Category: Government

Well, of course, we belive you, Pat

Pat Kenny made a robust defence of his boss Cathal Goan, Director General of RTE, over the controversy surrounding the axing of Prof John Crown from last Friday’s Late Late Show. (Pat’s emphasis)

“The Director General Cathal Goan did not get any calls from the minister or the minister’s representatives or PR companies or anything.

I have known Cathal Goan for more years than the two of us care to remember, I worked with him originally on Today at Five, he was one of the creators of that programme and worked with him many times over the years and I know him to be a man of the highest integrity.

I cannot stress that more, he’s a man of the highest integrity and if such a phone call had been made to him, which it wasn’t, he would have no hesitation in telling that caller, politely generally or otherwise if necessary where to get off, that’s the kind of man you’re dealing with.”

Well, of course, we believe you, Pat. However, your finishing comments didn’t do much for your credibility.

“The rest of this matter is obviously internal RTE business and it will be dissected and parsed and hopefully will not embarrass us again in any manner as we’ve seen over the last couple of days.”

Avoid embarrassment? Was that not the very reason the Government allegedly acted to have Prof. Crown silenced?

Brute censorship

This article/letter/editorial? (The online version of the Irish Independent is a disaster) in Sunday’s Irish Independent sums up well the controversy surrounding the banning of Prof. John Crown from last Friday’s Late Late Show.

It was a case of brute censorship only possible in a democracy that has become so weak that it barely warrants the name.

Sunday November 11 2007

Censorship comes in many forms, some subtle and some blunt. RTE’s decision to ban John Crown, a hospital consultant, from last Friday night’s Late Late Show was censorship of the bluntest kind. Crown, like many of his colleagues, has strong views on the health service and on the performance of Health Minister Mary Harney.

Unlike many of his colleagues, Crown is willing to engage in public debate. RTE, however, decided that his views could not be accommodated on the Late Late Show. According to a statement from the national broadcaster, a “decision was taken to reconfigure (the) panel to represent as broad a spectrum of positions and opinions as possible”, and so Crown was dropped.

Instead of a debate that might have shed some light on the problems afflicting the health service, RTE served up a bland and discordant concoction that was neither informative nor entertaining.

What was RTE afraid of? That the views of one panellist among four would so distort the national debate on health care that some unknown peril would unfold? That Pat Kenny, the station’s most experienced and highly-paid broadcaster, would not be able to do his job when faced with the might of Dr Crown?

In its statement, RTE also said that it “would like to strongly state that this decision was taken internally within RTE”. That, we assume, is meant to be reassuring: the state broadcaster feels it necessary to tell the people that it did not take instructions from the Government before taking a decision that, quite possibly, spared the Government embarrassment.

We do not need to be reminded that RTE belongs to the people and not to the Government of the day, but clearly RTE needs to remind itself from time to time. By stating “strongly” that this decision was taken internally, RTE leaves open the question of what other editorial decisions have not been taken internally.

The broadcaster has a duty to the public to provide high quality news and entertainment and in return it receives a substantial hand-out from the people — €182.8m last year, collected as a tax on anyone who owns a television. It has a duty to provide balance, but not to the point that it denudes debate. It should also trust the editorial judgment and broadcast skill of Pat Kenny and his team.

The decision to exclude Crown cannot be justified on editorial grounds, and to argue that balance must be introduced into every debate is deeply flawed. If balance requires that both sides be represented, then it only requires one side to refuse to participate for debate to be silenced.

On Friday night, both the minister and the Health Service Executive refused to participate on the show. That is their choice to make, but it must not mean that the views of a respected and vocal consultant cannot be heard because of their refusal. Should all debate on politics cease if the Government decides to boycott the airwaves? Does RTE feel the need to balance a comedian with a straight man? It is an arid argument, and it is one that puts RTE in a very poor light.

RTE’s must never be allowed to forget that its duty is to the people of this Republic. It has no remit to protect the interests of Government or to spare the blushes of a minister. The Late Late Show has a venerable place in Irish television history and is renowned for its controversy as much as it is for its blandness. It can be awful and it can be very, very good, but it must not be censored on spurious grounds of political balance.

The RTE statement claimed that it wanted as broad a spectrum as possible, and yet it does not believe that John Crown has a valid voice on that spectrum. Its decision to exclude him was wrong and smacks of panic.

The result is censorship, applied on the broadcaster by the broadcaster. Cathal Goan, the director general of RTE, should apologise publicly and to John Crown personally.

Sunshine for the politicians; shade for the peasants

Prof. Drumm must be sick, sick that he accepted the job as chief executive of the Health Service Executive (HSE). Sick that he allowed himself to be duped into taking the job of reforming a heath system that has become an uncontrollable monster. Sick to witness the very people responsible for creating that monster; turn on him like a pack of vicious wolves.

For decades, Irish politicians were in charge of the health service and for decades they did what Irish politicians do best, used it as a means of buying votes. It was ‘jobs for the boys’ and to hell with the consequences.

There was a time when there were only two or three health boards but because every politician wanted a board in his area this number mushroomed into eleven. Imagine, eleven health boards to organise health facilities for about three million people.

This meant that there was eleven separate, grotesquely overstaffed, administrations choking the system to death and literally putting lives in danger. When the situation began to get out of control it was decided to abolish all eleven boards and replace them with a single authority that would bring reform, efficiency and, most importantly, a good health service to the Irish people.

To achieve this laudable aim job cuts would have to be made, work practices would have to change; civil servants would have to move, efficiencies would have to be made, some jobs would even have to be lost. In a nutshell, politicians would have to show courageous leadership and civil servants would have to cooperate.

This, of course, never happened. Instead, the cowardly politicians pretended to abolish the boards, it was all done – on paper. Not a single civil servant lost his job, nobody moved, there were no rationalisations or efficiencies. Everybody was still entitled to guaranteed promotions, guaranteed wage rises, guaranteed benchmarking – for life.

In effect, all that happened was the creation of a new twelfth health board. This was the mother of all health boards, it was going to supervise the inefficiencies and incompetence of all the other boards and for that it required and got a super bloated layer of administration staff.

From that moment, the grotesque monster was rampaging out of control and Irish citizens began to suffer even more, and at times, die. But the cowardly politicians had covered themselves well. In a by now common strategy, the HSE and in particular its chief executive was used as a buffer to distance cowardly politicians from the mess they had created. Mary Harney, the alleged Minister for Health, frequently suggests that the latest scandal is a matter for the HSE, nothing to do with her.

It must have been sickening for Prof. Drumm to listen to the wolf pack as they set about their work of abdicating responsibility in our national parliament yesterday; it was certainly vomit inducing for me. Here’s a flavour of what the cowardly incompetents had to say: (Full report on Drivetime, 3rd item)

Labour TD, Joan Burton spoke about the lack of trust that the public and politicians had in the HSE, about how impossible it was for politicians to get answers. No mention of political culpability.

Fianna Fail TD, Mary O’Rourke who has been in politics for decades, who has held several senior positions in government, who is a member of the party that has held power for more years than any other party, who, by dint of her cowardice, is one of the principal architects of the present mess, was ruthless in her condemnation of the HSE and in particular Prof. Drumm.

She related how she had recently left a boring session in the Dail to take a walk down to Brown Thomas. On the way she met eleven women all with horror stories about friends and relations affected by cancer.

Think about that, an Irish politician leaves our national parliament suffering from boredom, meets several distressed citizens and is incapable of making a connection between the two events. She then demonstrates a complete lack of intelligence by using the event to bolster her attack on Prof. Drumm as if it was he, rather than her that was responsible for their distress.

Fine Gael TD, John O’Mahony from Mayo spoke with the typical narrow minded parochialism, the hypocritical ‘but’ factor that Olivia O’Leary (Drivetime) spoke about. “I’m all in favour of centres of excellence” ‘but’ my constituency should keep its facilities.

Labour TD, Liz McManus spoke of the need for the establishment of a patient’s safety authority. Yet another layer of bureaucracy staffed by self serving unaccountable civil servants.

Fianna Fail TD, Margaret Conlon, amazingly, spoke the truth with clarity. “We cannot talk out of both sides of our mouths; we need to ensure that our resources are not spread too widely and too thinly because if this is the case, everyone loses.” Cleary, Ms. Conlon is a new TD and has yet to learn the mafia traditions of her chosen party.

Fianna Fail TD, Beverly Flynn would make an excellent tutor of those mafia traditions. A politician with no reputation to lose, daughter of a disgraced politician who had no scruples about cheating on his taxes and operating illegal offshore accounts, took the same narrow minded and hypocritical view as Fine Gael TD John O’Mahony.

Progressive Democrats TD and Minister for Health (without responsibility), Mary Harney, mouthed the standard and by now insulting apology to the victims.

Mary O’Rourke spoke about a dawn that is always promised but never actually dawns, that she was in despair over the health services.

Why would she be in despair? She exists in the unaccountable, grotesquely overpaid and arrogant world of Irish politics. She, like most of her colleagues, do not have the courage to actually do anything about the situation.

She only encounters reality when she wanders out of the rarefied world of our useless and boring parliament, she will never find herself in the situation of the eleven distressed women she met, she will never have to worry about a lack of medical facilities for herself or her family.

Her dawn and that of her colleagues arrived years ago when they created a system that provides constant sunshine for themselves, family and friends but leaves a large percentage of the people they claim to represent in the shade and some of them – condemned to the ultimate darkness.

Copy of this post to:

Prof. Drumm
HSE
Mary Harney, TD
Joan Burton, TD
Mary O’Rourke, TD
John O’Mahony, TD
Liz McManus, TD
Margaret Conlon, TD
Beverly Flynn, TD
Fianna Fail Party
Fine Gael Party
Labour Party
Progressive Democrats Party
Green Party

No comment needed

Letter in today’s Irish Times

REASONS TO BE ANGRY

Madam,

In February 2002 my father reluctantly applied to Galway County Council for a disability grant to have a stair-lift fitted. On October 27th, 2007 – more than five years later, and with no communication in the interim – Galway County Council sent the following reply:

“I refer to your application for a disabled persons grant received in February 2002. I regret to inform you that your application has now expired. If you wish to reapply please contact this office in order to get an application form.”

Has a more pointless and bureaucratic letter ever been written? I laughed out loud when I read it. Then I got angry. I thought of my father who reared us and who expected so little from the State. I thought of the grotesque pay increases granted to our betters in politics, law and and the civil service. And to a Taoiseach who leads (I use the word loosely) a population of 4.2 million people and now gets €310,000 a year.

I thought of the widespread anger at the shambolic health system and poor education facilities and of Susie Long and her needless death for the magnificent might of her principles. I raged at the moral bankruptcy of our leaders who think “vision” is a new PR company. I raged at incompetent Ministers, at the wasted millions on computers, voting machines and infrastructure and the overbearing laws and bureaucrats confusing and inhibiting our daily lives, instead of assisting us. I ranted at the fantastic, preening selfishness of tax exiles who willingly accepted this country’s nurture then fled with the loot.

Then, like everybody else I got over it, and accepted that that is just the way it is. Sure what else is to be done? There was one consolation, though. My father didn’t live long enough to be humiliated. He died on June 22nd, 2003.

I remember a retiring former US ambassador to Ireland saying that the thing he most noticed about the Irish was that we had no sense of outrage. He was wrong. We have just forgotten what to do with it. Or am I just another gormless eejit for thinking it should be different? – Yours, etc,

TOMAS FINN, Cappataggle, Ballinasloe, Co Galway.

No simply answers in a corrupt system

On 23rd Oct last I received an email from the Ombudsman informing me that she had received a copy of a letter sent to me by Dublin City Council finally answering a simple question I had asked of them the previous April. The Ombudsman ends her letter as follows.

“As the Council has replied to your correspondence, there appears to be no further role for this Office in this matter and we will now close your
file.”

This brings to an end a tough campaign to extract an answer to a simple question from Dublin City Council. The following is a chronological account of events with my comments.

April 16th 2007: Irish Times reports that Fianna Fail TD for Donegal South West and Minister of State, Pat the Cope Gallagher had illegally erected a number of posters around Croke Park in Dublin. His actions were in contravention of the 1997 Litter Pollution Act.

April 18th: I phoned Dublin City Council and asked the simple question: “Was Minister of State, Pat the Cope Gallagher, fined for illegally erecting posters in Dublin city”?

Bernie Lillis, of Dublin City Council Litter Office told me that it was her personal office policy not to reveal such information about fines. The incident and its consequences were confidential, a personal matter between her office and the minister.

Ms. Lillis further informed me that she had spoken with the Minister and had accepted his plea that he wasn’t aware his actions were against the law. Ms. Lillis and the minister are, apparently, unaware of the public policy; “Ignorantia legis neminem excusat” (Ignorance of the law excuses no one).

Ms. Lillis is also obviously gullible enough to believe that a Government minister and politician of long standing would be unaware of a major piece of legislation like the 1997 Litter Pollution Act.

April 20th: I spoke with Pat Cronin head of waste management at Dublin City Council. Initially, Mr. Cronin refused point blank to answer my question. He seemed genuinely astonished that a man in his position was actually being challenged by a mere citizen.

When I persisted he eventually said that if I wanted an answer I would have to put it in writing. When I asked by what law/regulation he was basing his demand that I put my question in writing on, he just kept repeating; put it in writing, put it in writing…

This is, in my experience, a standard bureaucratic strategy based on the (correct) assumption that most people will drop their queries rather than go to the bother of putting them in writing.

April 23rd: Posted registered letter personally addressed to Mr. Cronin (Copy One below).

April 25th – 22nd May: Made numerous attempts to confirm that Mr. Cronin had received my registered letter. I met with a brick wall on every attempt.

April 23rd: Irish Independent reports that Minister Gallagher had again illegally erected a number of posters in his Donegal South West constituency.

Despite his conversation with Bernie Lillis the week before, Gallagher admitted that he hadn’t checked whether he was breaching any regulations in Donegal. Again, Gallagher is claiming ignorance of the law and, more unbelievably, ignorance of the 1997 Litter Pollution Act.

April 23 – May 23rd: Made numerous attempts to find out from Donegal County Council what action they proposed to take against Gallagher. I met with a brick wall at every attempt.

I was eventually advised that I should put my complaint in writing (All bureaucrats are, apparently, aware of the ‘make them put it in writing’ strategy).

May 23rd: Posted official complaint about Gallagher’s illegal activities to Donegal County Council (Copy Two below).

May 24th: Submitted formal complaint by email to the Standards in Public Office Commission regarding Gallagher’s illegal activities (Copy Three below)

May 30th: Posted official complaint on Gallagher to Dublin City Council.

June 27th: Posted official complaint to the Ombudsman on the refusal of Dublin City Council staff to answer my question.

July 3rd: Received email from the Standards in Public Office Commission rejecting my complaint on the basis that Gallagher’s illegal activities were not of sufficient gravity to warrant an investigation.

A Government minister openly breaks the law on two occasions and a Government agency charged with upholding standards in public office concludes that such illegal activities are not of sufficient gravity.

In a perverse way, they have a point. Irish politicians regularly commit much more serious crimes without ever being brought to account.

July 19th: Received reply to my official complaint from Donegal County Council stating that because they had received no complaint about Gallagher they had no cause to investigate the matter.

This deserves repeating – Donegal County Council rejected my complaint about Gallagher on the grounds that they had received no complaint.

July 31st: Received letter from Dublin City Council finally answering the simple question I asked on April 18th – Gallagher was not fined for his illegal activities. (Copy Four below)

I believe the only reason Dublin City Council bothered to finally answer my question was because of my complaint to the Ombudsman.

October 23rd: Received email from the Ombudsman informing me that they had received a copy of the letter sent to me by Dublin City Council in which my question was answered and were therefore closing my file.

The question can reasonably be asked: Why bother? Why go to all that trouble to force a civil/public servant to answer a simple question?

The core principle of this blog is that Ireland, unique among all other Western democracies, is a corrupt state. While all other Western countries suffer to some degree from the disease of corruption, Ireland is, as a country, a totally corrupt entity.

One of the strategies of this blog is to prove this point by asking questions of politicians and Government agencies and judge by their responses whether they have the best interests of the Irish people at heart or whether they are perhaps serving another agenda.

I want to make absolutely clear that I am not accusing any of those involved in this episode of being corrupt, what I am claiming is that they have to live, work and continuously deal with an intrinsically corrupt system.

Every other resident of this state must do the same, everybody is forced to adapt to the rotten system whether they like it or not.

Everybody has to adapt to a culture where tax evasion is endemic, where financial institutions are allowed to regularly rob their customers, where politicians are permitted to live out lucrative careers of corruption without being made accountable.

Where white collar crime is barely recognised as a crime, where nobody is ever, ever held accountable, even when people die because of gross incompetence or negligence.

Where everybody knows that arrogance, incompetence and corruption have become as much a part of our culture as St. Patrick’s Day and Guinness.

That’s why, I believe, the public/civil servants involved in this case have acted as they have. They have acted in a manner that is largely consistent with how the bureaucracy of any third rate banana republic would act when faced with the choice of enforcing the law against a law breaking Government minister or cowering in fear behind a wall of bureaucratic arrogance and officialdom.

If a politician deliberately set out to break the law in any other Western democracy there would have been widespread public anger, there would have been immediate and effective action by the authorities and that politician’s career would have been terminated on the insistence of his colleagues in the body politic.

As for Gallagher himself, he’s practically an irrelevance. A member of the most corrupt political party in Ireland, a typical backwoodsman politician who will do anything to get and hold power, including breaking the law.

A low pedigree politician following in the footsteps of a long line of low pedigree politicians who’s only distinguishing legacy will be the enormous damage they have done to the quality of Irish democracy.

Copy of this post to:

Dublin City Council
Standards in Office Commission
Donegal County Council
Ombudsman
Mr. Gallagher, Minister of State with special responsibility for Health Promotions and Food Safety at the Department of Health and Children.

(Previous posts on this matter – Here, here, here here, here, here, here

—————————————————————————————————————————-

(Copy One)

Letter to Mr. Cronin head of waste management at Dublin City Council.

23rd April 2007

Dear Mr. Cronin,

On Monday 16th April it was reported in the Irish Times that Minister for State, Pat the Cope Gallagher, had illegally erected a number of posters around Dublin.

On Wednesday 18th April I rang Dublin City Council to find out what action had been taken in response to this incident. I was informed by Bernie Lillis of the Litter Office that it was the policy of her office to keep such matters confidential.

When I asked Ms Lillis what legislation/regulation she was basing her decision on she referred me to your office.

On Friday 20th April I spoke with you on the phone and asked the same question. You refused to answer any questions on the phone and insisted I write to you on the matter. Here are my questions:

What action did Dublin City Council take in response to the illegal erection of posters around Dublin by Minister of State Pat the Cope Gallagher as reported in the Irish Times on the 16th April 2007?

If fines were imposed, what was the sum total of those fines?

Regarding the authority of public/civil servants to make personal decisions on what information will or will not be allowed into the public arena.

Does Ms. Lillis of the Litter Office have the authority to form a personal office confidentiality policy which results in information being denied to the public? If she has this authority, on what regulatory basis does her power rest?

Do you, Mr. Cronin, have the authority to refuse to answer my specific questions regarding the specific events surrounding the illegal erection of posters by Minister of State, Pat Gallagher? If you do have that authority, by what regulatory basis are you acting?

Do you have the authority to refuse to answer my questions on the phone and insist that the matter can only be dealt with in writing? If you do have that authority, by what regulatory basis are you acting?

In today’s Irish Independent (23rd April) it is reported that Minister Gallagher has again erected illegal posters in Donegal. From the report it seems that they are the same posters that were illegally erected in Dublin and which, according to Ms. Lillis, were returned to Minister Gallagher.

Does Dublin City Council have a policy of rendering posters unusable before returning them to lawbreakers? (A quick daub of paint is all that would be required to protect other jurisdictions from rogue politicians like Minister Gallagher).

My motive for requesting this information is simple. I am an anti-corruption campaigner. I do not belong to any political party but act out of anger at the enormous damage being done to Ireland by the disease of rampant corruption.

As part of my campaigning I write a blog at https://www.publicinquiry.eu/ where Irish corruption is reported and analysed.

Obviously, the irresponsible and illegal activities of a Government Minister and the apparent inability/unwillingness of any state authority to bring him to justice are reported on the blog.

Yours in anger

Anthony Sheridan

(Copy Two)

Official complaint to Donegal County Council.

23rd May 2007

To Whom It May Concern,

Subsequent to several phone calls and on the advice of Donegal County Council staff I hereby submit this official complaint regarding a breach of the Litter Pollution Act, 1997.

On Monday April 23rd 2007 it was reported in the Irish Independent that Minister of State, Pat the Cope Gallagher, had mounted posters on poles on routes out of his Donegal South West constituency. It is further reported in the same newspaper that the said minister admitted that he had not checked whether he was in any breach of regulations.

I can confirm that when the minister erected illegal posters in Dublin city a number of days before his actions in Donegal he was informed by Dublin City Council that the erection of such posters was an illegal act.

In other word, when the minister erected the posters in Donegal he was aware that he was committing an illegal act. This information can be independently confirmed by contacting Ms. Bernie Lillis at Dublin City Council litter office (01/2224243).

I request an acknowledgment of this official complaint and I would be grateful to be informed of the outcome of any investigation.

Yours sincerely

Anthony Sheridan

(Copy Three)

Formal complaint to Standards in Office Commission

24th May 2007

To Whom It May Concern,

I wish to formally lodge a complaint under the Ethics in Public Office, Acts 1995 and/or the Standards in Public Office Act, 2001.
The complaint concerns the illegal erection of posters by Minister of State Pat the Cope Gallagher in Dublin and Donegal.

The first incident, as reported in the Irish Times on April 16th, involved the illegal erection of posters around Croke Park in Dublin. According to the report, Minister Gallagher openly admits that he organised and participated in this illegal act.

The second incident, as reported in the Irish Independent on April 23rd, involved the illegal erection of posters on poles on routes out of the ministers Donegal South West constituency.

In respect of the first incident in Dublin, I have been informed by Ms. Bernie Lillis of Dublin City Council Litter Office (01/2224243), that she informed the minister that his actions were illegal. According to Ms. Lillis, the minister apologised for his actions but claimed he did not realise he was breaking the law.

By claiming ignorance of the law the minister is asserting that, as a citizen, an elected representative and a government minister, he was unaware of the Litter Pollution Act, 1997, a piece of legislation that attracted widespread comment and analysis by the general public, the body politic and the media.

He is also asking the nation to accept that claimed ignorance of the law is a justified and reasonable defence.

It is reasonable to assume that minister Gallagher knew or should have known that he was in breach of the Litter Pollution Act, 1997 when he erected the posters in Dublin and was therefore acting in an irresponsible and unethical manner.

Because of the information he received from Bernie Lillis, it is an absolute certainty that minister Gallagher knew he was breaking the law when he illegally erected posters in Donegal some days after the Dublin incident.

By deliberately setting out to break the law of the land, it is clear that the minister is in serious breach of the Code of Conduct for Office Holders as outlined by the Standards in Office Commission (Office Holders), sections 1.3 Requirement to observe the Code of Conduct, 1.4 Principles of Ethical Conduct and 1.5 Highest ethical standards to be applied at all times.

Yours sincerely
Anthony Sheridan

(Copy Four)

From Dublin City Council

Dear Mr. Sheridan

I refer to your letter of 23/04/2007 and apologise for the delay in replying, which was due to oversight.

On 15/04/2007 Dublin City Council staff removed posters carrying the name, “Pat the Cope Gallagher” which had been erected on it’s (sic) property, (public lighting poles).

Subject to stringent conditions, Dublin City Council occasionally gives permission for the erection of posters on it’s (sic) property, but no application was received in respect of these posters. They were removed for disposal but Mr. Gallagher claimed not to have known of Dublin City Council’s policy and the posters were returned on the understanding that there would be no further breach of that policy. In the circumstances no further action was taken.

Where fines are issued under the Litter Pollution Act 1997, Dublin City Council will disclose general details, but not personal information, pending possible prosecution and court hearing. This is in line with the principle of presumed innocence until proven guilty. In this instance no fine was issued and details of discussions held with Mr. Gallagher were regarded as confidential and not disclosed. This policy applies equally across the board.

Mr. Cronin requested that you put your various questions in writing. This was to enable a reasoned and accurate reply to issue, which he felt he wasn’t in a position to do in a phone conversation. In the circumstances the request was reasonable.

Again I would like to apologise for the delay in replaying to your queries, but if there are any issues you would like to discuss further please contact me as above.

Signed
Niall O’Keeffe
A/Senior Executive Officer

Mad Gaybo tries to enforce law

It’s only now that the nation is beginning to recover from one of its most traumatic crises in recent years. It all started off innocently enough with the launch of the new Road Safety Strategy.

Nobody seriously believed that this strategy would be any different from its predecessors. It was launched in the usual glorious blaze of back slapping publicity for politicians and the Road Safety Authority. Everybody knew it wouldn’t make any difference to the grim work of slaughter on the roads.

This time, however, somebody put a spanner in the works by insisting that a new law contained in the strategy was actually enforced. This new law required holders of a second provisional licence to be accompanied at all times by a fully licensed driver.

What? Enforcing a law? What’s going on? We don’t mind enacting laws but since when did we start enforcing them? This is outrageous, it’s certainly not the Irish way of doing things and we simply won’t stand for it. Somebody has to pay for exposing us to this dose of reality.

And somebody did pay: Minister for Transport, Noel Dempsey a man who was only doing what hypocritical and incompetent Irish politicians have been doing for decades, was forced into a humiliating climb down. He was forced to revert to the status quo which is as follows:

303,354 learner drivers are forbidden by law to drive without being accompanied by a driver with a full licence. However, under the all powerful, all pervasive Irish cultural law of ‘wink wink nod nod, these drivers are effectively allowed to break the law.

The remaining 121,871 learner drivers are legally allowed to drive without a qualified driver and so have no need of the ‘wink wink, nod nod’ law – yet.

This arrangement is convenient for an overstretched and under resourced police force. It is also convenient for a lazy and incompetent body politic and civil service.

The price for this ‘convenience’ is countless thousands of dead and injured on Irish roads over recent decades and until very recent times, judging by the inaction of officialdom, an acceptable price.

And then along comes Gay Byrne. Yes, good old Gaybo is the man responsible for daring to afflict a dose of reality on our ‘wink wink, nod nod’ culture.

When he first took up his job in the RSA, he made it clear that he wouldn’t be a patsy for anybody; he wasn’t going to be a fall guy for inept politicians, he was going to take his job seriously.

What Gaybo didn’t reckon on was the power of the ‘wink wink, nod nod’ culture, he didn’t realise how deeply dependent Irish society is on a culture that allows it to exist at several removes from reality.

The crisis was only brought to an end when this life saving law was deferred until next June on the pretext that the 121,871 drivers affected needed the time to apply for and sit their test.

Noel Dempsey has assured us that all the problems associated with learner drivers will be resolved by next June and that all laws relating to such drivers will be strictly enforced. Noel may be physically living on planet Earth but it has yet to be established what planet his brain is on.

No, the real reason for this lead in period is to allow Irish society time to recover from the trauma caused by Gaybo’s mad attempt to actually enforce a law.

An imbecilic people

In response (5th item) to the claim that his latest pay rise would see his salary rise above that of the leaders of France, Britain and America, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said;

“I’m glad I don’t own Chequers and I don’t have No. 10, I don’t have the Elysee Palace, if you want to build those in then you would know what the figures would be and I certainly don’t want the White House.”

Only an imbecile would suggest that the leaders of France, Britain and America actually own the buildings where they work and that such ownership adds substantially to their wealth.

Only an imbecilic people would accept such a sneering and arrogant excuse from their Prime Minister.

A pervasive and systemic disease

I’ve just bought “The Bitter Pill”, a book that exposes the brutal reality of our so called health system. The junior doctor who wrote the book felt it necessary to do so anonymously for fear of reprisal – a damning indictment of our low quality democracy.

I’ve only read the first 30 pages and already I’m angry. Here are some quotes.

Page 9:

“For the past few years I have had access to the health services from the inside. It is this insider’s perspective that is so often lacking in the media-driven analysis of the problems plaguing the heath system.

The horrific stories we read every day in the newspapers and hear on the radio – people left on trolleys in A&E; gross mismanagement of patients in ludicrous circumstances; a young mother turned away from hospital, only to be discovered later, drowned in the river with her two young children – these stories, while undeniably inexcusable, are not actually the problems, but rather the symptoms.

They are the horrifying results of a deeper, pervasive and systemic disease that has colonized the Irish health system and threatens to disable it entirely.”

Page 21:

“I was working in a job where the level of disrespect toward patients was intolerable.”

“When you see a person’s basic human rights violated without cause, it makes you evaluate things in a different light.”

“I saw the basic foundations of good medical practice ripped apart on a daily basis, and I came to the point where I was no longer able to tolerate it.”

Page 22:

“I began to realise that the biggest problem with the health service was the lack of candid information available to the public about its failures.”

“I have known doctors whose careers have been jeopardized as a result of speaking out about bad practice in the workplace.”

“I am in no doubt that were my identity to be revealed, it would greatly diminish my future prospects and possibly even force me to go to another country if I want to continue practicing medicine.”

“I can no longer stand idly by and watch the simple things ignored, watch patients, nurses and doctors pay the price for bad policies that serve the interests of everyone but the public.”

The comment at the end of page 9 is the most telling:

“They are the horrifying results of a deeper, pervasive and systemic disease that has colonised the Irish health system and threatens to disable it entirely.”

I would apply the comment to the administration of Ireland as a whole, changing it accordingly:

“The many horrifying acts of incompetence and corruption that reflect a deeper, pervasive, and systemic disease that has colonised every level of Irish society.”

Frustrated Mary

Just came across this article from the 5th October (Sub. Required).

Mary Harney is expressing frustration with the media for asking questions about waiting lists. Like all Irish politicians Mary has an amazing capacity to drift off into wonderland when reality tries to encroach on her world.

According to Mary being on a waiting list is no different than waiting for a bus.

“Every day of the week there’s people waiting for buses but we don’t talk about people waiting for buses”.

Mary doesn’t have to wait for a bus; neither does she have to wait for health care.

She will never find herself in Susie Long’s position, waiting to die because she couldn’t afford health care.

Mary is just frustrated, she’s lucky