Fianna Fail – Page 6 – Public Inquiry

Martin Mansergh: I know nothing, I was in a building 500 metres away

Martin Mansergh is a long time loyal member of Fianna Fail, the most corrupt political party in the country. He’s also a great admirer and defender of the criminal politician Haughey.

In May 2008, just before our corrupt political/administrative system was exposed to the world, Mansergh was appointed as Minister of State at the Department of Finance.

On a recent Marian Finucane Show (June 30) he boasted about his involvement with the IMF and the World Bank as they grappled with the global financial crisis.

Yet, when asked about is involvement with the crisis in Ireland, Mansergh denied everything.

Marian Finucane: You were working in the Dept. and presumably in contact with the Minister for Finance throughout that period.

Mansergh: Well, I was in a separate building. My main job was the office of public works.

Finucane: Was there a sense around the place of the kind of pressue that was going on?

Mansergh: Well, as I say, I wasn’t in the building, I was in a separate building about 500 metres away. I was not in the loop. My job in Finance was basically to relieve the Minister of some of his parliamentary responsibilities.

So here was a Minister of State at the Department of Finance who claims he wasn’t even aware that there was political/financial tension in the air.

And his excuse; he was in a building 500 metres from his boss’s office.

So, either he was hiding away for months on end in his ‘safe’ office with no landline, mobile phone, computer, television, radio or newspapers.

He posseses the same level of honesty and integrity as his criminal hero Haughey.

Mary O’Rourke and the Lenihan’s: A family of traitors

Mary O’Rourke’s response to the Anglo tapes.

Absolutely astounded that two high flying bankers would treat the Central Bank of their country in that fashion…It makes the case for an immediate set up for the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) to deal with it.

I’m ashamed the government spent so long playing games about the chairman of the PAC.

On how her nephew dealt with the situation.

Her first attempt to answer this question was typical O’Rourke gobbledygook and is worth quoting in full.

Of course it does, I have always held to the full idea which is now becoming more in the open. I mean if those two bankers, it’s like a thriller, isn’t it, a bad thriller. If those two bankers were willing to do that on the Central Bank of their country they were willing to do it on anyone or any government. It paints the bank in a dreadful light and these are the people that people trusted in this country.

She was asked the question again – Was Brian Lenihan aware of the bank’s attitude?

I’m quite sure he wouldn’t have been privy, how could he have been, to those phone calls…Fianna Fail wants an inquiry, why would we not?

Did the government of the day make bad decisions, well I don’t know. that’s why I want an inquiry, why everyone in Fianna Fail wants an inquiry.

I most desperately want it because I know to the day he passed away Brian was for his country, he was for his country, he was not for anything else.

Clearly, O’Rourke is desperate to protect the ‘good’ name of her traitor nephew Brian Lenihan Jnr.

That’s to be expected as she, along with her brother Brian Lenihan Snr., are also guilty of betraying Ireland and its people.

Fianna Fail: revolutionary reform?

After reading the headline:

FF Ard Fheis to address biggest reform in party history

I thought – Is the party finally going to tackle the endemic culture of corruption within its ranks?

Ah no, I’m only joking. Sure the party was built on a foundation of corruption, that’s never going to change.

No, apparently ‘the biggest reform in the party’s history’ will see delegates at the upcoming Ard Fheis vote on something about keeping election promises and a new method of electing a leader.

Now, in fairness, that’s fierce radical stuff.

Fianna Fail turkeys

Texter to Pat Kenny this morning responding to a discussion on the rise of Fianna Fail.

Irish voters sent Dustin the Turkey to Eurovision, it’s hardly surprising Fianna Fail are on the rise.

Fianna Fail: Defending democracy and fighting corruption

From the attic archives.

Letter to the Editor, Irish Times dated May 10th 2000.

Sir,

Some years ago, when the television soap opera Dallas was at the height of its popularity, it was decided to kill off one of the main characters, Bobby Ewing.

It was subsequently felt that this was a mistake and Bobby should return from the dead.

This was achieved by asking the viewing public to believe that Bobby did not die but had merely dreamt all the events of the previous several episodes.

While this required some stretching of the imagination, it is nothing compared with what Dr. Rory O’Hanlon (May 8th) is asking the Irish public to believe about the recent history of Fianna Fail.

In Dr. O’Hanlon’s soap opera world, Fianna Fail are knights in shining armour, rushing to defend the proud tradition of democracy and the good of the Irish people against an evil tide of corruption.

I would suggest that the only difference between the two scripts is that Dallas had an awful lot more credibility.

Yours etc.,

Anthony Sheridan

David Andrews: Greedy, arrogant and stupid

There has been very little reaction to the attempt by former foreign affairs minister David Andrews to auction off his copy of the Good Friday Agreement.

The media just reported the facts surrounding the grubby affair and left it at that.

Apparently, nobody wants to delve too deeply into why Mr. Andrews would want to sell this item.

There are, I believe, two possible reasons. Andrews may have been impoverished by the collapse of the economy and is desperately trying to make a couple of bob or his innate Fianna Fail gombeen greed got the better of him.

Whatever the reason his dishonest reaction to the revelation needs to be challenged.

In a typically arrogant response Andrews claimed that the whole affair was a misjudgement and, again in a typically arrogant manner told everybody to feck off, that he was making no further comment.

Well, I don’t believe Andrews’ claim that it was a misjudgement.

Unless he’s a complete idiot, and that is, of course, a possibility, he must have known that the public sale of such a document would attract critical comment.

That’s why the auctioneers charged with selling the document were sworn to secrecy in relation to the identity of the document’s owner.

So not only was this a typical case of arrogance and greed but we can add stupidity as well.

It apparently never occurred to Andrews that any half competent journalist, by the simple process of elimination, could identify him as the seller by simply checking with each member of the very small group of individuals in possession of this unique copy of the Good Friday Agreement

Or perhaps this did occur to Andrews but he was hoping that the public auction of a major historical document would go unnoticed.

Now that’s stupid.

Michael Martin will be nothing more than a footnote in Irish history

I’ve written on a number of occasions of my delight that the obnoxious, cowardly and incompetent Michael Martin is still leading Fianna Fail (See here and here).

I’m delighted because Martin is still living in the far off country of la la land where absolute denial is the only reality.

For so long as this traitor is leading the most corrupt political party in the country we can be sure it will never become a radical party of reform that will lead Ireland and its people out of the sewer of corruption.

Interviewed by Vincent Browne recently Martin confirmed his la la land credentials.

On bringing the country to the verge of disaster.

We made mistakes, I’ve apologised for those mistakes.

This is genuinely, first and foremost a financial and banking collapse, ok, which was global in nature and was very serious for this country.

So, nothing to do with Fianna Fail corruption then?

On grossly inflating the property bubble.

The property bubble was a function of the lending policies of banks.

So, nothing to do with Fianna Fail corruption then?

On the fact that Fianna Fail is unquestionably the most corrupt political party we’ve had since independence.

I wouldn’t accept your analysis.

Of course he wouldn’t, he lives in la la land.

Again on corruption.

I have been a member of government for quite a number of years and I can’t, and there wasn’t any active corruption in the lifetime of that government in terms of…

Martin first entered politics in 1985. Ireland has been an open sewer of political and business corruption since, at least, 1979 when the criminal politician Haughey came to power.

Martin was, and still is, a strong supporter of this criminal and of the party he led. So of course he didn’t see, and still doesn’t see, any ‘active’ corruption.

On the Mahon Tribunal Report.

That doesn’t cover the time I was in government.

It never ceases to amaze me that media people like Vincent Browne allow people like Martin to get away with giving such idiotic and dishonest answers.

Mary O'Rourke: Talking out of both sides of her mouth

Mary O’Rourke’s book, Just Mary, received a warm and cuddily review from the panel on the Marian Finucane Show this morning.

She also received a lovely warm reception on the Late Late Show from both the audience and Ryan Tubridy.

This capacity of Irish citizens to treat those principally responsible for the destruction of the country with warmth and respect is an indication of just how far away we are from any meaningful reform of our corrupt political system.

Mary O’Rourke is a loyal member of the most corrupt political party in the country. A party which is principally responsible for destroying the wealth, hopes and dreams of the great majority of Irish citizens.

She is also a strong supporter of the the criminal Haughey who played a major role in the destruction of the state.

I will grant O’Rourke one thing, she’s an expert at talking out of both sides of her mouth at the same time.

I’ll further concede that she has managed to fool practically the whole country that she’s a straight talking politician of honesty and intergrity.

The following is just one example of the ability of this gombeen politician to speak out of both sides of her mouth.

In an interview with John Murray (RTE just can’t get enough of O’Rourke) she tells of how Bertie Ahern shafted her in the 2002 election in favour of Donnie Cassidy.

The point to keep in mind as you read her comments is that she’s looking for sympathy for alleged wrongs done to her but at the same time cannot actually bring herself to accuse Ahern or her beloved (corrupt) party of any wrongdoing.

Murray: Why would they have wanted to shaft you Mary?

O’Rourke: I wasn’t a wide boy now, I wasn’t a wide boy. You know what I mean?

Murray: I don’t.

O’Rourke: I wasn’t on that inner circle.

Murray: Donnie was, you were deputy leader of the party but weren’t part of the inner circle is it?

O’Rourke: Yes, something like that, I wasn’t open to all sorts of things, I just wasn’t and I think that was the reason.

Murray: What sort of things?

O’Rourke: Ahh, I don’t know, sort of deals of one kind or another. I didn’t want to know about them.

Murray: Deals? Now I am intrigued

O’Rourke: Well I don’t really know because I’m not hiding anything from you, I just didn’t know but I did know that I wasn’t included in the golden inner circle for some reason or another.

I did fine to be deputy leader, man woman thing, you know.

(O’Rourke is here trying to escape the line of questioning by suggesting that she was shafted because she was a woman but Murray persists).

Murray: But wide boys and deals. Are you talking about stuff that shouldn’t have been happening?

O’Rourke: No, I just think there were things that were moving and moving around and happening which I sort of half knew and half didn’t know.

And maybe it was as well I didn’t know and the only way I wouldn’t have known was, phuemfff, disappear Mary, disappear. Rub the magic lamp and she’s gone.

This last comment is the Irish version of Donald Rumsfeld’s known unknowns.

Here’s some straight talk that O’Rourke would never understand never mind actually accept as true.

Mary O’Rourke is a traitor to Ireland and its people just like her brother, Brian Lenihan Snr. And her nephew Brian Lenihan Jnr.

A party of national interest is required

Excellent letter in today’s Irish Examiner

We need party of national interest

Minister O’Reilly must be congratulated for his wisdom in announcing that the “burden” of cuts must fall on the “better paid” and not the sick and vulnerable.

However, for some strange reason he appears to have difficulty identifying the “better paid”. He, like the rest of his colleagues to date, seem to be searching for them in the wrong places.

His peers in the previous administration lacked the same powers of detection. Could it be that things ‘too close cannot be observed’ as the poet said? It might help Mr O’Reilly if he started by looking at the pay and expenses he and his colleagues enjoy and make comparison with the going rates in other European countries.

He might also factor in the size of our country and economy and the fact that we are effectively bankrupt and dependent on the benevolence of the ECB and the IMF. If he writes it down on two columns, it might help him to focus his mind.

To help him get underway, I suggest he make a sort of remuneration league table of heads of government worldwide. Where would the noble Enda come, he who so graciously accepted a pay cut of €20,000 that brought his salary down to a mere €200,000, leaving him with just over €70,000 or so more than the British and Swedish prime ministers, and even twice as well paid as the prime minister of Spain.

After that he can look at top professionals like doctors and administrators in the health service and compare them, like with like, with their European colleagues.

Only then, and when he and his colleagues do the right thing and the necessary thing, should they take their search for the “better paid” further afield.

Indeed if he really took this exercise with the seriousness it warrants, he might find himself considering a far more important point, which is the inexplicable quiescence of the Irish people in the face of two successive governments who stand unrivalled in modern times for their cowardice, crass insensitivity, greed and sheer neck.

There is a lethal vacuum in Irish politics at the moment, one that should be feared by both government and opposition. It cannot be filled by commentators and pundits.

The country is crying out for a new movement in politics, a party of national interest, that will field candidates in local and national elections and bring something back to Irish politics that seems to have died with the rise of Charles Haughey — a moral compass.

Margaret Hickey
Blarney
Co Cork

Michael Martin: Still living in la la land

I wrote previously of my delight that the obnoxious and traitorous Fianna Fail party is being led by the obnoxious, cowardly and incompetent Michael Martin.

It can only be good for Ireland that Martin continues to operate under the delusion that his party had nothing to do with the catastrophe that has befallen the country.

Here’s some of his waffle from today’s This Week on RTE.

The Labour Party promised everything to get into power. I think it exposed the moral bankruptcy of their approach before the election where they opposed everything that was in the best interests of the country at that time.

We took the tough decisions in government, very, very hard decisions before the last general election…and we suffered accordingly and took a huge hit but we did actually take very, very difficult decisions that were electorally very damaging but that had to be taken in the interests of the country.

This government made too many reckless and silly promises that they could not fulfill. That has undermined their credibility; they’ve piggybacked on a lot of the work that was done by the previous government particularly by the late Brian Lenihan.

What is important now is that we have full transparency in terms of the real issues that face health and other departments and an honest debate about those issues and less of the tribal, petty, trivial politics that we’ve had in the Dail since this government came into office where spin has been more important than substance.

I switched off here, there’s only so much bullshit the human brain can take at any one time.