Examining corruption in Ireland
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It was just a classification error.
I had a lot of sympathy for Kevin Cardiff fielding questions from a posse of politicians on the highest horses that they could locate.
It was an unedifying spectacle.
Colm McCarthy may be an expert on economics but he clearly knows nothing about the concept of accountability.
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has resigned amid jeers from hundreds of protesters shouting buffoon, clown and Mafiosi.
What an uncivilised lot.
Here in our banana republic when the criminal Haughey was forced to resign in disgrace he was warmly praised by most of our gombeen party leaders.
Most of the media elevated the criminal to the status of national statesman excusing his crimes by arguing that he had done more good than bad.
When the scumbag Ahern was also forced to resign in disgrace he too was elevated to the status of national hero by the body politic.
When the then leader of the Opposition, Enda Kenny, suggested that perhaps there should be an election he was roundly condemned, not just by Ahern’s confederates in treason, but also by the same section of the media who agreed with Ahern’s description of the criminal Haughey as being a patriot to his fingertips.
The Italians are light years ahead of the Irish when it comes to recognising and reacting to corrupt and traitorous politicians.
It’s unlikely that the Government’s decision to close Ireland’s embassy to the Vatican is a deliberate insult but I suspect the Catholic Church will take it as such or at least I hope it does.
After all, being lumped in as surplus to requirements with far away East Timor and rogue state Iran is not exactly edifying.
The entry of Martin McGuinness into the presidential election has brought to the surface a unique and particularly virulent form of Irish hypocrisy.
In it’s simplest form this hypocrisy can be expressed in a sentence – McGuinness is good enough for the people of Northern Ireland but ‘his type’ does not measure up to the high standards of political leadership in the Republic.
This view is, of course, pure and utter bullshit propagated by a ruling elite who labour under the delusion that Ireland is a functional democracy when in reality it is nothing more than a banana republic, a failed state that has more in common with a badly run mafia than a modern democratic state.
McGuinness is accepted by the people of Northern Ireland, by the British Government and the British people, by all the peoples and governments of the European Union, by the United Nations, by the United States, indeed by the entire world as a bona fide, hard working and genuine politician who has made a major contribution in bringing peace to Northern Ireland.
Only the hypocritical, incompetent morons who destroyed our country are of the view that McGuinness is not a fit person to hold high office.
In order to stop McGuinness at all cost, this campaign is going to have an additional ingredient – a state/government strategy to smear McGuinness at every opportunity.
This strategy will probably include government leaks, the handing over of files to ‘friendly’ journalists and heightened Garda activity against republican supporters.
As an atheist my views on religion are a million miles away from those of Dana Rosemary Scallon but despite that I admire her as a person and believe she would make a good president.
I admire her because she doesn’t pretend to be anything other than what she is – a conservative Catholic. When defending her church/beliefs she doesn’t come across as a hypocrite or as a loony religious fanatic.
David Norris, on the other hand, has gone down in my estimation in recent years principally because of his hypocritical defence of that corrupt quango, Seanad Eireann.
He has shown himself to be more interested in preserving the rotten system that has destroyed our country than supporting those who want to destroy that system and build a new republic.
Ursula Halligan, TV3s political editor, believes that the downfall of Fianna Fail can be traced back to three sources (Irish Examiner).
Organisational failure.
The redundancy of core Republicanism through the Belfast Agreement.
The replacement of local Cumann with candidate-centred machines.
I never cease to be amazed at the ignorance of many journalists regarding the reality of our situation in Ireland.
Here are the real reasons for Fianna Fail’s downfall.
The Irish political system is based on the corrupt practice known as Clientelism.
This simply involves politicians plundering state resources to buy votes from a politically ignorant electorate.
All political parties willingly and without question engaged in this form of corruption but Fianna Fail became the most adept at the practice and therefore became the most powerful political party.
Corruption eventually infected every aspect and level of Irish society but in particular the political and financial sectors.
This corrupt combination, principally led by Fianna Fail, led directly to the building bubble which burst when the global financial crisis hit Ireland.
The global crisis exposed Ireland for what it is, a hopelessly corrupt banana republic.
But the corrupt political system didn’t just destroy Fianna Fail, it has destroyed the country.
The current Fine Gael/Labour coalition is nothing more than the tail end of an unstoppable disintegration of the old corrupt Ireland.
The most worrying aspect of this disintegration is the vacuum being created through the absence of any truly radical leader or party to lead the country out of the corrupt morass into which it has descended.
Reforming Pakistani politician Imran Khan was interviewed by Pay Kenny today and what he had to say was very interesting when compared to the political situation in Ireland.
For me there was a realisation in the 1990s that unless people who were clean came into politics we were condemned to be ruled by criminals and corruption was the number one issue in the country.
Ireland is still waiting for someone clean to come into politics, someone who will actually dismantle the corrupt system that has destroyed the country.
Pakistan is ahead of Ireland in that corruption is recognised as a major issue that has to be tackled if the country is to progress in any meaningful way.
While individual incidences of political and business corruption are reported and analysed in Ireland there has been no acknowledgement whatsoever of the fact that corruption is at the centre of everything that is rotten in the country.
Pakistani politicians use politics to benefit themselves, to make money out of politics. I decided to form my own party and become an anti-status quo party to bring about genuine democracy as opposed to a kleptocracy.
Ireland is well on the way to becoming a kleptocracy. Rampant theft and fraud within the financial sector, for example, is actively facilitated by politicians and government officials.
Politicians have honed the theft of expenses into a fine art, even managing to enact laws that allow them to legally rob the state.
Nobody is held accountable because both main parties who are responsible for massive corruption take turns in ruling and therefore do not hold each other accountable (paraphrased).
The same situation pertains in Ireland. The interests of all the major parties are dependent on protecting the corrupt system that allows them to gain power and influence.
It is only when a (revolutionary) party or individual smashes that cosy political cartel of corruption that we will see real reform in Ireland.
They (political parties) could not allow institutions that would hold them accountable.
Criminal politicians like Haughey were allowed to live out long corrupt careers without the slightest worry that they might be held to account by any state agency.
No state authority, not even the police; is allowed (or willing) to act independently of the political system when it comes to political or white collar crime.
Corruption and crime is rampant within large sectors of the financial, legal and business sectors in Ireland yet no so called regulatory authority has ever made any serious attempt to root out the criminality.
No bank or bank official, for example, has ever been prosecuted for fraud or corruption despite the theft of countless millions from consumers over the decades.
The reason we have to beg is that the rich don’t pay tax in Pakistan the political leadership doesn’t pay taxes so the entire tax burden falls on the common man so the poor subsidise the rich.
Part of the reason why Ireland has to ‘beg’ from the EU/IMF is because those with power and influence only pay minimum taxes.
Over the decades a privileged golden circle, which still exists, was allowed to grow rich off the fat of the land without making any contribution whatsoever.
I accept that the degree and depth of corruption in Pakistan is more serious but Ireland is on the same road.
It is, essentially, governed under the same principles of greed, corruption and injustice as Pakistan.
Jackie Kennedy was right on the button in her description of the Irish.
She described those Irish close to her husband as the Irish Mafia suffering from a persecution complex.
For most of our blighted history we blamed the British for our failures. When our economy collapsed it was Lehman’s fault and our failure to recover from the catastrophe is, apparently, all down to those nasty Germans.
Just came across this letter that I submitted to the Irish Times on 20th Oct 2004 in response to the then latest scam by AIB.
Madam,
Mr. Buckley of AIB is wide of the mark in likening the current scandal to an iceberg where the vast amount of transactions are genuine but unseen by the general public while the relatively ‘small number of errors’ are emphasized by the media. (RTE News, 20th Oct.).
The stark reality is that AIB is a rogue iceberg rampaging unregulated across the sea that is the Irish economy. The ship of state, captained by a government that steadfastly refuses to heed the many warnings of impending disaster, is steaming full speed ahead on a collision course with this rogue iceberg.
When the inevitable happens, the international economic reputation of Ireland will plunge headlong into the icy depths of global contempt.
Yours etc.,
Anthony Sheridan
Secrecy is the most potent weapon of a corrupt state.
The Freedom of Information Act was introduced in 1997 and was in operation until 2003 when the Fianna Fail/Progressive Democratic coalition effectively stripped it of any real relevance.
The reason for this subversion of the Act was simple – It was too effective in exposing corruption.
No corrupt political/administrative system can tolerate an effective freedom of information act without risking exposure.
The current government could have re-instated the original FOI Act literally overnight; it should have been their very first act on assuming power.
That this has not happened after six months in power is a clear indication that this government has no intention of providing citizens with an effective FOI act.
The reason the Fine Gael/Labour will refuse to introduce an effective FOI act is simple – It would be too effective in exposing corruption.
The current administration will, I believe, opt for either of the following strategies.
String out the matter through never-ending committees, reviews, consultations until the next election or introduce a new act with different words but with the same non effectiveness as the current act.
Seamus Dooley of the National Union of Journalists wrote the following letter (Irish Examiner, 16th April 2003) in response to the destruction of the original FOI Act.
You’ve just had one of your rights erased
The final nail has been driven into the Freedom of Information Act.
While it is unfortunate that the President did not refer the Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill to the Council of State for examination, her decision to sign the Bill within 24 hours of the early signing motion being presented to Seanad Eireann gives a neat piece of symmetry to this sorry saga.
It is worth reflecting on what happened.
Rumours that plans were afoot to bastardise the Bill emerged in early February.
The NUJ immediately sought and were refused meetings with the Taoiseach, Tanaiste and Minister of State at the Department of Finance.
In time it emerged that a secret review was carried out by a group of secretaries general who did not consult with the Information Commissioner (or anyone else) because they had not been told to do so by the Government.
The Cabinet duly met, accepted the report of the top civil servants and added in other restrictions for good measure.
It was decided not to publish the Bill mid-week but to wait until Friday, February 28.
On Tuesday, March 4, Seanad Eireann was asked to consider the Bill in a bizarre debate during the course of which it emerged that some rural senators had not even received copies of the legislation.
By March 13 the Oireachtas committee on Finance and the Public Service had agreed to hear submissions. The advice of the information Commissioner that sections of the Bill were inoperable was duly noted and ignored. Other submissions were similarly dismissed.
The NUJ was the first body to highlight the dangers inherent in the amendment relation to personal information. We welcome the change of heart by the Minister for Finance following the powerful presentation by Colm O’Gorman to the Oireachtas committee.
What that u-turn proved was that the entire Bill was ill-considered. The Government pressed on nevertheless. With the Taoiseach insisting that the hours spent on the debate during March was in some way compensation for the absence of public consultation on a Bill designed to take away rights conferred on citizens by the Oireachtas only five years ago.
The Taoiseach and Tanaiste have yet to explain how they reconcile the Government’s approach with the commitments to consultation contained in the new Social Partnership Agreement, Sustaining Progress.
The Bill was signed into law on Friday as those gate-keepers of democracy, the Progressive Democrats, met to celebrate their achievements in government.
As they surveyed the ruins of an Act they once supported with such enthusiasm I hope they were proud of their work.
Seamus Dooley
Irish Secretary
National Union of Journalists
Liberty Hall
Dublin 1
Secrecy is the most potent weapon of a corrupt state.
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Fine Gael
Labour
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