Category: Fianna Fail

Brutal reality will stop the denial

So I would ask the media. Look at all of the report. We have enough of this pervasive negativity all the time trying to take a bad interpretation of a report which in fact is supportive of what Government is doing so that we finally get the real message out there.

The message from Cowen to the media is simple – stop telling the truth.

But what is the truth? Well, David McWilliams makes a good stab at it in today’s Irish Independent when he writes that Ireland is staring down the barrel of bankruptcy.

McWilliams analyses all the figures and the brutal truth is that they just do not add up – no matter how many lies Cowen and Lenihan spout.

With a very broad brush here’s the picture I see.

Ireland has never been a real democracy; it has always operated more like a mafia organisation than a modern Western democracy. Citizens sell their votes to the local strongman in return for favours, most of which are services that the ignorant citizen has already paid for through taxes.

This selling and buying of votes eventually corrupted the entire system of politics, state administration, business and the general population. The system was, and still is, all about power, money, who you know and who you can influence.

The great bulk of Irish citizens, because of their political ignorance, were more than happy with this arrangement so long as their particular strong man delivered the goods. But a corrupt society is extremely inefficient and is thus very, very expensive.

This massive cost of corruption was never a problem until recent times, politicians simply dipped into the bottomless pocket of the taxpayer and wrote a cheque for whatever favour was required, for whatever needed to be done to ensure the rotten system trundled along.

That situation would have continued indefinitely if it wasn’t for the global financial tsunami that rocked the planet a few years ago.

Since then we have been desperately trying to convince ourselves and the international community that we are not a corrupt state; that we are, just like most other states, honestly struggling to repair the damage caused by that global crisis to a sound, accountable good quality democracy.

We will fail to convince, Ireland will default on her loans, and the situation will become critical to the point of national crisis.

The reason for this is simple – the taxpayer has no more money – the well is dry, the pocket is empty.

All talk about property tax, water charges, pensions cuts, reform of the public service and so on are nothing more than desperate and doomed to failure strategies to put off the day when denial must end.

Again, broadly speaking, there are only two roads open for the country.

Road one will see Irish citizens reduced to a standard of living/poverty similar to that of the 1950s. In addition to living in poverty Irish citizens will also sheepishly agree to the following conditions.

Continue to pay off massive mortgages and other loans at (corrupt) Celtic Tiger rates.

Continue to bail out corrupt (and still very rich) bankers and developers.

Continue to tolerate a corrupt political system that betrays them time after time in favour of power and enrichment.

Road two will see Irish citizens, after decades of ignorance, finally waking up to what Ireland really is as a country.

They will act to destroy the corrupt political system that has been responsible for the destruction of their country and they will begin the long hard job of building (for the first time in Irish history) a real democracy based on accountability, transparency and the best interests of the Irish people.

Oh, for a, literally, hung parliament.

Letter in Irish Independent.

Astounded by Cowen’s remarks

Astoundingly, while he runs the country down the drain, Brian Cowen says on the news that he is fed up with all the negativity.

Does it remind anybody else of the same words from the bullying, incompetent thug who gave him the job of Finance Minister?

On television Bertie Ahern said that he couldn’t understand why we didn’t all commit suicide (instead of trying to impose some reality on the Fianna Fail financial fantasies).

What would you like us to do, Brian? Emigrate? Ah, it’s already happening. Suicides are also on the increase.

Well done, both of you. Oh, for a, literally, hung parliament.

Dick Barton
Tinahely, Co Wicklow

Senator Mullen: No principle too precious, no law too draconian

Independent Senator, barrister and militant Catholic Ronan Mullen doesn’t really believe that his fellow politician, Senator Callely, did anything wrong by intentionally misrepresenting his normal place of residence for the purpose of claiming allowances.

I find it hard to see where it could be made out that there was a criminal act per se. A person has to be judged according to the law as it stood at the time they did what they did.

There’s certainly a case, however, for tightening up on the law here so that there would be no doubt but that it would be fraud if a person were to over claim on expenses in such a fashion.

This vague response to what is, in real democracies, a serious crime stands in stark contrast to Mullen’s usual absolute moral judgements when it comes to those who defy the rules of his particular god.

For example, he campaigned long and hard to stop the enactment of the Civil Partnership Bill motivated, principally, by the laws laid down by his Catholic god who ruthlessly condemns practicing homosexuals to everlasting hell.

Mullen and other opponents of the bill were (accurately) described by fellow Senators as dressed up bigots.

Mullen was also deeply involved in the recent enactment of a draconian law which makes it a criminal offence to sell a Mass card not authorised by a Catholic bishop.

This law effectively restores an absolute monopoly to the Catholic Church that it had previously enjoyed for centuries until recent times when others began to encroach on the lucrative trade.

Neither has this Catholic politician/barrister any qualms about the fact that this law runs contrary to Article 48 (1) of the European Union’s Charter of Fundamental Rights which states:

Everyone who has been charged shall be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law.

Under this new (religious?) law any person suspected of illegally selling Mass cards is assumed to be guilty until proved innocent.

Those found guilty could face ten years in prison or a €300,000 fine – for selling Mass cards without the permission of a Catholic Bishop.

It’s a case of using a nuclear bomb to crack a nut or to make absolutely sure that anyone silly enough to threaten a very lucrative monopoly are going to be very severely punished.

Mullen’s hypocrisy is typical of those who inhabit the murky world of Irish politics.

When dealing with the dodgy behaviour of a political colleague everything descends into a murky fog of political waffle where accountability is suffocated to death.

Similarly, when it comes to personal political agenda’s no law is too draconian, no principle too precious that it cannot be discarded.

Copy to:
Senator Mullen

Callely found guilty

The Seanad Members Interests Committee made the following findings in their report on the matter of Senator Callely’s expenses claims.

That he had misrepresented his place of residence for the purpose of claiming expenses. It described this as an act of a “serious and grave nature” which Mr. Callely had done “intentionally” and did not act in good faith having regard to all of the circumstances.

Here’s the layman’s translation.

Senator Callely deliberately set out to defraud the taxpayer.

The Committee suspended Callely for 20 days. They could have suspended him for 30 days but obviously concluded that robbing large wads of taxpayer’s money is not really a serious matter.

Measured against the rampant corruption within our political system this is a reasonable conclusion.

Aggressive secularists to join Homosexuals in Hell?

When Fianna Fail Senator Jim Walsh was asked how he was going to vote on the upcoming Civil Partnership Bill he went all coy (Frontline).

I haven’t finally declared yet, he said, there are a number of matters I must first consider before making up my mind, he said.

All in all he sounded very reasonable until he (mistakenly) heard retired Supreme Court judge Catherine McGuinness (who was in the audience) laughing at his contribution.

It was then we witnessed the real Senator Walsh.

This is what we’re being faced with from aggressive secularists… if we want a totalitarian state then we go down this route but we go blindly and I’ll tell you, we’ll live to regret it.

Later, he moved from hysterical to patronising:

If you have a republican philosophy and try to be a good Christian I think you have to recognize that people in same sex relationships do have issues that need to be addressed.

He had nothing to say about his god’s policy of condemning (active) homosexuals to the everlasting fires of Hell.

I suspect, however, that the Senator is in full agreement with the policy and indeed would be happy to see aggressive secularists thrown in as well.

Still no answers on Secretarial Assistants Scheme for former Taoisigh

The Department of the Taoiseach replied to my last email concerning the Secretarial Assistants Scheme for former Taoisigh.

Rather than answering my questions the Department has referred my queries to the Minister for Finance.

I believe my questions are simple and reasonable.

Is the money paid directly to ex Taoisigh to dispense with as they see fit or is the money spent on secretarial salaries and computer equipment costs and then reimbursed to ex Taoisigh after receipts are produced?

Who was responsible for introducing the scheme?

Under what mechanism/law/Act was the scheme introduced?

No standards too low for our greedy ex Taoisigh

Despite being hardened by decades of political corruption, greed and arrogance there are still some events that really shock and disgust me to the core (Irish Independent).

In 2001 somebody thought it would be a good idea to hand out massive payments to former Taoisigh to employ secretaries and buy computer equipment.

According to Cowen the payments are made so that former Taoisigh can:

Carry out a normal range of secretarial duties to support the former Taoisigh in carrying out those aspects of work associated with their former roles which remain after their period in office has ceased.

This, in plain language, is complete and utter bullshit. In my opinion this massive payment is yet another legal scam devised by greedy politicians to enrich themselves at the expense of impoverished taxpayers.

The first question that comes to mind is how the criminal Haughey qualified for payments of €199,887 under the scheme between 2001 and his death in 2006.

The criminal retired in 1992 so how could he have incurred expenses which are specifically designated to cover the first five years after leaving office?

If there’s no time limit on the payment why didn’t Liam Cosgrave, who served as Taoiseach between 1973 and 1977, receive his share of the loot?

It’s hardly surprising that low grade Fianna Fail politicians like Haughey, Reynolds and Ahern have no scruples about accepting these payments but many Irish citizens (foolishly) believe that the likes of Bruton and Fitzgerald operate to higher ethical standards.

This scandal demonstrates that they are perfectly at home in the Fianna Fail low standards sewer.

I rang the Department of the Taoiseach with some questions on this matter and was met with the standard ‘put it in writing’ tactic.

I wrote:

To Whom It May Concern:

According to a report in the Sunday Independent of 20th June last the Department of the Taoiseach pays a special allowance to former Taoisigh to cover the salaries of secretaries and computer equipment.

I would be grateful if you could answer the following questions.

Is the money paid directly to ex Taoisigh to dispense with as they see fit or is the money spent on secretarial salaries and computer equipment costs and then reimbursed to ex Taoisigh after receipts are produced?

According to the newspaper article the initiative was introduced by the Department of Finance in August 2001.

Who was responsible for introducing the scheme?

Under what mechanism/law/Act was the scheme introduced?

Yours sincerely.

Anthony Sheridan

The Department replied with an acknowledgement and informed me that my email would be brought to the attention of the Taoiseach as soon as possible.

My reply to this (dismissive) email:

Thank you for the acknowledgement.

I would appreciate if you could answer the following question.

Is the Taoiseach the only person with access to the information required to answer my relatively simple questions?

Yours sincerely

Anthony Sheridan

I received a long and detailed reply from the Department full of useless and irrelevant information.

My reply:

Thank you for the interesting email. I would be grateful if you could answer the following questions.

Is the money paid directly to ex Taoisigh to dispense with as they see fit or is the money spent on secretarial salaries and computer equipment costs and then reimbursed to ex Taoisigh after receipts are produced?

Who was responsible for introducing the scheme?

Under what mechanism/law/Act was the scheme introduced?

Yours sincerely

Anthony Sheridan

I’m putting together an FOI on the matter.

RTE: Still great pals with the politicians

I just caught the end of The Week in Politics last night.

RTE Journalist, Sean O’Rourke, was light-heartedly asking the Tanaiste, Mary Coughlin, when the bye elections were going to be held.

Ms. Incompetent was quite firm. There was no need to hold bye elections as the people had adequate representation as things stood.

In other words, this arrogant politician, and her cabal of a party, would decide what level of representation the Irish people were going to get.

In any self-respecting democracy a journalist would have torn strips off her, would have demanded to know who the hell she thought she was reducing the democratic rights of the people.

Unfortunately, because RTE is a captured organisation, we are likely to see a continuation of this old pal attitude to politicians instead of the focused, no nonsense questioning common in other jurisdictions.

Copy to:
The Week in Politics

Hypocrisy and greed still rampant within our political system.

Fianna Fail MEP Pat ‘The Cope’ Gallagher still hasn’t decided whether to give up his pension of €23,634 which he receives along with his €91,500 MEP salary (Irish Independent).

He claimed he had issues from his constituents on his plate and had to focus on them without thinking about his pension.

Fine Gael MEP, Jim Higgins, said a court order relating to a “family law matter” was preventing him from surrendering his ministerial and Dail pensions, which amount to €60,000 a year.

Hypocrisy and greed still rampant within our political system.