Category: Government

Child abuse holocaust continues

The holocaust of child abuse continues in the Catholic Church. A publication by the National Board for Safeguarding Children strongly censured Bishop of Cloyne, John McGee, for “potentially exposing vulnerable children to further harm.”

Even the usually mild mannered and conservative Marian Fincuane (Saturday) was angry.

“I was listening to the Bishop on the six o’clock news where he said ‘we’re in learning mode’ – learning mode??
And I just think we should remind ourselves that Ivor Paine was first sent for treatment in 1981, the Brendan Smyth event happened in 1994, we had the revelation about the £30,000 which was paid to Andrew Madden and then we had Archbishop Connell coming out in May 1995.
Then we had Ferns, then, fortunately we had Archbishop Martin who said we’re going to get our act together here, we’re going to cooperate in every possible way with the State, we are going to be open and transparent.
But down in Cloyne they’re still in ‘learning mode’ and this is about the protection of children who can have their lives destroyed by these kinds of events happening. So, I think now that below in Cloyne it would be very useful if you got into a slightly faster learning mode.”

Matthew Ring, a priest who nine years ago courageously left the Diocese of Cloyne in disgust at how sex allegations were being dealt with by McGee, was even more to the point.

“If John McGee as bishop of Cloyne was resident in England he would be questioned by the police and all his documents would be removed from his house and there would be a thorough investigation into what went on. I think in terms of Ireland the bishops feel they’re above the law and above accountability and that’s the fundamental problem in Ireland. Until such time as a bishop is held before the courts of the land in Ireland there will be no transparency and no accountability.”

We at Public Inquiry would add to the list of those who are above the law in Ireland – Politicians, bureaucrats, bankers, solicitors, policemen – the list goes on.

The Catholic Church always puts its own interests before the vulnerable it claims to protect. This is unlikely to change given that it is now led by a man who fatefully served Hitler’s Nazi party until the very last days of the war.

The HSE, another agency that often operates outside the law, refused to give a date for the release of another report it possess concerning child abuse. No doubt it is waiting for the most opportune moment to slip it out quietly while the media is otherwise engaged.

Defending a failed state

After reading a report that the principal witness in the ongoing FAS scandal, Greg Craig, had refused a third ‘invitation’ to appear before the Dail Public Accounts Committee I rang PAC and spoke to a senior civil servant.

“The PAC has compellability powers, why doesn’t PAC compel Craig to give evidence?”

“PAC can get compellability powers but it’s quite difficult to get them, it takes a long time to get compellability powers.”

“It was vital for our examination that he comes in; we have enough information of what went on in FAS at the moment. Mr. Craig had an opportunity to put his side of the story because he was mentioned, as is his right, because there are allegations of wrongdoing. If he chooses not to do that then we’ll have to go ahead on the basis of what the findings are so far through the Comptroller and Auditor General.”

“I’m not interested in Mr. Craig’s difficulties; I want to know what happened to my money.”

“We know what happened from the C & AGs report and at the end of the day we want the C & AG to go back and conduct a more thorough investigation of FAS which he’s doing in January and we can’t be seen to be holding up that so we gave him the invitation.

It’s up to him if he wants to take it up, if he doesn’t we’ll just go ahead with the findings and the evidence we’ve taken so far. We know what went on, we know exactly what went on, we’ve got huge amounts of material from FAS and they have admitted what went on there in terms of what was wrong.”

“What power does the PAC have in regard to referring these matters to the Guards or the Fraud Squad?”

“That will be something we’ll look at; some of these matters have been referred to the Guards already.”

“I’m asking what powers PAC has at the moment.”

“We can make recommendations to the Minister for Finance and it goes back to the department of Enterprise as to what should happen but it’s not specified in our powers. All we can do is refer things to whoever is the regulatory authority.”

“What power does the C & AG have to refer these matters to the Guards?”

“The C & AG is an auditor but if he comes across something that’s criminal in nature he has to report it to the Gardai.”

“So, the PAC has no power, the C & AG has no power.”

“Well, I didn’t say they have no power.”

At this point the civil servant got angry with my questioning and proceeded to give me a dressing down.

I listened politely and responded by informing him that I was not ringing him on a whim but rather as a very angry citizen looking for answers.

I repeated my assertion that the PAC and C & AG have no powers apart from referral and recommendations.

“Yes, that would be correct.”

“Have any recommendations made by the PAC ever being referred to or acted upon by the Guards?”

“I don’t know, I couldn’t say. The PAC has been examining government bodies since 1924.”

“Do you find it odd that the C & AG has already investigated FAS and made a report?”

“He has looked at a report they’ve already made (FAS?) but this needs to be done in forensic detail??

“Could I outline the broad sequence of what has happened to date?”

“An anonymous letter was sent to Mary Harney which triggered an internal investigation in FAS which triggered an investigation by the C & AG which triggered an investigation by the PAC and when the PAC completes its investigation in January it will refer back to the C & AG who will conduct yet another investigation (This is where I get facetious) who will refer back to FAS who will refer back to Mary Harney who will refer back to the anonymous letter writer thus completing the circle of madness.”

The civil servant confirmed my sequence was correct up to the point where I became facetious.

I thanked him and told him he was doing a great job in defending a failed state.

Political monkeys

Independent Senator Shane Ross was on the Mooney Show yesterday. The Senator was explaining to a very impressed Derrick Mooney how he uncovered all those dodgy activities going on at FAS. Both men discussed the matter as if such scandals were extremely rare in Ireland.

The senator was doing well until he was asked about the generous pay and pensions for politicians. I think I get about €70,000 per year and politicians do receive generous pensions even while they’re still in employment.

Is that right Mooney asked him?

Well, because I’m a politician I do have a certain sympathy… political jobs are very insecure…how do you attract good people to the Dail and Senate unless you pay them reasonably well…wisdom is very important, legislative ability is very important.

For years politicians were paid peanuts and most of them were monkeys. Now they’re among the highest paid politicians in the world and guess what – They’re still monkeys.

The 'Rubber room' republic

A SENIOR An Post manager has been awarded a bonus of €11,000 on top of his €95,000 salary, even though he only worked for 11 weeks of last year.

The manager was assigned to An Post’s ‘resource centre’ in January 2007, an area known by post office employees as the “rubber room”, where staff that are “surplus” to the company’s needs are deployed.

Politicians are sending out thousands of Christmas card to constituents they don’t even know. It’s all part of the never ending vote buying machine known as Clientism. Each member of the Oireachtas is entitled to 21,000 pre paid envelopes every year. This year, the overall cost of the facility comes to €2.3 million.

Mary Harney said that we must all pull together in the coming year in the face of savage cuts in health. The ‘we’ she speaks of does not include highly paid and well protected politicians.

Two years ago the Equality Tribunal ordered the Department of Education to pay €12,000 to two students who were discriminated against in their Leaving Certificate.

The two students, who are dyslexic, had explanatory footnotes added to their exam certificates which could have put them at a serious disadvantage when applying for jobs.

The department said it was appealing the case to get clarity on the matter. The appeal cost €8 million – I’ll just repeat that – the appeal for ‘clarity’ cost €8 million.

The Government has decided that a certain number of 12 year old girls will have to die because the country cannot afford the €10 million needed for a cervical cancer scheme.

Former Taiwanese president Chen Shui-bian and his wife have been formally charged with corruption. Political corruption has yet to be recognised as a crime in Ireland.

Mr. Chen’s son in law has been jailed for seven years for insider trading. Insider trading has yet to be recognised as a crime in Ireland.

The former chairman of the Nasdaq stock market, Bernard Madoff, has been arrested and charged with securities fraud. He could face up to 20 years in prison. Corrupt businessmen in Ireland are never arrested, never charged, never go to jail.

Marc Dreier, a prominent New York plaintiffs’ lawyer and founder of Dreier LLP, has been charged by US federal prosecutors with securities and wire fraud in a case alleging a multimillion-dollar real-estate fraud involving hedge funds. Dreier could be facing a 10 year jail term.

If Mr. Dreier lived in Ireland it’s likely his case would be ‘looked after’ by his legal colleagues in the Law Society. If he was unlucky he might receive a mild reprimand.

Chickens coming home…

Jimmy Guerin, brother of murdered journalist, Veronica Guerin was on Liveline today complaining about the high level of coverage given to the bacon crisis in comparison to the patchy coverage of Aiden O’Kane’s murder in Dublin on Sunday night.

Guerin claims that Government seems to give priority to pressure groups over those who are suffering as a result of crime, that nothing is being done, that the Government is inept, insincere and no real action is being taken to protect the vulnerable.

Guerin certainly has a good point but his argument is somewhat diluted when we recall that he’s a fanatical supporter of the corrupt Haughey, the principal architect of our corrupt and inept state.

Anti democracy campaign gathers strength

The Government is doing a very good job in recruiting allies to its strategy in the run up to Lisbon II.

The Oireachtas sub committee on European Affairs published its report on how to get around the democratic will of the people as expressed in Lisbon I.

Ireland could be “severely damaged” if things remain as they are and the country could suffer serious economic consequences in a two tier Europe the committee reported.

RTE also enthusiastically joined the Government’s campaign by doing a hatchet job on Libertas leader Declan Ganley. Ganley is seen by the Government as the greatest obstacle in its strategy to reverse the democratic will of the people.

The Standards in Public Office Commission, an organisation that’s usually as quiet as a mouse, has come out with all guns blazing in an effort to force Libertas to reveal the source of its funds.

Libertas has been issued with a formal warning and given one week to respond or face the consequences. To my knowledge this is the first time Sipo has actually issued a warning, formal or otherwise – to anybody.

The stark contrast between its strong attack on Libertas and its complete failure to challenge the secret funding of political parties suggests that this so called independent body is nothing more than a government pawn.

The McKenna and Coughlan judgements are also under attack. The McKenna judgement forbids government from using public funds to influence the outcome of a referendum. The Coughlan judgement ruled that both sides of a referendum should be given equality in terms of broadcasting.

Dr. Barrett, UCD School of Law said that the McKenna judgement “crippled the Government’s right to persuade the public of its cause and led to the emergence of groups such as Libertas.” The Coughlan judgement, according to Dr. Barrett “had the effect of neutralizing the role of political leaders.”

Clearly Dr. Barrett is deeply concerned by the problems an open democracy can cause to government wishes.

Fine Gael TD Jim O’Keeffe’s suggestion that the policy of giving equal airtime to both sides in a referendum debate “could result in a group such as a paedophile association being given 50 per cent coverage” is an indication of how obnoxiously low the Yes side are prepared to sink.

Redundancy – Irish style

A final decision has yet to be made on whether a redundancy option for workers at Aer Lingus is legal or not (Six One, 8th report).

The deal would see employees take a nine weeks pay per year redundancy package and then return to the airline under a new contract with lower pay and conditions.

If it is decided that the deal is legal Aer Lingus can claim a significant statuary redundancy rebate from the State and employees will receive very favourable tax treatment on their lump sums, all at the expense of the taxpayer.

It is, of course, a typical Tammany Hall tactic in order to ‘get around’ the law.

The Dept don’t want the hassle of more trouble at the airline, Aer Lingus want a deal with the workers but don’t want to pay for it and the workers want generous compensation for accepting a new deal from management.

The solution – agree a dodgy deal and make the taxpayer pay the cost.

Docile Irish – Passionate Thai's

I’m not familiar with the ins and outs of Thai politics but it was fascinating to witness the passion, determination and sheer delight when people power eventually forced the Prime Minister to step down on charges of corruption.

A constitutional court found that political parties were guilty of vote buying in the last general election. In Ireland vote buying, through Clientism, is an accepted part of our culture.

Thai people working in Ireland must be amazed to witness how docile the Irish are when it comes to political corruption,

Irish journalist treated roughly by FAS?

I heard a report that Niall O’Dowd, the New York based publisher of the Irish Voice, was very supportive of the disgraced FAS chief Rody Molloy. According to O’Dowd, Molloy ‘did the State some service’.

That phrase, associated with the corrupt Haughey, always gets my attention but I was puzzled about what possible connection O’Dowd could have to the scandal.

All was revealed in an excellent article by Maeve Sheehan in the Sunday Independent. It seems that O’Dowd is one of the legions of freeloaders who have benefited from the generosity of Irish taxpayer’s on the FAS gravy train.

O’Dowd couldn’t recall if a flight from New York to Houston Texas was paid for by Irish taxpayer’s but, reassuringly, he tells us he didn’t travel business class.

“Frankly, it was a very modest trip. We had dinner at a restaurant near NASA, not a fancy place, and another dinner at an Irish pub.”

What? I’m shocked, such shoddy treatment. Surely this man deserves compensation – an all expenses paid, round the world holiday perhaps?