Myers gets it right

I rarely agree with Kevin Myers but his views on the Flynn scandal in last Wednesday’s Irish Independent hits the nail right on the head. (Emphasis mine)

On Irishness;

“So, perhaps rightly, Fianna Fail sees itself as the true voice of Irishness. The party is at bottom a political assertion of that – and those who guard that identity are not to be judged by lesser, imported concepts, such as the “law“.”

On Fianna Fail he says;

“Even today, Fianna Fail’s morality is that of a conquered people, for whom law is a conqueror’s instrument, and secret conspiracies the cultural norm. Loyalty, not law, is the abiding characteristic of the Fianna Fail family.”

On Flynn he says;

“And the extreme, female embodiment of that culture is the unspeakable Flynn-woman, a proven liar, a fraudster, a creature of no integrity, and a traitor who, in any state with a clearly defined public morality, would be in jail.”

The Flynn deal

The Director General of RTE has assured us that no deal was done with Beverly Flynn. Bertie Ahern has also claimed that no deal was done. I don’t believe either of them.

Given the way things are done in this country it is likely that some sort of deal was agreed. Next Monday, when the case comes up again in court, we will know the extent of the deal.

If there is any secrecy whatsoever regarding the amount Flynn has ‘agreed’ to pay then it will be obvious that RTE did a complete cave in under political pressure.

Fr Ted speak

One of the funniest episodes of Fr. Ted involved teaching Fr. Jack to answer any difficult question he might face from three visiting bishops with the universal phrase

“That would be an ecumenical matter.”

Fr. Ted loved the idea saying,

“That’s the great thing about Catholicism, it’s so vague, nobody really knows what it’s about.”

Bertie Ahern adopted the same strategy recently when questioned about the secret deals he did with the Independents.

“They’re political agreements” or in Fr. Ted speak, “That would be a political matter.”

When asked did he give anything special to the Independents he brought vagueness to an extreme.

“No, these are, but important issues that people lobby for them, you know, sometimes things are in the National Development Plan and are at the end of National Development Plan and people lobby for them and that’s the norm that every politician elected or that supports a government department does.”

Deals done, arrangements made

Beef baron Larry Goodman was well known as an astute businessman who had an uncanny ability of keeping tabs on every detail of his huge empire. But when the Beef Tribunal reported in August 1994 it found that Larry knew nothing of the massive fraud and tax evasion rampant throughout his company. Deals done, arrangements made, blind eyes turned.

Tax cheat Michael Lowry had a massive extension built on to his house courtesy of the Dunne family. The extension was illegal as it had no planning permission and therefore should have been demolished. Michael managed to get retrospective planning permission. Deals done, arrangements made, blind eyes turned.

Corrupt politician Charles Haughey should have been brought to justice for lying to the McCracken tribunal. It was decided, however, that he was too well known to get a fair trial and was, in effect, placed above the law. Deals done, arrangements made, blind eyes turned.

Beverly Flynn encouraged tax evasion. She sued RTE for saying so and lost. She owed RTE/taxpayer nearly €3million as a result of her actions. Now we’re told that she will only have to pay a fraction of this. Deals done, arrangements made, blind eyes turned.

Real accountability, no matter what it costs the taxpayer or the reputation of the country, must be avoided.

Depressing sleaze

Many of the callers to Liveline today (Monday) were depressed as well as angry by the outcome of the Beverly Flynn/RTE scandal. They seemed genuinely puzzled that yet again a politician has got off the hook for wrongdoing.

Later on, on Questions and Answers, there was even more depression when Alan Shatter of Fine Gael received high praise from Willie O’Dea for his strong defence of Flynn.

Shatter claimed that Flynn was the victim of a lynch mob; that people were getting over excited about the whole event and that she should be allowed to get on with her life.

He was pure Fianna Fail on tax evasion when he trotted out the ridiculous argument that all the banks were at it at the time.

The only real passion/anger on the show came from Willie O’Dea when he strongly attacked Eamonn McCann for suggesting that Fianna Fail supported tax evasion.

How could anyone even suggest such a thing?

The price of profit

I see members of the Saudi religious police, officially known as The Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (Echoes of the Inquisition there), are to stand trial for the deaths of two men in custody.

The dead men were accused of the ‘horrendous crimes’ of socializing with an unrelated woman and alcohol peddling.

In February 2006, after criticism of a proposed visit to Saudi Arabia by President McAleese a government spokeswoman said

“The visit to Saudi Arabia by the President represented a clear expression of the values of Irish society and people and also respected the culture of a friendly nation.”

I’m certain that the Government and President McAleese would totally condemn these events in Saudi Arabia but the fact that they admire and support this ruthless theocracy cannot be ignored.

The hypocrisy is all the more odious because the admiration and support is entirely based on business profit.

Here’s what some of our esteemed political leaders had to say about dealing with this ruthless regime.

“They’re not the same kind of open society as we are, they haven’t got the same parliamentary democratic process as us and we have to understand those sensitivities. It would be very wrong of us other than to understand and doesn’t take away from the fact we pointed out areas where there is concern internationally.”

Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, (Six One News 18th Jan 2007)

“It is also the case that we have to have respect for other cultures and societies in a world of difference. It is all a bit more complex than saying this is just a simple matter of human rights.”

Enterprise and Employment Minister, Michael Martin. (Irish Independent)

“On what basis would we not talk to them? We can’t go around the world judging people,”

Frank Ryan, the chief executive of Enterprise Ireland. (Irish Independent).

On what basis would we not talk to them? Apparently, there is no basis that would overrule the profit motive.

Lessons from Liberia

It is reported in today’s Irish Times (20th June, sub required) that the Auditor General of Liberia has strongly attacked its president for the non accountability of millions of dollars. A number of comparisons can be made with this scandal and the situation in Ireland.

Liberia is one of the most corrupt countries in the world but with help from the international community it is making a serious attempt to fight the disease. Here in Ireland, we have yet to even admit that we are seriously infected.

The matter was taboo during the election because it was judged too risky to attack Bertie Ahern on his personal finances. Neither can we expect much action from the new arrivals in government. Green Party TD Ciaran Cuffe has already made his party’s position crystal clear;

“The Green Party is not the moral guardian of Fianna Fail or anybody else.”

Liberia’s Auditor General is paid by the international community, obviously to ensure an independent and objective voice in the fight against corruption.

Ireland is badly in need of such an arrangement. An investigation into the non accountability of millions, secretly paid to independent TDs to buy their political support, would be a priority.

JWT – New frontiers?

Joe Walsh Tours (JWT) is an old and well established Irish tour company. The company has carried millions of people to exotic and distant destinations all over the globe.
But now there’s a new JWT, a JWT that will travel to the ultimate destination, the edge of the known universe.

In a joint venture between NASA, ESA and the Canadian Space Agency, the James Webb Telescope will replace the Hubble space telescope which has given long and valuable service to science.

Hubble has been able to see galaxies approximately 13 billion light years away but JWT will see much further, almost back to the Big Bang and the beginning of everything. Unlike Hubble, which operates from a position very close to earth, JWT will be placed an amazing one million miles out in space.

Another fascinating job for the new telescope will be the search for and study of exoplanets. These are planets outside our solar system which could provide us with the first evidence of extraterrestrial life. Currently, these planets are detected by the way their orbits dim the light of their stars but JWT should be able to see them directly.

So, how long before the Irish JWT is organizing tours to new planets discovered by the space JWT?

Oh Mary

Mary Harney and Joint Honorary Treasurer of the Progressive Democrats, Paul Mackay, were taking a stroll on the beach.

They were discussing Paul’s worry that the PDs were getting too close to Fianna Fail. Suddenly, Paul spotted a very bright and shiny object on the sand.

Wow, I’ve never seen anything like it before, what is it Mary?

You have seen it before, Paul; it’s a lump of integrity.

Integrity? But it couldn’t be Mary, it’s bright and clean, nothing like the lacklustre integrity we have back at party headquarters.

That’s because our integrity is not real, it’s made from recycled brown paper envelopes.

But.., but why Mary.., Why?

Well, Paul, it’s simple. When we decided to board the Fianna Fail boat ten years ago it was already overloaded with developers contracts, jobs for the boys, promises to ‘friends’ etc. Our heavy integrity would have sunk the whole operation so we dumped the lot overboard; I suppose that’s one of the pieces that washed up.

Anyway, we could hardly go public on what we had done so we created a new lightweight type of integrity, specifically designed to keep the boat afloat. It was made up of an endless supply of brown paper envelopes from Fianna Fail headquarters. You have to admit, it fooled you for ten years and, until recently, most other Irish citizens.

Oh Mary, Mary, how could you? You mean it’s all true? Haughey was really corrupt and not a patriot to his fingertips? Bertie really does have questions to answer? Dick Roche is not leaving office to work on the streets of Calcutta. Oh Mary, please, don’t tell me that Martin Cullen is not really my fairy godmother. How could you betray me like this?

Pull yourself together Paul, the Great One is pleased with our performance, that’s why we’re back in power. And the really good news is that from now on we don’t have to bother with all that integrity stuff.

The Green’s have arrived with truckloads of it; I think they made it from a combination of recycled Green policy papers, muck from the Tara/Skryne valley and the tears of all those eejits who voted for change.

C’mon, I have a health business.., er, health department to run…

Roche secures Ruairi Quinn's defection to Fianna Fail?

“In a vindictive farewell Dick Roche signed the go ahead for the M3 before being tossed out of office.”

This was how Rodney Rice introduced Saturday View. I agree with his comments but judging from other reactions it would seem that Dick Roche’s action has put him in line for sainthood.

The ex minister was interviewed on Today with Tom McGurk (Fri. 15th June) where he informed the nation of what a great minister he had been.

I’m a great man for making decisions; I made the decision on nitrates when others feared to act.

My colleagues agree that I put together a very effective programme on environment.

The second Nice Treaty referendum was a very complex and badly written document. I broke it down into its component parts so that ordinary people (the peasants, so to speak) could understand it. I could have ignored the very negative views on the ‘no’ side but I chose to deal with them up front.

I’m very pleased that there are only three lines in the policy document on local government reform that weren’t written by my hand (Did he go through the whole document to check?).

I did great work on the EU Constitution.

I drove the civil servants in my dept very hard but they responded very well. (Obviously, these civil servants were an unruly rabble when Roche became minister).

I did John Gormley some service by not passing the buck to him.

(Echoes of Haughey there).

Tom McGurk was very impressed, he sounded like a schoolgirl who had just met her favourite film star. He was on the verge of breaking down in an uncontrolled giggle of admiration. He didn’t ask for the great man’s autograph on air but I suspect he was favoured afterwards.

Later on things became even more surreal when Labour TD Ruairi Quinn was being interviewed and made comment on the Roche interview.

“Any citizen of this Republic listening to that dialogue this morning, there are very few countries in the world that I can envisage where you would have that open frank exchange between an office holder and interviewer and the rest of the Republic and I just thought it was wonderful radio. I’m very proud of this county.”

I fully expected him to break out with a rendition of Amhran na bhFiann and announce his defection to Fianna Fail.

It has to be election fatigue, it just has to be….