Government – Page 43 – Public Inquiry

Enda Kenny clarifies his comments

Just heard the following comments from Enda Kenny made in response to his earlier comments concerning what happened to our country.

What happened to our country was recklessness by banks, incompetence by government and the essence of greed where people borrowed away over and above for development schemes that became a disaster.

Our people have been the victims of this situation. We’re left with the circumstance of cleaning this up.

In fairness, it seems his earlier comments were misinterpreted.

Enda Kenny: Two-faced and hypocritical

Here’s what Enda Kenny said to the Irish people last December.

Let me say this to you all: You are not responsible for the crisis.

Here’s what he said to the world today.

People went mad borrowing in a system that spawned greed, went out of control and led to the crash.

This two-faced, hypocritical attitude is the norm for Irish politicians especially when they’re trying to cover up their own guilt and responsibility.

So let me state very clearly who is responsible for the destruction of our country.

A corrupt political system that created a culture where politicians, bankers, developers, solicitors, estate agents and a whole raft of other ruthless and greedy individuals and organisations thrived in a completely lawless environment.

That culture of corruption and ruling elite lawlessness remains as strong and as untouchable today as it ever was.

The people of Ireland will continue to suffer from and be blamed for the catastrophic consequences of this rotten regime until such time as it is rooted out and destroyed.

Copy to:

Enda Kenny

Nation in desperate need of revolution

Letter in today’s Irish Examiner.

As I put pen to paper there is a sadness in our home, as my own son was forced to seek employment in what the Irish now call the New World (Australia), along with a group of other people.

No words can describe the grief of a parent’s loss. the handshake, the smile and that look as they walk away.

Some of them will not return. Although grief is upon me, I am angered, yes angered by the arrogance and corruption in government.

I refer to the statement by Tánaiste and Foreign Affairs Minister Eamon Gilmore that any referendum on the EU fiscal compact will be dismissed.

What a bunch of incompetent people, and once again, we are being forced to accept a load of scare-mongering that if we do not pay the un-guaranteed bond holders, mortgage and household charges will increase.

I refer to the Jan 21 letter of JF Murphy in your newspaper. He stated “Protest or resist”.

Let me go one step further and without fear of retribution, if ever a country needed revolution, it’s Ireland.

Let us stop kidding ourselves, waiting for the Messiah, he is not coming.

David Becan
Gahan
Fermoy
Co Cork

Senator Turnhout: Already contaminated by our corrupt political system

I came across the following definition of corruption on the web:

The impairment of integrity, virtue, or moral principle

I don’t believe there’s a corrupt bone in the body of newly appointed Senator Jillian Van Turnhout.

She does, however, work within the corrupt Irish political system and judging from a recent interview on Newstalk it seems that her allegiance is to the corrupt system and not to Ireland or its people.

Her misplaced allegiance is, I believe, based on ignorance rather than the more common motives of greed and abuse of political power.

The interview concerned the revelation that Independent senators are paid a Party Leader’s allowance of €23,000.

Here’s an edited version of Senator Turnhout’s interview where she attempts to justify this disgusting payment.

There’s never been any secret about this allowance.

Every TD and senator gets it.

Main parties get more than we do so I’m surprised that this has been singled out as an exception.

I agree with full accountability.

I’m only seven months in the job.

I’m put the vast amount of this money to one side and earmarked it for communications, developing a website and research so that I can be properly informed.

I have been given a secretarial assistant but this money will ensure that my policies are robust.

I’m very conscious that it’s public money and that I will have to account for it whether the rules are in place or not.

I now have to be an authority on many issues.

I do research but there are times when you need to pay money to get solid advice on legislation that you’re bringing forward.

I will, and have always intended, to put on public record where the money goes.

All politicians should account for all their expenses; there should be full accountability and transparency.

I’m happy to be transparent and accountable.

This is the only job I’m doing; the only income I’m taking and I will ensure it is used for the purpose for which it is intended.

I have no difficulty if the allowance is withdrawn once it’s withdrawn from all senators.

Let’s have openness and transparency.

Irish citizens have been listening to the same meaningless waffle from politicians for decades as the system became more and more unaccountable, more and more cynical, more and more corrupt.

They have witnessed the diseased political system destroy their country, destroy their lives, destroy the future hopes of their children.

It appears that Senator Turnhout has already become very comfortable within that corrupt political system as her response to angry listeners reveals.

I appreciate the public’s anger, it wasn’t such a long time ago that I was on the other side of the fence so I do understand and I do think those of us who are public representatives do need to up our game and be accountable for what we’re doing.

Clearly, Senator Turnhout sees herself as being on the other side of the fence that divides the (corrupt) political system from the mass of angry citizens.

Has she reflected, I wonder, on why the people are angry and the politicians are not, why the politicians are perfectly happy to pocket this disgusting payment which originated from a cynical political stroke designed to keep the scumbag Bertie Ahern and his cohorts in power?

I doubt if she has engaged in such reflections, perhaps it’s not too late for her to do so.

Here’s my take on how an uncontaminated, idealistic, newly appointed politician should have reacted on discovering this totally unjustified payment.

It has come to my notice that I, and all my fellow Independent senators, are entitled to a Party Leader’s allowance of €23,000 .

This payment is in addition to the already very generous allowances, expenses and resources available to all senators.

Let me state immediately and without equivocation that I will not be accepting this payment.

Furthermore, I have put on hold all my plans and intentions as a politician to focus solely on a campaign to have this totally unjustified payment withdrawn from all senators and TDs.

In good times the acceptance of this payment would be an immoral act.

In these catastrophic times, brought about by our corrupt political system, it is both immoral and an act of treason against the best interests of the Irish people

As a guide to my campaign I am adopting the definition of corruption as defined by Transparency International:

Corruption is the abuse of entrusted power for private gain.

Copy to:
All Independent Senators in receipt of this payment as listed to me by the Department of Finance.

David Norris
Fergal Quinn
Ronan Mullen
John Crown
Sean Barrett
Martin McAleese
Fiach Mac Conghaill
Eamon Coghlan
Dr. Katherine Zappone
Mary Ann O Brien
Marie Louise O Donnell
Jillian Van Turnhout

Get out!

Brian Lenihan Snr. on emigration sometime in the dark 1980s.

The island isn’t big enough for everybody.

Michael Noonan on emigration in 2012.

There are always young people coming and going from Ireland…it’s a small island, other people want to get off the island.

What return for E-voting machines debacle? – Just a sarcastic joke

Michael Noonan made a joke about the e-voting machines debacle and some Irish eejits over in America are upset.

Ciaran Staunton, for example, who owns two Irish pubs in New York, said he’s disappointed the machines are not going to be installed in embassies around the world in order to allow emigrants to vote.

In charity, I’m going to assume Mr. Staunton is trying to outbid Mr. Noonan in the sarcasm stakes.

Noonan’s joke did provoke great hilarity and that’s only appropriate for a gombeen minister in a gombeen state.

Over 50 million recklessly wasted on a very questionable enterprise with no accountability whatsoever and what is the return for Irish citizens?

A sarcastic joke from a leading figure operating within our corrupt political system.

'Don't mullock with me or my septic tank'

Some protesters against the septic tank charge were interviewed on Today with Pat Kenny.

We didn’t’ have assistance from any government of any sort or any society. We had to mullock all our lives to put the price of it together and now they’re trying to get more off us.

Well the first fellow that that will come and try to mullock me will end up inside in a coffin and I mean that.

I don’t care if I have to stay in jail for the rest of my life, he’ll get it.

My mother before us, when fellows tried to bully her, she blew the gun over his head and that was the last she saw of him.

Pat Kenny:

Dear o dear, passions running very high.

(Not) Paying tax

Fergus Finlay writes today about the Irish attitude to paying tax (Irish Examiner).

Here’s how he finishes the article:

We had been through decades of the black economy, the grey economy, the nod-and-wink economy. Ansbacher, the Oireachtas DIRT Enquiry, the Beef Industry Tribunal, the McCracken and Flood Tribunals.

They all taught us that some people lived high on the hog by evading their taxes, and the rest of us paid for it through lousy public services.

Whatever we do, let’s not go back there. Of course it’s no fun paying taxes, and of course it can be a terrible shock to be told you owe more than you thought.

But fair tax, on all sorts of incomes, is the key to a fair society.

We’d all benefit from that.

Whatever we do, let’s not go back there???

I must have missed the moment when those who live high on the hog by evading their taxes were brought to account and are now paying up.

Damaging conservatism in the Irish media

Letter in today’s Irish Times.

When I read the particular Editorial referred to by the letter writer I came to the same conclusion.

The Editorial, and a number of other editorials on the same matter, reflect a deep and damaging ultra conservatism in the Irish media.

Sir,

Your Editorial on property tax is sheer nonsense. “We are living beyond our means”, it begins. Yes we are.

But the problem is not a lack of property tax: as anyone who has paid stamp duty knows,

Irish home-owners have been royally fleeced in recent years.

The reason is that as the Local Government Efficiency Review Group has identified, at a very minimum €511 million is being wasted on excessive layers of local government and hierarchy, waste which that report – commissioned by government – recommended be ended.

You could have used your Editorial to urge government to eliminate waste in local government.

And to curb eye-wateringly generous pay and pensions conditions enjoyed by the large number of the 32,000 local government employees whose role is administrative and unconnected with the provision of any real services to the public.

Instead you observe “Nobody likes to pay tax” before describing the “contempt for civic morality” of those opposed to the tax.

Can I suggest that the real “contempt for civic morality” is amongst those who expect hard- pressed homeowners to suffer more taxation to fund the egregious waste of public money.

Yours, etc,
Marc Coleman