Category: Government

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.

Politicians still abusing expenses

Once again we see the political expenses system being abused without any serious reaction from so called regulatory authorities.

Fine Gael councillor Pat Kennedy claimed travel expenses for the use of his car to attend five conferences and seminars in February and March 2010 when, in fact, his car was off the road due to an accident (Irish Independent).

Cllr. Kennedy told Limerick City Council that the car he rented for the period in question was changed on a number of occasions by the rental company.

When challenged Cllr. Kennedy chose not to provide any other car details and repaid the money (€1,690.65) in April 2010.

Limerick city manager, Tom Mackey, accepted the payment from Cllr. Kennedy and took no further action.

I contacted the Standards in Public Office Commission (SIPO) this morning with the intention of making a formal complaint but was informed that I must first make a complaint to the Ethics Registrar of Limerick City Council (Copy of complaint below).

This latest scandal raises a number of questions.

Did Limerick City Council officials check with the car rental company to verify Kennedy’s claim that his rented car was changed on a number of occasion?

Company records would immediately confirm or otherwise this claim or, indeed, if he rented a car at all.

Is there a requirement/duty on public officials like city managers to report matters of this kind (to anybody) or can they just nod and wink behind closed doors?

I wish to lodge a formal complaint under Part 15 of the Local Government Act, 2001 against Fine Gael Councillor Pat Kennedy.

The complaint concerns a report in the Irish Independent dated 4th October 2011 in which the following allegation is made against Councillor Kennedy.

That he claimed travel expenses for the use of his car during the period October 1, 2009 through to March 31, 2010 when his car was off the road due to a traffic accident.

Specifically, Councillor Kennedy claimed that his car was used to travel to five conferences and seminars in February and March 2010 when, in fact, his car was not available to him during this period.

Yours Sincerely
Anthony Sheridan

McGuinness: Not good enough for the morons who destroyed the country

The entry of Martin McGuinness into the presidential election has brought to the surface a unique and particularly virulent form of Irish hypocrisy.

In it’s simplest form this hypocrisy can be expressed in a sentence – McGuinness is good enough for the people of Northern Ireland but ‘his type’ does not measure up to the high standards of political leadership in the Republic.

This view is, of course, pure and utter bullshit propagated by a ruling elite who labour under the delusion that Ireland is a functional democracy when in reality it is nothing more than a banana republic, a failed state that has more in common with a badly run mafia than a modern democratic state.

McGuinness is accepted by the people of Northern Ireland, by the British Government and the British people, by all the peoples and governments of the European Union, by the United Nations, by the United States, indeed by the entire world as a bona fide, hard working and genuine politician who has made a major contribution in bringing peace to Northern Ireland.

Only the hypocritical, incompetent morons who destroyed our country are of the view that McGuinness is not a fit person to hold high office.

In order to stop McGuinness at all cost, this campaign is going to have an additional ingredient – a state/government strategy to smear McGuinness at every opportunity.

This strategy will probably include government leaks, the handing over of files to ‘friendly’ journalists and heightened Garda activity against republican supporters.

NAMA: Accountable to nobody

The National Assets Management Agency (NAMA) came into being as a result of a panicked government reaction to the collapse of the economy.

It was given enormous powers and cloaked in a blanket of secrecy laws that would have been the envy of the most ruthless KGB chief.

The organization has not been slow in exercising its power.

The Taoiseach, allegedly the most powerful man in the state, was recently publicly humiliated by the head of NAMA, Frank Daly when he, Enda Kenny, dared to ask questions of the organization.

The Government has now expressed alarm at the latest madcap scheme dreamed up by this all powerful agency which involves manipulating the property market.

The key sentence in the report is:

The agency does not need Government approval for the scheme to proceed.

This is an incredible and extremely dangerous situation.

An all powerful organization that’s accountable to nobody, that operates outside state control; that operates in absolute secrecy, and, most disturbingly of all, that operates within a state where business and political corruption is still endemic.

The future is not bright for the people of Ireland.

Pakistan/Ireland: Little difference

Reforming Pakistani politician Imran Khan was interviewed by Pay Kenny today and what he had to say was very interesting when compared to the political situation in Ireland.

For me there was a realisation in the 1990s that unless people who were clean came into politics we were condemned to be ruled by criminals and corruption was the number one issue in the country.

Ireland is still waiting for someone clean to come into politics, someone who will actually dismantle the corrupt system that has destroyed the country.

Pakistan is ahead of Ireland in that corruption is recognised as a major issue that has to be tackled if the country is to progress in any meaningful way.

While individual incidences of political and business corruption are reported and analysed in Ireland there has been no acknowledgement whatsoever of the fact that corruption is at the centre of everything that is rotten in the country.

Pakistani politicians use politics to benefit themselves, to make money out of politics. I decided to form my own party and become an anti-status quo party to bring about genuine democracy as opposed to a kleptocracy.

Ireland is well on the way to becoming a kleptocracy. Rampant theft and fraud within the financial sector, for example, is actively facilitated by politicians and government officials.

Politicians have honed the theft of expenses into a fine art, even managing to enact laws that allow them to legally rob the state.

Nobody is held accountable because both main parties who are responsible for massive corruption take turns in ruling and therefore do not hold each other accountable (paraphrased).

The same situation pertains in Ireland. The interests of all the major parties are dependent on protecting the corrupt system that allows them to gain power and influence.

It is only when a (revolutionary) party or individual smashes that cosy political cartel of corruption that we will see real reform in Ireland.

They (political parties) could not allow institutions that would hold them accountable.

Criminal politicians like Haughey were allowed to live out long corrupt careers without the slightest worry that they might be held to account by any state agency.

No state authority, not even the police; is allowed (or willing) to act independently of the political system when it comes to political or white collar crime.

Corruption and crime is rampant within large sectors of the financial, legal and business sectors in Ireland yet no so called regulatory authority has ever made any serious attempt to root out the criminality.

No bank or bank official, for example, has ever been prosecuted for fraud or corruption despite the theft of countless millions from consumers over the decades.

The reason we have to beg is that the rich don’t pay tax in Pakistan the political leadership doesn’t pay taxes so the entire tax burden falls on the common man so the poor subsidise the rich.

Part of the reason why Ireland has to ‘beg’ from the EU/IMF is because those with power and influence only pay minimum taxes.

Over the decades a privileged golden circle, which still exists, was allowed to grow rich off the fat of the land without making any contribution whatsoever.

I accept that the degree and depth of corruption in Pakistan is more serious but Ireland is on the same road.

It is, essentially, governed under the same principles of greed, corruption and injustice as Pakistan.

Journalist Gavin Sheridan wins major victory over NAMA

Online journalist Gavin Sheridan (my nephew) is to be heartily congratulated for taking on the monolith that is the National Assets Management Agency (NAMA) and winning.

The Information Commissioner has ruled that NAMA is subject to freedom of information requests.

This ground breaking decision has come about after a great deal of technical and forensic legal work by Gavin over many months (See full details on Gavin’s blog, The Story).

NAMA is not subject to freedom of information requests in the normal sense but Gavin discovered a loophole in the Soviet style secrecy laws that prevent Irish citizens from knowing what’s going on in NAMA.

As I have said on many occasions, secrecy is the most powerful weapon of a corrupt state and Ireland is the most secretive and most corrupt state in the Western world.

Gavin’s dedicated work is helping to break down that corrosive secrecy and for that the people of Ireland should be grateful.

I include the Irish Examiner report below.

Irish Examiner

Key ruling may leave NAMA open to inquiry

By Claire O’Sullivan

Thursday, September 15, 2011

GREATER transparency around the workings of the highly secretive NAMA is expected after the Information Commissioner ruled that it is subject to freedom of information requests.
Financial experts believe the breakthrough will also help better predict when the property market will bottom out.

In a landmark ruling, the Information Commissioner has decided the agency should be subject to information requests under environmental freedom of information.

Freedom of Information campaigners also believe the decision could leave Anglo Irish Bank open to inquiry.

The ruling emerged after Gavin Sheridan, a Dublin-based online journalist, sought information on the body via the 2007 freedom to environmental information statutory instrument.

NAMA refused to supply the information, saying the refusal was justified on the grounds that it is not a public authority within the meaning of the 2007 regulations

However, Information Commissioner Emily O’Reilly found that the national property company was not justified in its action and she annulled the original refusal, saying it was a public authority within the meaning of the regulations.

It is expected that NAMA will attempt to appeal this latest review. It has up to eight weeks within which to do so.

Professor of finance at Trinity College, Brian Lucey, said the decision was important, as it should allow taxpayers to see “what business NAMA are doing, who they are doing it with and for how much”.

One of the basic problems with NAMA, he said, is its opaque nature.

“This opacity has hugely hampered the information discovery in property. We need such information discovery if we are to get to the true state of property and property prices.

“Secondly, NAMA’s opacity has been a huge liability on the public as they have pretended that they could not be transparent and efficient. The responsibility to be transparent cannot be dodged by a public body like NAMA.”

Prediction of economic disaster

Just came across this letter that I submitted to the Irish Times on 20th Oct 2004 in response to the then latest scam by AIB.

Madam,

Mr. Buckley of AIB is wide of the mark in likening the current scandal to an iceberg where the vast amount of transactions are genuine but unseen by the general public while the relatively ‘small number of errors’ are emphasized by the media. (RTE News, 20th Oct.).

The stark reality is that AIB is a rogue iceberg rampaging unregulated across the sea that is the Irish economy. The ship of state, captained by a government that steadfastly refuses to heed the many warnings of impending disaster, is steaming full speed ahead on a collision course with this rogue iceberg.

When the inevitable happens, the international economic reputation of Ireland will plunge headlong into the icy depths of global contempt.

Yours etc.,

Anthony Sheridan

Freedom of Information Act will not be re-instated

Secrecy is the most potent weapon of a corrupt state.

The Freedom of Information Act was introduced in 1997 and was in operation until 2003 when the Fianna Fail/Progressive Democratic coalition effectively stripped it of any real relevance.

The reason for this subversion of the Act was simple – It was too effective in exposing corruption.

No corrupt political/administrative system can tolerate an effective freedom of information act without risking exposure.

The current government could have re-instated the original FOI Act literally overnight; it should have been their very first act on assuming power.

That this has not happened after six months in power is a clear indication that this government has no intention of providing citizens with an effective FOI act.

The reason the Fine Gael/Labour will refuse to introduce an effective FOI act is simple – It would be too effective in exposing corruption.

The current administration will, I believe, opt for either of the following strategies.

String out the matter through never-ending committees, reviews, consultations until the next election or introduce a new act with different words but with the same non effectiveness as the current act.

Seamus Dooley of the National Union of Journalists wrote the following letter (Irish Examiner, 16th April 2003) in response to the destruction of the original FOI Act.

You’ve just had one of your rights erased

The final nail has been driven into the Freedom of Information Act.

While it is unfortunate that the President did not refer the Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill to the Council of State for examination, her decision to sign the Bill within 24 hours of the early signing motion being presented to Seanad Eireann gives a neat piece of symmetry to this sorry saga.

It is worth reflecting on what happened.

Rumours that plans were afoot to bastardise the Bill emerged in early February.

The NUJ immediately sought and were refused meetings with the Taoiseach, Tanaiste and Minister of State at the Department of Finance.

In time it emerged that a secret review was carried out by a group of secretaries general who did not consult with the Information Commissioner (or anyone else) because they had not been told to do so by the Government.

The Cabinet duly met, accepted the report of the top civil servants and added in other restrictions for good measure.

It was decided not to publish the Bill mid-week but to wait until Friday, February 28.

On Tuesday, March 4, Seanad Eireann was asked to consider the Bill in a bizarre debate during the course of which it emerged that some rural senators had not even received copies of the legislation.

By March 13 the Oireachtas committee on Finance and the Public Service had agreed to hear submissions. The advice of the information Commissioner that sections of the Bill were inoperable was duly noted and ignored. Other submissions were similarly dismissed.

The NUJ was the first body to highlight the dangers inherent in the amendment relation to personal information. We welcome the change of heart by the Minister for Finance following the powerful presentation by Colm O’Gorman to the Oireachtas committee.

What that u-turn proved was that the entire Bill was ill-considered. The Government pressed on nevertheless. With the Taoiseach insisting that the hours spent on the debate during March was in some way compensation for the absence of public consultation on a Bill designed to take away rights conferred on citizens by the Oireachtas only five years ago.

The Taoiseach and Tanaiste have yet to explain how they reconcile the Government’s approach with the commitments to consultation contained in the new Social Partnership Agreement, Sustaining Progress.

The Bill was signed into law on Friday as those gate-keepers of democracy, the Progressive Democrats, met to celebrate their achievements in government.

As they surveyed the ruins of an Act they once supported with such enthusiasm I hope they were proud of their work.

Seamus Dooley
Irish Secretary
National Union of Journalists
Liberty Hall
Dublin 1

Secrecy is the most potent weapon of a corrupt state.

Copy to:
Fine Gael
Labour

Nothing will change until the corrupt political system is destroyed

A caller to today’s Liveline provides us with a good example of the ruthlessness and greed of the banking sector.

The caller, an elderly lady, used her entire life savings to pay €100,000 off her son’s mortgage when he found himself in deep trouble.

The bank, the EBS, must have been rubbing its hands in glee as this part of the mortgage was on a tracker contract and so its payment would save the bank a substantial amount of money.

The woman then asked the EBS to come to an agreement for the rest of the mortgage (€50,000) which was on a fixed contract.

Not a chance lady, if you want to pay this part of the mortgage off we will impose a substantial penalty.

It’s the law she was told, it’s policy she was told.

You do us a favour, we screw you.

The Minister for Social Protection, Joan Burton, took time our from her busy schedule organising a no holds barred crackdown on alleged social welfare fraudsters to gently ask the banks to go a bit easy on the increasingly desperate peasants.

I actually would like to see the banks becoming active in reaching out to the citizens who have become embroiled in debt because of the recession, losing their job, losing their business.

The critical thing, said the Minister, is that people should engage with their lender.

We can see from the above example what happens to people when they ‘engage’ with their ruthless lenders.

Fergus Finlay has a good article in today’s Irish Examiner on the mortgage crisis in which he brings up the subject of revolution.

In my opinion the big picture is very simple.

The corrupt political system allowed the banks and others destroy our country.

The corrupt political system continues to protect the banks and others who destroyed our country.

Nothing will change until the people destroy the corrupt political system.

Dr Ed Walsh: An intellectual idiot who should be confined to a nunnery

I have always had my hair cut short and last week I took the ultimate step of getting a complete head shave.

But having a billiard ball hairstyle didn’t stop me from going through the motions of pulling my hair out as I listened to the founding president of the University of Limerick, Dr. Ed Walsh, spouting pure bullshit at Beal na mBlath last Sunday.

According to this fool Ireland should never have joined the eurozone because:

Had Ireland remained outside the euro, its bankers would not have gained access to the euro zone’s vast and low-interest borrowing opportunities.

Without the outlandish credit available within the euro zone, the building bubble, the resultant government tax windfalls and Ahern’s, McCreevy’s and Cowen’s spending splurge would have been impossible. The country would not now be in receivership.

Irish banks, he said, were guilty of nothing more than some foolish borrowing. German and French banks, on the other hand, were reckless to lend to Irish banks. The European Central Bank failed in its duty to properly regulate all this activity.

Let’s just paraphrase this idiot’s opinion.

If Ireland had not joined the Eurozone the greedy vermin who inhabit the financial sector would have had no opportunity to carry out their crimes.

If Ireland had not joined the eurozone the political scumbags who made it possible for the bankers and developers to gamble away the wealth of the country would have found themselves with no other choice but to govern in a responsible, accountable and transparent manner.

If Ireland had not joined the eurozone Irish regulators would have been capable of dealing with the minor and very rare instances of financial crime and not overwhelmed by the massive wave of fraud brought on by those nasty loans from Europe.

In a sentence – If Ireland had not joined the eurozone our country would still be a nirvana of political, financial and regulatory stability and happiness.

The man is a complete idiot. His views confirm the old adage that education is no guarantor of intelligence.

By now, even the most ignorant dunderhead must be aware of the following facts:

The Irish political system is corrupt to its very core. If our political system was isolated on a planet billions of miles from the nearest German bank Ireland would still be a political/financial basket case. The political system would still operate with just one aim – to enrich the few at the expense of the many.

The Irish financial sector is infested with ruthless vermin who are free to rob and plunder as they wish with no fear whatsoever of being brought to justice.

The Irish regulatory system does not, in fact, regulate. It is not a case of light regulation, there is no regulation whatsoever. In many cases the so called regulators assist, defend and protect the vermin in their crimes.

This fool then goes on to compare Michael Collins, a true patriot, with the lying traitor Brian Lenihan. Collins, we are told, would have recognised Lenihan’s unrelenting commitments to Ireland.

Bullshit.

Collins would have recognised Lenihan for what he was; a gombeen lying traitor who worked tirelessly to protect the interests of a powerful and ruthless ruling elite.

Collins would have thrown Lenihan and his fellow scumbag traitors in jail for destroying the hopes of the Irish people, for destroying the independence that he, Collins and his fellow patriots, had fought and died for.

As for idiot intellectuals, I think Collins would have been charitable and confined them to a nunnery where they could do little harm.