Gombeenism and hypocrisy were very evident last week as Independent TD Clare Daly and Minister of State for Tourism and Sport Michael Ring discussed the recent visit to Ireland by the Obama family (Today with Pat Kenny, Thursday).
The issue under discussion was Daly’s strong reaction to the Obama’s visit.
Daly accused the Taoiseach of showcasing Ireland as a nation of pimps, prostituting ourselves in return for a pat on the head.
Minister Ring’s response provided a one hundred percent confirmation that we are indeed a nation of pimps when it comes to ‘slobbering all over the Americans’.
The American tourism market is very important for us.
There are many thousands of people working in American multinationals here.
Ring steadfastly refused to squawk even the smallest criticism of Obama’s government policy even when challenged about the hundreds of innocent people killed by American drones.
I’m not going to interfere in the American government’s policy in relation to what they do.
And then immediately back to the slobbering.
We had a great opportunity to showcase the country…blah, blah, blah…
Clearly, Minister Ring’s morality/compassion does not extend beyond the interests of himself and his government.
Those hundreds of innocent men, women and children can go to hell for all he cares. Tourism, jobs and money are easily more important than the unlawful killing of a bunch of foreigners.
While Minister Ring demonstrated that he was a gombeen par excellence Ms. Daly easily won on the hypocrisy stakes.
Asked to explain why she was so critical of Bono’s perfectly legitimate tax avoidance strategies while offering unwavering support for her colleague and tax fraudster Mick Wallace she said:
DALY: Well, it’s an entirely different matter. As far as I know deputy Wallace hasn’t organised to avoid tax by locating his business’s offshore.
Well he didn’t pay his VAT bill?
Daly: Well that’s a matter for him but I think it was to do with the fact that his business and his company’s business failed; it’s a different matter.
Indeed it is a different matter. Wallace committed a crime by knowingly submitting a fraudulent VAT return for the purpose of stealing €1.4 million from Irish citizens.
Bono committed no crime whatsoever.
And in case any of the legions of Irish citizens who have had their lives destroyed by rogue developers like Wallace were in any doubt about Daly’s contempt for their hardships she was even more specific in defence of her tax cheating colleague and friend.
Bono parades himself as being someone who assists people in the Third World, allegedly, but the activity that he has engaged in is exactly the same as what the multinationals have done depriving this country of taxation which he could pay.
He has the money to pay, it’s not that his business has failed, he has the money to pay that tax and he chooses to locate his business, as you say, legitimately, offshore in order to avoid it.
Note the inclusion of the words ‘allegedly’ and ‘legitimately’ to suggest that Daly doesn’t really believe that Bono’s tax affairs are legal.
With no evidence whatsoever she is prepared to condemn an innocent man while on the other hand stand steadfastly by a self-confessed tax-fraudster.
In Wallace’s case she is, in effect, saying that it’s ok to commit tax fraud if your business fails.
Wallace’s attempted theft of €1.4 million from hard-working Irish citizens is nobody’s business but his own, apparently, but the legitimate tax avoidance strategy of Bono must be condemned at every opportunity.
But the truth of it is that, in the murky, narrow-minded world of Irish politics, if your colleague and friend are of the same political outlook there is no such thing as tax fraud
What hope for Ireland and its people when such hypocrites and gombeens occupy positions of power and influence?
Copy to:
Minister Ring
Clare Daly
Obviously, Bono had the funds to pay for the highest level of tax advice. While Wallace had to think on his feet, with his business failing. I don’t condone what Wallace did. But Bono is just a headline addict. His public persona is that of a philanthropist, but in reality, he fails to put his efforts to the same test as someone like Adi Roche, who puts her whole physical being into doing good. And, I don’t know her from Adam.