Category: Labour Party

Joan Burton: Time to leave the dark cave of hypocrisy

Yesterday I wrote about Joan Burton’s visionless political pedigree most clearly exposed by her hypocritical attitude to coalition with Sinn Fein.

Here’s how I think a political leader operating outside the narrow-minded, corrupt, self-serving system under which Burton forms her political views would respond.

Tubridy: Mr. Sheridan, as leader of the New Ireland Party would you go into coalition with Sinn Fein?

Sheridan: Let me be absolutely clear on this question. What you are really asking me is – Do I think Sinn Fein has cut itself off from all paramilitary involvement, do I think the party now operates as a fully fledged legitimate democratic political party?

My answer is a resounding – Yes.

And I am not alone in this view. The United States, the United Nations, the European Union, the Unionist community in Northern Ireland, the Queen of England and the vast majority of citizens in the Republic, Northern Ireland and the UK also hold this view.

The only group of people who refuse to accept this political fact are the leaders of the mainstream parties in this country.

So yes, we would go into coalition with Sinn Fein if both our parties could agree on a reasonable and comprehensive programme of government particularly on economic policy.

Tubridy: But what about Sinn Fein’s violent past, what about the other mainstream parties who have rejected Sinn Fein because of its terrorist past? What about Joan Burton’s assertion that there remains a nexus between Sinn Fein and the IRA? Are you not worried that Sinn Fein may use that nexus to bring down the state?

Sheridan: Joan Burton’s claim that there remains a nexus between Sinn Fein and the IRA is very serious. If the claim is true then there could be very serious consequences not just for the citizens of the republic but also for those in the UK and indeed for the Peace Process itself.

To my knowledge there is no evidence whatsoever for the claim but if Ms. Burton is in possession of such evidence then she has a duty to make it public and forward details to the relevant authorities.

Tubridy: Do you think such evidence exists?

Sheridan: No.

Tubridy: Then why do you think she and indeed all the other mainstream party leaders continue to make such claims?

Sheridan: Political fear of Sinn Fein’s success, nothing else. Instead of accepting Sinn Fein’s bona fides like the rest of the world the mainstream parties have retreated into the dark cave of hypocrisy.

On the one hand they declare to the world how delighted they are with the Peace Process and praise Sinn Fein’s contribution while on the other they claim that Sinn Fein is still connected with terrorism and the IRA.

This political strategy is as weak as it is insulting to the intelligence of citizens of Ireland and the rest of the world. It is also an indication of how bankrupt the Irish political system is of real courage and vision, something that is absolutely vital for the future of our country.

Tubridy: Have you any advice for Joan Burton on this question?

Sheridan: Yes, as a new party leader and Tanaiste she has a golden and once in a political lifetime opportunity to make a real difference for her party.

By simply announcing that the Labour Party now accepts what the rest of the world accepted years ago she would immediately remove her party from the dark cave of hypocrisy leaving Fianna Fail and Fine Gael to hug each other in their cold political idiocy.

By accepting political reality Ms. Bruton would also elevate her position as a political leader and provide her party with a huge political advantage in negotiating what form the next government takes.

Tubridy: What are the chances that she will go down that road?

Sheridan: Zero.

Joan Burton: A less than ordinary political leader

Tanaiste and leader of the Labour Party Joan Burton is a less than ordinary political leader.

She is, like the vast majority of Irish politicians, a creature of our intrinsically corrupt political/administrative system.

She has no vision whatsoever for Ireland and its people.. She is, like the majority of politicians, so much a part of the rotten system that’s she’s completely unaware of how desperate citizens are for a leader who will destroy that system and replace it with a genuine democracy.

Her recent appearance on the Late Late Show where she was questioned about her attitude to coalition with Sinn Fein confirms her political ignorance and ineptitude. (My analysis appears in brackets).

Ryan Tubridy: Would you go into coalition with Sinn Fein?

Burton: I believe Sinn Fein still has questions to answer. There’s a nexus between Sinn Fein and the IRA.

(There is no nexus between Sinn Fein and the IRA. The entire world has accepted this fact and have moved on. The mainstream and backward Irish political system refuses to accept this fact preferring to operate where’s it’s most comfortable – in a self-serving bog of hypocrisy).

Tubridy: Give me one question they have to answer.

Burton: Well, I never felt the armed struggle and killing people were necessary.

(Tubridy is asking her to provide a fact, she dishonestly replies with an irrelevant opinion).

Tubridy: But you know there was a peace process?

Burton: And I am a very strong supporter of the Peace Process.

(It’s hypocritical and illogical to reject Sinn Fein while at the same time claiming to be a very strong supporter of the Peace Process given that Sinn Fein is a major pillar of that process. If Burton was honest she would reject the Peace Process on the grounds that Sinn Fein still has questions to answer).

Tubridy: So what’s your problem?

Burton: The issue is in terms of Sinn Fein in government, their economic policies for instance.

(Again, dishonestly avoiding the question by changing the subject).

Tubridy: That’s got nothing to do with the armed struggle.

Burton: You have to look from a range of factors, I would have been in my twenties when all of the violence broke out.

Tubridy: All in the past.

Burton: No, no, I make democratic choices, I don’t like violence.

(Once again dishonestly avoiding the question).

Tubridy: Do you support the administration in Northern Ireland?

Burton: Absolutely.

Tubridy: So how can you expect, an hour and a half up the road, a Sinn Fein party to sit with the DUP and yet here you say Sinn Fein are not fit for government.

Burton: What I’m saying is that Sinn Fein have questions to answer.

(The circle of hypocrisy is complete).

Burton is already a failed political leader because her visionless mindset is the exact same grey colour as all the other mainstream political leaders in Ireland.

Tomorrow I will publish how a visionary, progressive political leader would respond to the coalition with Sinn Fein question.

If Joan Burton ever gets to read my view she will be utterly bamboozled because she will be attempting to read a language that she has never learned.

Copy to:
Joan Burton

Joan Burton: Just another gombeen poltician

Joan Burton, just days into the office of Tanaiste, confirms that she’s nothing more than your average gombeen politician.

When asked about the suggestion that her deputy leader, Alan Kelly, should intervene in the Garth Brooks farce she said:

Ah…not intervene in terms of the decision of the (Dublin city) manager but help the manager and assist the manager if he is, if he has the capacity to review it.

This is pure, unadulterated gombeenism with echoes of mafia speak. When the law of the land becomes awkward officials are ‘requested to accept assistance’ in skirting around the problem.

Here are the facts:

There was an agreement that no more than three evening events a year would be staged at Croke Park. Those three events had already taken place by the time the Garth Brooks concerts were suggested.

Garth Brooks and the organisers responded to the massive public reaction to the concerts by adding on two more.

Dublin City manager Owen Keegan bent over backwards by allowing the initial three concerts to take place.

Garth Brooks reacted, probably out of greed, by threatening that if he couldn’t have five concerts, he wasn’t going to do any.

In other words, the typical schoolboy response – It’s my ball, so you have to play by my rules.

It was at this point that Ireland revealed its true character to the world.

Appeals to the White House, pleading with the Mexican ambassador, a stupid demand by independent TD Finian McGrath that Keegan should step down, political point scoring, calls to change the law to accommodate Brooks and so on.

To his great credit Owen Keegan stood his ground. He knows, I suspect, that if he caves in to the pressure he will be making a mockery of the planning laws, of his office and, ultimately, of the country.

It seems that Garth Brooks has learned, probably from previous visits to Ireland, that Irish law is not necessarily there for the public good. He seems to know that, unlike his own country where his arrogant/greedy behaviour would never be tolerated, the law in Ireland operates on a nod and wink basis depending on who and how much money is involved.

Joan Burton could have shown that she’s different, that she’s politician of substance. She could have issued a statement on the matter supporting Owen Keegan’s decision signaling to everybody, and in particular to her coalition partner, that the gombeen culture that has done so much damage to Ireland and its people was at its end.

Sadly, Burton is as lacking in courage and vision as the man she replaced.

The people of Ireland continue their long wait for real leadership.

Copy to:
Joan Burton

Burton and Kelly: Political pygmies when it comes to Sinn Fein

Joan Burton and Alan Kelly have an almost impossible task ahead of them in repairing the serious damage done to the Labour Party as a result of the party’s participation in government.

So the question is – do they possess the vision and political nous for the job?

In a word – No.

The duo’s policy on coalition with Sinn Fein tells us all we need to know about their political intelligence.

Here’s Kelly’s take on the issue.

I’d be very reticent to go into Government with Sinn Féin. I think they’ve a road to travel yet.

Northern Ireland is a different space; it’s a different context. In the Republic we’ve a tradition of democracy. We’ve a tradition from a political point of view about being pretty open about where we come from and what we stand for.

I’m not sure Sinn Féin have got to the point of being totally up-front with people in regards where they come from and what they stand for.

Kelly uttered these hilariously hypocritical views without a grain of awareness of just how insulting they are to most people and particularly to those governing in Northern Ireland.

Joan Burton is in full agreement with his views.

So how do these views fit in with the rest of the world?

America, the most powerful country in the world accepts Sinn Fein as a bona fide political party.

The European Union fully accepts that Sinn Fein has given up its violent ways and is committed to the democratic process.

The United Nations is fully supportive of Sinn Fein’s democratic mandate and its continuing efforts to progress the Peace Process.

Unionist politicians and their supporters, even though it is extremely difficult for them, are prepared to share power with Sinn Fein.

The Queen of England, a woman who has more reason than most to hate and reject Sinn Fein is supportive, courteous and respectful to Sinn Fein.

The vast majority of Irish citizens in the Republic, the North, Britain and around the world accept unconditionally that Sinn Fein is genuine in their intentions.

Citizens of the Republic have demonstrated their support in referendums and elections on numerous occasions.

It seems it is only the political pygmies who inhabit gombeen land that have difficulty in accepting the reality that Sinn Fein is here to stay.

Copy to:
Labour Party

Joke of the week

I’m not sure Sinn Féin have got to the point of being totally up-front with people in regards where they come from and what they stand for.

Alan Kelly. Deputy leader of the Labour Party.

Eamon Gilmore: An insignificant footnote

Eamon Gilmore is gone; he will not be missed by the vast majority of Irish citizens.

He operated easily within our corrupt political/administrative system.

He leaves mainstream politics with the majority of the citizens he pretended to represent a great deal worse off.

On the 18 August 1991, 23 years ago, Gilmore had an article published in the Irish Times calling for Dail reform.

Here are some quotes from the article:

The Dail is becoming redundant; the government treats it with contempt.

Why should the Government control 80% of Dail time and dictate the agenda?

Most of the laws which now affect the daily lives of the people do not get discussed at all in the Dail.

It is a very secret system of law making.

Government accountability to the Dail is minimal.

The pretence at legislation and accountability which now characterises Dail Eireann cannot continue much longer. Politicians who cannot (or will not) reform their own jaded parliament cannot be expected to reform the country.

We can see from the article that Gilmore, just like the rest of our politicians, knows very well what needs to be done to improve governance for the good of all citizens.

We can also see that, instead of actually acting on his own proposals, he opted for the more comfortable and lucrative life of a gombeen politician.

The dysfunctional Dail he wrote about in 1991 is still just as corrupt, just as dysfunctional.

His career is nothing more than an insignificant footnote.

The full article:

18 August 1991
Eamon Gilmore
Irish Times

The Dail – a failed political entity in need of reform

Interest groups come to lobby it. School children come to look down at it. Television cameras have begun to broadcast it. Most people believe that the Dail is where the laws are made and where the Government is made accountable to the public.

But the reality is very different. The Dail is becoming redundant.

For 40% of the year it does not meet at all. For the remainder, we have a two and a half day week.

Output is low. Procedures are archaic. The Government treats it with contempt. And most TDs spend as little time as possible in the Dail chamber. The National Agenda – unemployment, crime, the North, European Union – gets a better airing in the pubs around the summer schools than in the national parliament.

Unless the Dail is reformed people will rightly see it as irrelevant. They will stop voting, just as happened at the recent local elections when the public lost confidence in their ineffective County Councils.

Dail reform has been talked about for a long time, but nothing has been done.

The Fianna Fail/PD programme for Government promised “to bring forward detailed proposals for the reform of the Oireachtas by the end of 1989.” Two years later, there are still no Government proposals.

A sub-committee of the Committee on Procedure and Privileges recommended some minor changes, but these have made matters worse.

“Priority Questions”, for example take the bite out of question time as ministers get an easy ride from mediocre Fine Gael questions.

So what must be done to transform the Dail?

Let us make a clean break with the colonial parliamentary baggage which was inherited at independence. The Dail is a hand-me-down copy of Westminster, with quaint procedures, dated language and a public-school style of debate.

It is time to make a fresh start, with new standing orders, a modern round-table approach to discussing the issues, and electronic voting which will reduce the time wasted on “divisions”.

Take legislation. In theory all TDs are legislators. In practice only ministers and Ministers of State can claim the title.

Government backbenchers can never propose a Bill, and while opposition TDs can circulate bills, there is not enough private members’ time to debate them and anyway they are defeated by the Government’s superior numbers.

Why should the Government control 80% of Dail time and dictate the agenda? Additional private members’ time could easily be found by extending Dail sitting times and there is no reason why reforming legislation, which does not require finance, cannot be advanced by individual TD.

The Government’s attitude to the Dail is increasingly contemptuous. Most major ministerial announcements are now made to press conferences outside the Dail and TDs are then prevented from pursuing the issue because of the absurd rule that “the legislation was not promised in the house.”

A simple change to standing orders would remedy that, by enabling TDs to question ministers about legislation whether it was promised in Leinster House or across the road in Buswell’s.

Most of the laws which now affect the daily lives of the people do not get discussed at all in the Dail. Your taxes and social welfare payments for example are rarely debated because the Finance and Social Welfare Bills are usually guillotined. The Local Government Bill was passed with only four of its 55 Sections examined.

Controversial bills are now usually published only at the last minute and then rushed through the Oireachtas in order to minimise public controversy.

Legislation like the Broadcasting Bill, the Local Government Bill and the Social Welfare Bill are published on a Thursday, the second stage debate is started on the following Tuesday and the Committee and final stages taken the week after that. So the opposition has little or no time to examine the Bill and interest groups outside the Dail have no time to organise themselves.

None of the hundreds of ministerial regulations which are made every year are ever debated in the Dail. Recent examples are the regulations to control dangerous dogs and the regulation banning smoky coal.

This style of government by ministerial diktat is likely to increase, because most of the primary legislation which is now passed by the Dail is “enabling” legislation, allowing ministers to make rules which will never have to be debated in parliament. It is a very secret system of law making.

Government accountability to the Dail is minimal. Each minister replies to Dail questions only three or four times per year. Even then, only about 10% of the Oral Questions which are tabled are ever answered in the Dail chamber.

Many of these are on matters about which the minister clearly knows nothing and is simply reading the civil servant’s prepared script. Since a Minister for Education, for example, can’t be expected to know about every school building and teacher in the country, why not have a two-tier system of questioning – one tier directly to senior civil servants about routine administrative matters, and the second addressed to a minister on general and policy matters on which she/he would be expected to answer without constant reference to the little pink file.

Politicians, who are now arguing that a change in the electoral system would improve Parliamentary performance, should first examine the failings of the Dail.

Legislative output would be greatly enhanced by having the Dail week on a normal five-day, year-round basis. There is understandable resistance to this from deputies who are based outside Dublin, but there is a solution – votes, especially if there were electronic voting, could be confined to two or three days of the week.

There is no good reason why the Dail, and especially its committees, should always meet in Dublin. Why not rotate the venues around the country?

The pretence at legislation and accountability which now characterises Dail Eireann cannot continue much longer. Politicians who cannot (or will not) reform their own jaded parliament cannot be expected to reform the country.

Copy to:
Eamon Gilmore
Labour Party

A note to Senator O'Keeffe

Your willing cooperation with the disgraceful suspension of democracy regarding the banking inquiry committee places you firmly in the same camp as Haughey, Goodman, Ahern, and Lowry et al.

Your unquestioning loyalty to Government and party places you in opposition to the best interests of Ireland, its people and democracy.

You are a disgrace.

Anthony Sheridan

Copy to:
Senator O’Keeffe
Labour Party

Labour senator Denis Landy is a traitor and a political coward

Labour senator Denis Landy is a traitor and a political coward.

In July 2013 he announced to the country that he had, effectively, been offered a bribe by a political person within the confines of the Oireachtas.

Despite the fact that this is probably one of the most serious crimes that a politician can become involved in, Landy refused to identify the person who offered him the bribe. He also refused to report the matter to the Gardai or Oireachtas authorities.

Landy is a member of a regime that promised a ‘democratic revolution’ in response to decades of political incompetence, arrogance and corruption.

In other words, he must be very aware of the damage done to Ireland and its people by irresponsible and corrupt politicians and so must also be aware of the urgent need for current politicians to stand up to the plate in order to root out the rot that has infected the body politic.

Landy’s failure to do the right thing, particularly in these times of great hardship and economic danger, makes him a traitor.

The official reaction to Landy’s bribery claims and his irresponsible decision to do nothing was entirely precictable. The Gardai showed no interest, Oireacthas officials ignored the matter.

But the reaction of the Labour Party, that the issue was a personal matter for Landy, demonstrated just how morally bankrupt our political system has become.

Labour’s disgraceful reaction makes the party just as traitorous as Landy himself.

In an attempt to force Landy to account for his (non) actions I made a formal complaint through the Clerk of the Seanad to the Committee on Members’ Interests of Seanad Eireann.

Senator Landy, a so-called public representative, refused to attend or co-operate with the committee in any form whatsoever.

He responded to all requests from the committee from behind the apron strings of his legal team.

In other words, in addition to being a traitor Senator Landy is also a political coward.

The behaviour and ultimate decision arrived at by the Committee on Members’ Interests of Seanad Eireann on this matter was just as disgraceful as the behaviour of Landy and the Labour Party.

I’ll be coming back to that later.

Copy to:
Senator Landy
Labour Party
Committee on Members’ Interests of Seanad Eireann.

Pat Rabbitte: Desperately ill citizens are just trying it on?

Councillors get pay-offs of up to €64,000 (Disappointment money).

Right wing (formally left wing socialist) politician Pat Rabbitte was on the Marian Finucane Show yesterday morning defending the Government’s ruthless treatment of those who desperately need but are being refused medical cards.

His overall opinion seems to be that people are simply trying it on, trying to put one over on the system and the government. In effect, they’re lying.

His approach is backed up by his strong opinion that such services are no longer possible due to the country’s dire financial circumstances.

(Councillors get pay-offs of up to €64,000 disappointment money)

Rabbitte:

I talked to James Reilly last week and he told me that there was never (heavy emphasis on ‘never’) a case where somebody phoned somebody who was the mother of a Down’s syndrome child to say, had the condition recovered or whatever was alleged (heavy emphasis on ‘alleged’) every day during the election campaign. He said he was satisfied that it never happened.

The clear suggestion here is that these are false claims leaked to the media as part of a political smear campaign against the Government coalition parties.

Marian Finucane responded by saying she heard a spokesperson for Down’s syndrome say that it had happened.

So, who do we believe, politicians whose default position is to lie or the Down’s syndrome spokesperson?

Rabbitte:

All kinds of things were alleged and urban myths grew up over the course of the campaign. No doubt some of them are true but no doubt some of them are not true.

A Dr. Ciara Kelly was on the panel and she challenged Rabbitte’s views. She related a case where a 7 year-old child with leukemia was contacted by officials to check about her condition.

Rabbitte:

Is it unreasonable given the straits we’re in that the situation ought to be examined. As the figures show, there are quite obviously a number of people who didn’t even bother engaging to reply.

(Councillors get pay-offs of up to €64,000 (Disappointment money).

This is a change of tack by Rabbitte. He’s now attacking the small number of people who failed to follow up with their claim for a medical card, possibly out of sheer frustration and stress.

Dr. Kelly responded:

I had patients who didn’t bother to reply as you put it. They were too sick, terminally ill or had learning disabilities. It’s unfair to describe them as not bothering to apply.

Rabbitte:

The fact of the matter is that we’re in the most difficult economic circumstances that we have ever been in and that every area of government expenditure has to be probed in order to try and keep the country viable.

(Councillors get pay-offs of up to €64,000 (Disappointment money).

Susan O'Keeffe: Haughey would be proud

When the suggestion was put to Labour senator Susan O’Keeffe (Late Debate) that Shatter and the Government may have been involved in a cover-up, she responded:

If you’re trying to cover up you don’t generally try to organise and appoint senior counsel to….

Oh dear, O’Keeffe seems to have forgotten that a cover-up was the principal aim of setting up the Beef Tribunal by the criminal Haughey.

And, in fact, that cover-up worked very well as O’Keeffe, as a journalist, apart from some minor players, was the only person brought before the courts as a result of its findings.

In those days she was on the other side of the fence, the side that spoke with clarity and honesty, the side that challenged the state when it was clearly involved in shady activities, the side that did not indulge in political waffle.

If the criminal Haughey was around today he would be proud of her skills of political waffle.