Interested in maladministration. Estd. 2005
Brian Cowen initially rejected an inquiry into the banking crisis because of the damage it could cause to the country’s international reputation.
On the Sunday Supplement this morning Mary Hanafin said that not having an inquiry could cause damage to the country’s international reputation.
The truth is that it is this political hypocrisy/dishonesty that has destroyed the country’s reputation.
In our dysfunctional republic Jim Flavin was found by the Supreme Court to have defrauded the stock exchange of €83 million.
This ruling, by the highest court in the land, has been effectively overturned by a mere High Court inspector. The whole matter took ten years to resolve and at no point whatsoever was there police involvement.
In the functioning jurisdiction of the UK Iris Robinson is under police investigation just weeks after allegations were made that she secured a paltry £50,000 from two developers to fund her lover’s restaurant business.
In our dysfunctional republic such interaction between politicians and developers is as much a part of the culture as Guinness and the shamrock.
If an Irish policeman suggested that perhaps the police should investigate such connections he would quickly find himself under the same acute psychiatric care as that of Mrs. Robinson.
Even for a country as corrupt as Ireland, the events of Tuesday 19th January represent a dark day for our country.
At the very moment that Jim Flavin and DCC were being let off with an €83 million fraud on the stock market our national parliament was initiating an inquiry into the banking crisis that will, without a shadow of doubt, result in the same farcical result.
On the same day I was in Dublin with my nephew, Gavin, to attend a meeting by Transparency International (Ireland) on the subject of protecting whistleblowers in Ireland. (Gavin created and maintains this website and also writes, campaigns and helps maintain Gavin’s Blog, The Story and Kildare St.).
What struck me about the meeting was, as far as I could ascertain, not a single ordinary citizen was present. My impression was that everybody present was there because they were victims of state corruption, had a personal agenda of their own or were involved in fighting corruption.
And this is the problem. Despite all the good work of organisations like Transparency International (Ireland), journalists like Fintan O’Toole, Tom Clonan and Justine McCarthy and despite the courage of whistleblowers who risk everything in an effort to bring about change, meetings like this, I am sad to say, are really a waste of time.
The disease of corruption in Ireland has become so bad, has become so ingrained in the administration of the country that campaigns like this are, as I said to Gavin in discussion, like trying to knock down a six foot thick brick wall with a soft rubber ball.
The vast majority of Irish citizens are angry over a whole range of events but that anger is not focused, it’s not being harnessed by visionary and courageous leadership.
Coupled with this lack of leadership is the chronic political ignorance of most Irish citizens. Because of the corrupt system of clientelism most Irish people believe that power comes from the top down instead of from the people up.
They believe the system works by selling votes to the local politician in return for a favour. This is why corrupt politicians continue to be voted in time after time.
Irish voters are almost completely incapable of making the connection between voting for a corrupt politician and the damage that that decision causes to the country and the rest of its citizens.
For so long as this situation continues campaigns like that of TI will make little or no progress and have no affect whatsoever on the brick wall of Irish corruption.
That’s why those who operate within the corrupt body politic have no fear of organisations like TI, they are (justifiably) confident that they are untouchable.
There is only one solution to the problem and that is to knock down the brick wall. The political and administrative system that has destroyed this country must itself be brought down.
The first step in that process must be the destruction of the present corrupt political system and that will require immediate and radical action.
I have no idea what form that action should be nor do I have in mind a potential leadership but I have no doubt whatsoever that those of us who want change, who passionately want to root out the rot will still be attending genuine but ultimately useless meetings in twenty years time unless such radical action occurs.
Just before the meeting came to an end Fine Gael TD Leo Varadkar made a short speech before excusing himself to attend a meeting with Paul Appleby of ODCE.
The announcement made at that meeting tells us all we need to know about how rotten our democracy is and will be the subject of my next posting.
Transport Minister, Noel Dempsey threatened on RTE this morning that, if necessary, strong action would be taken against
a very small number of very well paid people who were threatening the jobs of hundreds of thousands of people.
Unfortunately, he wasn’t talking about politicians but the striking air traffic controllers.
The following quote is taken from a report in today’s Irish Independent.
Nevertheless, Anglo faces a tough task demonstrating that it can repay taxpayers’ money after five years, as necessitated by EU state aid rules.
If Ireland was the most efficient and best regulated country in the world with a political and business leadership of vision and courage solely focused on what was best for Ireland and its people the above plan would be a near impossibility.
As a backwater banana republic led by a mafia type body politic and a regulatory regime that facilitates widespread criminality the above plan is a complete and utter impossibility.
Over the next few years the remaining good assets of Anglo Irish Bank will be stripped clean by friends of the political system after which the rotting carcass will be left to stench up the nostrils of Irish taxpayers for generations to come.
Revenue recently published its preliminary business results for year ending 31 December 2009.
There are some interesting figures in the report. For example, in 2009 there were just 6 convictions for serious tax evasion, 4 more are under consideration by the DPP and there are 78 ongoing investigations.
Special investigations last year generated a total of €114.4 million compared with €54 in 2008.
By any standards these are paltry sums but by Irish standards, where tax evasion is still widespread and still widely seen as a misdemeanor rather than a crime, they are miniscule and they tell us just one thing about the Irish Revenue service – it’s a failure.
But this failure, like the failure of the financial regulator and the Dept. of Finance, is not due to incompetence, it’s due to deliberate, well planned policy.
Tax amnesties are at the core of Revenue’s policy since the disgraceful amnesty of 1993 which, I believe, allowed a good number of serious tax evaders off the hook. As I wrote in 2007:
Ireland is the only country in the world that operates a policy of continuous amnesties for tax criminals, all other jurisdictions preferring the option of law enforcement.
In that article I wrote about Revenue’s lazy and cheap habit of sending out gentle letters to tax evaders offering them all kinds of incentives if they agreed to pay their taxes.
An Irish Independent article on the matter tells us that because of the current budget deficit of €24.6 billion Revenue is taking an aggressive stance on tax evasion (In accountable jurisdictions aggressive action is the norm when it comes to tax evasion).
So what is this ‘new’ aggressive stance by Revenue?
Well, er, they’ve sent out letters to 7,000 people who own second homes or investment properties inviting them to obey the law in relation to capital gains tax. In other words – another tax amnesty.
At the launch of every amnesty law abiding citizens are assured by politicians and officials that henceforth the full force of the law will be brought down on those who fail to pay their due taxes.
These assurances are nothing but lies and the statistics confirms this.
The report (probably due to embarrassment) has nothing to say about the number of people jailed for tax evasion so I gave Revenue a call to find out.
In 2009 just two people received jail sentences but an even more incredible and disgraceful statistic is that between 2000 and 2008 only seven people were put behind bars for tax evasion.
Have a look at this report (2nd item) where NAMA chief Brendan McDonagh delivers what RTE News describes as a ‘stark warning’ to developers who are not cooperating with NAMA.
“If we don’t think you’re viable we will take enforcement action against you,”
McDonagh (darkly) warns.
If I was a developer listening to Mr. McDonagh I would feel very safe. The NAMA chief sounds like a frightened schoolboy threatening the well built school bully with dire consequences if he refuses to hand back stolen pocket money.
As we start out on the long NAMA road let me make something crystal clear.
No developer will face enforcement action, no developer will lose out financially or otherwise, all developers and especially those who have made generous political donations will be well looked after.
Why? Because that’s the way things are done in a dysfunctional country like Ireland.
Developers are already well ahead of NAMA in protecting their interests. The Mail on Sunday (January 3rd) reports that two members of the infamous Anglo Irish Golden Circle, Gerry Gannon and Joe O’Reilly have signed over several tranches of multimillion property assets to their wives.
The paper also reported last July that developer Liam Carroll and Sean Dunne transferred properties to their wives.
The State will do nothing to stop these transfers until all developers have secured their assets.
Then, at some point in the future we will see politicians and officials like Mr. McDonagh wringing their hands as they tell us that it’s too late to act so the taxpayer must pay but, going forward, we must make sure this kind of thing never happens again.
We only need to read a report on the same page in the same newspaper to understand why the State will not take enforcement action against non cooperative developers.
Developer Michael Bailey has bribed politicians, committed perjury and robbed millions in unpaid taxes and yet he’s still walking around a free man.
The weak and ineffective ODCE has been trying for years, and failing, to impose even the minimum sanction open to the state, to ban Bailey from acting as a director of a company.
Not only is the State allowing this crook off scot free but it seems that Anglo Irish Bank, fully owned by the taxpayer, is preparing to pump millions into his company in an effort to rescue it from financial ruin.
This level of state cooperation and support for a corrupt developer puts Mr. Mc Donagh’s ‘stark warning’ into context – Non cooperative developers can sleep soundly in their beds.
See here for report on possible support for Bailey’s company by Anglo Irish Bank and here for an excellent analysis of the proposal by Fintan O’Toole.
Pat Kenny’s usual professional demeanour dissolved into helpless laughter today after reading out the following government press release regarding Transport Minister Noel Dempsey’s reaction to the cold spell.
The minister is out of the country on holiday, but, the press release reassures everybody:
He’s keeping fully abreast of the situation through officials and colleagues; he’s requested his officials to meet with relevant counterparts in other departments and agencies to ensure maximum coordination of efforts.
Meanwhile, on the home front, the rest of the buffoons have finally responded to the cold snap by forming, yes, you’ve guessed it, another committee.
The emergency response committee is meeting to discuss the situation and no doubt will have recommendations on the table by August.
Listen to Pay Kenny’s reaction here (1.14)
I see the Government has made a formal complaint to the BBC over its use of Paul Gogarty’s Dail outburst on the popular comedy show ‘Have I got news for you’.
The reaction has echo’s of the Brian Cowen portrait incident which saw the full power of the state mobilized in an effort to exact revenge on behalf of the Great Leader.
I’ve requested a copy of the complaint from the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission. I’m curious to see if it includes a threat to invade Her Majesty’s realm if this slight on the dignity of the Dail is not immediately rectified.
In keeping with our banana republic status all Irish media outlets are banned from broadcasting such disrespectful material.
We can only thank the Great Zeus for the internet and Politics.ie
Letter in today’s Irish Independent:
Bank probe would drive investors away
Regrettably, I have to agree with the Taoiseach’s view that an independent investigation of the causes of our economic crash would damage our international reputation and lead to further economic hardship for the country.
Yes indeed, Taoiseach, you are right, the ‘markets’ would react very unfavourably to the exposure of the fact that the people who were responsible for the disaster are still in their positions of power within the banks, the Government, the Department of Finance and indeed, in many instances, the regulatory system.
What investor in his right mind would want to invest in a banana republic that bails out the bankers and fails to punish the incompetent, the negligent and even the corrupt at the higher echelons of its society?
Instead, let us keep things ‘hush, hush’ and maybe the ‘markets’ won’t notice and our problems will magically disappear.
Jimmy Finn
Claremorris, CO MAYO