Category: Fianna Fail

Embarrassed to be Irish

On the same news broadcast (3rd item) that Bertie Ahern informed the nation that he was proud for himself and Ireland to be asked to address a joint sitting of the US Congress a mother of an autistic child angrily said that she was embarrassed to be Irish (7th item).

Embarrassed and I would add confused because this woman was referring to the surreal world of Irish politics where a school for autistic children has remained idle for a year because the Health Service Executive has refused to provide the necessary staff.

The Minister for Education, Mary Hanafin, instead of doing her job by putting pressure on the HSE to provide staff has blamed the school for not going ahead and opening anyway.

Nothing to do with the HSE, nothing to do with the Minister – it’s the school’s fault.

Bozo and Borgs

It really is fascinating to observe how quickly Green Party politicians have been assimilated Borg like into the dodgy world of Fianna Fail double speak.

Green Party TD Paul Gogarty speaking on The Late Debate (Tuesday, 12 Feb) was in no doubt about who was responsible for keeping an eye on the murky activities of Fianna Fail.

It’s the electorate who are the moral guardians of Fianna Fail, nothing to do with us.

A caller to the show asked: Who is that clown from the Greens?

Gogarty helpfully replied – “Bozo is my middle name.”

Bertie the bomb

It has been obvious for some time now that Bertie Ahern has something to hide. Nobody with an ounce of intelligence, with the possible exception of Martin Mansergh, could believe otherwise,

But Bertie’s High Court strategy can have only one meaning – It can only mean that he has something really big to hide, something so big that he is willing to risk everything on one roll of the High Court dice.

Meanwhile, the Greens continue to insist that the bomb ticking away beside them is none of their concern. It’s a personal matter for Bertie, it’s a matter for his lawyers; it’s a matter for the tribunal.

They’re unlikely to survive the explosion.

A developer friendly administration

The mafia like operations of management companies continues to cause grief for residents of estates and apartments (See here for analysis).

On last Tuesday’s Liveline (58th min) three residents of an apartment complex told their stories. Here’s a summary.

Received a bill for €2,037, last years bill was €1,400.

Reason for increase – Unoccupied apartments owned by the developer and Dublin City Council were not bringing in funds so the residents had to make up the shortfall. The developers are holding onto the apartments until the property market improves.

The board of directors of the management company is made up of the developers.

When the resident questioned the bill it was admitted an error had been made and the bill was reduced to €1,800.

When the resident contacted Liveline the bill was further reduced to €1,550, a figure that had originally been agreed between the company and the resident.

The residents own the properties and are paying massive mortgages but have little or no control or rights in how the management companies operate.

The management companies are totally unregulated.

The Government has been promising for years that they will enact legislation to regulate these people.

This government is a developer friendly administration.

Dail record – In our opinion

Pat Rabbitte supplied a small but very important snippet of information that further confirms the low quality of Irish democracy. (Saturday View)

Apparently, he has been corresponding with Ceann Comhairles for years about the fact that Bertie Ahern’s English is not just polished up by civil servants who write up the Dail record but the actual meaning of his contributions is altered on occasions.

Rabbitte pointed out that he wasn’t making a political point; he just felt that such altering of the record was a pity for historians and archivists

Amazing, the record of our National Parliament is being substantially altered by those who should be recording what is actually said with what, in their opinion, the speaker meant to say and a senior opposition politician is only concerned that historians may be led astray.

A one party corrupt State

Last Thursday’s Irish Examiner carried a hard hitting editorial concerning the latest episode from Bertie’s fantasy land.

Unfortunately, the writer is, like most Irish citizens, still labouring under the illusion that Ireland is a normal democracy. For example he writes;

“It is unimaginable that he thinks this kind of two-fingers-to-you buffoonery is acceptable or plausible to anyone other than a card-carrying Fianna Fáil lifer.”

Poll after poll, election after election over many decades makes it absolutely clear that the majority of Irish people are more than happy with this type of ‘two fingers-to-you buffoonery’.

The editorial goes on;

“What is at stake now is not the political career or reputation of an individual — it is the integrity of our political process.”

The integrity of the political process was completely wiped out in the 1980s when it failed, with the happy co-operation of the Irish electorate, to put the corrupt Haughey in jail.

The media and the Irish people seem to be completely unaware of a brutal reality that faces them every day.

Bertie Ahern and his fellow Mafiosi are not worried or angry about the possibility of Mahon uncovering evidence of corruption; they know that the Irish people have long ago accepted the corrupt ways of Fianna Fail despite the horrendous consequences this has for many of their fellow citizens.

No, Ahern and his fellow Mafiosi are angry by the very fact that they are being questioned at all, that there is still a minority of people out there who have not yet accepted that Ireland is, effectively, a one party corrupt State.

Greens: Still on the road to destruction

Fianna Fail does not do ethics, they do not do integrity; they have no interest in accountability or honesty in politics – Pursuit of power is all.

Any politician or political party that agrees to share power with Fianna Fail must accept that reality and behave accordingly.

The PDs under Mary Harney had no problem in accepting the reality and quickly dumped their much vaunted political integrity. In return they were rewarded with all the trappings of power for many years.

The Greens are finding it much more difficult to reconcile their long standing and genuine reputation for political integrity with the strong stench emanating from their senior partner in Government.

Essentially what they are attempting to do is put the issue of political corruption to one side while they get on with implementing their policies. Such a bizarre strategy, even in a dysfunctional and corrupt democracy like Ireland, is doomed to failure.

Sooner rather than later the Greens will be forced to deal with political corruption or adopt the PD strategy of accepting the disease as a normal part of Irish public life.

On yesterday’s Today with Pat Kenny, Patricia McKenna desperately and unconvincingly tried to avoid the reality facing her party.

While accepting that Ahern had to go she was adamant that it was up to Fianna Fail to do the dirty work; that her party had too much to lose by getting involved.

They had sacrificed a lot of credibility by getting into bed with Fianna Fail and it was unfair that they should be made scapegoats for something that Fianna Fail is responsible for.

I wrote before that the Greens are on the road to destruction, McKenna’s performance has done nothing to change that view.

Copy to:
Fianna Fail
Greens
Patricia McKenna

Ahern's quadruple negative

Here’s how Bertie Ahern tried to climb out of the latest hole he has dug for himself (Drivetime, 38th minute).

“For legal and professional reasons neither myself nor my advisors have been in a position to respond to any of the accuracy and completeness of the reports about those issues so it is not correct, if I said so I wasn’t correct, so I, I can’t recall if I did say, but I did not say, if I did say it I didn’t mean to say it that these issues could not be dealt with until the end of the Mahon Tribunal, that is not what Revenue said.”

Eamonn Gilmore described Ahern’s explanation as a quadruple negative.

Irish Independent journalist, Fionan Sheehan said he was in a state of shock at what Ahern was now claiming because just eight days ago he had asked Ahern.

“Is it the position that the Revenue Commissioners have told your advisors that they’ll have to wait for the Mahon Tribunal to report back before finalizing your situation?”

Ahern confirmed that that was the case and reiterated that ‘fact’ several times during the ensuing discussion.

Sheehan said the Taoiseach’s claim was widely reported across the media that evening and the next day and nobody from Government disputed the reports. Now, eight days later, Ahern was saying something completely different.

From a distant fantasy land

Sunday Independent journalist and Bertie worshipper Jody Corcoran did a forensic examination of Ahern’s tax affairs in last Sunday’s paper. The article makes extensive use of correspondence between Ahern and Revenue in an attempt to rationalise the Taoiseach’s fantasy tales.

Working from a place far more distant than Bertie’s fantasy land, Corcoran makes the following defence.

1. Ahern saw no reason to contact Revenue because he was advised (by his tax advisor) that he had no tax liability in relation to funds received in 1993/94.

2. When Ahern told the Dail on September 27, 2006 that he had checked with the ‘tax authorities’ in relation to the Dublin payments what he actually meant to say was that he had consulted with ‘authorities on tax’ i.e., his tax advisors.

Corcoran puts this error down to Bertie’s ‘unique ability to mangle the English language’.

3. Because there are no written records of the various ‘dig outs’ Revenue has no case. Corcoran triumphantly concludes;

“Without evidence to the contrary, Mr. Ahern’s account of the Dublin loans and Manchester gifts still hangs together.”

“It seems likely the taxman, without evidence to the contrary, must accept the Taoiseach’s account.”

In summary:

Bertie has no responsibility for non payment of tax because that’s what his tax advisor told him. In other words, ‘nothing to do with me’ It’s the tax advisors fault.

Bertie didn’t actually lie to our parliament when he said he had checked with the tax authorities. He was, apparently, misunderstood because he doesn’t know how to speak properly.

Revenue will have to take Bertie’s word for it because there is no written evidence to the contrary.

This logic can also be used to prove that Santa Claus exists.