Category: Government

Living/Dying in a Third World country

Letter in today’s Irish Independent.

CF sufferers’ hope is fading fast

It has been revealed that the tender process for the long-awaited cystic fibrosis (CF) unit is not working, as the lowest tender failed to get the required finance in time.

The unique tender process, under which the company needs to finance the build and get paid on completion, was given to us as a solution when we campaigned to the Government last year. It is now more obvious than ever that this was a ploy to keep us quiet.

We are tired of writing letters to newspapers and TDs. We are tired of giving out. We are tired of being optimistic. It is unfair to expect us to fight again for more broken promises.

The awareness of the plight of people with CF is at an all-time high. Everyone knows the risks of us picking up potentially fatal infections on admission to shared wards; that our next hospital visit could be our last.

What we are asking for is standard in every other first-world country. We are not looking for gold-plated oxygen tanks!

Our hope is fading and we are asking for your help once again. I don’t want this fight to end when we are eventually silenced by picking up an infection in a sub-standard facility of “care”.

What more can we all say?

Maria Daly
Person with CF,
Carlow Person of the Year — Courage Award 2010,
Marino, Dublin 3

What we are asking for is standard in every other first-world country.

Unfortunately for Maria and all CF sufferers, they are living in a dangerously corrupt Third World country.

Two previous blogs on this disgraceful situation.

“I have absolutely no faith in the HSE or in Mary Harney” Bernadette Cooney, recently deceased. RIP

Broken promises

HSE missing millions – Only one certainty

€2.35 million has gone missing in the HSE.

The Gardai are investigating.

The Comptroller and Auditor General is investigating.

The Department of Health is investigating.

The Department of Finance is investigating.

The HSE is investigating – for the second time.

Health Minister Mary Harney said that if any money had been misappropriated, it was a very serious matter.

No it’s not, the misappropriation of massive amounts of taxpayers money is a very common and fully accepted aspect of the administration of our banana republic, it’s part of what we are.

As with all such scandals in Ireland, there is only one certainty – nobody will be held accountable.

Traitor Dukes tells the people of Ireland to fuck off

At least €20 billion of the €22 billion poured into Anglo Irish Bank will never be seen again (RTE News, 2nd report).

This was obvious for quite some time but to actually hear the Chief Executive, Mike Aynsley, casually admit the fact was still shocking.

Ireland is ruined despite what Klaus Regling says.

If the people of Ireland remain docile, if they continue to wallow in their political ignorance they will be reduced to a standard of living similar to that of the 1950s.

They will be living in poverty with no self respect and no hope for the future. For generations to come Irish citizens will work long and hard to pay back their personal loans, their mortgages and the billions gambled away by the corrupt banks and politicians.

At the very least the people should rise up and throw those responsible for our destruction out of office. Not only is there no sign of this happening but members of the ruling elite who have betrayed Ireland continue to give two fingers to the people.

Alan Dukes is one such traitor.

He was questioned by Senator Ross in front of the Joint Oireachtas Finance and Public Service Committee regarding the appointment of Gary Kennedy, an AIB insider, and Fianna Fail hack, Aidan Eames, to the board of Anglo Irish Bank.

Here’s part of the row as broadcast on The Late Debate last night. (Remember, Dukes, allegedly represents the public interest on the board of Anglo).

Senator Ross: What input did you have in interviewing these guys?

Dukes: That’s as much an answer as you’re going to get Senator.

Senator Ross: Why?

Dukes: Because I’m not here to write a column on the back page of the Sunday Business Independent

Senator Ross: That is gratuitously ridiculous and insulting.

We’re entitled to answers to questions about people who are on nationalised banks and for you to say you’re not going to answer a question about who they are and what procedures were followed is completely unacceptable.

Dukes: It is perfectly adequate…

Committee Chairman: He has answered the question…

Senator Ross: He hasn’t, he said he has great confidence..

Dukes: It is perfectly adequate on my part to say that the three appointments have gone through due process and I’m perfectly happy with each member of the board we have.

Senator Ross: It looks to me as if these were imposed upon you and you’re not prepared to say so.

Dukes: That is not true, all due procedures were followed.

Senator Ross: Nobody interviewed them, they were parachuted in, they’re part of the old guard.

Dukes: That’s an allegation that you cannot stand up Senator.

Committee Chairman: Could you back up that allegation?

Senator Ross: I want to know how it happened, that’s all I’m asking.

Committee Chairman: You’re not allowing the chairman to reply.

Senator Ross: Ok, how did it happen?

Dukes: All of the due procedures were followed in making those appointments and in all previous appointments to the board. They have been approved by the Financial Regulator and that’s all I’m going to say.

Senator Ross: Were they interviewed by the board?

Dukes: I’m not going to reply to that.

In case there’s anybody out there with the slightest doubt about what the traitor Dukes is saying here, let me spell it out in crude but plain English.

He’s telling Senator Ross to fuck off, he’s telling the Dail committee to fuck off and he’s telling the people of Ireland to fuck off.

He is supremely confident that he can do what he likes, supremely confident there’s no authority in the land capable or willing to make him accountable.

Sadly, very sadly, for the people of Ireland, his confidence is justified.

Expenses scandal confirms political system is still rotten to the core

We are constantly told by politicians that things are different now. We’re told that the (corrupt) political system has been reformed, that the system is now transparent and accountable.

The ongoing expenses scandal gives the lie to all such assertions.

There’s not even a need to make an argument on the matter, the words of the politicians themselves are sufficient to confirm that the system is still rotten to the core.

Michael D Higgins: (Labour TD)

I think it’s important that we acknowledge the new system is there and hope that people will realise that people like Ivor Callely are exceptional and allow the rest of us to address the really serious issues.

I would worry about my own sanity if I regarded it as politically important.

I do insist that presenting this exotic behaviour as anything typical would be quite irresponsible.

Clearly, Higgins does not think that alleged fraud by an Irish politician is a serious issue or politically important.

This attitude displays a disturbing ignorance of reality.

All corruption in Ireland ultimately originates from the corruption of the political system but people like Higgins have yet to even notice that fact never mind actually act against the disease.

He’s happy to wallow in ignorance and denial while blaming the media for everything.

Dr. John Doyle (DCU)

Irish politicians have very few supports in staff and other facilities compared to other EU parliaments…the broader picture is that Irish politicians are not on the gravy train compared to the Europeans and North Americans.

Lise Hand (Columnist with Irish Independent) when asked to respond to Doyle’s comments.

Just picking my jaw up off the floor here.

Mary O’Rourke (Fianna Fail TD)

Apparently he (Callely) is hunting for a get out clause. I think it’s all very nauseating and awfully bad for the body politic and it’s wrong, wrong, wrong.

This is the politician who believed Bertie Ahern’s lies were quite reasonable explanations and was/is a great admirer of the criminal Haughey.

After Haughey died O’Rourke described his long and destructive record of criminality as ‘a few bumps on the road.’

Mary Hanafin (Minister for Arts, Sports and Tourism)

The answers that have come forward to date are not very clear. Senator Callely has to explain the situation to the Senate Committee.

There are certainly serious questions being asked and I believe he should be absolutely up front and clear about it.

Answers not very clear? Callely should be up front and clear. Is this the same politician who regularly stated, without embarrassment, that she believed every convoluted word from the mouth of the chancer Bertie Ahern?

The reason for this rank hypocrisy from O’Rourke and Hanafin is simple. Callely is not important; in fact he’s not even liked within Fianna Fail. He’s not a Fianna Fail mafia don so he can be discarded,

Senator Regan (Fine Gael)

I think this is an important issue, an issue of fraud by a member of this house.

Regan was told to withdraw the remark and did so immediately. Fraud by an Irish politician – the very idea?

Senator Dearey (Green Party)

Dearey was asked what should happen next (regarding Callely)

Well, you’ll appreciate I’m the newest kid on the block in there. I was appointed in the last couple of days in February so the intricacies of Oireachtas procedures are not something I would claim to be an expert on yet.

So, this politician needs to become an expert on the intricacies of Oireachtas procedures before he can give an opinion on the difference between right and wrong.

Senator Mullen (Independent) (From Galway but lives in Dublin)

On being asked what advice he received from a fellow politician in relation to claiming expenses when he first entered the Senate in 2007.

You could claim your expenses from Ahascragh (Galway) and if you’re here long enough you’ll have a house out of it.

Senator Mullen’s response to this advice:

We all deal in our own way with bad suggestions like that. You don’t necessarily give the person a lecture on ethics and propriety on the spot.

Senator Mullen is a deeply conservative Catholic who constantly lecturers Irish citizens on ethical matters.

It would appear that ethics in politics, if that’s not an oxymoron, do not feature in this Senator’s sense of morality.

Senator Butler (Fianna Fail)

Gets paid €20,000 more in travel expenses because he says he’s moved home to county Carlow although his home address is listed as Foxrock in Dublin.

Senator Doherty (Sinn Fein, Donegal)

Senator Doherty questions why Fine Gael TD Dinny McGinley, who lives in the same town land as Doherty, claims substantially more travel expenses.

McGinley claims that he was advised by security people back in the troubles to stay within the state. Fear that he might become a war casualty results in him having to take a longer route to and from Dublin.

Apparently, nobody has informed the TD that the war ended about 20 years ago.

Senator Regan (Fine Gael) who angrily accused Callely of fraud said that McGinley’s claims were a minor matter but Senator Doherty responded that they amounted to tens of thousands of Euros.

Senator Doherty believes that politicians are grossly overpaid on expenses.

It doesn’t cost me €466 to get from Donegal to Dublin. I have a car over a four year loan period. Repayments are €310 per month and I get €466 per return journey.

Senator Regan (Fine Gael) on being asked why politicians do not use public transport.

There’s an efficiency problem with that. Coming from Donegal might not work for a local TD who needs to get back to his constituency to attend particular events. Some have to go back mid week so there’s a practicality to it.

Bullshit is the only possible response to this view.

Senator O’Brolchain (Green Party)

Asked did he think people (politicians) were going by train and claiming mileage for it?

Well, I’m absolutely certain of it. I know of many instances of that, there are many instances where people are abusing the system.

Senator White (Fianna Fail) The following comments are a mixture of insult, paternalism and lies.

I’m very conscious listening to the discussion so far that the Irish public is listening out there very, very worried and probably incensed.

They’re not understanding some of the language that’s being used -vouched, unvouched etc and I think it’s very confusing.

First of all I would like to reassure the Irish people that a new regime has just being brought in. It’s a radical change over what has gone on forever as far as I’m concerned.

It is highly transparent system now and to be honest when I first came to the Senate in 2002 I was amazed at the lack of transparency and the lack of having to produce vouched receipts.

I am acutely conscious that it’s taxpayers’ money that I am being paid and accountable for every day.

But I would really like to reassure the people that we now have a highly transparent system.

This stupid politician, who, by the way wants to be President, didn’t say if she intends educating a ‘confused’ and ‘ignorant’ Irish public on the meaning of such ‘complex’ words like vouched and unvouched.

Senator Labhras O’Murchu (Fianna Fail) (Based in Tipperary)

When O’Murchu was asked about his expenses he said that when in Dublin he stays at Comthlas headquarters for about €50 per night. He claims that he uses the balance of money to pay for the rest of his daily expenses.

O’Murchu is Director General of Comthlas. Comthlas has refused to make any comment on the matter.

Jackie Healy-Rae (Fianna Fail independent)

Healy Rae admitted that up until recently he has been driving to the Dail from his Kerry constituency in the company of another Oireachtas member. He refused to name the other politician or whether both of them have claimed expenses.

When pressed on the matter he responded:

I know my own business and I won’t be declaring it to you or anybody else.

In other words this backwoodsman is telling the media and the people of Ireland to take a hike.

His ignorant and arrogant attitude is a clear indication that nothing has changed in this country and as I have said on many occasions nothing will ever change until these traitors are thrown out of public office and the entire corrupt system under which they enrich themselves is brought crashing down.

Copy to:

Fianna Fail
Fine Gael
Labour
Green Party
Senator Mullen
Seanad Eireann
Dail Eireann

Senator O’Murchu’s curious sleeping arrangements

During a discussion about the ongoing expenses scandal Fianna Fail Senator, Labhras O Murchu, made what I thought was a very curious remark (Marian Finucane Show, Sat).

He explained that when he was in Dublin he stayed at Comhaltas Ceoltoiri Eireann headquarters for €50 per night.

I checked this out and, according to Wikipedia, Senator O’Murchu is the Director General of Comhaltas.

I phoned the organisation this morning with a list of questions but was informed by a spokesperson that a press release on the matter would be released later today.

The spokesperson was clearly under pressure so I’m obviously not the only person asking questions about this curious arrangement.

Seanad Eireann: An elaborate cash-dispensing machine

It is now seven days since the Sunday Independent exposed Senator Ivor Callely’s dodgy expenses claims. Seven days and not a policeman in sight to investigate what are, in effect, serious allegations of fraud.

Liam Fay writes a hard hitting and accurate analysis of the scandal in today’s Sunday Times. Some quotes from is article.

The notion that Callely has “duties” in the sense that he provides a service or function is absurd. As one of the taoiseach’s appointees, he’s a professional placeman, a chair warmer.

Unelected and therefore unaccountable, he represents nobody but himself and has nothing to offer but his trademark self-importance.

Similarly, Callely is more emblematic of the culture of the Seanad than most senators will admit.

After all, the whole expenses system is a joke, an elaborate cash-dispensing machine that rewards senators for simply turning up to perform a part-time job of no discernible usefulness for which they are already overpaid in the first place.

As we are discovering, Callely isn’t the only senator to claim travel expenses from a distant address that is not officially listed as his home.

If the Callely affair proves anything, it’s the case for the abolition of the Seanad, a talking shop designed solely for the aggrandisement of a political elite.

Turning corners or a circle of disaster?

Halleluiah, praise the lord, wonder of wonders, we have – yet again – turned a corner.

I say ‘a’ corner because I’m not sure whether Brian Cowen’s corner is the same as Brian Lenihan’s or indeed the same as the many other corners we constantly seem to be turning.

I’m not an economist, just an angry observer so the following ramble may be a complete misinterpretation of what’s going on.

We have just handed over another two billion to Anglo Irish Bank. The handing over of this money to this bankrupt bank is, quite literally, no different from throwing it into a furnace.

This money immediately becomes part of the national debt so, for many decades to come, Irish citizens will be paying back every cent in successive budgets.

And remember, the Government is standing by with at least another 8 billion to throw into Sean Fitzpatrick’s furnace.

With hardly a murmur of comment the guts of a billion was spent last week to recapitalise (nationalise) EBS.

The cost of just these two events completely wipes out the savings planned in the next budget. The Government is scrapping the bottom of the barrel looking for ways to squeeze more and more out of taxpayers who have little left to give.

The gap between what the state spends and what it takes in is over 18 billion and increasing by about a billion every month. For me, the figures just do not add up.

The Government is getting great praise from abroad for its slash and burn policies and politicians and naive commentators are lapping it up but how much more can the Irish people take?

I believe that if Irish citizens continue to allow themselves be stripped of everything they own they will be reduced to a quality of life similar to that of the 1940/50s.

Even that would be a manageable situation if the country was led by honest, courageous and visionary politicians. But the political system is corrupt and rudderless, there’s billions owed on personal loans and credit cards and at least 70 billion owed as a result of the bank bailout.

It seems to me that for this government’s polices to work Irish citizens will have to accept living in absolute, grinding poverty for generations to come – how likely is that?

I don’t believe we’re turning corners, it’s more like we’re going around in a circle and that circle is sinking rapidly.

But then again I could have slipped into a parallel universe two years ago and am now living under the delusion that catastrophe is staring us in the face.

Hopefully my escape from this delusional world is – just around the corner.

Thieving banks – Past and present

Pat Kenny told the following story on Today with Pat Kenny (Wed. 12th May).

I was talking to a former banker last night, he’s out of banking now years and years, and he told me that when he worked for a particular bank before it became part of AIB it was common throughout all banks; to rob the customers regularly.

Now how did they do it? Well they rounded up what the customer owed and they rounded down what they owed the customer, so they were always at it.

Common throughout all banks to rob customers regularly – It’s not often we hear such a candid admission of criminality by a banker, even a retired banker.

We now know, of course, that widespread and systematic theft was, and probably still is, a common and fully accepted business option within the Irish financial sector.

I suspect that I was a victim of this Irish ‘tradition’ when, on 16th June 1992, a mysterious interest charge of £2.03 appeared on my current account.

When I rang the bank and politely asked for an explanation I was curtly told to put my request in writing, the official ended the conversation by sternly warning me to make sure the letter was properly signed.

Remember, this was a time when banks lorded it over the peasantry, before their criminality was exposed.

When the ‘put it in writing’ tactic failed the bank paid back the £2.03 to my account with the usual meaningless apology.

But I wasn’t happy, my suspicions were raised and I wanted to know why the deduction was made in the first place.

Over the following five months I engaged in psychological warfare with the bank by way of letters, phone calls and personal visits to the bank until eventually, in October 1992, the bank admitted that an error had occurred in their Electronic Money Transmission System.

The admission of error by the bank was important to me because up to that point they insisted that I was somehow at fault or an error had been made by my then employer (Dept. of Defence, Navy).

I have no doubt that my persistence wore them down but I found the whole experience very difficult especially when I made personal visits to the bank.

As I queued in line I could see the ‘Jesus, here comes the crank again’ look on the bank officials faces.

Before each visit I had to mentally psyche myself up, I had to mentally convince myself that I was in the right, that I was entitled to an answer to my simple question.

It had also occurred to me that AIB could be engaged in the systematic theft of small amounts of money from a large number of customers which accumulatively could amount to a significant sum of money every month.

We now know that this widespread theft was in fact going on but when I contacted every political party, the Dept. of Finance and the Central Bank to express my suspicions I was, without exception, patronisingly advised to switch my account to another bank.

In my innocence I was completely unaware that the main political parties and the so called regulatory authorities were fully aware of, and tolerated, such criminality within the banking sector.

In 1998, George Lee and Charlie Bird published their book ‘Breaking the Bank’ which detailed widespread theft and fraud by National Irish Bank.

I smiled when I read how bank staff went out of their way to target the accounts of ‘demanding or troublesome’ customers for special treatment.

Depressingly, there is no reason whatsoever to assume that large scale theft and fraud within the Irish financial sector is a thing of the past.

Despite the appointment of Matthew Elderfield as Financial Regulator there has been no change in the culture of secrecy that facilitates such criminality.

Neither is there any sign of the political leadership necessary to bring the thieves to heel.

Copy to:
Financial Regulator

Long live the (corrupt) republic

Sunday Independent business correspondent Brian Keenan is a conservative.

He’s one of those people who sincerely believe he lives in a functional democracy where accountability is, if not the norm, at least possible. It must, therefore, have been difficult for him to admit the following.

The truth is that Ireland is an ill-governed country, and has been for some time.

Yes, I know, it’s a mild almost sheepish description of the horrific reality that Ireland is facing but it’s a start for a journalist who, to date, has lived in a lovely, warm and comfortable cocoon of denial.

He goes on:

Time is now running out, not just to fix the public finances, but to fix the body politic.

You see here, it’s beginning to dawn on this conservative that there’s something wrong with our political system. Yes, he’s about 30 years too late with his tiny and timid insight but it’s a start for a journalist who has always been comfortable in his denial.

He goes on:

Fianna Fail, of course, will have to fix itself. For most of the past 30 years, it has been part of the problem rather than part of the solution. Like much of the country’s other difficulties, this is fundamentally due to an unwillingness to change.

Wow, this is incredible insight – Fianna Fail is part of the problem.

Let’s see, around 1982 I realised that Fianna Fail was rotten to the core with corruption. The party that still supports and admires the criminal Haughey is the single greatest factor in the destruction of our country.

The solution is not for Fianna Fail to fix itself; the solution is for Fianna Fail to be destroyed as a power in the land.

The question that Mr. Keenan grapples with in his article is whether Ireland should default on its debts and it is here that we see he has learned nothing; that he’s still living in his comfortable but deadly denial.

It cannot just be economic calculations, though. No rich country has defaulted since World War II. Twenty years ago, rugby captain Ciaran Fitzgerald had not yet uttered what remains my instinctive response to the idea: “Where’s your f**king pride?”

Here Keenan looks out from the cesspit of corruption that Ireland has become and shouts at the world.

We are Irish, we’re proud and we will defeat this terrible disaster not by facing uncomfortable realities, not be putting the corrupt in jail, not by radically reforming our corrupt political, regulatory and business sectors.

No, we will solve our problems by appealing to a false, naïve and totally misplaced nationalism.

Long live the (corrupt) republic.

A corrupt administration will never introduce an effective whistleblowers charter

In a hard hitting article in today’s Irish Times, John Devitt of Transparency International (Ireland); exposes the Government’s latest deceitful attempt at pretending that Ireland is serious about tackling white collar crime.

The Minister for Justice is pretending that the Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Act

will provide protection to any person, in any sector, reporting suspicions of corruption in good faith.

Mr. Devitt says that the Act will only provide limited protection to those reporting the very narrowly defined offence of bribery.

He goes on to ask:

So why does the Government still think it inappropriate to introduce a universal whistleblowers’ charter that works for everyone?

The Government seems to have been swayed by three equally dubious argument writes Mr. Devitt.

I’m not going to waste my time analysing what are obviously ridiculous arguments by the Company Law Review Group, Ibec and the Government itself except to say that they are pathetic excuses put forward by a corrupt administration that will never act against its own interests by introducing effective anti-corruption laws.

Mr. Devitt also asks why the republic cannot introduce a universal whistleblowers charter similar to the very successful charter introduced in the UK in 1998.

The answer is simple but brutal; the State cannot introduce any effective anti-corruption legislation because to do so would immediately expose the appalling vista that Ireland is an intrinsically corrupt state.

All states suffer to some degree from the disease of corruption but most states have effective authorities in place, free of political interference, that fight the disease on an ongoing basis.

When corruption is uncovered in these states the relevant authorities act against the corrupt; police investigations, trials and jail sentences are a normal and accepted part of the culture of these countries.

Some states, mostly in the Third World, are so corrupt, the disease is so ingrained in the culture that effective action is practically impossible because those who wield power are completely dependent on the corrupt system for their survival – Ireland is such a country.

Anyone with even the slightest knowledge of what’s gone on in this country in the last few decades cannot deny this reality.

For example, it is a fact that the Financial Regulator and the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement (ODCE) are nothing more than fake enforcement authorities. They have only one effective purpose – to create the illusion that Ireland is a normal, functional democracy.

These authorities do not and have never taken any effective action against the corrupt. I can say with absolute confidence that the cases which are presently being dealt by these authorities will not result in any substantial accountability.

It is obvious that Ireland needs a universal whistleblowers charter, it is obvious, from the example of other countries; that such measures are effective in combating corruption but it is also depressingly obvious that no effective action will be taken until the corrupt political system itself is taken down.