Category: The State

Fianna Fail: Still arrogantly confident

An event occurred yesterday morning that should have sent shivers down the spine of every poverty stricken taxpayer in this country.

It was announced on Morning Ireland (5th report, 2nd item) that Minister for Tourism, Culture and Sport Mary Hanafin was planning to meet the National Asset management Agency (NAMA) to discuss the problems of the hotel sector.

When Hanafin was asked would she be encouraging NAMA to get rid of surplus hotels she replied:

We will be encouraging NAMA not to leave it run for a number of years. I need them to look at it at the end of the year. To take a look and see, area by area, what exactly is required of the market to see how many of those hotels are going to be viable.

I need them to look at it at the end of the year??? To see exactly what is required of the market??? This is direct political interference in NAMA, something we were told would never happen.

Hanafin, one of the most ruthless politicians in the country, is a very loyal member of the most corrupt political party in the country.

A party that’s principally responsible for the destruction of the country, a party that provided the very generous tax breaks to developer friends to build all the surplus hotels now residing in NAMA.

This is the politician who is now going to tell NAMA what to do with all these hotels and there’s not a word of protest from anybody.

This arrogance coupled with the recent blatant appointment of a Fianna Fail hack to the board of Anglo Irish Bank are clear signs that Fianna Fail still believe they are untouchable, that they can do as they please.

There is not the slightest indication that they are mistaken in their arrogant confidence.

The next generation of politicians

On a recent radio programme, The Late Debate I think, a group of young politicians, mostly councilors, were asked about their ambitions for themselves and Ireland.

It was a depressing experience as each one came across as a clone of their respective parties – no vision, no radicalism whatsoever.

One of them was asked how she would improve the political system and, incredibly, assured the nation that she was doing great work on getting pot holes repaired in her area.

When the (very puzzled) presenter put the question again the young politician was completely stumped, had no idea what to say, spluttered a couple of inanities before being rescued by the meaningless waffle of a fellow politician.

Roll on the young, ‘enlightened’ generation.

Brutal reality will stop the denial

So I would ask the media. Look at all of the report. We have enough of this pervasive negativity all the time trying to take a bad interpretation of a report which in fact is supportive of what Government is doing so that we finally get the real message out there.

The message from Cowen to the media is simple – stop telling the truth.

But what is the truth? Well, David McWilliams makes a good stab at it in today’s Irish Independent when he writes that Ireland is staring down the barrel of bankruptcy.

McWilliams analyses all the figures and the brutal truth is that they just do not add up – no matter how many lies Cowen and Lenihan spout.

With a very broad brush here’s the picture I see.

Ireland has never been a real democracy; it has always operated more like a mafia organisation than a modern Western democracy. Citizens sell their votes to the local strongman in return for favours, most of which are services that the ignorant citizen has already paid for through taxes.

This selling and buying of votes eventually corrupted the entire system of politics, state administration, business and the general population. The system was, and still is, all about power, money, who you know and who you can influence.

The great bulk of Irish citizens, because of their political ignorance, were more than happy with this arrangement so long as their particular strong man delivered the goods. But a corrupt society is extremely inefficient and is thus very, very expensive.

This massive cost of corruption was never a problem until recent times, politicians simply dipped into the bottomless pocket of the taxpayer and wrote a cheque for whatever favour was required, for whatever needed to be done to ensure the rotten system trundled along.

That situation would have continued indefinitely if it wasn’t for the global financial tsunami that rocked the planet a few years ago.

Since then we have been desperately trying to convince ourselves and the international community that we are not a corrupt state; that we are, just like most other states, honestly struggling to repair the damage caused by that global crisis to a sound, accountable good quality democracy.

We will fail to convince, Ireland will default on her loans, and the situation will become critical to the point of national crisis.

The reason for this is simple – the taxpayer has no more money – the well is dry, the pocket is empty.

All talk about property tax, water charges, pensions cuts, reform of the public service and so on are nothing more than desperate and doomed to failure strategies to put off the day when denial must end.

Again, broadly speaking, there are only two roads open for the country.

Road one will see Irish citizens reduced to a standard of living/poverty similar to that of the 1950s. In addition to living in poverty Irish citizens will also sheepishly agree to the following conditions.

Continue to pay off massive mortgages and other loans at (corrupt) Celtic Tiger rates.

Continue to bail out corrupt (and still very rich) bankers and developers.

Continue to tolerate a corrupt political system that betrays them time after time in favour of power and enrichment.

Road two will see Irish citizens, after decades of ignorance, finally waking up to what Ireland really is as a country.

They will act to destroy the corrupt political system that has been responsible for the destruction of their country and they will begin the long hard job of building (for the first time in Irish history) a real democracy based on accountability, transparency and the best interests of the Irish people.

Call to reform defective state

From the Attic Archives.

Letter to the Cork Examiner in (I think) 1991.

Sir,

We, the undersigned, have been concerned for some time about the manner in which the Irish State is constituted.

We believe that the machinery of government, the way it is financed, and the way it redistributes wealth, are paralyzing government, frustrating initiative and enterprise, undermining public morale and causing the growing emigration of intelligent and well-educated young people.

These defects, we believe, are inherent in the State itself, as it is now constituted, and will defeat the best efforts of any political party, Cabinet, Dail or local government council.

Our system of government was not designed to suit the needs of the Irish nation today. It is largely inherited from the British government in Ireland in the 19th century, or derived, uncritically, from contemporary practice in the United Kingdom.

This inadequate model has been made worse by the politicians and officials of our centralizing government, who believe they can manage Irish life better than the people directly involved in it, regionally, locally or professionally.

We believe that a better system of government, serving the needs of the Irish people today, can be devised and implemented.

We believe, moreover, that the usefulness of this enterprise would extend beyond its direct, practical benefits.

The creation of a new, distinctively Irish State, tailored to our particular needs and purposes, and exemplary in some respects, would overcome, to a considerable degree, our present crisis of national identity.

With all of this in mind, we have met and founded the Constitution Club.

The purpose of this club is, first, to persuade citizens and politicians that the State needs to be reorganized; secondly, to promote thought and discussion on how a framework of government might be created which would release the skills and energies in our society while increasing democratic accountability.

The club will provide a centre and a forum for new thinking on the following themes: National government, government of the communities (regional and sub-regional), the financing of government, government financing of citizens.

Our first meeting, at which the public will be welcome, will be held in Buswell’s Hotel, Dublin, on Wednesday, November 5th at 6 pm.

Dr. Roy Johnston will speak about ‘Innovation, Employment and Regional Government’.

Anyone who has done some thinking on any of the themes mentioned above, and who wishes to present his or her ideas to a sympathetic and critical audience, should send a summary of them to the Secretary, The Constitution Club, 28 Emmet Road, Dublin 8.

Finally, any individual or group outside Dublin who wishes to found a Constitution Club locally is welcome to contact us by writing to the same address.

Tom Barrington
Raymond Crotty
Desmond Fennell
Roy Johnston
Michael O’Flanagan
John Robb
John Roden

Daily prayer: An insult to democracy

The following sectarian prayer is recited every day in Dail Eireann.

Direct, we beseech Thee, O Lord, our actions by Thy holy inspirations
and carry them on by Thy gracious assistance; that every word and
work of ours may always begin from Thee, and by Thee be happily
ended; through Christ Our Lord. Amen.

The prayer is a direct appeal to the Catholic god for assistance in the running of the country.

Other gods, for example, Muslim, Jewish, the pantheon of voodoo gods and the god of Scientology, are all ignored.

The daily recitation of this prayer is an insult to rationality. It’s an insult to all those many people who do not believe in the power/magic of the Catholic/Christian god.

It’s an insult to the growing number of people who don’t believe in any god whatsoever.

Most of all, however, it’s an insult to democracy.

Attic Archives

I’m in the process of sorting out old newspapers that have been stored in my attic for some years now, some dating back to the mid 1980s.

From time to time I’ll publish articles that may be of interest.

The following article, by Pat Brosnan, was published in the then Cork Examiner on Monday 11th March 1996.

A very disturbing story was related to me this week, and the unfortunate aspect of it is that the victim of this sorry tale didn’t even know he was taken to the cleaners.

A friend of mine told me how his brother was telephoning a branch of a bank in Cork and happened to get a crossed line.

It was a coincidence that he happened to overhear a conversation that was taking place between and bank manager he was ringing and the manager of another branch of the same bank.

What he overheard related to a discussion the two managers were having about a customer who had complained either about his overdraft or bank charges.

Either way, the customer felt he had paid too much.

The substance of the phony conversation was that the bank had, indeed, overcharged the man – to the tune of £25,000.

And what were they going to do about it?

In this case their customer was the owner of a small business which was in trouble, a fact that they knew only too well.

So what was the advice one of those miserable weeds offered to his colleague?

Offer him £9,000 and he’ll be only too happy to accept it because of the state of his business.

Because this happened some time ago I don’t know what the final upshot of it was. The one regret my friend’s brother had was that the name of the bank’s customer wasn’t mentioned during the conversation, because if it had he would have phoned him and told him what the real score was.

I’m sorry myself, that he was not in a position to do so.

As Irish citizens know to their great cost, nothing has changed. Still rampant criminality within the financial sector, still no regulation.

Hypocrisy and greed still rampant within our political system.

Fianna Fail MEP Pat ‘The Cope’ Gallagher still hasn’t decided whether to give up his pension of €23,634 which he receives along with his €91,500 MEP salary (Irish Independent).

He claimed he had issues from his constituents on his plate and had to focus on them without thinking about his pension.

Fine Gael MEP, Jim Higgins, said a court order relating to a “family law matter” was preventing him from surrendering his ministerial and Dail pensions, which amount to €60,000 a year.

Hypocrisy and greed still rampant within our political system.

Fitzgerald: A coward in office, brave in retirement

Writing about the disastrous legacy caused by political appointments to State enterprises Garret Fitzgerald, unwittingly, put his finger on one of the reasons Ireland evolved into a corrupt state (Irish Times).

After the establishment of the State in 1922, according to Fitzgerald, almost all government appointments were made by an independent Civil Service Commission.

In 1926 widespread corruption and bribery in local appointments was brought to an end by the establishment of the Local Appointments Commission.

So, by 1926, according to Fitzgerald, state and local appointments were transparent and accountable – no corruption.

Then, in 1932, Fianna Fail came to power and began to make political appointments outside the framework of the two appointments commissions.

This was the moment when the system began to go corrupt, this was the moment when the Opposition should have shouted stop.

This was the moment when good Irish men and women should have challenged Fianna Fail in the interests of the country and its citizens but nothing was done because of what Fitzgerald describes as ‘a complication’.

Apparently, the ‘complication’ was the fact that after the Civil War hundreds of leading republicans, who continued to reject the new State, had been blacklisted for public appointments.

The reaction to this ‘complication’ should have been – tough luck lads, you backed the wrong horse now you have to suffer the consequences. But Fitzgerald writes that the Fianna Fail action was ‘understandable’.

We can see why Fitzgerald is so ‘understanding’ when we read the next chapter in the corrupting of Irish public life.

When Fine Gael came to power in 1948 it continued the Fianna Fail practice of making political appointments outside of the appointments commissions.

Fitzgerald tells us that this was an ‘unhappy’ development that was justified by Fine Gael at the time by what they saw as a need to balance Fianna Fáil appointments during the preceding 16 years.

This is a mealy mouthed, pathetic excuse. Obviously, the reason Fine Gael continued this Tammany Hall scam was to reward and enrich its favoured members and supporters at taxpayer’s expense. In this respect Fitzgerald’s party is no better than the Fianna Fail.

Fitzgerald claims that when Taoiseach he made some attempt to control the abuse but admits:

We should, of course, have initiated legislation to control these abuses, but regrettably economic/financial pressures during the life of that government plus our involvement with Northern Ireland distracted us from thus institutionalising reform of appointments to State boards – a reform that would of course have involved a huge battle with Fianna Fáil under its then leader.

Again, this is just another mealy mouthed excuse for not having the courage to act in the interests of the citizens Fitzgerald allegedly represented.

A few senior civil servants assisted by some legal experts could have had a reform package on the table for Fitzgerald’s signature in months if not weeks.

Fitzgerald may have wanted to end the practice but he didn’t have the courage to challenge the by then deeply ingrained ‘entitlement’ culture of party hacks who expected reward for their services.

He ends the article with the hope that the opposition parties will commit themselves to reform of the appointments system and other abuses of public office.

Well, let’s see. The abuse of appointments to state boards began in 1932 and has been going on ever since with the active cooperation of all parties.

Fitzgerald was active in politics from 1965 until 1992 which included two periods as Taoiseach and in all that time, despite being aware of the abuse, he failed to take effective action.

Now, safely in retirement, he ‘courageously’ calls on others to do what he himself feared to do.

Everybody knows Garret is not a liar….

In last Saturday’s Irish Times Garrett Fitzgerald was reflecting on some of his memories surrounding Bloody Sunday in 1972.

On hearing the news that the British embassy was in flames Fitzgerald was concerned that the arsonists might next turn on his beloved Leinster House.

Mmmm…I wonder if that crowd of arsonists are still for hire?

Fitzgerald also recalls how he was described as a liar and a ranting halfwit by Independent Fianna Fail TD, Neil Blaney.

Now everybody knows Garret is not a liar.

Irish public life has been criminalised

The only quibble I would have with this excellent letter is the suggestion that the criminality only began 13 years ago.

I believe corruption/criminality has always been an integral part of Irish public life but the disease became endemic in 1979 when the criminal politician Haughey gained power.

Laughing boy Brian Cowen was laughing at more than Fine Gael in the Dail chamber on Wednesday: he and his party were also laughing at the people of Ireland.

On the day that it was formally acknowledged that the old, the sick and the disabled of Ireland would have to pay a heavy price to support the gambling debts of the friends of Fianna Fail, through paying off the Anglo debt of €22bn, all Cowen could do was sneer at the problems of the opposition.

It is amazing to me that when the Fianna Fail mask slips, all that is revealed is exactly the same face of arrogance and cocky contempt.

The one thing Fine Gael should learn from their travails is that, no matter who the leader, if they don’t learn the nature of the opposition they face, then they will never connect with the depth of anger that exists in this country at the way public life has been criminalised.

The most awful truths are often the most difficult to contemplate.

But the reality is that 13 years of cowboy banking, cowboy building and cowboy spending could only have happened through the orchestration of the cowboy politics represented by the Fianna Fail hegemony.

Words like nepotism, largesse and cronyism are employed by polite and civilised society to convey its discomfiture with immoral conduct.

But the times in which we live demand that we develop a language and attitude more fitting to both describe and challenge the enemy Ireland faces today.
Very simply, public life has been criminalised.

We need to ‘man up’ as a nation and admit this.

The people who did the criminalisation manage successfully to pass themselves off as part of the political discourse. There is always some “policy”-based argument for decisions that result in the same outcome.

But the result is always the same: public money is effectively stolen.

It is more than ironic that a state agency, the HSE, should have referred the seeming theft of €2.5m to the Garda Siochana when, over in the Dail, the chairman of Anglo admitted that €22bn would never be accounted for.

It’s no wonder Brian Cowen is laughing at us.

Declan Doyle

Lisdowney Co Kilkenny