Interested in maladministration. Estd. 2005
Former Taoiseach Garret FitzGerald has denied suggestions that Ireland needs a European Union bailout, and has accused European authorities of panicking.
I would have thought that we have got a chance of sorting this out ourselves; we don’t need a bailout if we can resolve the problems without it.
So, the whole world is wrong and FitzGerald and the rest of the Irish ruling elite are right.
Let’s be gentle with this fool, he’s old and his mind is obviously rambling.
I quoted the liar Lenihan only last week after he was interviewed on the BBC about his great plan for Ireland’s economy.
We intend to return to the markets next year, and we intend to fund ourselves. That’s our plan.
Some plan Lenihan, you fucking liar.
Once again we have Morgan Kelly telling the brutal truth followed by a whole raft of so called experts telling us that everything is just rosy in the garden.
Donal O’Mahony, a strategist with Davy Stockbrokers, leads the charge for those living in La La Land.
He makes the following points in his article.
There is no mortgage crisis.
To be sure, delinquency rates are rising in the Irish mortgage book, but levels remain relatively low (4.6 per cent of the total at last count) and the banks now have Matthew Elderfield’s blessing for “taking a responsible, reasonable approach of forbearance by allowing customers to reschedule”.
So, no mortgage crisis then and the banks are going to be ‘responsible’, ‘reasonable’, ‘forbearing’ and give their customers a break.
People displaying this level of ignorance and naivety should not be allowed out on their own never mind express a public opinion.
Perhaps when the mortgage time bomb explodes in O’Mahony’s face it will shake his brain into some activity.
The Financial Regulator is independent and competent.
Most breathtaking of all, however, is the hubris displayed in second-guessing the “stress-test” findings of the independent financial regulator regarding Irish bank balance sheets.
To be fair, O’Mahony is not the only one to swallow the line that since the arrival of the Messiah, Mathew Elderfield, Ireland now has an independent and competent financial regulator.
Nothing could be further from the truth. Apart from playing hardball with Quinn, a matter in which he had no choice; Elderfield has behaved exactly like all his predecessors.
No bankers in jail, none have even been charged. The financial institutions continue to rob customers with absolute impunity while the Financial Regulator continues to enforce secrecy laws which have the direct consequence of protecting the criminals.
Ireland has the capability of resolving her problems without outside help.
The corollary is that Ireland is moving increasingly towards “self-help” status, whereby the ongoing borrowing requirements of the public sector can, in principle, be absorbed by the accumulated surpluses of the private sector.
Ok, just one word of analysis on this opinion – IDIOT.
It may seem bizarre to say, but Burma is a more democratic country than Ireland.
We don’t have a ruthless military junta denying democracy and good government to the people but we do have a ruthless ruling elite who, effectively, do the same thing.
Burma, like Ireland, may be a blighted country but it has two treasures that will, I believe, ensure the eventual return of real democracy – a politically educated population and courageous visionary leadership.
You only have to look at the passion and focused determination of the Burmese people, their hunger for real and fair government to see that they understand exactly what real democracy is all about.
These people have the same fears and worries that Irish citizens have, and more, but at rock bottom they know that national pride, prosperity and freedom is impossible without a foundation of courageous, visionary and accountable democracy.
The people of South West Donegal are about to exchange the possibility of quality democracy in return for petty favours from local gombeen representatives.
They neither know, nor apparently care, about the damage such political ignorance will bring down on their heads and the heads of the population in general.
Before very long the rest of the Irish population will be indulging in the same disastrous trading of democratic principles in return for empty promises from a corrupt, incompetent and arrogant body politic.
You only have to observe the actions, words and almost magical charisma of Aung San Suu Kyi to realise that the quality of Irish political leadership emanates from the foulest sewer.
I don’t need to labour this point; I only have to envision the amazing political and personal bond between Aung San Suu Kyi and her people and then, painfully, recall the recent drunken interview given by our incompetent prime minister.
If Ireland had a political leader with even one percent of the vision and courage of Aung San Suu Kyi our country would be well on the way to recovery and a brighter future for its people.
Paul O’Donoghue of the Irish Skeptics Society had a good article in yesterday’s Irish Times.
The piece considered whether science should help out god in correcting evolutionary flaws in humans.
Some quotes:
On the design of the human body:
In a world preoccupied with environmental issues one might wonder who in his right mind would construct two waste-disposal units right next to a recreational area?
Woody Allen:
If it turns out that there is a god, I don’t think that he’s evil. But the worse you can say is that basically he’s an underachiever:
More than any other time in history, mankind is at a crossroads. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness, the other, to total extinction.
Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly.
Every year, over €50 million in taxpayer’s money is paid to private contractors in rent for the provision of prefabs to schools throughout the country.
Over 50,000 primary school children are being taught in prefabs.
This year the Department of Education has yet to spend almost half, some €331 million, of its 2010 capital budget for school buildings. The Dept. also failed to spend its full allocation last year.
If permanent schools are built somebody will lose out on €50 million per year in prefab rents.
Hundreds of schools operate under Third World conditions, rats, leaks, contaminated water; no heating and chronic lack of equipment and teaching aids.
The matter was discussed on Today with Pat Kenny (for the umpteenth time) last week when he interviewed two school principals who just cannot understand why the Dept/Government is failing to build permanent schools.
If permanent schools are built somebody will lose out on €50 million per year in prefab rents.
On previous occasions, over the last year or so, we heard the following.
A caller from Galway said it costs €17,000 a year to rent a prefab and it must be rented for at least three years.
To buy the same prefabs costs just €50,000. The figures, he said, just don’t add up. Pat Kenny was astonished.
A caller from Waterford said they were fed up with endless bureaucracy and years of waiting. The school committee has decided to go ahead and appoint their own architects in defiance of the Dept.
The caller said that the school building programme was a joke as it can only address schools identified as of a politically high priority.
If permanent schools are built somebody will lose out on €50 million per year in prefab rents.
The principal and committee of Rath school proposed building a school extension to replace the three prefabs that currently cost €47,000 to rent.
The plan would ultimately save the Government over €30,000. They brought the proposal to local TD, John Maloney, who responded as follows:
The proposal from Rath National School would have envisaged a mortgage taken down on the school to provide a new school.
My response to that is the same as the Dept’s that the proposal would not be in keeping with the way funding is allocated for capital programmes based on the very fact that I’m making that it would add to exchequer borrowing that quite clearly the State cannot do.
The principal of the school is puzzled, he cannot understand how the plan could be rejected, it was a win win situation for everybody.
If permanent schools are built somebody will lose out on €50 million per year in prefab rents.
Another school, another plan. €25 million would be borrowed from the bank and re-loaned to the Government at 3% interest.
The Government would then repay the parish over 15 years. So the Government would be getting a cheap loan and the town would get a new school.
The idea was welcomed at first but when the parish made a formal proposal in writing the plan was rejected.
Local TD, John Maloney was on hand to explain in his usual crystal clear fashion:
It was originally turned down, again, in the context of on the one hand the Government accepting the proposal was concerned about the whole issue of value for money and I don’t want to seem to be hiding behind that smokescreen again.
I use it by way of explaining to the public that all of these proposals have to be tested by way of value for money and return to the State and to ensure that there is value for money for the taxpayer.
If permanent schools are built somebody will lose out on €50 million per year in prefab rents.
I see Brian Lenihan is still living in La La Land.
The cost of borrowing is largely and exclusively caused by uncertainty about the future of European sovereign debt.
Echo’s of the mad Lehman Bros excuse methinks.
As time goes on and Ireland sinks deeper and deeper into the pit of penury the Governor of the Central Bank, Patrick Honohan, becomes ever more eccentric in his comments.
Yesterday he accused the international markets of over reacting, of exaggerating the cost of Ireland’s borrowing.
He believes the Government has got it exactly right in relation to the proposed budget cuts.
In other words, the entire world is wrong and Brian and Brian are right.
Here’s an extract from a recent RTE interview given by Mr. Honohan where he was asked about the billions of taxpayers money that will never be recovered.
RTE Journalist: The worst case scenario, taking Anglo and Nationwide, is €40 billion?
Honohan: Yes.
RTE: Gone?
Honohan: Gone
RTE: In terms of being a mortgage at 5% over 20 years, that’s about 2.4 billion per year?
Honohan: It’s colossal, it’s colossal.
RTE: And, you say, manageable?
Honohan: Manageable, I didn’t say it was painless. It’s very painful to pay for this but suppose it was ten times that then it would not be manageable and we couldn’t get out of it without external help.
Using similar logic here’s how I imagine Hitler would discuss his trial tactics with his defence lawyer.
Hitler: Ok, suppose I admit to murdering six million Jews and then plead that it could have been ten times that.
Surely the judge will see that the crime is not so bad after all and agree to drop the whole silly matter.
Lawyer: Mein Gott Herr Furher, what a cunning plan. It’s sure to fool them.
It’s almost, and I stress almost, a bit sad to see Brian Lenihan continuing to insist that the Titanic is still afloat.
He told BBCs Newsnight last night.
No, I don’t accept it’s the end and I don’t accept it’s decimation.
Or, in other words.
Yes, we are here two miles beneath the cold, dark Atlantic with a massive hole ripped through our bow but we’re confident that the upcoming budget will not only refloat the ship of state but will also add a shiny new coat of paint and send us on our happy way again.
And when he was asked about the plan.
We intend to return to the markets next year, and we intend to fund ourselves. That’s our plan.
Or, in other words.
Yes, we are here two miles beneath the cold, dark Atlantic with a massive hole ripped through our bow but we’re confident that the upcoming budget will relight our furnaces, repair the gaping hole, resurrect all the dead bodies and send us on our happy way again.
Lenihan is, however, correct in his claim that the Government is not asking people to bring their living standards back 10 years – it’s more like 50 years.
Letter in today’s Irish Independent.
Please allow me to genuinely welcome our new Finance Minister Olli Rehn to the country.
His brief, no nonsense “It is appropriate” response to the forthcoming €6bn in Budget cuts is a refreshing change from the endless turning of (blind) corners.
Anthony Sheridan