Author: Anthony

Waiting for the revolution

Thousands of students had gathered to vent their rage. Marching, waving placards and shouting.

We’re standing here united as students; we’re not taking this any longer.

One of their leaders shouted at the nation.

The situation is not acceptable anymore.

Was this the ‘revolution’ Elaine Byrne wrote about recently?

Had the young people of Ireland finally woke up to the wholesale destruction caused to their country by corrupt politicians and bankers?

Had they woken up to the fact that corruption had destroyed any prospects for their future in their own country; that they and their children would be paying for the greed and corruption for generations to come?

Alas, no. The anger and fury was sparked because a dispute in the college was preventing the publication of some exam results (RTE News, 13th report).

Every day I check the headlines, beat the bushes, scan the horizon, waiting for the revolution but, to date, nothing. Not a sign of a ‘revolutionary’ student to be seen.

Vincent Browne was writing about student ‘action’ in the Sunday Business Post yesterday. A group of Trinity College students were invited to give their views on the constitution to the Oireachtas Committee on the Constitution.

Boring and entirely pointless writes Browne. He concluded that nothing can be done about the people who have destroyed our country until the next election.

We can see by this that Browne is just as ‘revolutionary’ as the young people of Ireland. Imagine the revolutionaries of 1916 saying.

The situation is intolerable but let’s waits for the next election and then we’ll show them what’s what.

Sadly, there’s not a revolutionary bone in the body of a single young Irish citizen and ‘revolution’ for most older citizens like Browne involves switching allegiance from one corrupt, ultra conservative party to a slightly less corrupt, ultra conservative party and five years later switching back again.

Entertaining FÁS and friends

The following is a list of entertainments enjoyed by FÁS staff and others at taxpayer’s expense (Comptroller and Auditor General
Special Report).

Note that these luxuries were being availed of right up to 2008 when the economy was falling apart and there’s no reason to believe that anything has changed.

Expenditure on Events
3.52 Over the period 2002 to 2008, FÁS paid a net €35,000 for tickets to events including match and concert tickets and hospitality associated with some of the events. The details of the tickets purchased were as follows

€43,100 was paid for four ten-year match tickets. Two tickets were purchased in 2005 at a cost of €20,000 and two further tickets in 2007 at a cost of €23,100.

Following the appointment of a Director General on an interim basis in late 2008 a decision was taken to cancel the tickets.

In May 2009, FÁS received the sum of €33,800 as reimbursement for the unexpired terms of the tickets. The net cost of the tickets was €9,300.
€7,000 for tickets for the All Ireland hurling and football finals.

Ten tickets were purchased for each final for the years 2006 to 2008 inclusive while between four and eight tickets were purchased for each final for the years 2002 to 2005.

€4,640 for tickets for rugby internationals between 2006 and 2008.
€1,960 for tickets for soccer internationals in 2007 and 2008.
€3,724 for concert tickets in the period 2005 to 2008.
€8,299 for hospitality at events. This included €2,255 at the Robbie Williams concert in 2006 and amounts incurred at the All Ireland Finals (€2,244 in 2005, €2,300 in 2006 and €1,500 in 2007).

3.53 All but one of the payments were approved by the former Director General. The remaining payment was approved by the ADG who was Secretary to the Board.

There was no evidence on the FÁS files to indicate how the expenditure was relevant to FÁS’s business.

FÁS could not provide this information and wrote to the former Director General seeking information about the payments.

No response was provided before the finalisation of this report.

Once again we see a senior civil servant (perhaps that should be changed to self – servant) giving the two fingers to taxpayers.

In this case it seems former Director General of FÁS, Rody Molloy, is too busy spending his €900,000 to bother answering questions.

Lies, secrecy and arrogance is still the prevailing attitude

The latest report by the Comptroller & Auditor General (C&AG) into FÁS reveals some very questionable activities by its staff.

€200,000 on flights for people not working for the agency. Apparently, this gravy train, funded by the taxpayer, included journalists, politicians, spouses and friends.

There was also questionable expenditure on golfing events, sporting events and concerts, the majority approved by the incompetent, disgraced but well compensated Mr. Molloy.

Money was spent without authority, the FÁS board was effectively lied to and credit cards were thrown around like drunken sailors in a brothel.

But the most shocking and disgusting aspect of this scandal is the arrogance of the civil servants involved including the C&AG himself.

For example, it is reported that up to six top executives at FÁS were paid bigger bonuses than they were entitled to in 2008. These bonuses were approved by the incompetent Mr. Molloy and sanctioned by the Departments of Enterprise and Finance.

Incredibly, the executives have not been asked to pay back the money which FÁS says was paid in error.

If this was a social welfare ‘error’ the applicant would instantly find himself the subject of an investigation and the money would be deducted from his income forthwith.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Enterprise declined to comment. The incompetent Mr. Molloy also declined to comment.

These people are effectively telling the ripped off taxpayer – take a hike, we don’t have to account for how we spend your money.

Despite constant praise from the media the office of the C&AG also has questions to answer.

Former acting chairman of FÁS, Mr. Niall Saul, was told by Mr. Buckley that controls at FÁS were excellent, that there were no serious problems.

Mr. Saul rightly concluded that if the C&AG was a private company it would be lucky not to be fired.

This shouldn’t surprise ripped off taxpayers when we remember the infamous Bord na gCon investigation carried out by the C & AGs office.

Despite findings of at least one case of serious fraud and many other questionable activities the C&AG, who, bizarrely, is also the auditor of Bord na gCon, concluded that

in general the funds of Bord na gCon were properly applied.

As I write another scandal has broken involving the C&AG and the Central Bank. The media is focusing on an error made by the C&AG when he reported that 52 spouses of staff attended meetings on a single trip when in fact the meetings involved several trips.

The real scandal here was the refusal by the C&AG to disclose what organisation was responsible for this alleged abuse of taxpayer’s money.

Once again, Irish citizens had to rely on the media, RTE on this occasion, to provide them with information that should be immediately forthcoming from state agencies.

Just who does Mr. Buckley think he is in refusing this information to Irish citizens? What were his motives in putting the interests of Central Bank staff above the interests of the people he is allegedly representing?

And what does this affair tell us about the new and much praised Central Bank governor, Patrick Honohan?

On the first occasion he is asked to account for his office he tells us to take a hike. Even now he is refusing to disclose who went on the trips or how much they cost. Irish taxpayer’s have a right to know this information.

And what does all this say about the so called reform of the political and financial sectors? Well, it’s obvious;

There is no reform, secrecy is still the name of the game, ripping off the taxpayer is still rampant, lies, half truths and dissembling is still the favoured response and arrogance is still the predominant attitude.

The political, administrative and financial system that has run this country into the ground is beyond reform.

Nothing will change until the Irish people wake up and throw these people and their corrupt system out of office and out of power.

Copy to:
Central Bank
Comptroller & Auditor General
FÁS

Stupidity of the people protects dishonest politicians?

Responding to damning criticism by the Comptroller and Auditor General over the €900,000 pay off to former FÁS Director General Rody Molloy, Tanaiste Mary Coughlan said on RTE (8th report).

We wanted to ensure that we did not find ourselves in a litigious situation whereby we would still be discussing this matter in the context of court proceedings as opposed to moving on in the best interests of the people who work for FAS and in the best interests of the taxpayer.

The first thing to be said about our incompetent Tanaiste is that she’s a liar. It has been established that she and Cowen lied regarding the question of legal advice surrounding Molly’s resignation.

With this in mind I don’t believe a word this woman says in the above quote. I believe the government took €900,000 of taxpayer’s money and gave it to Molly to keep his mouth shut.

What continues to astonish me is the abject docility of the Irish people. It seems our politicians can glibly throw out any excuse or lie to hide the truth with no fear whatsoever of possible consequences.

When low grade politicians like Coughlan make statements like the one quoted above they are in effect saying to the Irish people.

We have come to believe that you, the Irish people, are so stupid that you will believe anything we say no matter how ridiculous, no matter how dishonest and we will continue to treat you with the contempt that such stupidity deserves.

Giving the recent poll which indicates a dramatic rise in support for Fianna Fail I am beginning to believe they’re right.

Morality – Haughey style

Fianna Fail TD Sean Haughey has asked the Bank of Ireland to hand over its historic former headquarters as a ‘thank you’ to the Irish people for the multi-billion bank bail-out (Sunday Independent).

Given the economic and banking crisis, I would strongly suggest that the time is opportune to negotiate with the Bank of Ireland for the transfer of the building to State ownership, given the bank’s undoubted indebtedness, both moral and financial, to the Irish taxpayer.

said Mr Haughey.

A Haughey talking about moral and financial indebtedness?

Perhaps, while he’s in this rare moral frame of mind, Haughey could arrange for the return of some of the millions that his criminal father robbed from the state?

Time for Niamh Brennan to come down from her ivory tower

Professor Niamh Brennan is obviously a highly educated woman but unfortunately a good education does not guarantee what I would call an informed intelligence.

Brennan was on the Marian Finucane Show yesterday (Sunday) commenting on a number of matters and it was clear from listening to her that she has no idea what life is like outside of her ivory tower.

On industrial action by public servants.

They should be grateful for the fantastic jobs they have and should be contributing to helping to get us out of this mess.

Clearly, Brennan is unaware that thousands of public and civil servants are living on a pittance and it is those people the Government has targeted for the biggest pay cuts.

She had nothing to say regarding senior civil servants, judges, army officers, and academics like herself who have all received special treatment when it comes to pay cuts.

On the HSE and professor Drumm’s bonus.

Professor Brennan is in agreement with some guy called Gerry Robinson who thinks that professor Drumm should be paid €2 million.

She further defended Drumm’s bonus by saying it was a contractual entitlement and related to a period well before the current public sector pay cuts.

It’s curious how this argument is valid for professor Drumm and the rest of the governing class but invalid for the great unwashed.

On the Government.

According to the professor the rest of the panel were being unfair to the government. She thinks the government is being very effective in speedily recalibrating public sector costs.

If, she continued, the French government took the same action there would be riots. Bizarrely, she suggests that our ability to talk things through, to engage in public soul searching is keeping the rioters at bay.

On the Irish Glass Bottle site scandal.

Professor Brennan is chairperson of Dublin Docklands Development Authority and clearly finds the position a little unnerving.

When asked about the Irish Glass Bottle site scandal she seemed shocked when telling listeners that it cost €412 million but was now only worth €50 million.

Apparently about a third of the remaining €360 million went to Dublin Port and the rest went to a guy called Paul Coulson, who, Brennan tells us is now a fabulously wealthy man as a result of the transaction and, not surprisingly, no longer lives in Ireland.

Dublin Docklands Authority has a curious feature on their website where they publish interesting facts about the area. Here’s the current piece.

Docklands Fact
A downtrodden Leprosy hospice was located on Misery hill, hence its name! It was believed lepers were “the unclean” and would be walked to the hospice on Misery Hill with a man tolling a bell and another carrying a 40 foot pole to keep everyone at safe distance. Today this is where we get the expression “I wouldn’t touch him with a 40 foot pole!”

Ironically, this piece is a perfect metaphor for the position of the taxpayer after the glass bottle site debacle.

All the leper taxpayers are up on Misery Hill paying for the stupidity and greed of the DDA and there’s not a businessman in the world that would touch such an incompetent body with a 40 foot pole.

On child abuse by the Catholic Church.

Brennan was ‘uncomfortable’ with the panel’s criticism of those involved in the child abuse holocaust.

Like most defenders of the Catholic Church she labours under the delusion that only a minority of priests were involved in the horror.

This suggests that she disagrees with the Murphy and Ryan reports which between them found that abuse was systematic, widespread and well planned.

They also found that church authorities went to extreme lengths to cover up the horror thus condemning hundreds, if not thousands, more innocent children to torture and rape.

It really is time professor Brennan came down from that ivory tower.

Bizarre decision benefits CRH?

I wrote recently that, while Cement Roadstone Holdings (CRH) have been brought to account for breaking the law in a number of countries, they seem to be immune from accountability in Ireland.

The latest controversy surrounding this very powerful company involves a farmer in Kilkenny who has been trying for the last 19 years to find out what’s been contaminating his livestock (Six One News, 8th report).

The farmer, Dan Brennan, claims that the highly toxic substance cadmium is the cause and most likely comes from a neighbouring brick factory owned by CRH.

CRH strenuously deny the claim.

After years of investigation the Dept. of Agriculture published an 800 page report on the matter earlier this month and it is this report that has shocked MEPs on the EU Petitions Committee.

It seems that because cadmium levels were so high in bovine blood samples that those conducting the investigation decided that the samples must have been contaminated and therefore excluded them completely from the analysis.

The first and most obvious thing to be noted here is that this bizarre decision by Dept. of Agriculture officials appears to be of benefit to CRH, who have always claimed cadmium levels around the factory are in fact very small.

The second point to note is the damage such inexplicable but suspicious decisions do to Ireland’s already tattered reputation.

Such considerations don’t seem to matter, however, when the interests of powerful organisations are at stake as the recent Jim Flavin/DCC farce amply demonstrated.

Gavin continuing to make an impact

Gavin, my nephew, continues to do Trojan work on his Freedom of Information campaign and is beginning to get noticed by the wider media.

Here’s a report from the Sunday Times on 24th January.

Blogger gets big discount on the price of freedom

Hats off to Gavin Sheridan, the blogger who has embarrassed the Moriarty tribunal into posting all the transcripts of 370 days of public sittings on the internet.

Sheridan first applied for the transcripts to the Department of An Taoiseach, under Freedom of Information.

It refused on the basis that they can be purchased from Doyle Court Reporters.

Doyles quoted a fee of €16,600 with a discount of 25% for anyone bulk buying.

“I did suggest that since the public had already paid nearly €1 million for the transcripts, it seemed a little odd that I, as a citizen, have to fork out another €16,600 to get copies.”

Sheridan writes on thestorey.ie.

Talk to the Moriarty tribunal, it suggested. So he did, and they said copyright rested with Doyles.

They later relented, offering Sheridan a disc with the transcripts, but such was the volume of requests that the tribunal is now posting everything online.

A small, but significant victory for freedom of information.

Some questions that come to mind.

What kind of contract does Doyle Court Reporters have with the state and how is it that the Moriarty Tribunal can, on the one hand, say that DCR have copyright and then, on the other hand, publish all the material?