Nothing new in Ireland

Serious allegations of widespread fraud have emerged from within CIE. Three employees have been dismissed and there’s a vague reference about a report to the Gardai.

The FAS farce continues apace. We’re told there’s also a Garda investigation there but, please, don’t hold your breadth.

Dentists are under scrutiny over allegations that they made fraudulent claims under the publicly funded Dental Treatment Services Scheme. Here’s a mad prediction – no dentist will be found guilty, nothing will happen.

Fianna Fail backbenchers are up in arms over drink-drive levels even though the retention of the present level will result in at least ten additional deaths every year. When it comes to protecting their power base Irish politicians are completely ruthless.

Practically every financial institution in the country is regularly defrauding elderly citizens of their life savings. All the political parties, the Gardai and every so called regulatory agency in the country are fully aware of the situation but refuse to act.

Approximately 2,000 retired teachers, in receipt of generous state pensioners, are still working as substitute teachers. Around 1,500 of them are working in primary schools at a rate of €206 a day, while the remainder is earning €49.60 per hour in secondary schools.

Apparently, it’s all part of a wink, wink, nod, nod network. Meanwhile, thousands of young, newly qualified teachers are desperately searching for a start in their profession.

250,000 shoppers are now crossing the border into Northern Ireland to do their shopping costing traders in the republic up to €800 million in lost revenue.

Even when factors like the VAT rate are taken into account there still remains the unique Irish rip off (theft) factor.

It seems that no matter how bad things get Irish businesses are incapable of weaning themselves off this long established tradition.

Here’s just one small example. I went into a Dublin café recently for a cup of coffee and a cake. The (very small) cakes were €2.80 to eat on the premises and €2.50 to take away – yes, take away cakes from a café.

Not surprisingly, the café was empty with the (soon to be redundant?) staff twiddling their thumbs.

Senator O'Toole places the safest bet in the universe

According to independent Senator Joe O’Toole: (Today with Pat Kenny, Thursday).

The Seanad is an exclusive, undemocratic, unrepresentative and anachronistic chamber and it cannot continue in its current form.

So why is O’Toole still a member (for the last 20 years) of this undemocratic and unrepresentative body?

Senator O’Toole again:

I would resign from the Seanad tomorrow morning if I got a commitment that all the reforms of the Seanad report were implemented.

If that was done I would feel that my life’s work as a Senator has been delivered, I’m not doing it for myself.

I have to admit this is the cleverest strategy of all in defence of this useless institution.

O’Toole knows that not a single member of this discredited body, past or present, (including himself) is serious about reform.

So promising to give it all up on the likelihood that all the dishonest talk about reform will suddenly result in actual reform is the safest bet in the universe.

Copy to:
Senator O’Toole

One more reason for bringing the entire rotten system down

Fine Gael senator Fidelma Healy Eames asked the leader of the Senate, Donnie Cassidy, a very simple question (Today with Pat Kenny, Thursday).

Has Ireland cancelled the bilateral agreement (on adoption) with Vietnam?

Cassidy refused to answer.

Senator Eames was forced to submit an FOI on the matter. She was informed by a civil servant that an answer to her (yes or no) question would cost her €1,247.

Such (legal) corruption is just one more reason for bringing the entire rotten system down.

Time to demolish tax shelters for the rich

Letter in today’s Irish Examiner.

It’s time to demolish tax shelter for the rich

IN recent months there has been considerable public debate on issues relating to Government expenditure cuts, our economic recovery and the need to protect Ireland’s most vulnerable groups.

We are being led to believe that the economic crisis leaves us with no alternative but to make drastic cuts to basic services and supports, including child benefit, social welfare and to the community sector that works directly with the most disadvantaged.

This false premise needs to be challenged.

There are real alternatives to this slash-and-burn approach being presented as the only option open to us.

It is a relatively unknown fact that the State loses tens, if not hundreds, of millions of euro every year in what is known as “tax expenditures” or “taxes foregone”.

These include the wide range of tax reliefs and shelters available from which the wealthiest people in Ireland benefit most.

The Commission on Taxation has identified an extraordinary 111 such “breaks”. Estimates indicate that substantial savings could be made — up to €8bn annually.

If these tax breaks were phased out or standardised. Child benefit is also defined as a tax break and is currently attracting a significant level of interest and attention.

However, child benefit plays such an important role in the fight against child poverty and supporting mothers that there is a strong case for it to be maintained.

We believe the bulk of taxes foregone could be better used to protect ordinary people and their families, including the most vulnerable against the worst effects of the recession.

The route to a more balanced and fair society is not about squeezing more out of those already bearing the biggest burden but by increasing revenue through tax reform, targeting those who continue to enjoy excessive salaries, privileges, expenses, bonuses, tax breaks and tax shelters.

The Government has real choices. It remains to be seen if it will do the right thing.

Anne Costello (on behalf of the following organisations in the Community Platform)

Age Action Ireland ATD Fourth World Cáirde Community Action Network Community Workers’ Co-op European Anti-Poverty Network Ireland Focus Ireland Gay and Lesbian Equality Network Immigrant Council of Ireland Irish Association of Older People Irish National Organisation of the Unemployed Irish Penal Reform Trust Irish Refugee Council Irish Rural Link Irish Traveller Movement Migrant Rights Centre Ireland National Adult Literacy Agency National Traveller Women’s Forum National Women’s Council of Ireland Older Women’s Network OPEN Pavee Point Rape Crisis Network Ireland SAFE Ireland Simon Communities of Ireland Threshold Vincentian Partnership for Justice Voluntary Drug Treatment Network Women’s Aid.

The tsunami is about to strike

Last October, in a piece about the deepening financial crisis, I wrote.

We’re in a moment just like that before a tsunami strikes. The sea is sucked out a great distance from the shore and people, in their ignorance and excitement, rush out to stare at beached fish flapping about. There’s absolutely no realisation of what’s just beyond the horizon.

That realisation is just now beginning to take hold on the general population as they look up in horror to see the gigantic wave about to engulf them, a wave that’s going to destroy all their hopes and dreams, a wave that’s going to send the Irish economy back to the dark, depressing days of the 1930s/1940s.

The fear can be gauged from reading Letters to the Editor, listening to radio talk shows and in particular from watching RTEs Frontline current affairs programme.

The Government, well aware of the looming disaster, was not idle during the past year.

The interests of bankers and property developers have been secured to the greatest degree possible to ensure they will survive the coming tsunami.

Judges, politicians, higher civil servants and other friends of the elite have all been allowed to decide for themselves what to contribute and what to keep in order to protect themselves and their families against the coming disaster.

EU bureaucrats are happy with the Government’s job of frightening Irish citizens into voting Yes thus keeping the European project on (their) track.

With all special interests secured the Government has turned its attention to ordinary citizens and, finally, told them the truth.

In the last week senior politicians, higher civil servants and representatives of the business elite have been wheeled out to warn citizens that they must be prepared to make major sacrifices in order to save the country.

The ruling elite are hoping that ordinary citizens will remain docile while willingly surrendering everything they have; they’re hoping that the sacrifices of the people will be enough to absorb the shock of what’s to come.

They’re hoping that when the tsunami has passed they can return from the safety of the government provided high ground and, after burying the dead, exploit the survivors. In other words, they’re hoping to return to the same corrupt system that’s responsible for the catastrophe.

I believe their hopes are in vain because ordinary citizens have virtually nothing left to give. The crisis is so massive, so overwhelming, that it cannot be avoided. Neither can it be resolved by the present cabal of corrupt and incompetent politicians.

Countless thousands are going to lose everything. The Government will not succeed in resolving the crisis; they simply do not have the experience, vision or intelligence to deal with such a massive crisis.

The country’s economy will end up administrated by the IMF and/EU bureaucrats, we will, effectively, lose our sovereignty. There will be no return to normality in the short or even the medium term. Ireland is looking down the dark tunnel of a prolonged and dangerous depression where it’s every man for himself.

The best Irish citizens can hope for is that the coming tsunami, as it destroys all their wealth and dreams, also sweeps away the entire rotten system and all those who support and defend it.

Abolish the Senate

Letter in today’s Irish Times.

Madam,

Enda Kenny is correct to call for the abolition of Seanad Éireann.

This expensive but totally irrelevant institution cut its work week by 50 per cent this week, from three to 1½ days, because a mere seven of its 60 members are attending the British/Irish Parliamentary Assembly in Swansea.

A referendum on the matter cannot come soon enough.

Yours, etc,

Anthony Sheridan

Seanad Eireann: a typical banana republic institution

My respect for Senator David Norris has taken a serious dent in recent times as I listen to his pathetic defence of that useless institution Seanad Eireann.

On other matters like gay rights, nuclear disarmament or the environment Norris is articulate and passionate but when comes to reform of the most exclusive and elitist club in the country he invariably waffles on about reform in the same manner as the rest of the cabal of political vultures

Reform, like the Senate itself, is now nothing but a sick joke. There have been at least 12 reports over the years recommending reform and nothing has been done. Every time defenders of this useless institution mouth the word ‘reform’ they are insulting the intelligence of Irish citizens.

On his radio show yesterday (Monday) Pat Kenny asked Fine Gael Senator Liam Twomey why the Senate was only sitting for a day and a half this week. The Senator waffled but didn’t answer the question and Kenny didn’t insist on an answer.

I rang Seanad Eireann and after the usual run around from Billy to Jack was eventually informed that the 60 member Senate was closed because seven of its members were attending the British/Irish Parliamentary Assembly in Swansea.

It should also be kept in mind that the election for this particular Senate was illegally fixed in true banana republic style.

Copy to:
Senator Norris

Immoral to pay taxes?

Letter in today’s Irish Independent.

It’s immoral to pay taxes for this farce

IN REPLY to recent letters concerning taxation, I believe that if a dispassionate and totally objective observer were to look at what has been happening in this country recently, then that person might reasonably come to the conclusion that for the average citizen to continue to voluntarily pay taxes could be considered immoral.

I make the following points to support this argument.

1. The refusal by judges to take a voluntary pay cut seriously affects their moral authority to pass sentence on anyone, especially in relation to civil offences.

2. The failure of the entire Oireachtas to deal with the issue of their own grotesque expenses is corrupt, and I am not saying here that the expenses themselves were a corruption.

3. The extraordinary salaries of RTE’s top earners is little short of extortion. The licence fee needs to be substantially reduced and is, anyway, anachronistic.

4. The apparent inability of this Government to deal with incompetence at the highest levels in the public sector and, worse still, using taxpayers’ money to pay these people off, thereby saying, in effect, that gross mismanagement will always be rewarded with enormous pay-offs and pensions. This is vile.

5. The threats of industrial action by public sector union members, especially the so-called ‘frontline staff’, for an actual pay increase would be farcical if they weren’t serious — caring indeed! Their overpaid leaders should be ashamed.

6. The lenient treatment of tax exiles is plainly wrong.

7. Neither the reckless lending by bank directors nor the complete failure of the regulatory authorities to control this has resulted in a single prosecution.

To continue to voluntarily pay taxes under these circumstances could be considered to give tacit support to the above. These arguments are bolstered by the consideration that many people now paying higher taxes are seeing, or will see in the not too distant future, their own children’s lives ravaged by unemployment and emigration.

Finally, may I say that at a minimum, the first and fourth of these points could have been dealt with by constitutional amendment or referendum.

Dr Patrick Finn
Glasnevin, Dublin 9

O'Donoghue: Stupid, angry and embittered

According to RTE reporter David-Davin Power, John O’Donoghue gave a fine speech. The Nine News described the speech as a spirited defence.

I disagree; it was nothing more than an angry, dishonest and embittered rant. O’Donoghue blamed civil servants, the media, the system, administrative errors and the Opposition while heaping praise upon himself.

His pathetic excuse for releasing details of his expenses incurred during his time as Ceann Comhairle on the same day as the referendum is an insult to all intelligent Irish citizens.

Given the massive publicity and media frenzy that had attended the disclosure of my expenses as minister I assumed the same would occur in relation to the costs incurred as Ceann Comhairle.

I believed this would have been a distraction to the Irish public when matters of profound importance to the future of this country were the subject of a referendum.

In my view it was best to have that referendum decided on its individual political merits and that’s why I waited until Friday 2nd October.

I did not attempt to bury the information in other events as some have suggested.

This bizarre excuse is an indication of O’Donoghue’s stupidity. He is, in effect, saying that he buried the information so that voters wouldn’t be distracted while at the same time denying he buried the information.

O'Donoghue: The political class still don't get it

Willie O’Dea’s reaction to John O’Donoghue’s forced resignation was exactly what we have come to expect from this hypocritical Fianna Fail backwoodsman.

I detest people who talk out of both sides of their mouths.

Fianna Fail Senator Ned O’Sullivan was no better. He predictably attacked the media for their ‘lurid’ reporting on O’Donoghue and called on politicians, who are now living in fear of the media, to fight back (Today with Pat Kenny, Thursday).

Fine Gael TD Leo Varadkar also attacked the media and petulantly reminded the nation that he could have made more money by remaining in medicine (Prime Time).

Varadkar’s comments are a reminder that the expenses scam involves all political parties.

Brian Lenihan angrily attacked Eamon Gilmore for his unacceptable actions in bringing down the Ceann Combhairle.

I don’t think it was a good day for Irish politics.

What all these politicians have in common is arrogance and denial. The expenses scam that they put in place results in millions being robbed from taxpayer’s every year either through legal corruption or legal fraud.

The Taxes Consolidation Act 1997 permits TDs to legally defraud the State. An accountant quoted in the Irish Independent gives the following example of how this scam might operate.

A politician can take a train from, say, the Ceann Comhairle’s constituency of South Kerry that costs €72 and make an unvouched claim for three one-way road journeys to Dublin and collect €531, leaving a tax-free profit of €441.

I wonder does Minister Lenihan think that it was a good day for Irish politics when this banana republic legislation was introduced by his party?