Interested in maladministration. Estd. 2005
It’s unlikely that the Government’s decision to close Ireland’s embassy to the Vatican is a deliberate insult but I suspect the Catholic Church will take it as such or at least I hope it does.
After all, being lumped in as surplus to requirements with far away East Timor and rogue state Iran is not exactly edifying.
If any other columnist wrote the rubbish John Waters writes in today’s Irish Times I would immediately assume he was having us on, that he was engaging in extreme satire.
But Waters is (disturbingly) deadly serious when he tells us that we voted for Michael D because, after 21 years of ‘mothering’ by Mary Robinson and Mary McAleese, we all longed for a father figure.
He suggests that the uncertainty surrounding the ongoing crisis has us all glancing around anxiously for dad instead of clinging to nurse.
I mean, who passes this drivel for publication?
I see the Taoiseach’s friend, Patrick Durcan, has been appointed a District Court judge.
Here’s what Durcan had to say last February after Enda Kenny’s election victory.
It is a great day for Ireland, as Ireland is now led by a Taoiseach who is incorruptible, honest and who has a vision for the country.
And in case any of you cynical people out there think that Enda the incorruptible had any influence on this appointment.
Mr Kenny’s spokesman dismissed any suggestion the Taoiseach would have influenced the decision.
So there – it’s all transparent and above board.
The €3.6 billion accounting error made by some incompetent civil servant is exactly what can be expected in your typical banana republic.
The announcement that a special session of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) will be held tomorrow to look into the matter is exactly what is to be expected in your typical banana republic.
The Committee, which has no power whatsoever to make anybody accountable, will ask stupid, pointless questions.
The civil servants will respond with stupid, pointless answers before everybody heads off for lunch – at the taxpayer’s expense.
Exactly what you would expect in your typical banana republic.
It looks like Michael D Higgins is going to be the next president. It’s ironic that he has Sinn Fein to thank for his success.
Finance Minister, Michael Noonan, has said that Ireland’s main strategy was to grow its way out of trouble – Good luck with that Mr. Noonan.
He also labours under the same delusion as Lucinda Creighton, that Ireland is different from Greece.
Greece, says Mr. Noonan, will be in trouble for many years while Ireland will be ‘back to normal’ in a year or two.
Meanwhile, IMF chief economist, Oliver Blanchard, has been tragically infected with Brian Lenihan’s ‘we’ve turned a corner disease’.
Speaking to students at Trinity College today he said Ireland was doing great and would soon be out of trouble.
I have just one question – What are these people on?
Royston Brady and Joe Tierney, two former cronies of Bertie Ahern, were on the radio today gleefully (and deservedly) stabbing the traitor in the back.
Brady: To be quite honest I couldn’t have been happier that I was out of it from 2004 because the further away the better from all that kind of toxicity.
Tierney: I’m a Fianna Fail activist all my life and from the very beginning Bertie Ahern’s attitude to politics in Dublin Central was not what Fianna Fail stood for.
Bertie Ahern stood for himself…everything he did he did with a motive, for himself; he never did anything for Fianna Fail.
Fianna Fail owes nothing to Bertie Ahern but Bertie Ahern owes everything to Fianna Fail.
Notice that there’s no mention of Ireland and its people here, just bitterness for what Fianna Fail lost.
The traitor Ahern is being interviewed by Mike Murphy tonight, should be interesting.
Disgust is the overwhelming emotion I feel whenever I hear the chairman of NAMA, Frank Daly, speak.
His arrogant, condescending voice raises my hackles not just because he’s the ultimate example of insincerity but also because, for me, he represents all that is rotten about the powers that have destroyed this country.
Here’s Daly justifying, before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) NAMA’s decision to pay some developers €200,000 per annum plus a 10% commission if they reach financial milestones (Six One News; 5:25).
If you take the average in the industry and you’re asking an assets manager to come in and manage a portfolio of 2 billion they will charge you about one percent, that is, twenty million.
What we have to do is compare that with the possibility of paying somebody, reluctantly, €200,000.
This argument is, of course, complete bullshit.
It’s the old, dishonest argument of pulling a gigantic figure out of the air and then expecting taxpayers’ to be grateful that such a great deal was negotiated on their behalf.
NAMA is holding every single card with regard to the bankrupt developers, it has the power to force developers to accept any deal demanded.
NAMA could, for example, say, we’ll pay you €100,000 per annum but if you don’t reach set targets we’ll cut your salary by 50%.
Let’s remind ourselves of what Daly had to say at a previous PAC hearing when, as Revenue Commissioner, he was making excuses for the massive fraud engaged in by the banks by way of bogus non-resident accounts.
The banks would have brought the shutters down if Revenue had pursued officials aggressively. We had to go about this in a pragmatic way.
Pragmatic meant the banks got off and the taxpayer was screwed.
Daly’s pragmatism is, I suspect, still at work in NAMA.
The Minister for European Affairs, Lucinda Creighton, was explaining the difference between Ireland and Greece (Six One News; 19:55).
The difference between Ireland and Greece is that Greece has to be saved by the Eurozone, Ireland does not.
We’re in a programme, it is working…the Irish economy is, believe it or not, beginning to go from strength to strength.
Ireland is not being saved by the Eurozone? – Feck, I must have blinked at the wrong moment.
As for believing that the Irish economy is going from strength to strength – I don’t.
There was a good example of the Irish attitude to law during the presidential campaign. A Dana supporter had parked on a space for the disabled and was challenged by a journalist.
I didn’t actually park there because the engine has to be turned off before you’re parked, I was only stopped.
But you got out and left it there?
No, my friend was taking it to the parking place but I wasn’t parked because the engine was running, it was only stopped.
I’ve raised over a hundred thousand for the IWA and I don’t think they’d mind me parking or stopping on their space for ten seconds.
The logic is – I’ve done favours for this organisation therefore I’m entitled to break the law without suffering consequences.