Regulatory Agencies – Page 13

Peasant laws rigorously enforced

The Gardai and the Dept of Social Protection are involved in a major investigation into social welfare fraud.

Five people were arrested as part of the investigation and are being held in various Dublin Garda stations under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act. A large quantity of documents were also seized in the raids.

Minister for Social Protection, Joan Burton said;

I’ve met with the Revenue Commissioners I’m taking new powers in the Social Welfare Act to have joint working groups.

Every Euro saved on fraud is money that can go to pay our pensioners and child benefit.

As a country we have to change the culture of social welfare and black economy fraud.

An RTE reporter excitedly reported that Garda were operating a new type of investigation whereby social welfare fraudsters can be brought before the courts on indictment thus bringing them before the higher courts almost immediately.

Gardai in the Fraud Bureau are also training Dept. of Social Protection inspectors on how to gather evidence that’s presentable before the courts.

If evidence is gathered in a particular way it will allow Gardai to get a warrant almost immediately, arrest these social welfare fraudsters and prosecute them at a higher level.

So, let’s take a break from all this exciting law enforcement to summarise the situation.

The police are taking immediate and strong action on receipt of allegations of wrong doing.

The police are arresting people suspected of financial fraud under the Criminal Justice Act.

The seizure of large quantities of documents, we presume, will in no way hinder quick prosecutions and jail sentences where appropriate.

A Government minister is actively involved in the operation and has no hesitation whatsoever in using all legislative powers at her disposal.

Politicians, police, Dept of Social Protection and the Revenue Commissioners are all working together in a concerted effort to prevent financial fraud and bring those who break the law to immediate justice.

This, of course, is the way things should be done in a real democracy. These fraudsters deserve everything they get.

Unfortunately, in a dysfunctional democracy like Ireland, law enforcement of this intensity, coordination and cooperation is strictly reserved for the peasant class.

The white collar criminals that infest the financial, political and business sectors, the vermin who destroyed our country, continue to enjoy full protection within a hopelessly corrupt state.

Frank Daly, CEO of NAMA, is not to be trusted

Frank Daly heaved a great sigh of relief as he slumped into his favourite armchair after a hard days work as chairman of the National Asset Management Agency (NAMA).

His wife, reading the signs, was sympathetic.

Hard day at the office dear?

Yes, replied Frank, even harder than usual.

You poor dear, was it some nasty blogger asking awkward questions again?

No, even worse, I had to tell the Taoiseach what he was thinking.

My goodness, Frank, your mind reading powers never fail to astonish me. What was going on in our silly Taoiseach’s mind this time?

Somehow he got the idea that NAMA was doing something dodgy, maybe even illegal.

No, Frank, how could he possibly think such a nasty thought?

You wouldn’t understand dear but after taking a look around his brain I quickly realized that what he really meant to say was something dodgy could happen and that he was asking NAMA to make sure it didn’t happen.

Of course that’s the situation Frank. Did our silly Taoiseach accept that his mouth was saying words that weren’t in his brain at all?

Oh yes, he knows his place, he knows who’s in charge of NAMA.

This, of course, is fictional except for the part where Frank Daly tells our Prime Minister that what he’s saying is not what he’s thinking which saw Kenny tuck his tail between his legs and run home.

I first heard of the alleged dodgy dealings within NAMA last February when then Fianna Fail Senator, Mark Daly made a series of very serious allegations on live radio.

I felt the allegations were so serious that I reproduced and published the entire interview and sent a copy to the National Assets Management Agency (NAMA), the National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA), the Dept. of Finance and to the Office of Corporate Enforcement (ODCE).

It’s not that I was expecting any of these agencies to actually act on the allegations, that’s not going to happen until we get a new republic.

It was more to make sure that at least they were aware of the allegations.

And what about Mr. Daly, the mind reader? Can the people of Ireland believe this man when he says there are no dodgy dealings going on within NAMA?

The answer is no, this man cannot be trusted.

He’s just one of a long list of senior civil servants whose actions and decisions almost always seem to benefit powerful people and institutions at the expense of Ireland and its citizens.

An incredible report in the Irish Times of Feb 6th 2004 on bogus non-resident accounts, when Mr. Daly was chairman of the Revenue, will make the point.

In the report Revenue claimed they could find no evidence that banks had encouraged customers to set up bogus non-resident accounts.

This, of course, is a blatant lie. There was, and still is, overwhelming evidence that the banks did encourage customers to break the law.

When Daly was asked about the matter by the Public Accounts Committee he said:

The banks would have brought the shutters down if Revenue had pursued officials aggressively. We had to go about this in a pragmatic way.

So here is a man who refused to act against widespread and well known wrong doing within the banking sector telling us not to worry about the very serious allegations made against the organization he presently controls.

Given his disgraceful decision not to pursue the banks on the bogus non-resident accounts scandal can the people of Ireland trust Frank Daly to act in their interests rather than taking the ‘pragmatic’ route?

In my opinion the answer is no, Frank Daly is not a man that can be trusted.

Copy to:

Frank Daly
NAMA
NTMA
ODCE
Dept of Finance
Taoiseach

Brendan Keenan: A disturbingly ignorant journalist

During a discussion on nepotism and cronyism Irish Independent economics editor, Brendan Keenan made the following comment:

We have certainly seen in Britain an appalling decline of standards in Parliament and I think we’ve seen some signs of that spreading over here.

It’s difficult to know where to start analysing such a disturbingly ignorant statement.

It seems that Keenan labours under the illusion that, apart from some contamination from the UK, Ireland is a fully functional, democratically accountable state where politicians seldom, if ever, engage in corrupt practices.

First, let me give a broad outline of what happened in the UK when the expenses scandal broke.

There was genuine and widespread anger throughout the land including among the body politic. Politicians were ruthlessly challenged on the matter by a professional and well informed media. Some MPs were even physically attacked by their constituents such was the anger at this theft of public funds.

The police were involved from the very beginning and ultimately succeeded in sending a number of politicians to jail. At least a third of MPs were either sacked or forced to resign and the Government introduced tough new legislation as a result of the scandal.

The theft of taxpayer’s money by Irish politicians is rampant and has been for decades, the practice is an integral and long accepted aspect of the corrupt political system.

The majority of Irish citizens have no problem with such practices so long as their local gombeen representative continues to dispense petty favours.

The police never, ever act against such corruption. The Ivor Callely scandal is a case in point. When a formal complaint was made against Callely the Garda Commissioner, the highest ranking policeman in the state, effectively put the investigation on hold because he was waiting for ‘more clarification’ from a lowly civil servant.

To my knowledge he’s still waiting.

The media, for the most part, are ineffective in challenging the corrupt politicians through a combination of grovelling subservience and/or low journalistic standards.

To be precise here, the Irish media are good at uncovering corruption and even at asking the right questions but almost never stay the course in demanding answers.

Irish politicians have long ago copped on to this and so respond by just throwing out the first excuse/lie that comes to mind and it’s off to the next scandal.

New legislation in response to political corruption never seems to be actually fit for purpose. This, of course, is no accident.

The recent ‘reform’ of TDs expenses, for example, allows them to steal a good portion of their allotment if they so wish, with no questions asked.

This type of legal corruption is rampant within the political system and throughout the ruling class.

One of the crucial weaknesses of how Ireland is governed is the total absence of any law enforcement authority capable of operating independently of the corrupt political system.

The media, for all its faults and weaknesses, is the only force in the land capable of challenging that corrupt system; it’s the only force that provides any protection for ordinary Irish citizens.

That’s why it’s so disturbing to witness such an ignorant display from such a prominent journalist.

Copy to:

Brendan Keenan

A hint of regulation?

In response to the latest health abuse scandal the Minister for Health, Dr. James Reilly, has told the Health Information and Quality Authority that it will have to consider actually regulating instead of relying on whistleblowers to uncover abuse.

Ok, it’s nothing more than a suggestion but none the less it is indeed historic that an Irish politician is even hinting that an Irish ‘regulator’ should actually regulate.

Changing times indeed.

Time and accountability

The Health Information and Quality Authority did a report on Rostrevor Nursing Home last year and found it was fit for purpose.

Last week, after whistleblowers in the home came forward with horror stories of abuse, HIQA made an Interim Order cancelling the registration of the home.

These events are the norm in dysfunctional states.

In dysfunctional states, regulatory authorities are not established to actually regulate, they are established to give the impression of regulation so that those who run the state can pretend to citizens and the wider world that the state is normal and functional.

When this system of pretence and hypocrisy is upset by pesky whistleblowers the state reacts with ‘committees’, ‘tribunals’, ‘reviews’ and promises of ‘reform’ all of which provide the magic ingredient that guarantees non accountability – time.

Financial Regulator's secrecy and European law

In its refusal to disclose the names of banks that are robbing Irish citizens the so called Financial Regulator quoted Irish and European law as an excuse for its absolute secrecy.

I submitted a formal request to Europe Advice to check if such EU laws existed. Unfortunately, they were unable to help but did refer me to Europe Direct.

I spoke with an official from Europe Direct and am awaiting a reply.

Central Bank's secrecy could damage citizens interests

The following is an update on the matter of the Central Bank’s refusal to disclose even the most basic information regarding the latest scams in the Irish banking sector.

Those scams were:

Banks had charged thousands of homeowners the wrong interest rates on their mortgages.

Banks had misled customers with money in deposit accounts by promoting term and interest rates that were later changed once people signed up for the accounts.

Banks had short-changed thousands of customers on (other) interest rates.

The so called Financial Regulator (The Central Bank) is refusing to disclose even the most basic information regarding these scams.

This type of state secrecy can have potentially very serious consequences for citizens who may have dealings with these institutions.

As advised by an official in the Public Contacts Unit of the Central Bank I wrote to the bank requesting the following information.

Is it official policy not to name financial institutions that are guilty of such activities?

Is the policy in writing, and if so, where can it be located?

If the policy is not in writing where and by whom did it originate and how is it communicated to Central Bank staff?

The Central Bank replied:

Due to the confidentiality requirements imposed by domestic and EU legislation which provides for confidentiality of information relating to ongoing supervision and limits disclosure to circumstances specifically provided for in the Central Bank Act 1942(as amended) we are prohibited from releasing supervisory information regarding any institution.

I would draw you attention in particular to Section 33AKof the Central Bank Act 1942 (as amended).

Yours sincerely

My response;

Dear…

I will give you the benefit of doubt and assume you are an intelligent person, a benefit you clearly do not extend to me judging from the content of your email.

You will be aware that Irish banks and other financial institutions have been plundering customers and state accounts for many decades with complete impunity.

Despite this fact not a single financial institution or official has ever been charged with a crime since the establishment of our state in 1922.

This can only mean that Irish financial institutions are among the most honest in the history of the world or financial regulation in Ireland is not seen as an integral part of democratic accountability as it is in real democracies.

A person with even a smidgeon of intelligence can see that the latter is the case.

Your organisation is refusing to name the institutions, the number of customers or the level of funds involved in this latest fraud on Irish citizens.

No other country in the world, not even the most corrupt banana republic, would refuse such basic information to its citizens.

Let me be blunt, your organisation is, effectively, protecting the thieving vermin that infest the Irish financial sector at the expense of Irish citizens.

I look forward to the day, hopefully very soon, when the people who make and enforce such Soviet style secrecy laws are stripped of their power and influence.

I have no doubt whatsoever that the great majority of ordinary Irish citizens are of the same view.

Yours sincerely
Anthony Sheridan

Food Safety Authority of Ireland: 'There are no Spanish cucumbers in Ireland'

16 people have died and hundreds are seriously ill as a result of the deadly E. coli outbreak in Europe.

It is suspected that cucumbers from Spain caused the outbreak.

Irish citizens are more at risk than other Europeans when such outbreaks occur simply because our so called regulatory agencies are so incompetent and, in some cases, seem to operate with other interests in mind.

Here’s how the deadly E. coli outbreak was handled by the so called Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) as reported on RTE News today.

Yesterday, Professor Alan Riley from the FSAI told an RTE reporter that cucumbers in all Irish stores were sourced from Irish and Dutch producers.

This statement, from a so called informed authority, could have resulted in many Irish consumers eating contaminated cucumbers.

Shortly after Riley’s statement RTE received several calls from members of the public who had Spanish cucumbers in their fridges and were very concerned.

It was also reported that SuperValu, Dunnes Stores and Lidl had removed (the non existent FSAI?) Spanish cucumbers from their shelves as a precautionary measure.

So, will we get answers from the FSAI? Will we get accountability from the FSAI? Will anybody be fired for potentially putting the public in danger?

There’s as much chance of that as there is of Sean Fitzpatrick ending up behind bars.

See here for a previous incident involving the FSAI which could potentially have put the public in danger.

Copy to:
FSAI

Thieving banks still enjoy full state protection

Since the economy collapsed in 2008, politicians, the Financial Regulator and various other government authorities have been telling the Irish people that the days when financial institutions could rob customers without fear of prosecution were over.

From now on, they said, the law will be enforced. Stringent new laws would ensure that such criminal activities would never again occur, that Irish citizens could rest easy in their beds in the knowledge that the state and its enforcement agencies were protecting them.

Of course, all the talk was nothing more than the usual tissue of lies we have come to expect from those who claim to work in the best interest of the citizens of Ireland.

The following scams were reported in the media last week (Irish Independent).

Banks had charged thousands of homeowners the wrong interest rates on their mortgages.

Banks had misled customers with money in deposit accounts by promoting term and interest rates that were later changed once people signed up for the accounts.

Banks had short-changed thousands of customers on (other) interest rates.

It’s at this point Irish citizens would expect to see the many promises come to fruition, that they would expect to see justice done, to see transparency and accountability.

Here’s what they got:

The Central Bank, the so called Financial Regulator, refused to name the financial institutions involved, refused to specify the number of customers involved and refused to disclose the level of funds involved.

This absolute refusal to disclose even the most basic information is of great benefit to the thieving banks and is, potentially, very destructive for Irish citizens.

A spokesman for the Central Bank arrogantly dismissed all queries by declaring: It is not the practice of the Central Bank to name and shame.

I rang the Central Bank and spoke to an official in the hilariously named Public Contacts Unit. I wanted to know why such basic information was being kept secret from the public.

Because it would not be in the public interest and it is a corporate or private matter between the Central Bank and the companies that they regulate.

Ultimately, what happened was that these people were refunded so, this might sound a bit stupid, but the fact that these people were compensated and corrections were made to their accounts the wrongdoing as such has been rectified and catered for and the acts themselves have stopped.

After picking myself up off the floor and gaining control of my hysterical laughter I asked the obvious question: How could the keeping secret of the names of the thieving bankers be in the public interest?

He replied:

Well, I’d like to withdraw that, it may not be factually correct.

This official was unable/unwilling to provide me with any further answers and ‘helpfully’ gave me an email address (of his own unit as it turned out) where I could follow up on my queries.

To be continued…

'Royal' taxi regulator grants press interview

The taxi regulator, Kathleen Doyle was, as Pat Kenny put it, ‘flushed out’ by the media and forced to answer questions in connection with the latest scandal involving that industry.

The attitude of this so called public servant was accurately summed up by a caller to a radio show. The Queen of England grants more interviews than our taxi regulator.

In November 2008, in response to another controversy, I wrote about the ‘royal’ tendencies of this particular public servant.

Ms. Doyle is a public servant and therefore, in theory, should be accountable to consumers. There has been a disturbing tendency in recent times for people like Ms. Doyle to adopt a certain royal distance from the great unwashed.

When public servants adopt such arrogant attitudes consumers are entitled to form their own conclusions. Here’s how I imagine Ms. Doyle would address the general peasantry if she ever deigned to dismount from her high horse.

Dear Peasants,

I have been elevated to a position of great importance and therefore feel it is entirely inappropriate that I should deal directly with ordinary people.

I have therefore, at great expense to you, employed a public relations company to deal with all awkward questions from an impertinent media. All questions of a suitably respectful and non awkward nature will be dealt with by my underlings – eventually.

Of course, I do acknowledge and indeed, on rare occasions, feel a degree of gratitude, that my high status, large pay packet, very generous expenses and myriad other perks are all paid for out of your meagre resources.

I would like to take this opportunity to wish all of you the very best of luck in your struggles during the coming economic depression.

I would ask you not to worry too much about my prospects as I am guaranteed regular pay rises, total job security and a very generous pension on completion of my reign.

Yours etc.

(Note to private secretary: Make sure that fellow Duffy gets a copy, it might keep him quiet)