Category: Government

What has to happen…?

Judges won’t take voluntary cuts; politicians won’t take voluntary cuts, while everyone else is taking involuntary cuts right on the kisser.

Politicians of every hue take to the airwaves. From our remove, they’re freakily removed from reality, their soundbites giving new meaning to twitter. The truth is “unpatriotic”. Cuts are “savings”. Shameless political self-preservation is sudden-onset “responsibility”.

Bankrupting bankers are untouchable, the Minister for Finance telling an apoplectic Vincent Browne that these international men of mystery have contracts, you know.

So had the rest of us. This is not Kafka. This is a parish-pump farce. One that reveals a deep, dangerous fracture in Irish life. People listen to the estranged politicians, look at their wreckage of their lives and wonder if they’re living in The Matrix.

This is serious. Deadly serious. We’re not just losing money here. Too often, we’re losing our minds, our lives. Scared parents wander the house at night, watching the children sleeping, wondering how long they’ll be able to keep their job, their head, their home.

Distracted men (usually) are doing away with themselves in sheds, hotels, rivers, lakes. Small, devastating exits. The ultimate personal response to political and financial treason. Yes, we’re still dying for Ireland. And the megabankers are still on the golf course, blind to the fates of mortals. A perverse acquittal granted them by the State.

Miriam O’Callaghan, Irish Times

Parish pump farce? Political and financial treason? State protection for the bankers.

So why aren’t the people on the streets? What has to happen before Irish people realise that they live in a failed political entity?

What has to happen to make them realise that that failed political entity has to be torn down and destroyed before we can start afresh?

Corruption, accountability and political ignorance

An article in yesterday’s Irish Times by Peter Murtagh relates the story of Seán, a man who, in normal circumstances, wouldn’t say boo to a goose but was now gripped by naked rage because of his financial loss as a result of the banking collapse.

Seán, who voted Fianna Fail all his life, had some colourful language for Fianna Fail, Bertie Ahern and Anglo Irish Bank.

According to Murtagh the principal reason for Seán’s anger was the lack of accountability for the banking fiasco.

This is a misinterpretation of Seán’s anger. Seán is not the slightest bit interested in accountability, his anger stems entirely from the fact that he personally lost money.

If his money hadn’t been invested in Anglo Irish Bank, if it was still secure in some other scheme he wouldn’t have featured in Peter Murtagh’s article.

In other words, he would still be, as Murtagh describes him – a nice quiet man, a gentleman. He would still vote Fianna Fail at the next election as he has done all his life and the financial devastation inflicted on Ireland and its people would only be of passing interest to him as he looked forward to his retirement.

If Seán was genuinely interested in accountability, rather than his own selfish interests, he would not have blindly and consistently voted for the most corrupt political party in the history of the state.

It was only when the disease of corruption infected him personally that he suddenly realized that somebody should be made accountable.

It is this extremely narrow outlook that lies at the root of most of Ireland’s problems. People like Seán do not vote in the national interest, they vote strictly for their own interests and it is this political ignorance that creates the perfect environment for corrupt politicians to buy votes in order to obtain power.

At the end of the article Murtagh suggests that perhaps things are changing.

Maybe the anger of all the Seáns out there will translate into our “betters” being held to account by the Garda, the DPP and the corporate enforcer.

Like Seán, Murtagh is living in a very narrow world completely unaware of the reality of what Ireland has become.

Every single action by the Government and State authorities since the economy collapsed and exposed Ireland as a corrupt state has been to protect and maintain that corrupt system while at the same time trying to convince the international community that we are a normal democratic country.

The Garda, DPP, Corporate Enforcer, and all other so called regulatory agencies are a major part of the problem and the problem will not be resolved until all of these agencies are radically reformed or replaced altogether.

But nothing, absolutely nothing will change until the present corrupt political system is completely destroyed and replaced with a genuine, accountable, democratic system.

That’s how radical we need to be and quoting meaningless sentiments from a Bob Dylan song, as Murtagh does, will certainly make no difference to the forces of corruption that have infested every level of Irish society.

Copy to:
Peter Murtagh

Intellectually lazy and ignorant media are part of the problem

Former leader and founder of the Progressive Democrats, Des O’Malley, was recently interviewed (Saturday, 27th June) by Marian Finucane.

The interview was revealing in that it told us as much about the ignorance of journalists/broadcasters like Marian Finucane as it did about the incompetence of politicians.

The following is analysis and comment as the interview progressed.

On Haughey

Finucane: Do you admire Haughey?

O’Malley: I admire certain aspects of him but fundamentally the man was flawed.

Finucane: But aren’t we all?

O’Malley: It’s an awful pity, he could have been so successful but he chose to carry on in a really silly way.

It’s difficult to believe that these people are talking about the most corrupt politician in the history of the state. They are talking about a man who, for decades, plundered the state of its wealth for the benefit of himself, his family and his friends.

A man who took Irish politics down into the sewer where it remains to this day, a man whose legacy is a country where corruption, incompetence and arrogance are the defining features of the ruling elite.

They are talking about a man who was so bereft of honesty and ethical boundaries that he had no scruples whatsoever in robbing a fund set up to save the life of his best friend.

The But aren’t we all flawed comment by Marian Finucane demonstrates a deep ignorance of the reality and consequences of corruption in Ireland.

Apparently, Finucane sees the corrupt Haughey as just another ordinary citizen who made a couple of mistakes during his lifetime. She appears to be completely ignorant of the massive damage done to Ireland and its people by this criminal.

She also seems to be completely ignorant of how the Haughey corruption virus has spread to every level of Irish society and in particular to the white collar sector.

A caller to the show expressed astonishment at Finucane’s comment saying:

I doubt Marian has failings similar to Haughey. If she did I hope she can expect her P45 waiting for her as she leaves the studio.

Finucane was not pleased with this upbraiding by a mere listener.

Well, I think it’s always very dangerous for anyone to be going around adjusting their halo and saying that they’re holier than thou.

Again, Finucane is demonstrating a dangerous ignorance of the reality of corruption. I say dangerous because, as Haughey was no ordinary citizen, neither is Marian Finucane.

She is one of the most influential broadcasters in the country, every week hundreds of thousands of citizens listen to her words and opinions with close attention.

Most of these listeners take her views/comments as gospel and act/think accordingly. For that reason alone she has an obligation to properly inform herself of the realities of what’s going on in Ireland today.

And Finucane is not the only journalist/broadcaster who seems to live in a parallel world of ignorance. Joe Duffy, Pat Kenny, Charlie Bird and many other RTE current affairs staff are far too close to members of the body politic.

In recent times it has become increasingly evident, to even the most casual observer, that the interaction between most elements of the Irish media and the political/business sectors has become disturbingly unhealthy.

Many of these so called unbiased journalists appear to be personal friends of politicians; they travel together, stay in the same hotels, eat in the same restaurants (often at taxpayer’s expense) and drink in the same bars.

On Mary Harney and the Department of Health

O’Malley praised Harney for having the courage to take on such a difficult job.

This is rubbish; the real story here is not the so called courage of one politician but rather the cowardice of so many others. What would happen, I wonder, if they were asked to lay down their lives for their country – the mind boggles.

O’Malley goes on to wonder what sort of catastrophe would befall the country if Harney decided to give up her job.

I think all sorts of vested interests would ride roughshod over us again.

What is this man talking about? Ok, I accept that O’Malley is getting on a bit but he must still retain enough brain cells to know that the Department of Health/HSE is a vested interest in itself; that its bureaucracy acts at all times in its own interests and certainly not in the interests of patients.

People’s lives are regularly put at risk to cover up gross incompetence and some even die. You can’t get more roughshod than death through incompetence.

On being back in a recession

According to O’Malley we’re back in recession because there wasn’t sufficient supervision and regulation of what went on.

Hang on, wasn’t it his party, the party that promised to clean up Irish politics and make other parties and government officials accountable, in power for most of that time led by none other than his heroine Mary Harney?

On the high moral ground

Finucane: One of the things that got up the nose of Fianna Fail but also of ordinary people was the high moral ground, the holier than thou attitude….It seems to me that the high moral ground can be a lonely enough place to be.

O’Malley: The high moral ground is not just a lonely place it’s also a dangerous place because you can only come down.

Finucane: A silly place, a silly place.

O’Malley: Yes, and that’s why we tried to avoid that, we got painted with that.

My God, we were worn out from trying to stop things happening (corruption). But the more you went at it the more you were accused as being on the high moral ground.

There’s a limit, you have to coexist with people, get on with the job and not let every big or little problem deflect you completely from it.

For years this Irish attitude to the high moral ground has bothered me. It seems that the Irish are the only nation in the world who regard the striving for high moral principles in public life as a bad thing, a silly thing as Finucane says.

This, I believe, is a symptom of our denial of what we really are as a nation. If we all agree that the high moral ground is a bad place, a place where the holier than thou go to adjust their halos then it’s legitimate for everybody to avoid this ground.

This warped attitude to morality in public life also makes it possible to ‘forgive’ any crime. It makes it possible for an apparently intelligent woman like Marian Finucane, and many others in the media, to equate Haughey’s crimes with the minor infringements of morality common in the everyday, it brings us all down to the sewer.

If we’re all living like rats in the sewer of corruption and incompetence then we can all live safely in denial, we can all pretend that Ireland is a normal functioning democracy and any attempt to improve ethical standards, any notion of occupying the high moral ground will receive instant condemnation from the likes of Finucane and O’Malley not because it’s a bad thing but because it threatens their delusional world of ethical ignorance.

For one brief shining moment the PDs were truly revolutionary in their challenge to the swampland of Irish political and business corruption but that corruption is too deep, too all pervading within the Irish system of government to be rooted out easily.

When Mary Harney became leader of the PDs she realised that ethics/accountability was a mugs game and quickly reverted to her Fianna Fail roots and has been living there happily ever since.

On O’Malley’s greatest achievement

The stopping of the Irish aviation bill in 1984 which would have imposed a fine not exceeding £50,000 and/or imprisonment for two years on anybody who sold airline tickets at less than the price which Aer Lingus had fixed in coordination with its cartel partners.

Finucane expressed shock at such extreme law.

Quite extraordinary, it sounds like another country given where we are now.

Given where we are now?

Clearly, Finucane believes that Ireland has moved on, has become a modern accountable democracy and believes that the Ireland of draconian/Tammany Hall type law is dead and gone.

Here’s just a sample of recent laws or proposed laws that Finucane obviously feels are in no way draconian or ‘extraordinary’.

The Employment Equality Act 1998. This act was introduced to bring Ireland into line with EU equal employment rights directives but the main churches were granted an exemption which allows them to hire and fire on the religious beliefs and moral behaviour of employees and potential employees.

There is no difference between this law and the religious laws enforced by the Taliban in Afghanistan.

In February this year the Irish government enacted a law which makes it a criminal offence to sell a Mass card not authorised by a Catholic bishop.

Contained within the Act is a presumption of guilt until proved innocent. This runs contrary to Article 48 (1) of the European Union’s Charter of Fundamental Rights.

The Government is in the process of inserting a blasphemy clause into the Defamation Bill which will see citizens liable upon conviction of a fine of up to €25,000.

The proposed Criminal Justice (Amendment) Bill 2009 will, among other measures, do away with the right to trial by jury and provide for secret detention hearings and detention on the unsupported word of a single Garda.

Allow hearsay as admissible evidence and permit information to be given in the absence of a suspect and his or her legal representative.

Ireland is a much more corrupt, much more unequal country today than it has been at any other time in its history.

A major contributing factor to that corruption and inequality is the intellectual laziness and ignorance of broadcasters like Marian Finucane.

Copy to:
Marian Finucane

White collar crime – denial and punishment

Bernard Madoff has been given the maximum prison sentence of 150 years for masterminding a massive fraud that robbed investors of $65bn (£40bn).

Here’s a list of words in sequence as they appeared in an Irish newspaper reporting Madoff’s case.

Crooked…sentenced…swindling…a massive “Ponzi” pyramid scheme…duped thousands of investors…behind bars…prosecutors…fraudster…fraud… perjury…false reporting…fraud…crimes…fraud…wrong…criminal…fraud…fraud…pretence…scam.

Compare this list with the following list of words taken from another Irish newspaper reporting efforts by former National Irish Bank (NIB) boss Jim Lacey to avoid even the minimum consequences for his part in a massive ten year scam that saw countless millions robbed from the State and directly from customer’s accounts.

Improper practices…tax evasion scandal…falsified documents…hot money.

Ah yes the old reliable ‘improper practices’ it’s the term most favoured by politicians, government officials and journalists when reporting/commenting on major crimes within the Irish financial sector.

In most counties it is also common to witness white collar criminals (the term is still not officially recognized in Ireland) express regret and apologise for their crimes. Here’s what Madoff had to say.

I’m sorry I know that doesn’t help…apologised for the “legacy of shame” he had brought on his family and the industry…I’m responsible for a great deal of suffering and pain, I understand that.

As we know ‘errant’ Irish bankers do not do apologies, they don’t do accountability and they certainly do not do time.

Lacey, denying everything, blamed bank managers who weren’t up to the job or were out playing golf. He blamed Revenue for not testing the bank’s systems. He blamed internal and external auditors and he blamed the Central Bank. Everybody is to blame, maybe even the customer, but not Mr. Lacey.

And then there’s the proceeds/profit/loot gained from financial skullduggery.

Mrs. Madoff agreed to give up almost all of her property except for $2.5m (€1.7m) set aside by the Government as part of a $171bn (€122bn) forfeiture order against her husband by the judge.

She will relinquish her interest in the couple’s penthouse in New York and other homes worth an estimated $22m. She will also give up a $39,000 piano; $2.6m of jewellery; silverware worth $50,000; bed linen worth $18,000; 35 sets of her husband’s cufflinks; a $36,000 sable coat and a $12,500 mink.

She and her children are also under suspicion of complicity in the fraud.

Compare this to the family of the corrupt Haughey who were allowed to keep his millions.

Some; if not most of this money, is the proceeds of Haughey’s nefarious activities but there’s as much chance of a Haughey being investigated for complicity as there is of Lacey ending up in jail.

Disciplinary action needed

It was reported in the Irish Independent that disciplinary action may be taken against some crew members involved in an incident in which a door fell off an Air Corps helicopter minutes after taking off.

The aircraft had climbed about 500ft at a speed of about 126 knots when the sliding door fell from the helicopter and landed in a remote swampy area in Killarney National Park.

The official report into the incident found that while on the ground the crewman had opened the left-hand door (the one that later fell off) to show two local people around the aircraft.

It was also found that neither the captain nor co-pilot had spotted the warning alert indicating on their display screen that a cabin door remained open.

So we have a situation that could easily have resulted in serious injury or even death because a crewman failed to properly secure a door after, apparently, showing some friends around the aircraft and two pilots failed to see a warning alert.

I think, in the circumstances, the military authorities should be doing more than just considering disciplinary action.

Drennan finally sees the light

I’m delighted to see that Sunday Independent journalist and (former?) Haugheyite, John Drennan, has at last realized what kind of a country he lives in.

Here’s some of what Drennan had to say in 2007 in defence of his hero the corrupt Haughey, the man, more than any other, who is responsible for turning Ireland into the banana republic it is today.

Why Haughey was never found to be corrupt:

Mr. Haughey was merely following precedents set by such illustrious figures as O’Connell and Parnell.

Reason for perception that Haughey was corrupt:

Haughey’s ‘corruption’ is the fantastical creation of a petit bourgeoisie of Tim Healy-style hysteria mongers, whose insipid viciousness explains their expertise in the price of everything and their ignorance about the value of anything.

On Haughey’s ‘fiscal probity’:

Mr. Haughey did make money courtesy of some good advice from patriotic sources.

On taking money from businessmen:

Of course Mr. Haughey did take money from Ben Dunne and other public-spirited businessmen. However, this was for life-style as distinct to political purposes.

On Haughey’s ‘insourcing’ of the FF leader’s allowance:

It was in payment for putting his home at Kinsealy at the service of the nation.

On Haughey’s tax problems:

Mr. Haughey did have some minor tax problems. However, unless you are in love with the lifeless technicalities of accountancy it would be easy to believe a gift is not a salary.

On Haughey’s refusal to cooperate with tribunals:

Some would argue that a refusal to obey those semi-legal, amoral instruments of oppression that collude with simpering creeps like Frank Dunlop as both try to save their respective skins was a genuine act of patriotism.

Real reason for hatred of Haughey:

The hatred of Haughey is all about the challenge he posed to a society which was petrified by notions of class…” (Quotes PJ Mara; ‘Haughey’s enemies thought they were ‘the fucking aristocracy.’).

Ireland without Haughey’s type:

…a dandified, foppish, lattefied, hygiene-obsessed, anti-smoking and anti-drinking (unless it’s a glass of red wine for the heart) school of bourgeois… a hissing, pissy, sanctimonious hysterical desert, which could only be invented by the petite bourgeoisie.

Phew – Did this man love Haughey and his standards or what?

Now Drennan, having finally woken up, is talking revolution against the inheritors of the corrupt Haughey’s legacy. Here are some quotes from yesterday’s article.

While the hanging bit is a tad excessive, when it comes to numbers Mr Swift may actually have been too prescriptive — for any bonfire of our Tiger nonentities should include a right good sprinkling of politicians, clerics, regulators, barristers, mandarins and social partners.

Last week, as the IMF unveiled Ireland’s status as a failed political entity, the collective immunity to reason that has gripped our leaders was epitomised by Brian Lenihan’s apparently sincere boast that we were on “the right track”.

What may have far more serious consequences is the apparent belief of our political dullards that, even though the country they created now resembles a pyramid scheme devised by con artists, life should go on as normal.

However, although they are incapable of recognising it, the real truth is that the Ireland created by the “Spoilt Princes” and “Marie Antoinettes” of Fianna Fail is now so damaged that the system needs the sort of revolution where things are busted up and put together again in a radically different way. (This is exactly what needs to be done)

Any transformation in the way this country works needs to start with taking the axe to the top civil service mandarins who have turned this country into an economic tiphead.

we need to select at least six of the top mandarins, line them up against a wall and sack them pour encourager les autres.

The axe need not be confined to our greedy, inept mandarins. It is past time that the salaries of greedy ministers, greedy judges, greedy barristers, greedy university professors and even greedier hospital consultants are halved — and if you people want to revolt, then try your luck in the private sector.

Nothing epitomised the dazed, disengaged incompetent nature of a Cabinet whose capacity to rule is totally compromised by its incestuous relationship with vested interests, more than Dermot Ahern’s recent astonishing claim that he was in politics because it puts money on the table.

So far, the response of the people and our elite to this transformation has been one of dazed stupefaction. However, unless Mr Cowen gets ahead of the people and starts to do the work required to rescue us, he may learn that no amount of sunshine will save him from a revolt by a nation which has been betrayed almost beyond reason by its elite.

Welcome to the Public Inquiry way of thinking Mr. Drennan.

Judges join politicians and bankers in the lifeboats

The ongoing financial crisis continues to strip away the pretence that Ireland is a functioning, democratic country. The judiciary is the latest untouchable elite to be exposed as greedy, self serving and unpatriotic.

In 1959 a Supreme Court ruling held that a tax wouldn’t affect judicial independence if it didn’t discriminate against judges. The pension levy applies to all public servants and therefore does not discriminate against judges.

The judges, with the full cooperation of the political elite, are cynically exploiting the Constitution for their own greedy ends.

Only 19 of the country’s 148 judges have volunteered to make a contribution in lieu of the public service pension levy.

According to Brian Cowen judges have until the end of the year to decide whether to make a contribution and he believes more will do so.

Brian Cowen is wrong. There is no time limit by which the judges have to decide whether to pay up or not. How could there be a time limit if, as we are asked to believe, it is unconstitutional to force judges to pay the levy?

When the politicians were asked to play their part in rescuing the country from financial ruin they steadfastly refused to do so. Instead they jettisoned any pretence of leadership and opted to fight tooth and nail to hold onto every cent they could no matter how bad things get for those they would claim to lead.

Similarly, bankers and senior civil servants who played a leading part in the destruction of our country were allowed to walk away with massive pensions and bonuses.

Judges are just the latest cosseted elite who believe that they should be allowed to retain all their wealth and privileges while the peasants pay the full price.

The analogy with Titanic is apt – As the ship (of state) sinks to its doom all the elites are heading for the lifeboats with their jewels and fur coats while the peasants are locked in steerage and told they must make the ultimate sacrifice so that their betters may survive and prosper.

Italian/Irish corruption

It’s interesting to compare the troubles of Italian Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi with how such scandals are dealt with in Ireland.

Berlusconi was found out by accident in the course of an unrelated corruption investigation. Italy’s Fraud Squad had been investigating corruption concerning contracts for supplying equipment to hospitals.

The Irish Fraud Squad never investigates this type of crime. Yet, I have no doubt whatsoever that such contract corruption is rampant throughout the Irish business and political world.

A chief prosecutor launched an investigation into one Giampaolo Tarantini who is suspected of recruiting young women for Mr. Berlusconi’s parties. Mr. Tarantini is facing a charge of allegedly abetting prostitution.

Ireland doesn’t have chief prosecutors who can independently and courageously decide to launch an investigation into corruption.

Even if we did have such people they would never, in a million years, initiate an investigation that had the potential to damage a politician and in particular a Prime Minister. Irish police do not investigate politicians – full stop.

Italy is generally seen as the most corrupt country in Europe yet they have corruption courts and Italian police do investigate politicians and bring them to justice.

Here in Ireland we have yet to even admit that corruption is a major and extremely damaging aspect of our culture.

Ministers pensions

Letter in today’s Irish Times.

Madam,

Apparently, the Attorney General advised the Government that there were legal difficulties implementing a cessation of ministerial pensions prior to the next Dáil on the grounds of legitimate expectation.

Two matters arise from this: 1. Is there any real threat of a politician suing the state to claim his or her entitlement? 2. Do we the public not have a legitimate expectation that leadership and equanimity be shown? I cannot imagine that the low risk of a sitting politician suing constitutes grounds for not proceeding with the cessation of ministerial pensions.

A cynic such as I might suggest that faced with the prospect of losing pensions, some distinguished Government backbenchers might have retired now to realise their pension entitlements and triggered an uncomfortable amount of byelections for the Government. This is a political ruse dressed up in legalese by the Taoiseach to protect his own hide. – Yours, etc,

ROSS McCARTHY,

St James Avenue,

Clonliffe Road, Dublin 3.