The state lives in fear of Denis O'Brien

Elaine Byrne has an excellent but very disturbing article in yesterday’s Sunday Independent.

She outlines the power that billionaire Denis O’Brien wields in this country and how the political system fears that power.

Byrne reminds us of how Enda Kenny responded to the damning conclusions of the Moriarty Tribunal.

He vowed to;

Sever the links between politics and business once and for all and, in so doing, achieve three fundamental goals: stop the further pollution of our society; re-establish a moral code and order regarding public life; and, through that, restore public confidence in politics and government.

The pollution of Irish society by the body politic is, however, continuing apace as we see from the reaction of the Minister for Arts, Heritage and Gaeltacht Affairs, Jimmy Deenihan, when challenged on the presence of Denis O’Brien at the recent Global Irish Forum last weekend.

That’s his own business, he’s contesting a lot of findings of the tribunal . . . it’s not for us to judge him.

The fact that a government minister thinks it’s not for him or the government to judge a man like O’Brien tells us all we need to know about so called political reform.