Interested in maladministration. Estd. 2005
George Hook played the following clip from the interview with Fianna Fail TD Noel O’Flynn earlier today.
I think to attack the integrity of the Ceann Comhairle is a serious, serious matter in politics and in the houses of the Oireachtas.
The Ceann Comhairle was elected by the 166 members of the Dail, there has to be dignity and decorum and indeed you have to have respect for the chair.
Excuse me, I need to find a bucket.
Noel O’Flynn is the latest in a long line of Fianna Fail TDs who have insulted the intelligence of the Irish people by defending the greedy and unaccountable system of political expenses.
I came in towards the end of the interview when the presenter of Lunchtime, Eamon Keane, was asking O’Flynn about the €55 paid to TDs every day for just turning up at Dail Eireann.
Keane put the €55 question to O’Flynn.
O’Flynn:
Well the expenses are laid down by statute and expenses have been reduced considerably in recent months.
€55 question again
I’m a rural TD and we were getting €139 for our overnight and subsistence. I understand that’s down now to €126
€55 question again
The Houses of the Oireachtas Commission have been looking at all the expenses and have made a number of proposals.
Keane gave up at this stage and asked O’Flynn for his view on the resignation of the chairman of the Houses of the Oireachtas chairman, Tom O’Higgins, because of the absolute refusal of politicians to reform the obnoxious expenses system.
I don’t know anything about that; he has never spoken to me. I never met him, he’s never asked me a question, I don’t even know him.
Once again, it’s not politicians like O’Flynn we need to get rid of, it’s not Fianna Fail we need to get rid of, it’s not even this government we need to get rid of.
It’s the entire rotten political system itself that needs to be torn down before we can start to rebuild this country.
Copy to:
Noel O’Flynn
Brian Cowen responded as follows when challenged on the Late Late Show regarding banks sharing the pain of recovery.
We guarantee that NAMA will not be in a position where it has a deficit and if that deficit emerges we will make sure that a levy system will ensure that the money comes back from the banking system.
Brian Lenihan and the Greens have also sought to reassure taxpayers that the banks will be hit with a levy or extra taxes to make sure they take their share of the pain.
The problem with all these assurances is that they are only promises. To my knowledge there’s nothing in the NAMA legislation that will force the banks to pay their share.
We are being asked to trust politicians who, for decades, have worked very hard to protect the interests of bankers at the expense of consumers.
I don’t believe a word they say.
Meanwhile, finance minister Brian Lenihan has told the Sunday Tribune the government plans to sell much of the land Nama will amass to younger developers and builders previously locked out of the market for land.
Is this some kind of sick joke?
A recent article in the Financial Times analysing Ireland’s economic woes quoted Green Party chairman Dan Boyle on the question of making bankers accountable.
I have strong hopes that the ongoing investigations of the director of corporate enforcement and others will lead to the prosecution of those in the banking system who broke the law. But as yet, there is no opportunity for the senior bankers – some of the best-paid people in our society – to account for the catastrophic failures in their organisations, for which we will all have to pay.
It’s difficult to tell whether Boyle’s integrity has been seriously damaged by his association with Fianna Fail politicians or if he’s genuinely naïve in thinking that bankers will actually be brought to account.
I know I’ve said it before but it really does need to be repeated – No banker will be brought to account unless there’s a virtual revolution in the way the corrupt Irish state deals with white collar crime.
Boyle is a fool if he genuinely believes that the Office of Corporate Enforcement (ODCE) has the power or resources to make bankers accountable – it does not.
The ODCE deals with small time infringements by small time business people but, in effect, it also acts as a safe house for those who have committed or are under suspicion of major white collar crime.
The idea is simple but very effective – when suspicions of or actual white collar crime is uncovered the cases are transferred to ODCE where they stagnate for years until they are forgotten.
The guilty have nothing to fear from ODCE as its powers are pathetic, usually involving nothing more than a ban of a couple of years from acting as a company director.
The following is a list of those currently enjoying the safe haven that is the ODCE.
The Bailey brothers – Engaged in long-term tax evasion (made a €22 million settlement with Revenue), bribed public officials, gave false evidence under oath and obstructed a public inquiry.
National Irish Bank officials – In charge when millions were robbed from customers and the State.
Jim Flavin of DCC – Found by the Supreme Court to have defrauded the Irish Stock Market of €83 million.
None of these people will suffer any loss whatsoever as a result of their activities. They, and the bankers who have recently joined them in the ODCE safe house, will continue to enjoy the effective protection of the ODCE for so long as politicians like Dan Boyle remain ignorant of what’s really going on in this country.
Copy to:
Senator Boyle
ODCE
The Government and Liam Carroll have one single aim – to keep ACC Bank at bay until Carroll’s financial problems can be safely brought under the generous wing of the Irish taxpayer via NAMA.
They will be much relieved therefore to see that the judge dealing with the case, who also works for the Government, has decided to make a long deferment, until September 14th , before making a decision on the issue.
Judge Frank Clarke, chairman of the Referendum Commission and deciding judge in the ACC/Liam Carroll property controversy, launched his Yes to Lisbon campaign today (News at One, 2nd report, 1st item).
The Referendum Commission was set up in 1998 and initially had the role of setting out the arguments for and against referendum proposals.
This role of explaining both sides of the argument was withdrawn in 2001 restricting the Commission to simply explaining the subject matter of referendum proposals.
This invariably means the promotion of the Government’s view and criticism of the anti-government side as was clearly evident when the previous Commissioner, Mr. Justice Iarfhlaith O’Neill, launched his Lisbon I campaign and was again evident as Judge Clarke launched his Lisbon II campaign today.
Public Inquiry will be keeping a close eye on the Referendum Commission for the duration of the campaign for any sign of a neutral or, Zeus forbid, a criticism of the Government side.
When the Ryan Report was published last May there was widespread disgust and anger but in less than 24 hours the denial process took hold when everybody ignored the actual events and focused almost entirely on the Church/State deal brokered by former minister Michael Woods and Bertie Ahern.
Apologists for the Catholic Church went blue in the face from issuing apology after apology before proceeding to blame everybody else. Now we have the awards: For his work as chairman of the Child Abuse Commission, Mr. Justice Sean Ryan was presented with a special award at the Humbert School Mayo at the weekend.
This is the best report we could make, he said. It is for others to do justice to those who suffered abuse in the past — and to decide what can be done to ensure that such events do not happen in the future.
Also present at the awards was the ruthless and callous defender of the abusing institutions Sr. Marianne O’Connor representing the Conference of Religious Ireland (Cori). O’Connor issued yet another worthless apology asking for forgiveness: Without forgiveness one is stuck, unable to move forward she said.
Michael O’Brien, who made that unforgettable speech on Questions and Answers, was having none of it:
I will forgive when I know that these people mean it when they say ‘we are really, really sorry’, I don’t want silly apologies. I want to see repentance.
But Michael O’Brien will not see genuine repentance; he will not see justice and nothing will be done to prevent such events happening again. John Cooney of the Irish Independent hit the nail on the head:
The unspoken hope of Maynooth and Government Buildings is that the survivors’ group will divide and fight among themselves, and that the media and the public will weary of their plight.
And then there’s the money or rather the lack of it. Three months after the report and we’re still waiting for these depraved organizations to tell us how much money they have. I doubt we will ever be told the truth, I have heard reports that they have long ago moved the bulk of their millions offshore.
Brian Lenihan has effectively admitted that the banks will eventually have to be at least partly nationalised but, and this is the crucial point, not before the setting up of NAMA (Irish Independent).
This confirms what NAMA is all about – The transfer of all loans and liabilities currently held by the banks and property developers onto the shoulders of taxpayers before the setting up of NAMA will protect the interests of bankers and developers while leaving generations of taxpayers to clean up the mess with no advantage whatsoever.
Minister of State, Conor Lenihan, was on the Marian Finucane Show (Sunday) parroting the same dishonest arguments made by his aunt, Mary O’Rourke, in defence of John O’Donoghue’s disgraceful abuse of taxpayer’s money. Lenihan did, however, add some twists to his own particular waffle.
Starting off with the usual ‘John is a good friend of mine’, Lenihan said he wouldn’t put pressure on him to explain his actions because that might lead to an inquiry that would involve everything that has happened in the last ten years.
Like his aunt Lenihan then blamed the civil servants:
John O’Donoghue had no hand, act or part in booking reservations; they were all made by civil servants.
He immediately added that he wasn’t blaming the civil servants and later said it was just the administrative system but he wasn’t blaming the system either. Actually, this makes perfect sense in our corrupt state – When bad things happen nobody is ever to blame.
John O’Donoghue is, according to Lenihan, a hard working politician who isn’t interested in a lavish lifestyle but if people want him to properly represent Ireland a price has to be paid. A good example of the price paid by Irish taxpayer’s is revealed in yesterday’s Sunday Tribune.
O’Donoghue spent €472 on a limousine to take him from Terminal 3 in Heathrow airport to Terminal 1 – a journey which would have taken three minutes on the airport’s free shuttle service.
This, according to Linehan, is not lavish?
Like his aunt, Lenihan claimed that O’Donoghue couldn’t make a public statement on the scandal because it might bring the office of Ceann Comhairle into disrepute but he went further by suggesting that the office of Ceann Comhairle was on a par with that of the President and therefore not even a government minister has the right to demand accountability.
That’s a matter for the Ceann Comhairle (accountability), I have an obligation as a Government Minister not to criticise the President. The Ceann Comhairle is in a similar enough position. It’s not really appropriate for a Government minister to go around telling or ordering the Ceann Comhairle or the President of this country what they should or shouldn’t do and I’m not going to start doing that on this programme.
This, of course, is a ridiculous statement and Lenihan should have been nailed by the RTE presenter, Rachel English. She should have forced him to state on what basis he was making such a claim but yet again RTE simply accepted the word of a politician as gospel.
The response to this latest scandal by O’Rourke, Lenihan and politicians in general is as predictable as it is cowardly. They have little interest in the welfare of Irish citizens or the good of the country. They’re only interested in their own enrichment, the enrichment of their fellow politicians and the interests of those who fund and support them.
They are, in a word, traitors.
Copy to:
Conor Lenihan
John O’Donoghue
Marian Finucane Show