we are nine years before Irish Nationwide goes bust, the Regulator has a report highlighting deficiences in its systems and practices and at the same time the Society is plunging headlong into ever larger developer deals, growing at a worrying pace.

This was just a building society but it wasn’t stopped.

So Irish Nationwide was going rotten, the Regulator knew it was going rotten. The failure to act ultimately cost Irish citizens €5.4 billion.

Why was it allowed to happen?

This is the question every journalist and media outlet in the country should be relentlessly demanding an answer to from those in power.

An irresponsible Central Bank still favouring the rich and powerful

Michael Fingleton’s lavish expenses and his refusal to return a €1 million bonus is the thing that will anger taxpayers the most according to an Irish Independent report today.

Regrettably, this is probably true.

Regrettably because the full force of public anger should focus on the betrayal by the so-called regulatory authority responsible for reigning in low-life individuals like Fingleton – The Central Bank.

In 2000 the Central Banks own consultants highlighted the lack of controls within Irish Nationwide when lending money.

Similar concerns were raised five years later in 2005 but no action was taken.

The figures are nothing short of incredible. Irish Nationwide advanced loans totalling €17 billion between 2003 and 2007.

Remember, this institution wasn’t even a bank, it was a bog standard building society.

Even with the very minimum of deliberation and paperwork, (which, apparently was the case) Fingleton must have been working 24/7 to deal with the sheer volume of cash flowing out of ‘his’ bank.

All this was done under the totally irresponsible eye of our facilitating Central Bank.

Next to our corrupt political system the Central Bank and other so-called regulatory agencies are principally responsible for the economic disaster visited upon the people of Ireland.

The Central Bank has a long and disgraceful history when it comes to protecting the interests of Ireland and its people.

Practically all decisions and actions/inactions by the Central Bank and other so-called regulatory agencies over the past several decades have benefitted rich and powerful interests while inflicting untold suffering on Irish citizens.

And in case there’s anybody out there labouring under the illusion that this particular leopard has changed its spots – it has not.

There is an ever-increasing body of evidence which suggests that the Central Bank is still operating under the same culture of favouring the rich at the expense of Ireland and its citizens.

Copy to:
Central Bank

The ignorance of corruption that makes us a banana republic

Since the early 1980s I have been writing, some would say ranting, about corruption in Ireland.

One of the things that has always struck me is just how deeply ingrained the corrupt system of government is within our culture.

There was a depressing example of this ignorance of corruption on Today with Pat Kenny last Friday (1st Feb.).

Roisin Shortall, one of the very, very few politicians who holds, understands and has the integrity and courage to stand by democratic standards, bravely fought against a disturbing ignorance displayed by journalist Tom McGurk and former Fine Gael Justice Minister Nora Owen.

The issue under discussion was the parish-pump politics of James Reilly and Brendan Howlin regarding the upgrading of hospitals in their constituencies.

It is clearly evident that McGurk and Owen see nothing wrong with TDs and ministers abusing their power by taking resources from more needy projects in order to bestow favours on their constituents (my emphasis).

Nora Owen: It does look as if both of these hospitals needed work.

Pat Kenny: But Nora, as a former Cabinet minister, let’s be honest, isn’t if expected of you that you deliver for your constituents?

Owen: Yes.

Kenny: Is that right, moral and ethical or is it simply politics?

Owen: Look it, from time immemorial I was victim of it when I was a backbencher. (The culture of politicians competing with each other to claim favours for constituents).

The difficulty that people have now is that there was a commitment by this government that politics wouldn’t be the same as usual.

Shortall: Do you not think that the public has moved beyond politicians in this regard? The whole thing of pork barrel politics has done so much damage to this country.

Owen: These hospitals needed work.

Shortall: Other hospitals need work as well. What this is about is the basis on which decisions are taken in relation to how money is spent in health.

So do you do it by having a prioritisation system where you identify the areas that are most in need or do you engage in parish-pump politics?

Tom McGurk: Why else would we vote for you unless you got our local hospital sorted, that’s what you’re there for, you’ve got nothing else to offer really.

Shortall: Is that what your want Cabinet ministers to do?

McGurk: Yes, it is.

Kenny: Here we have the naked voter, Tom McGurk, saying why would I vote for you unless you can help me.

McGurk: Yes, that’s what you’re there for.

Shortall: Ok, so what happens to some very disadvantaged constituencies where there are huge problems and never had a Cabinet minister?

McGurk: Historically, culturally, traditionally Irish politics has been about patronage.

Shortall: Hasn’t that got us into an awful lot of difficulties?

McGurk: It’s also been very successful.

Shortall: Wouldn’t it be much better if we used the evidence that’s there, where there’s the greatest health need, do it in that transparent way, isn’t that what the public wants us to do?

John Mooney: I think the electorate is having a slightly allergic reaction to this type of activity by FG because it’s reminiscent of FF.

Shortall: Same old, same old.

Owen: The primary care centres that Roisin had sadly to resign over is slightly different from this, these hospitals were in the capital programme list.

What has come out through a freedom of information request is that James Reilly wrote a letter saying he’d like the two hospitals to be moved along the line and then Brendan Howlin’s department approved the €12 million.

The reverse of what Roisin is saying is that once there’s a minister in a constituency that those constituents are going to suffer because no government would be able to make a decision on that.

Shortall: What I’m saying is you do it in an objective and transparent way.

Owen: Yes, but it looks as if this was done in an objective way.

Shortall: when you look at the situation in relation to these two hospitals the agency that’s responsible for deciding on investment in health facilities didn’t know anything about this.

Owen: That’s not true, I checked that out and they did know about it.

Shortall: Well the minutes of the HSE board meeting…interrupted.

Shortall: In other countries they have what they call a resource allocation model that’s agreed, open, objective and transparent.

Owen: Clearly these hospitals got onto that model in 2010.

Shortall: Nora, we don’t have that capital model as you well know.

What determines spending across all government departments is whether there’s a minister there or not. And that means that areas that have far greater need lose out.

Diplomatic passports: For a special 'class' of person?

I contacted the Department of Foreign Affairs regarding the issuing of diplomatic passports.

I requested the name, position and passport date of issue for all current holders of such passports.

This request was refused on the grounds that the information was too voluminous. I was, however, advised that I could submit a Freedom of Information request on the matter.

I also requested the official definition of a diplomatic and an official passport.

In response I was provided with this link which outlines conditions for the issue of such passports which is, effectively:

For the purpose of travelling abroad in connection with official duties on behalf of the State.

Or, the minister may grant a diplomatic passport to:

A person, or one of a class of persons, to whom the Minister considers it appropriate to issue such a passport.

The key words in this last condition are, of course:

One of a class of persons.

This would probably explain why the likes of Mrs. Haughey, wife of the criminal politician, was granted the privilege.

Diplomatic passports: The privileged elite looking after their own

Yet again we witness how the rich and powerful bestow special privileges upon themselves and their cronies in this blighted banana republic.

A report in yesterday’s Sunday Independent tells us that there are 1,900 diplomatic and 7,400 official passports in circulation.

This massive number includes 48 TDs and nearly half the Senate.

I’m trying to find out what an official passport is so in the meantime let’s focus on diplomatic passports.

In functional democracies diplomatic passports are issued to people who have to travel internationally on official or state business.

So my first question is – why the fuck does Maureen Haughey, wife of the tratior and criminal politician possess such a passport?

Is she jetting around the world working her knickers off on behalf of the Irish people, like fuck she is.

This woman has been given this privilege for one simple but disgusting reason – she’s a senior member of the ruling elite of this blighted nation, a ruling elite that ultimately destroyed our country.

Among the privileged to receive these passports are Breda O’Kennedy and Annette Andrews, wives of former Ministers for Foreign Affairs Michael Kennedy and David Andrews.

Again, this is nothing more than the privileged looking after their own.

Apparently, the Minister for Foreign Affairs is going to write to these individuals and politely ask them to give up their privilege which entitles them to:

Certain enhanced priveleges while travelling abroad.

No question of being so ‘undiplomatic’ as to demand or simply cancel the privilege. No, a polite letter from Eamon asking the nice ladies if they wouldn’t mind handing them over.

The report tells us that the ‘revised criteria’ will mean applications will only be approved for those who can demonstrate they need a passport for travel to undertake official business on behalf of the State.

So, the obvioius question is – what criteria was in place prior to now?

Hello, I’m a member of the priveleged ruling elite, please have your man deliver my special passport forthwith and make sure he uses the tradesman entrance.

As usual with banana republics there’s an element of unintended humour in the ‘rules’ governing such perks for the privileged.

These passports may only be used for official and not for personal travel.

The passports are only valid for the period required to perform any particular official role.

Applicants must pledge that the passport will be returned for cancellation should their role change before the document expires.

Given that fact that corruption is endemic within the Irish body politic, that lying, cheating, stealing and gombeenism is the default position of the majority of our ‘representatives’ we may reasonably assume that these ‘rules’ were created as a joke on the long suffering citizens of our banjaxed nation.

Here’s a partial list of the ragbag of gombeens, traitors, imbeciles, and freeloaders who have been issued with a diplomatic passport?

Fianna Fail: Brian Cowen, Barry Cowen, Mary Coughlan, Tony Kileen, Dick Roche, Ned O’Keeffe, Martin Cullen, Ivor Callely.

Sinn Fein: Aengus O’Snodaigh, Padraig MacLochlainn, Trevor O Clochartaigh and Kathryn Reilly.

Fine Gael: Jim O’Keeffe.

Independents: Michael Lowry, Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan, David Norris, Feargal Quinn, Prof. John Crown.

Green Party: Dan Boyle, Mary White.

Copy to:

All political parties and independents
Passport office
Department of Foreign Affairs