Call to reform defective state

From the Attic Archives.

Letter to the Cork Examiner in (I think) 1991.

Sir,

We, the undersigned, have been concerned for some time about the manner in which the Irish State is constituted.

We believe that the machinery of government, the way it is financed, and the way it redistributes wealth, are paralyzing government, frustrating initiative and enterprise, undermining public morale and causing the growing emigration of intelligent and well-educated young people.

These defects, we believe, are inherent in the State itself, as it is now constituted, and will defeat the best efforts of any political party, Cabinet, Dail or local government council.

Our system of government was not designed to suit the needs of the Irish nation today. It is largely inherited from the British government in Ireland in the 19th century, or derived, uncritically, from contemporary practice in the United Kingdom.

This inadequate model has been made worse by the politicians and officials of our centralizing government, who believe they can manage Irish life better than the people directly involved in it, regionally, locally or professionally.

We believe that a better system of government, serving the needs of the Irish people today, can be devised and implemented.

We believe, moreover, that the usefulness of this enterprise would extend beyond its direct, practical benefits.

The creation of a new, distinctively Irish State, tailored to our particular needs and purposes, and exemplary in some respects, would overcome, to a considerable degree, our present crisis of national identity.

With all of this in mind, we have met and founded the Constitution Club.

The purpose of this club is, first, to persuade citizens and politicians that the State needs to be reorganized; secondly, to promote thought and discussion on how a framework of government might be created which would release the skills and energies in our society while increasing democratic accountability.

The club will provide a centre and a forum for new thinking on the following themes: National government, government of the communities (regional and sub-regional), the financing of government, government financing of citizens.

Our first meeting, at which the public will be welcome, will be held in Buswell’s Hotel, Dublin, on Wednesday, November 5th at 6 pm.

Dr. Roy Johnston will speak about ‘Innovation, Employment and Regional Government’.

Anyone who has done some thinking on any of the themes mentioned above, and who wishes to present his or her ideas to a sympathetic and critical audience, should send a summary of them to the Secretary, The Constitution Club, 28 Emmet Road, Dublin 8.

Finally, any individual or group outside Dublin who wishes to found a Constitution Club locally is welcome to contact us by writing to the same address.

Tom Barrington
Raymond Crotty
Desmond Fennell
Roy Johnston
Michael O’Flanagan
John Robb
John Roden

Sheriff Lenihan feeding the journalists

NAMA to go after homes of wealthy developers. (Cowen and Lenihan reject plea to spare family houses).

Cowen ignored lobbying by CIF for builders.

It’s right to seize developer homes

The above three, tough talking, headlines from yesterday’s Irish Independent give the impression that the Government are going all out to deal with those nasty property developers, that the wealthy are not being let off the hook at the expense of the hard pressed taxpayer.

And that, of course, is exactly the purpose of the propaganda which, as always, is gratefully lapped up by naïve journalists.

Government ‘sources’ feed journalists the story that NAMA will move to seize the personal assets and houses of property developers in the best interests of the taxpayer.

The tough talking, no nonsense sheriff, Brian Lenihan, even included a provision in the NAMA Act to pursue developers who transferred their assets to their wives or children in an attempt to avoid paying their debts.

Alas, it’s nothing but the usual waffle designed to fool long suffering taxpayers (and journalists) as the following quote demonstrates.

However, the NAMA Act does state that nothing in its provisions will interfere with the 1976 Family Home Protection Act, which prohibits the sale, mortgage or remortgage of a family home in Ireland without the express consent of both spouses.

That may make it harder for NAMA to take away family homes from property developers with large debts.

Living/Dying in a Third World country

Letter in today’s Irish Independent.

CF sufferers’ hope is fading fast

It has been revealed that the tender process for the long-awaited cystic fibrosis (CF) unit is not working, as the lowest tender failed to get the required finance in time.

The unique tender process, under which the company needs to finance the build and get paid on completion, was given to us as a solution when we campaigned to the Government last year. It is now more obvious than ever that this was a ploy to keep us quiet.

We are tired of writing letters to newspapers and TDs. We are tired of giving out. We are tired of being optimistic. It is unfair to expect us to fight again for more broken promises.

The awareness of the plight of people with CF is at an all-time high. Everyone knows the risks of us picking up potentially fatal infections on admission to shared wards; that our next hospital visit could be our last.

What we are asking for is standard in every other first-world country. We are not looking for gold-plated oxygen tanks!

Our hope is fading and we are asking for your help once again. I don’t want this fight to end when we are eventually silenced by picking up an infection in a sub-standard facility of “care”.

What more can we all say?

Maria Daly
Person with CF,
Carlow Person of the Year — Courage Award 2010,
Marino, Dublin 3

What we are asking for is standard in every other first-world country.

Unfortunately for Maria and all CF sufferers, they are living in a dangerously corrupt Third World country.

Two previous blogs on this disgraceful situation.

“I have absolutely no faith in the HSE or in Mary Harney” Bernadette Cooney, recently deceased. RIP

Broken promises

Workers robbed while regulatory agency wrings its hands

The Pensions Board has just published its Annual Report predictably accompanied by the usual hand wringing (RTE, 3rd report, 1st item).

There are two principal aspects to the report – risky investment in shares and property that have resulted in serious losses and major theft which has been going on since the 1960s.

The media has focused almost entirely on the risky investment aspect; the ongoing theft is largely ignored.

By law, pension contributions must be deducted from workers salaries and paid into the Construction Workers’ Pension Scheme. Instead of paying into the scheme a great many employers are keeping the money for themselves.

Not only is this stealing from their employees but it also leaves employees and their families exposed should there be an accident or death.

In 2004 the Irish Examiner reported that up to 50,000 construction employees were being cheated of their pension and sickness benefits worth an estimated €35m annually.

In 2006 Socialist TD Joe Higgins estimated the theft from workers at €120 million per year.

Either way, we are talking about the theft of significant amounts of money. So what does the chief executive of the Pensions Board, Brendan Kennedy, have to say about the matter?

I see it as theft, we don’t prosecute under the Theft Act but there’s no question, it’s taking money that belongs to people.

And what are the consequences?

For the workers involved, as far as possible, it’s our top priority to make sure the employer pays up.

Unfortunately, for a large number of these employers given the state the construction industry the money may not be there.

This exchange is worth a closer look.

It’s theft but we don’t prosecute under the Theft Act.

The theft has been going on since the 1960s and, to my knowledge, not a single construction boss has been charged under the Theft Act.

If true, this failure to prosecute under the Theft Act, effectively acts as a protection for thieving construction bosses.

It’s our top priority to make sure the employer pays up.

This stance is very similar to that taken by the so called Financial Regulator. So long as the robbed money is returned no further action is thought necessary.

This, in effect, is an admission by a so called state regulatory agency that wholesale theft by employers is not really a serious matter.

Unfortunately, for a large number of these employers, given the state the construction industry, the money may not be there.

The suggestion here seems to be that nothing can be done to an employer who steals from his employees if that employer hits hard times – in other words theft from workers seems to be an acceptable money saving strategy.

Later on in the year the Pensions Ombudsman, Paul Kenny, will be publishing his annual report. Kenny is a parrot of the Pensions Board boss, he too knows workers are being robbed but just wrings his hands when it comes to making the thieves accountable.

Here’s what he had to say in 2006.

Employers have actually been deducting contributions from the wages of employees and not paying on to the scheme and that, quite frankly, is theft.

Copy to:
Pensions Board

Daily prayer: An insult to democracy

The following sectarian prayer is recited every day in Dail Eireann.

Direct, we beseech Thee, O Lord, our actions by Thy holy inspirations
and carry them on by Thy gracious assistance; that every word and
work of ours may always begin from Thee, and by Thee be happily
ended; through Christ Our Lord. Amen.

The prayer is a direct appeal to the Catholic god for assistance in the running of the country.

Other gods, for example, Muslim, Jewish, the pantheon of voodoo gods and the god of Scientology, are all ignored.

The daily recitation of this prayer is an insult to rationality. It’s an insult to all those many people who do not believe in the power/magic of the Catholic/Christian god.

It’s an insult to the growing number of people who don’t believe in any god whatsoever.

Most of all, however, it’s an insult to democracy.

Attic Archives

I’m in the process of sorting out old newspapers that have been stored in my attic for some years now, some dating back to the mid 1980s.

From time to time I’ll publish articles that may be of interest.

The following article, by Pat Brosnan, was published in the then Cork Examiner on Monday 11th March 1996.

A very disturbing story was related to me this week, and the unfortunate aspect of it is that the victim of this sorry tale didn’t even know he was taken to the cleaners.

A friend of mine told me how his brother was telephoning a branch of a bank in Cork and happened to get a crossed line.

It was a coincidence that he happened to overhear a conversation that was taking place between and bank manager he was ringing and the manager of another branch of the same bank.

What he overheard related to a discussion the two managers were having about a customer who had complained either about his overdraft or bank charges.

Either way, the customer felt he had paid too much.

The substance of the phony conversation was that the bank had, indeed, overcharged the man – to the tune of £25,000.

And what were they going to do about it?

In this case their customer was the owner of a small business which was in trouble, a fact that they knew only too well.

So what was the advice one of those miserable weeds offered to his colleague?

Offer him £9,000 and he’ll be only too happy to accept it because of the state of his business.

Because this happened some time ago I don’t know what the final upshot of it was. The one regret my friend’s brother had was that the name of the bank’s customer wasn’t mentioned during the conversation, because if it had he would have phoned him and told him what the real score was.

I’m sorry myself, that he was not in a position to do so.

As Irish citizens know to their great cost, nothing has changed. Still rampant criminality within the financial sector, still no regulation.

Hypocrisy and greed still rampant within our political system.

Fianna Fail MEP Pat ‘The Cope’ Gallagher still hasn’t decided whether to give up his pension of €23,634 which he receives along with his €91,500 MEP salary (Irish Independent).

He claimed he had issues from his constituents on his plate and had to focus on them without thinking about his pension.

Fine Gael MEP, Jim Higgins, said a court order relating to a “family law matter” was preventing him from surrendering his ministerial and Dail pensions, which amount to €60,000 a year.

Hypocrisy and greed still rampant within our political system.

Fitzgerald: A coward in office, brave in retirement

Writing about the disastrous legacy caused by political appointments to State enterprises Garret Fitzgerald, unwittingly, put his finger on one of the reasons Ireland evolved into a corrupt state (Irish Times).

After the establishment of the State in 1922, according to Fitzgerald, almost all government appointments were made by an independent Civil Service Commission.

In 1926 widespread corruption and bribery in local appointments was brought to an end by the establishment of the Local Appointments Commission.

So, by 1926, according to Fitzgerald, state and local appointments were transparent and accountable – no corruption.

Then, in 1932, Fianna Fail came to power and began to make political appointments outside the framework of the two appointments commissions.

This was the moment when the system began to go corrupt, this was the moment when the Opposition should have shouted stop.

This was the moment when good Irish men and women should have challenged Fianna Fail in the interests of the country and its citizens but nothing was done because of what Fitzgerald describes as ‘a complication’.

Apparently, the ‘complication’ was the fact that after the Civil War hundreds of leading republicans, who continued to reject the new State, had been blacklisted for public appointments.

The reaction to this ‘complication’ should have been – tough luck lads, you backed the wrong horse now you have to suffer the consequences. But Fitzgerald writes that the Fianna Fail action was ‘understandable’.

We can see why Fitzgerald is so ‘understanding’ when we read the next chapter in the corrupting of Irish public life.

When Fine Gael came to power in 1948 it continued the Fianna Fail practice of making political appointments outside of the appointments commissions.

Fitzgerald tells us that this was an ‘unhappy’ development that was justified by Fine Gael at the time by what they saw as a need to balance Fianna Fáil appointments during the preceding 16 years.

This is a mealy mouthed, pathetic excuse. Obviously, the reason Fine Gael continued this Tammany Hall scam was to reward and enrich its favoured members and supporters at taxpayer’s expense. In this respect Fitzgerald’s party is no better than the Fianna Fail.

Fitzgerald claims that when Taoiseach he made some attempt to control the abuse but admits:

We should, of course, have initiated legislation to control these abuses, but regrettably economic/financial pressures during the life of that government plus our involvement with Northern Ireland distracted us from thus institutionalising reform of appointments to State boards – a reform that would of course have involved a huge battle with Fianna Fáil under its then leader.

Again, this is just another mealy mouthed excuse for not having the courage to act in the interests of the citizens Fitzgerald allegedly represented.

A few senior civil servants assisted by some legal experts could have had a reform package on the table for Fitzgerald’s signature in months if not weeks.

Fitzgerald may have wanted to end the practice but he didn’t have the courage to challenge the by then deeply ingrained ‘entitlement’ culture of party hacks who expected reward for their services.

He ends the article with the hope that the opposition parties will commit themselves to reform of the appointments system and other abuses of public office.

Well, let’s see. The abuse of appointments to state boards began in 1932 and has been going on ever since with the active cooperation of all parties.

Fitzgerald was active in politics from 1965 until 1992 which included two periods as Taoiseach and in all that time, despite being aware of the abuse, he failed to take effective action.

Now, safely in retirement, he ‘courageously’ calls on others to do what he himself feared to do.

Everybody knows Garret is not a liar….

In last Saturday’s Irish Times Garrett Fitzgerald was reflecting on some of his memories surrounding Bloody Sunday in 1972.

On hearing the news that the British embassy was in flames Fitzgerald was concerned that the arsonists might next turn on his beloved Leinster House.

Mmmm…I wonder if that crowd of arsonists are still for hire?

Fitzgerald also recalls how he was described as a liar and a ranting halfwit by Independent Fianna Fail TD, Neil Blaney.

Now everybody knows Garret is not a liar.

Reynolds: In great evidence giving form?

It’s been two years now since Alert Reynolds was excused from giving evidence at the Mahon Tribunal because he suffers from a significant cognitive impairment which can cause memory loss and difficulty with speech.

Since then he’s been out and about living life to the full with not a sign of that nasty impairment.

The five medical ‘experts’ who made the diagnosis must be astonished by Albert’s miraculous ability to speak and act just like everybody else despite his condition.

Tribunal chairman, Alan Mahon, said at the time that the tribunal reserves the right to review this decision in the event that it receives information which might suggest a change or an improvement in Mr. Reynolds’ medical condition.

Perhaps the judge should have a look at Albert’s latest social outing in Tipperary (RTE, 3rd report).

He looks in great evidence giving form to me.