Author: Anthony

Finucane and the headless chickens

I see today’s Marian Finucane Show (Sunday) was cancelled. Instead, RTE had a brood of very frightened, headless, chickens in the studio.

They were frantically running around trying to escape the fox of reality that they (finally) see approaching our failed state.

Actually, one of the chickens did have a head. Mary Lambkin, professor of marketing at the Smurfit Graduate School of Business accused Tom McGurk of being sensationalist when he suggested that those responsible for our financial disaster were getting away scot free.

We have NAMA and all sorts of structures and we have judgements being taken, the legal process is being worked through.

It’s a huge complicated problem, there’s an awful lot of people involved but I think there is a sincere and systematic attempt going on to tackle that and I don’t think it is fair to say that people are being allowed to just walk away from these great big debts.

How do I know Lambkin was the only chicken with a head? Because it was obviously firmly attached to the neck sticking out of her arse.

Bowler's view

When Anglo Irish Bank went into meltdown it emerged that Irish Life & Permanent had transferred €7.45 billion to the failing bank to temporarily boost the bank’s balance sheet.

Chairman of IL & P at the time, Gillian Bowler, said she was unaware of the transaction.

Bowler is still widely admired in financial and media circles despite this amazing admission of incompetence.

Ms. Bowler, however, had much more to say to Marian Finucane recently (Sunday 16th January) regarding the circumstances surrounding certain transactions between IL & P and the NTMA.

I think this conversation is worth putting on the record.

Bowler: In May 2008 the entire board of Irish Life & Permanent was invited to meet the regulator and it was suggested that there would be a Green Jersey agenda, that all banks would help each other. We said, well, there’s no sign of that, there had been phone calls about that before but there was no sign of it actually happening.

Finucane: This was May 2008:

Bowler: Yes, the entire board was called to the regulators office to discuss the Green Jersey agenda. At the end of it we said we’re not even getting support from our own NTMA, Central Bank whatever you like and they said: Yes, we know that but we’ll see what we can do but really yourselves, AIB, BOI and EBS should be helping each other. We said; fair enough, we’ll go off and do that.

Finucane: What does that mean?

Bowler: Liquidity wise, instead of placing your money, and it’s billions, overnight in Bank de Paris or City Bank which is commonplace, I could give you a list of five banks that we would have used, that we would put the Irish banks first and we started to do so and then we were told that we would need to put, quite rightly, a commercial proposition before the NTMA and so we have what’s called bundles of collateral which is mortgages and securitisations and we gave €250 million.

Well, we gave more than the value because when you give collateral you always give more than the value because there’s a haircut. It’s a discount and in return we got a €250 million deposit which we talked about openly at the time. I think we announced it in our half year results, I could be wrong about that but there was no secret about it, it was above board collateral.

Finucane: Had the NTMA been reluctant to so do, because the article says they were reluctant to so do and that the Dept. wanted them to do it and was why it was decided, did they go to Paribas to put up the proposal for Irish Life & Permanent.

Bowler: I don’t know, I’m only guessing but I would suspect because Somers was extremely successful in running the NTMA…whereas the Regulator, Central Bank and maybe the Dept. of Finance and I’m only speculating because I don’t know this would say – Look, if you can give 10% of the money closer to home it would help them with the liquidity because it was starting to become very tight at that stage. So in return we gave the collateral, it was signed up legally and we made the presentation to the NTMA which we were required to do and subsequently were granted the money which I have to tell you in banking terms is €250 million.

According to an article in the Sunday Independent the existence of such an officially sanctioned support scheme (Green Jersey Agenda) has always been vehemently denied by ministers and officials.

Bruton under investigation: No worries

I see former Taoiseach John Bruton is being investigated by the European Commission regarding his acceptance of his job at the IFSC (Irish Independent).

The Commission claims Mr. Bruton should have informed them of his new job since it is less than two years since he left his position as the EU’s ambassador to the US.

Mr. Bruton said he was completely unaware that he had an obligation to get prior approval from the EU.

Is it credible that a former Taoiseach with long experience dealing with EU politics and law and subsequent years of service with the EU as ambassador was unaware of such a fundamental EU regulation?

It would be a bit like an Irish politician being ‘completely unaware’ of his pension rights.

Mr. Bruton is, however, unlikely to suffer any pain as a result of his ‘error’. EU officials are still on a steep learning curve regarding the relationship between Irish politicians and accountability.

Living in a parallel universe

Some quotes from The Late Debate (Wed. 26th Jan).

Journalist and historian Tim Pat Coogan.

Michael Martin is an honourable man, he’s courageous, and he has a straight forward mind.

Coogan then went on to express anger at the complete lack of accountability within the political class for the mess they and the banks had made of the country.

Like the 30% of people who believe Martin would make a fine Taoiseach, Coogan remains completely blind to the connection between the new Fianna Fail leader and the destruction of our nation.

Coogan asked the politicians on the panel if they would support the bringing in of a retrospective law to punish the people who are responsible.

Fianna Fail TD Barry Andrews (In anger).

The only other time that a retrospective law was used was in Nuremberg when war crimes and genocide were created post the armistice (sic).

Now I think to approximate genocide and the crimes of Nazi’s which is effectively what you’re talking about is…(interrupted)

This has to qualify as the most bizarre, stupid, straw man argument in history.

RTE: Still pulling its punches

Commentating on the appointment of Willie O’Dea to the new Fianna Fail front bench George Hook didn’t pull his punches.

This is a man who swore a false affidavit in the High Court.

Predictably, RTE did pull its punches.

Mr. O’Dea resigned over a controversy concerning an incorrect High Court affidavit.

Cowen: Don't worry no one died

The outgoing Taoiseach, Brian Cowen, had the population of Killeigh in fits of laughter at the weekend as he unveiled a bronze statue of the famous 1920s greyhound, Mick The Miller (Irish Independent).

Chairman of the Irish Greyhound Board Dick O’Sullivan in defence of Mr. Cowen’s term in office said:

Every decent Irish person should feel angered and embarrassed by the treatment that has been meted out to him over the last 12 months.

Cowen responded:

Whatever we do, no one died as they say, and we won’t lose our sense of humour.

Recent report in the Irish Independent.

A preliminary hearing at Dublin City Corner’s Court into the death of Rachel Peavoy (30) was told that the young woman died from hypothermia and that continued appeals to turn back on her central heating fell on deaf ears.

The court heard that Housing Minister Noel Ahern made representations on behalf of Ms Peavoy, after she was told her heating would not be reconnected during the freak cold snap last January, which saw temperatures plummet well below zero.

The court heard that the council told the young mother that this was impossible because flats around her were vacant due to regeneration.

(Irish Independent)

Banana republic priorities

Most of the incompetent/traitorous politicians, bankers and regulators have headed off into the sunset with golden handshakes and massive pensions to live out their lives in peace and comfort.

Reaction of consultant to prosposed cuts of €11 million at children’s hospital (Today with Pat Kenny).

Have to tell parents that they cannot come, some of these kids with serious eye problems will go blind, this is the implication of it all.

This means blindness and maybe life and utter chaos and confusion.

This is not going to save money…when all the staff is still there, when all the facilities are still there, it doesn’t make sense…we should tackle the non frontline services, the non core services, the people who administer the system.

Hitting vulnerable services and creating chaos and confusion among ordinary folk is just not on.

The hospital will save nothing and only create massive headaches for me and suffering for all my patients.

A lot of consultants have gone to ground, they’re afraid to speak up. The new contract gags a lot of them from speaking out and there’s the threat of intimidation.

Meanwhile, almost the entire media is caught up in a frenzy of analysis over whether there should be a three or five way political debate.

Martin under investigation – No worries

Just three days after being elected leader of the most corrupt political party in the country, Michael Martin TD, is under investigation (Irish Times).

Four citizens have alleged that Mr. Martin sent them personalized, unsolicited emails in breach of the law.

Of course, Mr. Martin has nothing to worry about, it’s not as if the Data ‘Protection’ Commissioner is likely to do anything silly like applying the law – the very thought.

No, an ‘agreement’ will be reached just like ‘agreements’ were reached concerning about 50 complaints made during the 2007 election.

Not a single political party or politician was made accountable for alleged breaches of the law, why would they have any fears on this occasion?

Even if, by some miracle, this so called regulatory body does act against Martin the maximum punishment open to the authority is a €3,000 fine.

This paltry fine is no deterrent whatsoever to a ruthless political party bent on harvesting maximum votes.

I wrote about this matter last week after the Data ‘Protection’ Commissioner issued a warning to political parties about breaking the law in this manner.

Let me reproduce the last two paragraphs of that post.

The failure to rigorously enforce laws by a wide range of state agencies over a prolonged number of years has led to the inevitable – political chaos, impoverishment and hardship for ordinary citizens and national shame in front of the world community.

Allow me to end by making another (mad) guess/prediction – not a single politician or political party will receive an enforcement order from the so called Data Protection Commissioner as a result of any breaches of the Act in the forthcoming election.

I stick by that prediction.

Copy to:
Data Protection Commissioner

Illegal election posters – What illegal posters?

Returning to the illegal political posters

I rang an official in Cork City Council to inquire what action had been taken regarding the hundreds of illegal posters around the city.

If a litter warden comes across anything illegal they will take appropriate action, we have only three wardens in the city.

Ok, but they must be aware of the law being broken by politicians and political parties.

We’ll take appropriate action against them.

Has any action been taken so far?

I can’t discuss with you whether fines have been issued or not.

I’m not asking for details of fines, I’m just asking whether the litter wardens have observed any illegal posters.

I’ll have to talk to the wardens about it.

Are you aware yourself of any illegal posters?

Well, I’m based in the office so I’m not out and about in the city, it would be the wardens who would make us aware of the posters.

What about when you’re traveling home, surely you’ve seen the posters. They’re up all over the place.

I haven’t been walking through the city centre recently and I’ve seen no posters up in the area where I live.

But the litter wardens, unless they’re going around wearing blindfolds, must see the posters.

Well, I’ll be talking to them regarding the situation.

Do you think there will be any prosecutions?

We always enforce the Litter Pollution Act.

He was intrigued when I told him I possessed the gift of predicting future events with 100% certainty.

No politician or political party will be investigated never mind actually prosecuted for breaching the Litter Pollution Act.

I promised to call him after the election to confirm my amazing abilities.

Eoghan Harris: simplistic solutions and anarchy

Eoghan Harris warns that simplistic solutions to our problems could lead to anarchy (Sunday Independent).

Before I go further I can hear you say: who cares? The answer is all who abhor anarchy. Without a coalition of centrist parties we are at the mercy of political mobs — including media mobs — shouting simplistic slogans and peddling stupid socialist solutions.

He then proceeds to offer a ‘sophisticated’ analysis of one aspect of the situation.

Socialism in Ireland is called benchmarking. And no matter how it’s disguised it means taking money from the majority productive private sector class (which is at the mercy of market forces) and spending it on a minority public sector class (which is protected from market forces) and which enjoys permanent and pensionable employment.