Category: Government

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

Mary Harney: Help the rich; attack the poor

The sentiments expressed in this letter are strong but very true.

Let Harney loose on Seanie Fitz

The news that former Anglo boss Sean FitzPatrick gets to ‘rub by’ on €3.6m of his wife’s money is sickening (Irish Independent, July 13), but not as sickening as what we are doing to our disabled people.

Even the process of bankruptcy in Ireland is rigged to suit the connected.

In normal, non-corrupt countries, people who borrow vast sums of money and then setting aside some of it in the wife’s or their children’s name, cannot expect to get away with it.

Here, they are celebrated as heroes who ‘beat’ the system.

The fact that the ‘system’ is in reality people with Down Syndrome depending on respite care so that their parents can receive much-needed time to recharge their batteries is, of course, an inconvenient fact in the land of sleeveens.

Health Minister Mary Harney’s reaction to the news that the disabled don’t want to go voluntarily and quietly into a corner and suffer in silence, has been greeted with the age-old trick of the tyrant — bully the victim by remote control.

This technique has been perfected by the crime gangs of Limerick who are well known for getting small-time associates to kill on their behalf, and thereby claim that their hands are clean of blood.

In Ms Harney’s case, she is threatening the managers of disability services that if they don’t dump on the people to whom they have a care obligation, they they will suffer her wrath.

It’s a real pity that we don’t have the macho Ms Harney presiding over the Commercial Courts.

If the ever-so-tough (when dealing with the vulnerable) Ms Harney were to tell the judges they must strip every cent from all members of miscreants’ families, there would be no need to make the old, the sick and the disabled pay for her stupidity, and that of her friend Sean FitzPatrick during the Celtic bubble.

Declan Doyle
Lisdowney, Co Kilkenny
Irish Independent

Year 2000: Corruption is rampant. Year 2010: No change

From the Attic Archives

The Examiner January 28th 2000

Care is needed to avoid an impression abroad that Ireland wallows in endemic corruption the President of the Institute of Bankers, Brian Goggin, warned last night.

“We must be conscious of the external perceptions of the many enquiries, tribunals and parliamentary committees which have become a permanent feature of our landscape in recent years”, he told the attendance at the institutes Cork regional annual dinner.

“This is patently not the case and our record relative to other developed countries bears critical scrutiny.

However, viewed from afar, a different impression may be emerging which will ultimately damage our industrial prospects.

He said the banks were in the sights of the Public Accounts Committee and its report, published just before Christmas, was unpleasant reading.

“While many would argue with aspects of its content and, in particular, the indiscriminate nature of some of its conclusions, it must be acknowledged that it has uncovered issues that need to be addressed”, he said.

“Ireland during the 1990s has engaged in rigouous examination of conscience, with both industries and institutions being called to account for a variety of past practices.”

“The various inquiries of recent times, necessary as they may have been, run the risk of demonizing both individuals and businesses unjustly, of suggesting that entire classes of people are seeking to exploit every opportunity to gain an illicit advantage.”

Brian Goggin is the former chief executive of Bank of Ireland. He is one of the chief architects of the destruction of Ireland’s economy.

We now know, of course, that entire classes of people were exploiting every opportunity to gain an illicit advantage. Bankers, politicians, estate agents, auditors, solicitors, etc. etc. etc.

These people are still there, still exploiting every opportunity to enrich themselves at taxpayers expense, still protected by a corrupt body politic and Soviet style secrecy laws.

A letter from the Department

I received an unexpected letter from the Department of the Taoiseach yesterday regarding my queries on the Secretarial Assistants Scheme for former Taoisigh.

The Secretarial Assistants involved are on this Department’s payroll and salary is paid directly to them except in the case of former Taoiseach Albert Reynolds who uses the services of an agency. In his case payments are made directly to the agency on receipt of invoices.

In relation to computer equipment, you may wish to note that it was purchased directly by this Department and provided directly to the former Taoisigh.

The scheme was established in August 2001 on an administrative basis by the then Minister for Finance, Charlie McCreevy.

Yours faithfully

Am I happy with this un-requested letter? Most certainly not, I think it raises even more questions.

More to follow…

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

Sheriff Lenihan feeding the journalists

NAMA to go after homes of wealthy developers. (Cowen and Lenihan reject plea to spare family houses).

Cowen ignored lobbying by CIF for builders.

It’s right to seize developer homes

The above three, tough talking, headlines from yesterday’s Irish Independent give the impression that the Government are going all out to deal with those nasty property developers, that the wealthy are not being let off the hook at the expense of the hard pressed taxpayer.

And that, of course, is exactly the purpose of the propaganda which, as always, is gratefully lapped up by naïve journalists.

Government ‘sources’ feed journalists the story that NAMA will move to seize the personal assets and houses of property developers in the best interests of the taxpayer.

The tough talking, no nonsense sheriff, Brian Lenihan, even included a provision in the NAMA Act to pursue developers who transferred their assets to their wives or children in an attempt to avoid paying their debts.

Alas, it’s nothing but the usual waffle designed to fool long suffering taxpayers (and journalists) as the following quote demonstrates.

However, the NAMA Act does state that nothing in its provisions will interfere with the 1976 Family Home Protection Act, which prohibits the sale, mortgage or remortgage of a family home in Ireland without the express consent of both spouses.

That may make it harder for NAMA to take away family homes from property developers with large debts.