Category: Government

Michael Clifford: The immoral electorate is to blame

As sure as night follows day, when scandal and corruption raise their ugly heads there will always be a journalist ready and willing to write a ‘We’re all to blame’ article.

Irish Examiner columnist Michael Clifford, writing about the Anglo tapes, is the journalist in this case.

According to Clifford a lack of public morality caused by the vacuum created after the ‘moral guidance’ of the Catholic Church disappeared is principally responsible for the corruption within Anglo Irish Bank.

Public morality didn’t, and still doesn’t, appear to have much purchase in this State.

With little pressure to observe proper standards coming from the electorate, how can we expect that public morality is going to be observed in institutions such as banks?

So there you have it folks; the blame does not lie with the corrupt politicians, nor with the corrupt bankers, nor with the corrupt regulators but the immoral (and presumably corrupt) electorate.

Anglo vermin will not be made accountable by our corrupt political/administrative system

The first thing to be said about the ongoing Anglo tapes revelations is that David Drumm, Peter Fitzgerald and John Bowe are nothing more than common vermin.

Vermin with big salaries, big cars, and big ego’s are still vermin and always will be vermin.

What Irish citizens need to keep in mind is that these vermin could not survive, never mind prosper, without the absolute protection afforded to them by our corrupt political/administrative system.

There is a growing consensus that the then government and financial regulator were duped into handing over billions to Anglo, that somehow it wasn’t the fault of the political/administrative system.

This is music to the ears of politicians and civil servants who will be delighted to see the blame shifting from them, the real culprits, to the greedy vermin bankers.

Here’s the truth of the matter:

As we here at Public Inquiry have been saying for years – Ireland is an intrinsically corrupt state.

The crucial difference between an intrinsically corrupt state and a properly functioning state is the response of the respective states when corruption is uncovered.

Functional democracies like the United Kingdom, United States, Germany and so on have lots of corruption but when corruption is uncovered there is a response.

There are independent authorities empowered to act against the corrupt.

There is a level of awareness among the political classes that there are certain lines that they simply cannot cross.

There is a high level of political intelligence/awareness among the electorate that manifests itself in anger if the political/administrative system is suspected of trying to cover up corruption.

There is a clear blue sea of separation between regulatory/law enforcement agencies and the political system.

In Ireland there is no authority independent of the corrupt political system with the power to act against the vermin in the financial sector or any other area where white-collar crime is rampant.

In Ireland politicians have a choice, go along with the corrupt political system or find yourself ejected from it.

Roisin Shortall and Nessa Childers are two recent examples of politicians who stood up to the rotten political system and as a result found themselves out in the cold.

Ms. Childers was right on the button in her comment after resigning:

I felt I was being corrupted by the system.

In Ireland most of the electorate are politically ignorant. That is, they don’t realise that power rests in their hands and not with the politicians.

In other words, most Irish citizens do not understand what real democracy is.

Over the decades Irish citizens have come to believe that they must sell their vote (power) to the local gangster/gombeen in return for petty favours.

If the local gangster/gombeen succeeds in buying enough votes (power) he travels to Dublin where he plunders state funds in order to pay off his constituents thus ensuring his re-election.

In functional democracies like America or France citizens are aware that power flows from them, that it is temporarily given to politicians and when a politician is found to have acted corruptly or otherwise acted against the interests of the state they are made to pay the price.

The opposite is the case in Ireland.

Citizens see power as flowing down to them from politicians. It is the politician who is seen as the power source and it is to that power source that the citizens go, cap in hand, to ask for favours.

It would never occur to most Irish citizens to actually challenge the local gangster/gombeen on a national issue unless the matter had some bearing on that citizen’s personal interests.

Let me finish by coming back to the Anglo tapes and who is effectively responsible for the protection and prosperity of the vermin within the financial sector.

The corrupt political/administrative system has been, effectively, protecting and facilitating major criminal activity within the Irish financial sector for decades.

This is not just my opinion.

For absolute proof we have only to look back at the hundreds of examples of barefaced fraud and criminality that have occurred in that sector without any effective response whatsoever from the so-called regulatory agencies.

It should therefore come as no surprise that when the Anglo vermin walked into the Central Bank and demanded billions of taxpayers’ money they were slavishly accommodated.

After decades of effectively facilitating/ignoring widespread criminality the so-called regulatory agencies had lost all credibility and respect.

After decades of effectively facilitating/ignoring widespread criminality the so-called regulatory agencies could hardly stand up to the vermin and demand that they act ethically/legally.

The bankers knew that, they knew they were dealing with a morally bankrupt political/administrative system and accordingly treated them with the contempt they richly deserved.

That contempt for the politicians and so-called regulators can be clearly heard vomiting from the mouths of the vermin bankers

And let me be clear, the situation has not changed.

The political/administrative system is still corrupt, still effectively protecting the criminals within the financial sector, still betraying Ireland and its people.

That’s why I can state the following with absolute confidence:

No banker will go to jail; there will be no proper inquiry.

There will be no accountability demanded from the corrupt political/administrative system that created and protects the cesspool where the vermin prosper.

There will be no justice/accountability until Irish citizens destroy the corrupt political/administrative system that has destroyed their country and their futures.

Copy to:

Central Bank
All political parities

Clare Daly/Michael Ring: Hypocrite and gombeen

Gombeenism and hypocrisy were very evident last week as Independent TD Clare Daly and Minister of State for Tourism and Sport Michael Ring discussed the recent visit to Ireland by the Obama family (Today with Pat Kenny, Thursday).

The issue under discussion was Daly’s strong reaction to the Obama’s visit.

Daly accused the Taoiseach of showcasing Ireland as a nation of pimps, prostituting ourselves in return for a pat on the head.

Minister Ring’s response provided a one hundred percent confirmation that we are indeed a nation of pimps when it comes to ‘slobbering all over the Americans’.

The American tourism market is very important for us.

There are many thousands of people working in American multinationals here.

Ring steadfastly refused to squawk even the smallest criticism of Obama’s government policy even when challenged about the hundreds of innocent people killed by American drones.

I’m not going to interfere in the American government’s policy in relation to what they do.

And then immediately back to the slobbering.

We had a great opportunity to showcase the country…blah, blah, blah…

Clearly, Minister Ring’s morality/compassion does not extend beyond the interests of himself and his government.

Those hundreds of innocent men, women and children can go to hell for all he cares. Tourism, jobs and money are easily more important than the unlawful killing of a bunch of foreigners.

While Minister Ring demonstrated that he was a gombeen par excellence Ms. Daly easily won on the hypocrisy stakes.

Asked to explain why she was so critical of Bono’s perfectly legitimate tax avoidance strategies while offering unwavering support for her colleague and tax fraudster Mick Wallace she said:

DALY: Well, it’s an entirely different matter. As far as I know deputy Wallace hasn’t organised to avoid tax by locating his business’s offshore.

Well he didn’t pay his VAT bill?

Daly: Well that’s a matter for him but I think it was to do with the fact that his business and his company’s business failed; it’s a different matter.

Indeed it is a different matter. Wallace committed a crime by knowingly submitting a fraudulent VAT return for the purpose of stealing €1.4 million from Irish citizens.

Bono committed no crime whatsoever.

And in case any of the legions of Irish citizens who have had their lives destroyed by rogue developers like Wallace were in any doubt about Daly’s contempt for their hardships she was even more specific in defence of her tax cheating colleague and friend.

Bono parades himself as being someone who assists people in the Third World, allegedly, but the activity that he has engaged in is exactly the same as what the multinationals have done depriving this country of taxation which he could pay.

He has the money to pay, it’s not that his business has failed, he has the money to pay that tax and he chooses to locate his business, as you say, legitimately, offshore in order to avoid it.

Note the inclusion of the words ‘allegedly’ and ‘legitimately’ to suggest that Daly doesn’t really believe that Bono’s tax affairs are legal.

With no evidence whatsoever she is prepared to condemn an innocent man while on the other hand stand steadfastly by a self-confessed tax-fraudster.

In Wallace’s case she is, in effect, saying that it’s ok to commit tax fraud if your business fails.

Wallace’s attempted theft of €1.4 million from hard-working Irish citizens is nobody’s business but his own, apparently, but the legitimate tax avoidance strategy of Bono must be condemned at every opportunity.

But the truth of it is that, in the murky, narrow-minded world of Irish politics, if your colleague and friend are of the same political outlook there is no such thing as tax fraud

What hope for Ireland and its people when such hypocrites and gombeens occupy positions of power and influence?

Copy to:
Minister Ring
Clare Daly

Oliver Cromwell: Right on the button regarding the Senate

The best letter to date on the question of abolishing the most exclusive club in the country.

Sir,

I find it farcical when members of the Seanad, elected through a “rotten borough” electoral system or appointed, unelected, by An Taoiseach, present themselves as an essential political bulwark protecting us from the excesses of our democratically elected Dáil.

The most appropriate message for members of the “best club in Dublin” is Oliver Cromwell’s 1653 injunction to the Rump Parliament: “You have sat too long for any good you have been doing lately. . . Depart, I say; and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go!”

Yours, etc,
Peter Molloy
Dublin

Emmet Stagg: Political coward

The next few months will be interesting as ‘pillars of society’ fight to retain their exclusive club, Seanad Eireann.

We’re going to see a great deal of self-interested cant, plain stupidity and downright hypocrisy.

Take Labour chief whip, Emmet Stagg, for example.

The idea of getting rid of the Senate is ‘very dangerous’ according to Mr. Stagg.

So will Mr. Stagg be campaigning to retain this exclusive club?

Er…no…because that would see him fall from government favour and the loss of his many privileges.

We likely to see lots of this political cowardice during the campaign.

Begone; this nation is ours

Begone, this nation is ours.

This was the clear and angry anti-government demand by a protester protesting against a commercial development on a treasured Istanbul park.

The park protest has since evolved into a nationwide protest against the government itself.

It’s interesting to compare events in Turkey with how Irish citizens and in particular young Irish citizens respond to government abuse of power.

The protest in Turkey is being led by young people and powered by social media.

The underlying fear is that the government, led by conservative Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is moving away from the secular Ataturk republic towards an Islamic state

It’s interesting to note that Turkish citizens have taken to the streets as a result of very minor changes made by the government.

For example, some restrictions on the sale of alcohol, restrictions on water-pipe smoking and plans to ban fortune tellers from reading coffee cups in café’s and, finally, the trigger, the attempt to destroy one of the last remaining green areas in Istanbul to make way for a shopping centre.

Clearly, Turkish citizens know they own their country and are prepared to take to the streets when that ownership is threatened as one protester made clear:

He has a big ego, he thinks of himself as the next Sultan. He needs to stop doing that, he’s just a Prime Minister, he needs to remember that the people elected him.

Meanwhile, here in Ireland the political abuse, arrogance and corruption, which has resulted in disaster for Ireland and its people, goes unchallenged.

No nationwide protests, no reaction from young people, no utilization of social media to organize the destruction of the corrupt system.

Why? Because Irish citizens do not know they own their country, they have no real sense of nationhood or democracy.

Politically, most Irish citizens look no further than electing the local gombeen gangster in return for petty favours paid for out of their own pockets.

Shatter's pathetic excuse: Another low in political accountability

Letter in Saturday’s Irish Times.

This man’s experience gives the lie to Shatter’s pathetic excuse. He is also correct in claiming that from now on, because of Shatter’s behaviour, tens of thousands of asthma sufferers can, quite justifiably, refuse to take a breath test.

They will be justified in following this arrogant minister’s example because the State has accepted his excuse thereby establishing yet another low in political accountability.

Sir,

I was breathalysed a few weeks ago at a random Garda checkpoint on the Stillorgan Road in Dublin.

I have been an asthmatic for more than 30 years. I had no difficulty blowing into the bag for the required number of seconds. I passed the test.

It is, however, comforting to know that in future, I along with the tens of thousands of other asthma sufferers in the country, will be able to avoid being breathalysed by stating that, just like Minister for Justice Alan Shatter, we too suffer from asthma.

Why do we keep electing these people?

Yours, etc,

Ciaran O’Kelly
Dublin 4

Joan Burton abandons her political principles

The first and most important thing to be said about the ongoing penalty points controversey is that it is state corruption on a massive scale.

And because it is corruption on a massive scale the lies and hypocrisy surrounding the issue are also on a massive scale.

Take the dishonesty and hypocrisy of Minister for Social Protection Joan Burton for example. She was asked a very simple question on the Marian Finucane Show yesterday.

How did the Minister for Justice Alan Shatter come to have Garda information about a private citizen?

Burton refused to answer the question and instead robustly defended the Shatter/Garda report saying that is was a great example of government transparency and accountability.

She was asked again.

The report is being sent on to the Garda Inspectorate and the Dail Justice Committee…waffle…

She was asked again.

I’m not going to jump to conclusions based on what’s in the media…waffle…

She was asked again.

The key issue in this country is to get people back to work again…waffle…

The presenter finally gave up.

You don’t seem to want to focus on what the Minister actually said.

Burton went on to demonstrate a good degree of political stupidity by constantly returning to her dishonest waffle.

We have to look at this in the round. It’s an important issue for our democracy. First of all we have to look at the issue of road safety.

At this point her fellow panelists were openly laughing at her in contempt.

Burton’s despicable performance was similar to that of Fianna Fail politicians who lined up to defend the liar Ahern.

None of this, of course, is unusual or unexpected. Ireland is, after all, an intrinsically corrupt state. All politicians who come to power must decide whether to stand by their principles or defend the corrupt system.

Joan Burton, in common with the vast majority of her fellow politicians, has obviously abandoned her political principles in favour of remaining within the corrupt system.

A tiny minority of politicians like Roisin Shortall and Neasa Childers do stand by their principles and opt out of the rotten system but they pay the price of immediate ostracisation by their political colleagues.

Neasa Childers, I felt, accurately summed up how it feels when a politician is faced with the decision of defending or abandoning our corrupt political system.

I felt at that point my position was completely lacking in integrity and indeed a sort of corruption if I were to stay in that situation where I was feeling shame basically about what they were telling me.

I wonder if Joan Burton is feeling shame or is she still trying to convince herself that, on balance, she’s still a politician of principle.

Banker Michael Somers: A saint in the making

It has been observed by many commentators that public cynicism towards the political and financial communities has increased greatly since the economic collapse in 2008.

But who could blame people for their cynicism when they hear comments like that recently made by deputy chairman of AIB Dr. Michael Somers when speaking about the possibility of debt write-offs.

Quoted in the Sunday Independent the good Dr. said he was not anxious to see AIB writing off loads of debt any time soon.

Why was that, he was asked?

It’s taxpayers’ money said the good Dr., and I want to see as much of that money as possible returned to the taxpayer.

My goodness such concern for the taxpayers’ of Ireland had me in tears.

How times and attitudes have changed. There was a time when bankers were only interested in ruthlessly raking in as much profit as possible no matter how destructive their greed was to customer or country.

Surely I thought, the return of Jesus Christ himself cannot be far off when he will confer sainthood on bankers for their self-sacrifice in saving the common people of Ireland from a fate worse than, well…worse than that of struggling to survive under the yoke of ruthless bankers.

And saint Somers was quick to point out that it’s only current bankers who will be saved, who will avoid the fires of bankers’ hell.

Speaking of those dastardly villain bankers who caused all the trouble in the first place saint Somers said:

Most of the guys who were around at the time deserve to be beaten up.

Beaten up, my goodness and to think there are so many nasty cynics going around claiming that no banker will face justice.