Category: The State

Lee has his first session in dark pit of Irish politics

It really is refreshing to witness George Lee talk with passion and honesty about political issues.

For example, on The Week in Politics last Sunday he was asked about reports that Seanad Eireann closed down last week to allow the Senators attend a golf outing.

“I can’t believe that they met for 40 days for the first couple of months of the year.

During that period, the first four months up to April, 93,000 people went on the dole while they met for 40 days, while they took all that money from the taxpayer and they sat there planning their golf outing.

It’s an absolute outrage, I tell you they would all want to consider their positions, they need to go.”

On being asked – Should the Senate be shut down?

“Would we care? 93,000 people is what it’s about and the fact that unemployment is heading towards 600,000 while they’re there lining their pockets, claiming their expenses and doing not an awful lot for the people. I really couldn’t be bothered whether they were shut down, it’s a disgrace.”

If every politician or even a significant number of them felt and acted with such passionate anger and honesty Ireland would indeed be a country of happy enlightenment.

Sadly, it is not to be. It’s only a matter of time before George is hauled down into the dark, damp pit of Irish politics where all new arrivals on the political scene are strapped into a seat, have a very bright light shone in their faces and ruthlessly indoctrinated into the realities of Irish political life.

And judging from a report on Newstalk 106 it seems that George has had his first session in the pit. He has denied that he called for the Seanad to be scrapped saying he meant it needed reform.

“All of my party colleagues have been pushing the issue of Seanad reform for a long period of time, much longer than my last two weeks in politics; I’m beating the same drum. They all want to make that contribution, they know it’s very important institution of state and they know it has to be modernised.”

Yes, we know George. Irish politicians have been calling for and promising reform of the Senate for decades but never actually act on the matter. They don’t act because they are greedy, dishonest and arrogant.

How many sessions in the cellar George before you are a fully signed up member of the corrupt Irish political system?

Favours feeding the disease of corruption

On a recent Late Late Show (1hr.5mins), Pat Kenny introduced author and journalist, Colm Tóibín, as follows:

“A man who looks at life a little differently than most, it’s probably why he rushed up to shake the hand of the disgraced building society boss, Michael Fingleton…”

Alas, Mr. Tóibín is very much like the majority of Irish citizens in that he holds a warped sense of right and wrong when it comes to wrongdoing in Irish public and business life.

People like Mr. Tóibín have no problem whatsoever in recognizing wrongdoing in other countries. For example, commentators, journalists, politicians and ordinary citizens in Ireland all seem to agree that the behaviour of UK MPs regarding their expenses is fraudulent and/or seriously unethical. Instinctively, everybody knows such behaviour is wrong.

In contrast, when Bertie Ahern claimed, under oath, that he won large amounts of unexplained money on the horses, there was little if any debate on whether such a ridiculous excuse might be a lie and no debate whatsoever on the possibility that this former Taoiseach may have committed the crime of perjury.

Instead, we had lots of people, operating within the same mindset as Mr. Tóibín, endlessly debating whether Ahern would run for president or opt for a job in the EU. Ahern’s tribunal evidence was only discussed in so far as it might affect his legacy.

In other words, when the brutal reality of what Bertie Ahern really is was exposed, when his flawed pedigree was exposed and put right up there in front of these people they all went into denial and pretended it never happened.

We see the exact same response/mindset from Mr. Tóibín in his defence of Fingleton.

According to Tóibín Fingleton is being demonized simply because of his association with banking scandals in the same way that many (innocent) priests were demonised because of the activities of pedophile priests.

In Tóibín’s mind, Fingleton has done no wrong but is rather the victim of a witch hunt. Tóibín’s problem is simple; he is incapable of telling the difference between those who are guilty and those who are merely associated with the guilty.

This is not to say that Fingleton is guilty of any criminal behaviour, not yet anyway. He is, however, guilty of a recklessness and greed that has destroyed the lives of thousands of people.

He took Irish Nationwide from being a sound business that sold mortgages to help people buy their homes into the casino like world of property developers that left the building society with over 80% of its €12 billion loans related to construction and property.

Irish Nationwide facilitated Sean Fitzpatrick’s dodgy loans which, according to many experts, were fraudulent and are currently under investigation.

He arranged a €27.6 million retirement scheme for himself which gave the impression that the scheme involved a number of members when in fact he was the sole beneficiary. When this was exposed we were asked to believe that the misunderstanding was due to a typing error – shades of Bertie’s ‘I won it on the horses here’.

Tóibín himself provided the answer for his blind loyalty to a chancer like Fingleton.

At some point in the distant past Fingleton did Tóibín a favour, he gave him a mortgage when times were tough. It’s this ‘doing favours’ that lies at the heart of Irish corruption.

It’s why, for decades, thousands of people voted for the corrupt Haughey. – he did them favours. It’s why 12,000 people voted for the liar and tax cheat, Michael Lowry, in the last election – he did them favours. It’s why the chancer Bertie Ahern enjoyed such a successful career in politics – he did favours for his constituents.

The people who sell their votes for favours, the people who buy votes with favours and the people like Tóibín who cannot see beyond the favour are responsible for the destruction of this country.

Mr. Tóibín, along with thousands of other Irish citizens, simply will not or cannot understand that when somebody does something wrong they should be made accountable no matter what favours they have done.

For so long as this primitive tribal mind set persists Ireland will continue to suffer at the hands of corrupt politicians, bureaucrats and businessmen.

Mr. Tóibín himself provided a perfect example of the damage that can be wrought when favours, special interests, ruthless greed or blind loyalty take precedence over the common good.

He recalled a (outraged) phone call he received from the New York Times some years ago asking him:

“Is it possible that you are building a motorway through the beautiful landscape of Tara?”

He later visited Tara and realised that anyone who disturbed such a landscape would be in trouble, would be haunted.

The tragedy for Ireland is that while people like Tóibín can see that such actions are wrong he is incapable of understanding that they happen because Ireland is a country riven by the disease of corruption.

He is incapable of seeing that he and others, through their ignorance, are principally responsible for the continuing spread of that disease.

Copy to:
Colm Tóibín

How things stand

Letter in today’s Irish Times.

Madam,

Just to be clear on how things stand.

A full national out-of-hours social service to place children in an appropriate safe environment as recommended by the Monageer report is not possible in the current economic downturn. Similarly, two wards in the Crumlin Children’s Hospital are to be closed because of a lack of funds.

The State’s finances have not, however, reached such a critical phase as to warrant the cancellation of massive pensions to politicians while they are still collecting very generous salaries.

Yours, etc,

ANTHONY SHERIDAN,

An immature and ignorant nation

Views expressed by economist Moore McDowell, Journalist Declan Lynch and politician Mary O’Rourke on Today FM last Sunday paint a depressing picture of how little we have matured as a people and a nation.

On allegations that UK MPs including Sinn Fein members may have claimed unjustified expenses.

O’Rourke (in outraged tone):

“Of course you can’t take money you’re not entitled to.”

Let’s see – Haughey, Ahern, Burke, Collins, Lawlor, Flynn, Foley are just some of a long list of Fianna Fail politicians who have taken money to which they weren’t entitled to.

And these are just the more serious cases; fiddling expenses is a national pastime for practically every TD, Senator and Councillor in the country. I have yet to witness O’Rourke show outrage when a Fianna Fail politician robs the state.

When corrupt activity is uncovered in the UK and other real democracies there is outrage, proper investigations, resignations and apologies. In Ireland it’s an integral and unnoticed part of our corrupt culture.

O’Rourke:

“The goings on in the papers about Irish politicians pales beside this. You can get saunas in your home, drinks cabinets, curtains.”

So, according to O’Rourke no Irish politician has ever done anything worse than over claim for the odd sauna or drinks cabinet?

Mc Dowell:

“A lot of Irish people would think that any Irishman is entitled to any money he can get from the British treasury under any circumstances.”

Declan Lynch:

“The Republican family always did everything in its power to drain her majesty’s treasury and undermining the crown in whatever way they can and I see this as merely part of that.”

The suggestion here from these two gentlemen is that it’s ok for Irish citizens to steal from the British people. This attitude reflects the old, immature, anti British mindset that still runs deep in Irish society coupled with an easy acceptance of criminality.

This easy acceptance of criminality within the Irish body politic is so ingrained in our culture that people like McDowell seem to be completely unaware of its existence as the following incredible quote demonstrates.

“You do hear of quote ‘scandals’ unquote in Irish politics, you do hear them and the truth of the matter is that with a couple of exceptions going back over the 90 years since the Free State was set up and now the Republic Irish politics in the terms of venal corruption has been peculiarly free of it.”

O’Rourke, a long serving member of the most intrinsically corrupt party in the country immediately added

“I agree with you fully.”

We can only surmise that McDowell’s incredible ignorance of the reality of Irish political corruption is a result of spending too many years with his head buried in lecture notes.

Safely ensconced within the walls of academia McDowell never noticed the long and corrupt career of Haughey as he plundered the state’s finances while accepting large payments from businessmen who were allegedly ‘acting in the interests of democracy’.

He never noticed that Haughey spawned a whole pack of like minded thieves like Burke, Foley and Lawlor.

He never noticed the avalanche of rot that poured from the various tribunals revealing how deeply the disease of corruption had eaten into the very fabric of Irish society.

He never noticed that Irish banks and other financial institutions have always enjoyed a free hand, courtesy of politicians and a so called regulatory system, to rob citizens at will with no worries whatsoever of being brought to account.

He never noticed that people like Jim Flavin can defraud the stock market of €83 million and walk away a free man, no questions asked.

Most of all Mr. McDowell never noticed that Ireland, alone among all Western democracies, never, ever takes any effective action against white collar crime.

On Ronan O’Gara’s insult to the Queen of England.

When I saw the picture of Ronan O’Gara insulting the Queen of England I felt ashamed of my nationality.

O’Rourke’s reaction was like that of a giggling school girl witnessing a fellow student being cheeky to a teacher.

O’Gara is certainly a legend in the field of sport but his behaviour sent out a clear message to the world – ‘I’m a typical bog Irishman who has yet to learn the basics in courtesy and good manners’.

There has been much talk of the Queen paying a visit to our country but judging from this incident and O’Rourke’s reaction it might be better to defer such an event for a few more decades.

On the troubles besetting the Italian Prime Minister, Berlusconi.

When it was put to McDowell (a great admirer of Berlusconi) that he was loathed by lots of people he replied.

“He is but that’s always been the problem for great men think of Charlie Haughey, think of De Valera.”

There’s no nice way to say this – Anyone who believes that the corrupt Haughey was a great man is a deluded fool.

On the entry of George Lee into politics.

O’Rourke:

“It’s interesting now that we know because I heard him saying to Sean O’Rourke that he had been asked in 2002 and he dallied with the idea so it’s good to know that all he said since 2002 to now was in fact Fine Gael talk.”

Ah yes, Fianna Fail hypocrisy – a bottomless pit.

Copy to:
Mary O’Rourke
Moore McDowell
Declan Lynch

Ruling (mafia) families

There are 166 TDs in Dail Eireann.

Shockingly, over 25% (42) of them are direct relatives of former or current TDs. According to a Drivetime report during the week nothing like this exists in any other Western democracy. Here’s some further breakdown.

A massive 28 of the 42 are Fianna Fail TDs followed by Fine Gael with 12 and 2 from Labour.

24 are sons or daughters of TDs – 15 Fianna Fail, 8 Fine Gael and 1 Labour.

There are three TDs in the Fianna Fail Kitt family as was their father before them.

Fianna Fail TD, Mary O’Rourke is the daughter of a TD and sits in the Dail with her brother Brian Lenihan and two nephews Brian and Conor.

The three most senior people in government, Brian Cowen, Mary Coughlin and Brian Lenihan all inherited their seats from their father.

And people wonder why Ireland is run like a mafia.

Going to EU on criminalisation of Mass card sellers

I received very little response to my email to the three Munster MEPs regarding the criminalisation of those who sell Mass cards without the permission of a Catholic bishop so I’ve sent the same email to all 13 Irish MEPs.

I’ve also submitted the following petition to the European Parliament.

To Whom It May Concern:

In February this year the Irish government enacted a law which makes it a criminal offence to sell a Mass card not authorised by a Catholic bishop (Charities Act 2009, Section 99).

I strongly object to this law for the following reasons.

1. Contained within the Act is a presumption of guilt until proved innocent. This runs contrary to Article 48 (1) of the European Union’s Charter of Fundamental Rights which states:

“Everyone who has been charged shall be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law.”

2. Section 99 is an unjustified restriction on Article 44 of the Irish Constitution which guarantees the free profession and practice of religion (See newspaper article below).

3. The criminalisation of the sale of Mass cards is a disproportionate reaction to what is a very minor business activity (See newspaper article below).

4. This law confers an absolute monopoly to the Catholic Church for the sale of Mass Cards. I believe this to be contrary to EU law.

5. The requirement to obtain permission from a member of a religious organisation to engage in legitimate business is an infringement of the right of all EU citizens to engage in such activity.

I request that the EU take action to force the Irish government to repeal section 99 of the Charities Act, 2009 or, at a minimum, have that part which is offensive to the European Union’s Charter of Fundamental Rights regarding the principle of ‘innocent until proved guilty’ struck out.

Thank You
Anthony Sheridan

References:

Section 99. (Charities Act, 2009)

(1) A person who sells a Mass card other than pursuant to an arrangement with a recognised person shall be guilty of an offence.

(2) In proceedings for an offence under this section it shall be presumed, until the contrary is proved on the balance of probabilities, that the sale of the Mass card to which the alleged offence relates was not done pursuant to an arrangement with a recognised person.

(3) In this section—

“Church” means the Holy Catholic Apostolic and Roman Church;

“Mass card” means a card or other printed material that indicates, or purports to indicate, that the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass howsoever described will be offered for—

(a) the intentions specified therein, or
(b) such intentions as will include the intentions specified therein;

“priest” means a priest ordained according to the rites of the Church;

“recognised person” means—

(a) a bishop of the Church, or
(b) a provincial of an order of priests established under the authority of, and recognised by, the Church;

“sell” includes, in relation to a Mass card, offer or expose the card for sale or invite the making by a person of an offer to purchase the card.

Irish Times article

Mass card section of Charities Bill could be unconstitutional

CAROL COULTER, Legal Affairs Editor

Thu, Feb 26, 2009

A SECTION of the Charities Bill may be unconstitutional because it makes it a criminal offence to sell a Mass card not authorised by a Catholic bishop, according to a former attorney general. The Bill went to President Mary McAleese for signing earlier this week.

The section in question was inserted into the Bill by the Seanad on February 11th last to deal with a problem of the sale of “bogus Mass cards”, which purport to be signed by a priest, but where the signature is not genuine and no Mass is actually said.

The Government amendment was put forward following the earlier proposal of a similar amendment by Senator Ronan Mullen.

Former attorney general John Rogers SC has provided an opinion on it to the solicitor for a man who sells genuine Mass cards, signed by a priest in the Philippines by arrangement with a bishop there. The money raised goes to build churches there. He fears shops may feel pressure on them not to sell if the Bill becomes law.

During the Seanad debate, Senator David Norris read from Mr. Rogers’s opinion, which stated that section 96 was “an unjustified restriction on the Article 44 guarantee of the free profession and practice of religion.”

The section provides that a person who sells a Mass card “other than pursuant to arrangement with a recognised person” is guilty of an offence. A “recognised person” who can authorise the sale of such Mass cards is defined as a bishop of the church, or the head of an order recognised by it.

The section defines a Mass card as a card that indicates that “the holy sacrifice of the Mass” will be offered for a person’s intentions.

In any proceedings it will be presumed, unless proved to the contrary, that an offence has been committed.

In his opinion Mr. Rogers says this goes further than is reasonably required to deal with the problem of the sale of a Mass card not properly signed by a priest, where no Mass is said, or where the purchaser thinks it is for a charitable purpose and it is not.

“The narrow categories of persons is arbitrary and unfair and represents a serious interference with the religious practice of some priests and others who are members of non-Catholic churches and religious communities in this State,” he states.

He also points out that it presumes an offence has been committed until the contrary is proven. “The criminalisation of the sale of Mass cards is another aspect of the disproportionate nature of this piece of legislation,” he says.

ENDS

Great scandal and nobody bats an eyelid

On last Friday’s Late Late Show, Fianna Fail TD John McGuinness, repeated the following statement which he first made in September 2008.

“The public service destroys ambition, resists change and is so insulated from reality that information can be withheld from a minister, unfavourable reports are doctored and answers to parliamentary questions are master classes in dissemination and obfuscation.”

If a serving minister in an accountable democracy accused civil servants of doctoring unfavourable reports it would be a cause of great scandal and would spark an immediate investigation by state authorities.

In Ireland, nobody batted an eyelid.

Subjugation of servile drones

Letter in Sunday Tribune.

Right to resist government is no longer in dispute

Social contract envisages an agreement between people to form a society, as the alternative would be too terrible to contemplate. The process is entirely consensual.

The authority of government is derived from the consent of the people in return for a guarantee which seeks to protect life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

When government fails in this duty it has broken the contract and in extreme circumstances may be deemed to be at war with the people. At this point the contract fails, mutual obligations end and the right to resist government authority is no longer in dispute.

At what point in our history did the Irish people assume the status of servile drones subjugated to the cynical dictates of a group of mid-Ireland mediocrities masquerading as political leaders.

Is the West awake?

Gerry Walker
Tinahely
Co Wicklow

Heading for the wasteland

Kevin Myers takes Fine Gael to task in yesterday’s Irish Independent for the party’s failure to adopt a Tallaght Strategy type cooperation with the Government. It wasn’t easy at the time, he says, for Fine Gael to cooperate with a “truly dreadful man like Charles Haughey” he continues:

“He was, moreover, personally horrible, a sneering, ridiculing bully, a hypocrite who escorted his mistress to fine restaurants as he preached Catholic values. And he was visibly corrupt (though just how spectacularly so, we didn’t know for decades).”

“We didn’t know for decades”??? I’m about average when it comes to adding numbers and ditto on ability to join up dots.

Since the early 80s I’ve been adding the numbers and joining the dots and the result has always been the same. Haughey was not just ‘visibly’ corrupt; he was corrupt to the core.

For all those decades when Myers wasn’t quite sure of Haughey’s pedigree I was ranting on to anybody who would listen that this man should be stopped, that he was very, very obviously doing enormous damage to Ireland and its people, that he should be rotting in jail to prevent him from spreading the deadly disease of corruption throughout the land.

Haughey’s career of corruption was a resounding success principally because people like Myers were, and apparently still are, incapable of seeing the brutal reality right before their eyes.

Let me spell out that reality to Mr. Myers, it may save us all from having to read of his shock and horror at some point in the future (hopefully not decades) when he finally realises just how ‘spectacularly’ corrupt Ireland has become.

The corrupt Haughey did not operate in a vacuum. He carried out his crimes within the comfort of a corrupt Fianna Fail party. Many of the people who unquestionably supported the corrupt Haughey are still in the party, some of them at the highest level.

The party leadership almost to a man unquestionably supported the chancer Ahern even when he was swearing under oath that he won his dodgy money on the horses.

Fianna Fail has been in power for most of the history of this blighted state and it has corrupted the state to its core, not just some ‘visible’ corruption, but to its very core. Nothing will change until that reality is faced up to, until the rot that eats away at the heart of Irish society is ripped out and destroyed.

It is that corrupt entity that is still in power; it is that corrupt entity that Mr. Myers apparently thinks has the vision, courage and honesty to take us out of the crisis.

Myers tells us that if Fine Gael continues to oppose in order to court popular approval. . . the road ahead will lead to a wasteland.

No, Mr. Myers, if Fianna Fail is not destroyed as a political entity as a first step towards reform of our corrupt political system – then we are indeed heading for a wasteland.

Copy to:
Kevin Myers