Ahern's quadruple negative

Here’s how Bertie Ahern tried to climb out of the latest hole he has dug for himself (Drivetime, 38th minute).

“For legal and professional reasons neither myself nor my advisors have been in a position to respond to any of the accuracy and completeness of the reports about those issues so it is not correct, if I said so I wasn’t correct, so I, I can’t recall if I did say, but I did not say, if I did say it I didn’t mean to say it that these issues could not be dealt with until the end of the Mahon Tribunal, that is not what Revenue said.”

Eamonn Gilmore described Ahern’s explanation as a quadruple negative.

Irish Independent journalist, Fionan Sheehan said he was in a state of shock at what Ahern was now claiming because just eight days ago he had asked Ahern.

“Is it the position that the Revenue Commissioners have told your advisors that they’ll have to wait for the Mahon Tribunal to report back before finalizing your situation?”

Ahern confirmed that that was the case and reiterated that ‘fact’ several times during the ensuing discussion.

Sheehan said the Taoiseach’s claim was widely reported across the media that evening and the next day and nobody from Government disputed the reports. Now, eight days later, Ahern was saying something completely different.

Hypocrisy of new Immigration Bill

The Minister for Justice, Brian Lenihan has published the Immigration, Residence & Protection Bill 2008. The bill is designed to combine all the current procedures into a single application to speed up and clarify immigration into Ireland.

Interviewed on News at One; (1st item) the Minister was enthusiastic about that part of the bill designed to quickly eject any illegal immigrants from the State. Here are some of his quotes.

“There are very strong procedures for the removal of those who are not lawfully resident.”

Quote from the bill –

“In future a person found unlawfully in the State will be liable to be removed without notice and they may be detained for the purpose of ensuring removal from the State.”

The Minister is confident that the legislation is watertight, leaving no loopholes for anybody tempted to break Irish immigration laws.

“There are very robust powers to remove those who are outside that path, and I think that this has to happen if you’re to generate public confidence in the migration system in Ireland.”

He was also keen on the need for quick action to get rid of these people. Legal and judicial procedures are too protracted.

“We have to stop that, we have to have a speedy determination of this issue.”

“The reality is that if a refugee stays here for a very long period of time it becomes very, very difficult to remove such a person from the State even though they may not have had a well founded refugee application in the first place.”

The Minister goes on to give yet another reason for effective and speedy procedures in getting rid of illegal immigrants.

“When it is protracted and delayed that becomes yet another pull factor encouraging large numbers of migrants to come here and claim that they are refugees.”

Meanwhile, Government Ministers, including the Taoiseach, continue to bring shame on the nation as they wear a path to America to moan and whine on behalf of the 50,000 or so Irish illegals in that country.

In recent times Minister for Foreign Affairs; Dermot Ahern made a fool of himself and by extension the country when he suggested to a gathering in America that somehow the Irish illegals weren’t actually illegal.

This kind of hypocritical denial of reality is common in Ireland, Bertie Ahern’s fantasy land being the latest example, but when uttered outside, in the real world, it simply confirms a certain view of the Irish as simpletons.

In October last year (sub req’d) Minister Ahern again made a fool of himself by insulting the intelligence of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice when he tried to convince her that the thousands of Irish citizens who were blatantly breaking the laws of her country should get special treatment because they were victims of the conflict in Northern Ireland.

I wonder what Lenihan and Ahern would have to say if, for example, the Nigerian Government sent political delegations to Ireland in an effort to gain special treatment for its citizens – They would probably be thrown in prison under the new legislation.

Groundhog Day in the West

Six One News report (8th item) Thursday 24th January.

A report by the Environmental Protection Agency has stated that nobody is to be prosecuted as a result of the recent (very serious and dangerous) water pollution problems in Galway.

The report says:

“Rather than hauling people through the courts it’s going to work to ensure that nothing like this ever happens again.”

Later, in the same report Dr. Diarmuid O’Donovan, Director of Public Health, HSE West stated:

“The report confirms that there are water supplies around the country that are at high risk, that people could be exposed to contaminated water. We could have more seriously ill people; we could even have deaths due to contaminated water.”

Let’s hear that again – The EPA couldn’t be bothered prosecuting those responsible for allowing water to become contaminated even though people are being put at risk of serious illness or even death.

Instead they’re going to work to ensure that nothing like this ever happens again.

Six One News report (15th item) Friday 25th January.

More than 30,000 people living in two West of Ireland towns have to boil their water as a result of new water contamination problems…

Copy to:
EPA

CF patients: Action at last?

This report in the Irish Times seems to indicate that the embarrassment level for politicians has reached a point where they might actually act or at least allow the Cystic Fibrosis Association of Ireland to act. (See previous posts here and here).

Eithne Donnellan

Wed, Jan 23, 2008

The possibility of placing a prefabricated structure with single rooms for cystic fibrosis patients on the site of Dublin’s St Vincent’s hospital is currently being discussed with Minister for Health Mary Harney.

Godfrey Fletcher, the chief executive of the Cystic Fibrosis Association of Ireland, said yesterday that he believed if the will was there such a structure with between 15 and 20 single rooms could be on the hospital site within months.

“If necessary we will pay for it,” he said.

It would be an interim solution to the current situation where a lack of single rooms at the hospital puts vulnerable CF patients at risk of picking up infections from other patients.

He said the association was unhappy that the current interim solution put forward by HSE chief executive Prof Brendan Drumm would take up to a year to be put in place.

It would involve vacating an existing ward in the hospital and converting it into about 11 single rooms for the use of CF patients.
“There are a lot of angry, desperate and frustrated CF patients and their families and we are not prepared to wait for an interim solution that will take another year,” he said.

© 2008 The Irish Times

Broken promises

Irish Independent journalist Sam Smyth spoke on Liveline last Monday (21st Jan) about his daughter who has Cystic Fibrosis. As I recall she is in her early twenties and so has entered the danger zone for CF suffers.

If she lived in Northern Ireland or any other country in Europe she wouldn’t enter the danger zone until she was in her thirties. This is because in those countries CF patients are provided with the basics necessary to keep them as safe as possible.

Irish politicians, by their consistent failure to provide even such basic facilities, have clearly demonstrated that they don’t care.

One very upset parent of a CF sufferer suggested that the Government/HSE don’t care because those with CF die young anyway so why waste resources. I agree with her.

The odd thing about Smyth’s interview was his complete lack of anger. He even praised Harney and Ahern for their ‘efforts’ and spoke as if he really believed the promise made by Prof. Drumm that proper facilities would be provided sometime next year. This promise has been made and broken for the last 14 years.

From a distant fantasy land

Sunday Independent journalist and Bertie worshipper Jody Corcoran did a forensic examination of Ahern’s tax affairs in last Sunday’s paper. The article makes extensive use of correspondence between Ahern and Revenue in an attempt to rationalise the Taoiseach’s fantasy tales.

Working from a place far more distant than Bertie’s fantasy land, Corcoran makes the following defence.

1. Ahern saw no reason to contact Revenue because he was advised (by his tax advisor) that he had no tax liability in relation to funds received in 1993/94.

2. When Ahern told the Dail on September 27, 2006 that he had checked with the ‘tax authorities’ in relation to the Dublin payments what he actually meant to say was that he had consulted with ‘authorities on tax’ i.e., his tax advisors.

Corcoran puts this error down to Bertie’s ‘unique ability to mangle the English language’.

3. Because there are no written records of the various ‘dig outs’ Revenue has no case. Corcoran triumphantly concludes;

“Without evidence to the contrary, Mr. Ahern’s account of the Dublin loans and Manchester gifts still hangs together.”

“It seems likely the taxman, without evidence to the contrary, must accept the Taoiseach’s account.”

In summary:

Bertie has no responsibility for non payment of tax because that’s what his tax advisor told him. In other words, ‘nothing to do with me’ It’s the tax advisors fault.

Bertie didn’t actually lie to our parliament when he said he had checked with the tax authorities. He was, apparently, misunderstood because he doesn’t know how to speak properly.

Revenue will have to take Bertie’s word for it because there is no written evidence to the contrary.

This logic can also be used to prove that Santa Claus exists.

The ultimate oxymoran

While browsing the website of the Law Society of Ireland this morning in search of some information I came across this little gem.

RULE OF LAW IN THE DEVELOPING WORLD
The objective of the Rule of Law Project is for the Law Society, through its members, to develop and enhance the Rule of Law in the developing world with the assistance of Irish Aid or otherwise, so that human rights, democracy, good governance and justice may be available to all people. This project is being run in cooperation with the Bar Council.

The Irish Law Society; is a quasi-secret society that both represents and allegedly regulates its members. An organisation whose members, mmm…let’s be charitable and say, are often involved in dodgy activities but yet, miraculously, never seem to find themselves made accountable under the same law as the rest of us mere mortals.

This crowd is now off to the developing world to enhance the rule of law. It’s the ultimate oxymoran.

The Party Departed

The shocked crowd gathered around the body. It was obvious that there was no hope, that there was no possibility of putting the parts together again.

The head lay at some distance from the body; it wasn’t even looking in the same direction. It seemed to be preoccupied with something else, some other mission. It seemed to have lost any interest in reconnecting to the main body.

The body itself had obviously suffered heavy damage; there was clear evidence of a recent beating and it had shrunk to an almost unrecognizable size, obviously starved of what had previously kept it healthy.

Various limbs lay scattered around looking lost and unattached, some desperately attempting to connect themselves to other bodies. Incredibly, one limb seemed to be having some success in attaching itself to a nearby putrid but amazingly healthy body.

There was a wide divergence of opinion as to the exact cause of death but everybody agreed that a complete lack of guts was a major contributory factor.

Clearly, a number of those present had had a close relationship with the recently departed. Some became hysterical, refusing to accept the awful reality. A Mr. Paul McKay repeatedly called on the body parts to reassemble, to continue as before; he was led away sobbing.

A Mr. Cannon made a desperate call for help in breathing new life into the corpse but his pleas fell on deaf ears as the ever diminishing crowd drifted away to make funeral arrangements.

It was clear that the Party Departed was permanently redundant.