Rebellion: Sooner rather later

Madam,

What an absolutely spiffing idea! An inquiry is exactly what we need; another 14 years and millions and millions of euros establishing unmitigated corruption which will go forever unpunished (“Burton seeks inquiry into banking crisis”, Home News, April 26th).

Iceland, a country of fewer than 400,000 souls, also had a banking crisis. Little Iceland arrested the politicians and bankers responsible for the collapse, and put them in prison. And they’re not finished. More arrests both inside and outside Iceland are imminent.

Ireland has a DPP, with a very large staff of civil servants at his disposal. He should now arrest both politicians and bankers and try them in a court of law. If they are found innocent they will be freed. If they are found guilty of the crimes charged, they must be imprisoned.

I appreciate that it is so much easier to arrest individuals who are drunk and disorderly or who protest at Government Buildings, than it is to build a case against former members of the golden circle. However, sometimes we really must do the right thing.

The right thing in this case is to arrest and try those responsible for bringing Ireland to its knees.

No more inquiries. No more tribunals. Trial by jury in a court of law is the only way to obtain justice for this poor benighted island.

Yours, etc,

Patricia R Moynihan
Sea Pines Lane,
Las Vegas,
Nevada, US.

I agree 100% with the sentiments expressed in this letter (Irish Times).

Unfortunately, because the disease of corruption has such a hold on our current ruling elite no action can be expected from that quarter.

I firmly believe, however, that sooner rather than later, the Irish people will rise up and throw the whole rotten system on the scrap heap of history where it rightly belongs.

The more things change…

The Fine Gael leader of the Seanad was not happy to hear that radical changes were being considered which would allow citizens rather than County Councillors elect the majority of Seanad members.

The leaders of groups in this House have already embarked on a radical review of the Seanad which will be concluded over the next 12 to 14 months.

Sunday Tribune 30th March 2003

O'Cuiv complaint: Minister; it's nothing to do with me

I received a response from the private secretary to the Minister for Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Mr. Phil Hogan, regarding my complaint in respect of Fianna Fail TD Eamon O’Cuiv.

After quoting the legislation at length the Minister concluded:

Returning Officers are responsible for all matters in connection with the conduct of elections and referendums, including the arrangement of a candidate’s name on a ballot paper at a Dáil election and are independent in the performance of their duties. Consequently, the Minister has no direct responsibility in this matter.

So, according to the Minister, it’s nothing to do with him and, effectively, the Returning Officer is saying the same thing.

Why am I not surprised?

Is that a Fine Gael or a Fianna Fail corner?

The government reaction to the latest bank bail out tells us that the Fine Gael/Labour government is now firmly on the same road as the previous government, a road with many, many corners.

The Financial Measures Programme was already paying dividends across a range of areas said Minister for Finance, Michael Noonan.

In other words, don’t worry folks, we’ve turned a corner, all will be well.

Is that a brand new Fine Gael corner I wonder or perhaps it’s a corner left behind by Brian Lenihan.

Ah yes, Brian Lenihan, he must be feeling nostalgic for all those corners he so enjoyed turning before becoming completely moribund on the backbenches.

Irish Catholic: Voyage of intolerance

The ‘Courtyard of the Gentiles’, a Vatican initiative to promote dialogue with unbelievers opened a two day event in Paris on March 24th.

The initiative, according to one Cardinal, is inviting non-believers to:

Come on a voyage with believers through the desert, to encourage exploration of the ultimate questions.

Writing about the event in this week’s Irish Catholic, The editor, Garry O’Sullivan, took the opportunity to attack the (unchristian) greed and anger prevalent in Ireland, the plan (conspiracy) by the State to take over many religious schools and, for good measure, threw in the standard attack on atheist, Richard Dawkins.

In a comment sure to encourage dialogue with unbelievers he declared;

Secularism has no answers to the great questions of life; those who do (Catholics) should step forward with courage.

So, best of luck with that ‘voyage of exploration’.

Upward only rent law: All clear now

I had always been puzzled by the upward only rent law, I thought there must be some reasonable explanation for such an apparently unfair law.

All became clear on the Frontline last Monday as Ann Hargaden, of Lisney’s Estate Agents, literally squirmed in her seat as she tried to justify this law.

If this law is changed, she warned, it will have devastating effects on international investors coming into Ireland to buy property from NAMA.

When that argument failed to convince Hargaden’s line of thought became even more bizarre.

Think about it, she argued. Who’s going to be hurt by this? (if the law is changed to allow rents to go down). The taxpayer, she triumphantly declared, will pay.

The taxpayer is now the landlord. The taxpayer owns the banks, the taxpayer owns NAMA. If property depreciates in value it’s the taxpayer who will suffer.

So it’s all clear to me now.

The upward only rent law is a scam put in place by our corrupt political system to protect and enrich those involved in the property market at the expense of taxpayers.

Returning Officer rejects O’Cuiv complaint

The Returning Officer for Galway West, Ms. Marian Chambers Higgins, has responded to my formal complaint regarding the name used by Fianna Fail TD, Eamon O’Cuiv in the recent General Election.

I must advise that pursuant to legislation and in particular as follows ” a Dail election may, and may only, be questioned by a petition to the High Court” under Sec.132 of the Electoral Act 1992.

I am unable to assist you any further and your complaint has been noted.

It’s a curious reply.

Ms Chambers Higgins rejection of my complaint is based on the false assumption that I am questioning the election which, of course, I am not.

My complaint concerns a single suspected infringement of electoral law.

As yet I have had no reply from the Franchise Section of the Department of the Environment, Heritage & Local Government.

Marian Finucane: Stop telling me the truth

Marian Finucane (Saturday) began her interview with Pat Cox last Saturday in a very angry tone.

A lot of Irish people are feeling really, really angry with Europe at this stage, that Irish taxpayers have been forced by Europe not by the IMF to pay for loans that the Irish people didn’t take out, there seems a dreadful injustice at the heart of that.

Throughout the entire interview Finucane refused to accept that, as a nation, we were in any way to blame.

It’s the fault of the Europeans; they allowed the nasty European banks to take advantage of our gentle and innocent banks.

Cox tried his best to tell her the truth.

In fact, right throughout the interview he kept on saying – It’s our fault, we did it to ourselves but Finucane was having none of it.

We’re Irish she seemed to suggest, we can’t be expected to face reality, we don’t do reality.

Why, asked Cox, are other European countries both inside and outside the Euro much better off than Ireland, why did Ireland fail?

Yes, said Finucane we know all about bad regulation and the politics of it all but those nasty banks were taking a punt on our financial institutions and they’re getting away with it.

It’s our fault said Cox, we had no contingency plan, we made a mess of it.

But Finucane insisted the European banks were investing here because they figured that the Irish mug would have to pay for it through tax.

Cox was patient.

The unilateral decision made in 2008 to guarantee all the Irish banks was the single most reckless decision in the history of the Irish state.

The decision was made without telling our EU partners, it posed a serious danger to their interests. We put on the Green Jersey, the Germans didn’t make us do it, the French didn’t make us do it, we did it ourselves.

But Finucane was determined, at all costs, to avoid facing reality.

But we’ve made so many sacrifices, tax increases, pay cuts, there’s a lot of pain and the nasty investors who lent recklessly to our gentle innocent banks are getting away without any pain.

Cox is a saint.

We did it to ourselves he said. The EU and even the IMF stopped believing us; they don’t trust the Irish, that’s why they insisted on an external examiner to supervise the latest bank stress tests.

But, said the by now crazed Finucane, the people who put money into Anglo, for example, knew it was a basket case, it’s so unfair that we should have to take the pain.

I switched off, went for a walk.