Category: Government

EU is bringing down the shutters; it's now up to ourselves

Let’s be absolutely clear about this, the EU is abandoning Ireland.

We’re not going to be thrown out of the EU club altogether, that would damage the EU project, but we will be treated for what we are – an insignificant backwater state that’s incapable of managing its own affairs.

There are a number of reasons for this.

First, on a global and even on a European scale we do not and never have registered either economically or politically.

Even if Ireland was a real democracy with a thriving economy we still wouldn’t matter simply because we’re too small.

Secondly, the EU has finally realised that Ireland is a cancer which could infect the entire EU project and therefore must be put in strict quarantine for as long as necessary.

The massive suffering that this strategy will cause to ordinary Irish citizens is not a factor in EU thinking, why should it be? The EU has rightly concluded that we are solely responsible for the disaster that has befallen us.

It’s pathetically hilarious to hear politicians and journalists whinging on about how the EU is somehow to blame for our disaster because they failed to stop us in our stupidity.

It’s like a burglar pleading with a judge – Please your honour, I only committed the crime because the police didn’t stop me, it’s their fault.

Thirdly, the EU is itself struggling to recover from the global financial crisis and must act ruthlessly in order to win that battle.

Portugal and in particular Spain have now become the main focus of EU resources because if Spain goes the Euro and perhaps the entire EU project is in serious danger of collapse.

EU officials have finally realised that pumping over €160 billion into Irish banks was an extremely dangerous strategy and are now looking for their money back before pulling down the shutters on Ireland for decades.

To cut their losses the EU are forcing Irish banks to sell off all their assets and the Irish Government to sell off a huge chunk of state assets. This will reduce Ireland to what I call a visible banana republic.

We have, in reality been a corrupt state, a banana republic, since the criminal Haughey came to power in 1979 but we have always managed to hide that fact from the outside world principally because, as I mentioned already, we have no significance whatsoever on the global stage, we are not important.

We only register on a global scale when our entire economy collapses and that’s usually for about thirty seconds. On an EU scale we only register when our corruption/toxicity threatens the EU project.

Our corrupt political system is the sole reason for the destruction of our country. No banker, no developer, no regulator could have destroyed the economy without the active cooperation of our corrupt body politic.

The complete destruction of the economy will, ultimately, lead to the complete failure of the state which will, in turn, lead to civil unrest.

Civil unrest is inevitable because there is not the slightest sign of the political revolution that’s necessary to rescue the situation.

Enda Kenny’s claim that the recent general election was a democratic revolution is just silly talk.

Fianna Fail, the most corrupt political party in the state and the party most responsible for our destruction, only suffered significant electoral damage after it had led the country across the cliff of destruction.

In other words, it took the complete destruction of our country before the politically ignorant Irish finally woke up and realised that perhaps it wasn’t such a good idea to vote traitors into power for the price of filling in a pot hole.

The current Fine Gael/Labour government is operating very comfortably within the same corrupt political system that has destroyed the country. There will be no major reform, certainly no reform that would threaten the corrupt system.

The treatment of the traitor Lowry provides us with clear evidence that nothing has changed, that the political revolution that’s absolutely critical if our country is to be save is not even being contemplated.

Lowry, a corrupt, lying, tax cheating, thieving traitor is allowed to infect our national parliament with impunity. We’re told that nothing can be done beyond a mild, ineffective censure.

Wrong:

A government/body politic that was aware of the seriousness of the country’s position would move immediately to change the law to ensure that this scumbag was ejected from power.

If legislation wasn’t sufficient then an immediate referendum should be held to ensure this cancerous object was removed from the political sphere forever.

Such action would not just set a standard for other politicians but would also send a message to the people of North Tipperary and to the wider politically ignorant electorate that the election of political scumbags was no longer acceptable.

In 1922 Ireland became an independent nation full of confidence and hope for the future. On the 29th September 2008 the old corrupt republic that Ireland had evolved into came to a pathetic end.

Since 2008 we have been witnessing the slow, inevitable and unstoppable disintegration of that corrupt republic.

The continued existence of a corrupt political system acting, for the most part, in its own interests coupled with the ever increasing impoverishment and disillusionment of the people is creating an extremely dangerous divide in Irish society.

Neither the EU nor the wider world has any responsibility whatsoever in bridging that divide.

Only truly revolutionary and courageous leadership from within Ireland can lead the country out of its present crisis towards a new and genuine republic.

Pat Kenny defeated by Martin waffle

Michael Martin, traitor and leader of the most corrupt political party in Ireland, a party that is principally responsible for the destruction of the country, a party that never, ever condemns its own corrupt members like, for example, the criminal Haughey.

So it should have been easy for even the most inexperienced greenhorn journalist to completely destroy the hypocritical arguments put forward by this low grade politician when he tries to occupy the high moral ground in respect of Michael Lowry and the Moriarty Tribunal Report.

On his radio show this morning Pat Kenny failed abjectly in this respect.

Martin easily waffled his way around the weak and mostly irrelevant challenges offered by Kenny, for example.

Kenny accused Martin of hypocrisy given that Fianna Fail, who are now condemning Lowry, were more than willing to do business with him while in government.

Martin responded by saying that those dealings took place before the publication of the Moriarty Tribunal Report:

Every person before any tribunal is accorded the right to have their case heard by the tribunal and one does not sit on judgement on that until the tribunal reports.

The delivery of this cynical and dishonest argument was the cue for any greenhorn journalist to close the trap by simply putting it to Martin that Lowry’s reputation had been utterly destroyed years ago after the publication of the McCracken Report.

Kenny, apparently completely unaware of Lowry’s shady past involving tax evasion, lying and planning irregularities, let Martin off the hook by accepting his ridiculous argument.

Copy to:
Pat Kenny

Corrupt Senate elections

I’m not sure how but could the non implementation of the 1979 referendum to extend the franchise to all graduates have something to do with the corrupt manner in which Senate elections are conducted?

I’m thinking perhaps that if the franchise was extended it might have diluted political manipulation of the election outcome.

This would explain why no political party has ever objected to the non implementation.

Here’s part of an RTE interview with Stephen Collins during the 2007 Senate election after the Green Party (naively) objected to illegal supervision of voting.

Collins: The Greens find that supervision is an intrusion and in fact it’s illegal. The political parties have done this over the years.

The big parties, Fianna Fail and I think Fine Gael have tried to ensure that their councilors voted in ways the party HQ would like and at times ballots have been supervised.

There has been deals before, the PDs voted for FF candidates in the last election and in return got Seanad seats.

Again there was talk of the votes being supervised but in fact it’s illegal to supervise voting and the Green councilors had legitimacy making that point.

How is it done?

Collins: Well, Councillors get their votes, ballot papers in the post but they have to have a witness to ensure they have voted in the correct manner.

There is a declaration and usually a County Manager signs the declaration which goes into another envelope.

What the parties try to do is get the Councillors in a group so that as well as the County Manager verifying that it’s being done legally, that parties can have influence over how Councillors vote.

New government/new dawn: How long before the fall?

This government will hit the ground running.

said Enda Kenny

And indeed it did, reducing TDs pay, taking away the mercs but there was a stumble when the promised reduction of junior ministers from 15 to 12 didn’t materialize.

Now Kenny has hinted the abolition of the Senate is more complicated than he first thought, another stumble.

How long before the fall?

Ireland: An irretrievably corrupt state

I’ve just discovered that a referendum held in 1979 (32 years ago) which asked the people if they wanted to extend the franchise in Senate elections to include all third-level graduates was passed but never implemented.

I rang the Dept. of the Environment to inquire how this was possible in a so called democratic state.

Specifically, I wanted to know if there was any legal/legislative obligation on the part of civil servants or politicians to implement the will of the people as a result of a referendum.

The official I spoke with said, to her knowledge, there was no such obligation, that there was no time limit in which a referendum result had to be legally activated.

I took the following explanation of Article 46 of the Constitution from the Dept’s website.

Under Article 46 of the Constitution, a proposal to amend the Constitution must be introduced in the Dail as a Bill. When the Bill has been passed by both Houses of the Oireachtas (Parliament), it must be submitted to the people for approval as a referendum. If a majority of the votes cast at the referendum are in favour of the proposal, the Bill is signed by the President and the Constitution is amended accordingly.

This is crystal clear; if a majority is in favour the Bill will be passed.

It seems the people who drew up the Constitution never dreamed that our republic would ever degenerate into an irretrievably corrupt state.

They assumed that political and civil service standards of honesty, accountability and professionalism would remain at a level that would not require every possible angle to be legislatively and forensically covered to avoid official trickery.

I’m getting to the point where I feel the need to take a hot, cleansing shower after every news report.

Copy to:

Dept. of Environment

Moriarty Report: First reactions

The first and most important thing to be said about the Moriarty Report is that nobody will be made accountable. This, of course, is no accident.

While tribunals have power to produce facts they are specifically prevented from bringing the guilty to account. Any subsequent police investigation is barred from using evidence uncovered by the tribunal. In other words, they must begin the entire investigation again without any assistance whatsoever from the tribunal report.

Of course, there will be no Gardai investigation; Irish police do not concern themselves with the activities of politicians or white collar individuals, it’s a well established tradition.

Now that the report has been published we will move into the next phase – discussion.

Just as tribunals are designed to sideline proper investigation into serious corruption and the ban on police using tribunal evidence has the effect of protecting the guilty, national discussion, conducted through a largely captured media, is designed to allow everybody to indulge in the great Irish tradition of pretending that Ireland is a functional, democratic state.

Miriam O’Callaghan set the ball rolling tonight on Prime Time by asking a question she has asked on countless occasions in the past concerning an endless line of previous scandals – Do you think there will be criminal charges?

Pat Rabbitte, just like dozens of politicians before him intoned in a sombre voice, well I hope so.

Gay (Mad) Mitchell suggested that Mary Robinson should investigate the tribunal report, picking out those parts which, in her opinion, could be forwarded to the DPP.

So, an investigation into an investigation to be forwarded to another state agency for yet another investigation, sounds familiar.

The absolutely critical factor in all this farce is – never, ever allow reality to impinge on the delusions of the nation.

'We were acting on the best advice' – Not true

Letter in today’s Irish Times

Ministers ignored Finance advice

Madam,

So it turns out that the much vilified Department of Finance was providing, better, clearer and higher quality advice than that provided by so-called external experts. This advice was routinely rejected by Cabinet (Breaking News, March 1st).

Is it not time for the media, across all platforms, to offer humble apologies to the many fine public servants, whose years of training and innate skills were so disgracefully thrashed by so-called journalists and pretentious minor celebrities posing as economists?

Maybe now, finally, the incoming government will begin reforming the system at the very top and clear out all advisers, experts, programme managers and gombeens who infest every Minister’s office in every department, soaking up salaries and expenses and believing they are minor deities.

Let the real experts do their job. The civil service has the training and the skills to provide expert advice to this government; they must be listened to. Their only mission, unlike many others, is to serve the State, which they have done unswervingly, in the face of opprobrium, pay cuts, pension levies and anything else a rotten administration has thrown at them over the years. Enough is enough. – Yours, etc,

JG Lacey,

Lough Atalia Grove,

Renmore,

Galway.

Kenny's promise

Let it go forth from this time and place that Ireland is open for business and we want to rebuild our reputation at home and abroad, that we will give vent to the creativity the imagination and the hard work of our people.

And that in five years time we can look back and say we have built platforms upon which our little country will be seen to be the best in the world in which to do business, in which to raise a family and, as I said before, in which to grow old with a sense of dignity and respect.

Enda Kenny

NAMA fails to deny very serious allegations

On the 27th January last Fianna Fail Senator Mark Daly made a series of very serious allegations on Today with Pat Kenny against the National Assets Management Agency (NAMA).

The allegations are as follows:

That NAMA is breaking the law by failing to hold pubic auctions or competitive tendering for the sale of public assets within its remit.

That NAMA is allowing some properties to be sold back for virtually nothing to the original owners.

That NAMA is facilitating a scam of monumental proportions whereby friends of the original borrowers are putting in false bids for assets thus preventing Irish taxpayers from obtaining the maximum value from the assets.

That the scam is happening wholesale and without any transparency whatsoever.

That the scam, although widely known about within official circles, is being ignored by the authorities.

That within the next six months the best properties will be cherry picked by the ‘scavengers and vultures’ resulting in a very serious loss for Irish taxpayers.

The following is NAMAs response to the allegations:

It (NAMA) had addressed this extensively at the Public Accounts Committee. We would ask any other person to advise us of incidents where they think this may be happening. For our part NAMA is determined to avoid such developments in so far as it can within the law as passed by the Oireachtas.

This infantile (non) response contains one crystal clear message from NAMA – We cannot deny any of the allegations made against us.

Pat Kenny ended the interview by saying:

We can talk about this but we cannot point the finger until we have chapter and verse.

This, of course, is ridiculous, the finger has been very clearly pointed. The allegations are extremely serious, they have been made by a public representative on live radio.

In a real democracy state authorities, including the police, would by now be conducting an investigation with the aim of bringing charges.

In Ireland – Nothing.

This scandal has all the hallmarks of previous scandals such as DIRT and Ansbacher where state authorities were fully aware of what was going on but chose to ignore events.

It proves that despite everything that has happened in the past two years nothing has changed.

For the record I have transcribed the full interview (with some minor editing) with my own comments and emphasis.

Today with Pat Kenny – Thursday 27TH January 2011

Pat Kenny: (Introduction)

It has been claimed that people who owe hundreds of millions of Euros to the banks are buying back their debt at rock bottom prices through third parties and off shore companies. Fianna Fail Senator Mark Daly claims some property is being sold back for virtually nothing to the original owners and that NAMA is not following legislation enacted by the Oireachtas.

Kenny: Exactly what are you alleging?

Senator Daly: It’s not so much an allegation as a fact. Under the NAMA legislation, section 25 of the Act, NAMA had to prepare a code of conduct for the disposal of bank assets within three months of the passing of the Act. The Act says that the sale of properties and assets including bank loans would be governed under the Code of Conduct for the governance of state bodies which was passed in 2009.

In that section 18 said any asset being sold to all the bank loans would have to be sold by auction or competitive tendering process.

Kenny: So we would all know about it?

Senator Daly: So we would all know about it. But the competitive tendering or public auction would obviously involve huge amount of advertising that we would see in all the property supplements but this doesn’t appear to be happening either. What appears to be happening is people who are in the know, the same people who are in the know who got us into all this trouble are aware through the banks, through the receivers what these assets can now be bought at, the haircuts.

In one particular case I’ve come across in the UK the original loan was twelve million, the haircut was six million but the asset itself was undervalued, was worth nine million really and the guy, the original borrower of the loan said to his friends; you pay the banks six million, they’ll be happy and we’ll sell it for nine and they made a nice three million Euro profit.(This is a serious allegation).

And that type of thing is happening wholesale because there’s no transparency.

Kenny: But why would NAMA want to do that, if the thing is worth nine million why wouldn’t they sell it for something approaching that?

Senator Daly: Because no one is trying to maximize the value because once the bank gets the haircut that NAMA imposed on them…(Interrupted).

Kenny: Of course, if NAMA impose a haircut and say this asset is only worth six million and it’s actually worth nine, if they have done that then they’re exposing themselves as having undervalued the property which means that they’re not being very professional about what they’re doing. (Extreme understatement).

Senator Daly: There’s a lot of shady behaviour going on here (VERY SERIOUS ALLEGATION) and if they follow their own rules as set out in the NAMA legislation and had a competitive tendering process or public auctions then they would maximize the value but what is actually happening is, and the banks and receivers have admitted this to me, that the banks have said look once we get what we paid for, the haircut from NAMA, we’re happy.

Kenny: This is utterly; utterly dishonest if that’s what NAMA are at. If NAMA, and I’m only saying if, if NAMA is applying a haircut that is greater than the haircut that the market would suggest it should have then NAMA is not doing its job properly.

Senator Daly: All the receivers, auctioneers and banks want to do is pay back NAMA the money that’s owed. Maximising the value is not really their concern.

Kenny: As a taxpayer it is our concern.

Senator Daly: It is our concern which is why the transparency that I’m looking for. First for all that the rules would be followed, that the law would be followed (Serious allegation).

Kenny: That it would be by public tender or public auction.

Senator Daly: Exactly, and that all the banks and the receivers would go through this process but they’re not even doing that because as you can see you are not looking at papers full of advertising saying NAMA property for sale (Serious allegation).

Kenny: What interests me more, they should do that and that’s something they’ll have to rectify not that you have pointed it out, but what is more sinister is that if they applied a haircut that is too severe, rather than the medium term or long term economic value of the asset which they would be in a position to hang onto because that was the idea they could hold it in a way that the banks felt they couldn’t because of their balance sheets, NAMA could hold it longer.

But if they’re just dispatching stuff to get cash in to show off how well they’re doing for instance but they applied too severe a haircut which means the taxpayer has to put more money into the banks which we didn’t need to do and that is the obscenity if it’s true.

Senator Daly: Well, the obscenity of it is on top of that, the banks once they’re quite happy to get the money that they owe NAMA aren’t going to go after the borrowers, the original borrowers for the balance of the money, they’re just not going to do it and receivers, talking to the banks, have admitted that to me (Serious allegation).

The problem with this is that I’m not an investigator, I’m not the Guards but then again we know of plenty of cases where it’s taken two years to bring people to court for very obvious corporate governance issues.

Kenny: Let’s point this out carefully. NAMA, was expected to make a profit, that part of the whole thing that at the end of the day it might turn a small profit. It was not expected to turn a profit in the short term, it was supposed to hang onto to assets and realize the value. If it’s selling them at under the market value, disposing of them just to get cash in then it is not doing the job for which it was established.

Senator Daly: Let’s be clear on this. When the banks are appointing auctioneers and receivers to realize the money the fault lies with them in that they’re not advertising at a very minimum the property for sale and saying; this is what’s available, this is the current bid that’s on it. The transparency is required because first the citizens and the taxpayers are entitled to know that the assets which they currently own through NAMA are being maximized in value and that is not happening (Serious allegation).

Kenny: And NAMA, if it wants to, like in any commercial auction or tender, they can have a reserve, if it doesn’t meet the reserve, if they feel they’re being scammed in some way…interrupted.

Senator Daly: No, what is actually happening is the original borrowers, in these cases that have been brought to my attention, are arranging for their friends to put in the bids. Nobody else is aware that this place is for sale because no one else knows that the original borrower and the asset is in trouble and therefore this is a scam of monumental proportions (Very serious allegation).

Kenny: NAMA has responded to your claims.

It had addressed this extensively at the Public Accounts Committee. We would ask any other person to advise us of incidents where they think this may be happening. For our part NAMA is determined to avoid such developments in so far as it can within the law as passed by the Oireachtas.

Senator Daly: Now that’s not exactly encouraging, is it? Please come to us with a file that we can send to the DPP. What we’re talking about here is the transparency required and they’re not even following section 35 of the NAMA Act to this must be open and transparent. The concerning part about all this is in the next six months the cherry picks, the best property are going to be bought up by the scavengers and the vultures (Serious allegation).

Kenny: You have not gone public on the particular deals that you are aware of, have you gone to the Gardai with them?

Senator Daly: The problem here is you need smoking guns; you need evidence, emails, cheques, money going over, phone calls. This is all quiet little chats in the corner over a pint. The guy who came to me on this had been approached at a dinner party to be the third party to buy a property in the UK and he would then be given a cut. He came to me because he was so disgusted that the same people who had gotten us into this trouble in the first place are now doing the same thing again (With the assistance of NAMA/the state?).

Kenny: Look, if this scandal is real, the people who are culpable, if these things are being sold to private equity funds or whatever, the valuers are the corrupt people because they’re saying this thing is worth six million to NAMA and then it’s being sold on for nine?

Senator Daly: The legislation says you must have an auction or tendering process and therefore it is now illegal to be selling any asset, the disposal of all these assets, the two billion that has been disposed so far, hasn’t been done properly (Very serious allegation).

This practice is so widespread that embassy staff know about it and it’s on the dinner party circuit around Dublin and elsewhere it is quite well known that there are fellows that are cutting deals.

Kenny: We can talk about this but we cannot point the finger until we have chapter and verse.

Senator Daly: The law should be followed; it should be done by tendering or public auction. The NAMA website should have all the assets, the loans that are up for sale, what they were originally bought for, what the current bid is and no asset should be sold within four weeks of it going on the website that way no one can say there was a scam, there was a deal done.

At the moment we’re not following the law.

Senator Daly: In the next six months the guys who caused all the trouble are going to make billions off the taxpayer because they’re buying property at less than the asset value because they’re arranging for their buddies to put in false bids and they’re buying it for less than the market value (Serious allegation).

Copy to:

Today with Pat Kenny
Senator Daly
NAMA
NTMA
ODCE
Dept of Finance