Category: The State

Rooting out the disease of corruption

I was watching an interesting documentary last night on BBC 2 called Equator with Simon Reeves.

At one point while he was travelling in Uganda (32 min) I noticed, in the background, a large roadside billboard with the message:

Corruption is deadly: Stop it.

I find it interesting that so many countries openly recognise the disease of corruption and actively take measures to counteract its deadly effects.

Everybody knows that corruption is rampant in Ireland but the State has yet to even recognise that fact let alone actually initiate a concerted campaign to root out the disease.

Albert Reynolds: Not the worst – among the worst

As Taoisigh go Albert Reynolds was not the worst. Mind you, this half compliment is greatly diluted when we reflect on the long list of criminals, chancers and buffoons who have held that office.

There is truth in the claim that Reynolds made a significant contribution to peace in Northern Ireland but then again that particular building is becoming more overcrowded than the GPO in 1916 – over three million at last count I believe.

In functional democracies, when former Prime Ministers die, there is usually a respectful response with a lowered emphasis on the negative aspects of the office holder.

In Ireland history is immediately and comprehensively rewritten and the man/woman is instantly elevated to sainthood. This is an instinctive/automatic reaction that ensures the fog of denial that envelopes our failed state is maintained.

So when a criminal like Haughey or a chancer like Ahern (oh wait, he’s not dead – yet.) dies they ascend on high without a stain on their character, or, at the very least, we’re assured that history will be kind to them.

The media and in particular RTE play a major role in this rewriting of history.

For example, consider the following quote from Sean O’Rourke talking about his memories of Reynolds and his family and ask yourself the question – Would you trust the objectivity of O’Rourke if he was the producer of a documentary on the life of Albert Reynolds?

It was an extraordinary experience to go into that family home. They got on so well and they all were so affectionate towards each other.

Clearly they worshipped him and they were so well reared and so well behaved.

I remember meeting them, I think they were all teenagers at the time in the late 70s, early 80s.

Democratic accountability – in 95 years time

I see former Taoiseach John Bruton thinks that the Easter Rising and subsequent War of Independence were completely unnecessary.

Now there are many who will criticise Bruton for his views but I think such people should take comfort from the fact that the reaction time to political events by Irish politicians is reducing.

Bruton’s reaction brings the time scale below the 100 years mark.

We can therefore look forward, for example, to a Fine Gael Taoiseach in, say 95 years time, courageously expressing the view that Enda Kenny did indeed fire a Garda commissioner and should make himself democratically accountable.

Is the Iona Institute guilty of intellectually abusing schoolchildren?

Last April, religious militant and director of the Iona Institute David Quinn, delivered a lecture to fifth and sixth year students falsely informing them that the origin of the universe had nothing to do with science but was strictly a matter for religion/philosophy (See full article here).

There is an abundance of scientific evidence relating to the origin of the universe. Scientific discoveries such as background radiation, inflation and the recently discovered gravitational waves are all scientific facts supporting the idea that the origin of the universe is scientific.

In stark contrast, Mr. Quinn’s claim that the origin of the universe is a philosophical and religious one has no basis in fact whatsoever.

Despite centuries of philosophical and religious debate on the question of the origin of the universe not a single fact has been produced to confirm the myriad of speculative opinions emanating from that quarter.

What is really disturbing about this incident is the fact that Mr. Quinn and the Iona Institute appear to have unrestricted access to propagate what is effectively, religious propaganda to innocent students.

It is obvious from reading Mr. Quinn’s article that his lecture had nothing to do with genuine education, that it was not designed to inform students about the pros and cons in the debate between science and religion.

In addition to the lie concerning the origin of the universe Mr. Quinn’s lecture seems to have been nothing more than a vicious attack on New Atheism and in particular on Richard Dawkins.

Mr. Quinn regularly makes such attacks across various media outlets and, while rationally obnoxious, he is entitled to hold and express those views.

But what is not acceptable and what is deeply disturbing, is the apparent freedom extended to the Iona Institute to effectively intellectually abuse innocent schoolchildren.

I made a formal complaint on the matter to the Department of Education.

The response, while entirely predictable, was nevertheless shocking.

Effectively, the Department said – Nothing to do with us, it’s the responsibility of the boards of management and the patron of each school (See below for my formal complaint, reply from Dept. of Education and my response).

This is the same irresponsible response by the Dept/Government as that taken in the Louise O’Keeffe scandal.

Ms. O’Keeffe, who had been sexually abused by a teacher as a schoolgirl in the 1970s, lost her case for justice in the Irish High and Supreme Courts but finally found justice when the decision of the Irish courts was overturned by the European Court of Human Rights.

Although disgusting in the extreme it seems that this ‘legal arrangement’ is proving very useful to politicians and civil servants as a means of abdicating any responsibility whatsoever towards protecting children from abuse whether physical, sexual or intellectual.

Copy to:
Department of Education
Iona Institute
All political parties

Formal complaint:

10 April 2014

For attention of Minister for Education Ruairi Quinn

This is a formal complaint regarding a lecture delivered by the director of the Iona Institute David Quinn to a group of fifth and sixth year students earlier this month.

Mr. Quinn wrote about his lecture in an article in the Irish Catholic newspaper of 3 April last. The title of the article, which is provided in full below, is:

The atheist’s act of faith

The question of the origin of the universe isn’t a scientific one at all, but a philosophical and religious one.

My complaint is as follows:

Mr. Quinn’s lecture is based entirely on a falsehood; namely that the origin of the universe is not a scientific one at all but rather a philosophical and religious one.

There is an abundance of scientific evidence relating to the origin of the universe. Scientific discoveries such as background radiation, inflation and the recently discovered gravitational waves are all factual events that give the lie to Mr. Quinn’s claim that the question of the origin of the universe is not scientific.

Furthermore, Mr. Quinn’s claim that the question of the origin of the universe is a philosophical and religious one has no basis in fact whatsoever.

Despite centuries of philosophical and religious debate on the question of the origin of the universe not a single fact has been produced to confirm the myriad of speculative opinions emanating from that quarter.

In effect, Mr. Quinn was permitted to encourage students to ignore established scientific facts regarding the origin of the universe and instead accept that his Christian god created the universe.

It is unacceptable and indeed disturbing that somebody with a very strong religious bias like Mr. Quinn would be granted apparent unrestricted access to students to promote a religious viewpoint based on a falsehood.

It is unacceptable and indeed disturbing that any outside influence would be permitted apparent unrestricted access to students to promote a particular view without the long established safeguards of independent/objective supervision and the right to hear an opposing argument.

According to legislation the Board of Management of schools are accountable to the patron and to the Minister. This complaint is addressed to the Minister in this context.

Yours sincerely
Anthony Sheridan

Response from Department of Education:

Dear Mr Sheridan

I refer to your letter addressed to the Minister for Education and Skills.

While this Department sets out the constitution of Boards of Management and rules of procedure it is not directly involved in the management of schools. Under the provisions of the Education Act, 1998, the Board of Management is the body charged with the direct governance of a school. The schools Board of Management is accountable to the school Patron.

Accordingly, whereas the Department provides funding and policy direction for schools, the Department does not have the power to instruct schools to follow a particular course of direction with regard to individual complaint cases.

Religious Education is one of 33 Leaving Certificate subjects available to schools. The selection of text books and classroom resources to support the implementation of the curriculum is made by schools, rather than by the Department of Education and Skills or the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment.

The Office of the Ombudsman for Children may independently investigate complaints relating to the administrative actions of a school recognised by the Department of Education and Skills, provided the complainant has firstly and fully followed the school’s complaints procedures. The key criterion for any intervention by the Ombudsman for Children is that the administrative actions of a school has, or may have, adversely affected the child. The office can be contacted at: Ombudsman for Children’s Office, Millennium House, 52-56 Great Strand Street, Dublin 1; tel. 1800 20 20 40 or (01) 865 6800 or email oco@oco.ie.

I hope the information that provided is of assistance to you.

Yours sincerely,

My response to the Department of Education

28 May 2014

To Whom It May Concern:

Your response to my formal complaint concerning a lecture delivered to fifth and six-year students by the director of the Iona Institute David Quinn is a disgrace for the following reasons.

One: Apart from issuing meaningless bureaucratic waffle, the decision to do nothing will almost certainly result in some degree of damage to innocent children.

After decades of horrific child abuse the very least we could expect of officialdom is to make some enquiries into the matter. Given the history of child abuse in Ireland it is highly likely that the Iona Institute is not the only organisation that enjoys unrestricted access to preach religious and other damaging propaganda to children.

Two: Your indifferent response is a further disturbing reflection of how unprofessional civil servants have become. Scandal after scandal, on an almost weekly basis, gives witness to this decay of professionalism right across all departments.

Three: Your response is an insult to my intelligence. It is an obvious fact that the Department of Education is intimately involved in every aspect of education across all levels. It is also a fact that if you wished, you could easily carry out an investigation into this matter.

That you chose not to thus placing children in potential danger is a disgrace on you and your profession.

Yours etc.,
Anthony Sheridan

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

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

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.

RTE's skit on Silvio Berlusconi backfires?

Yesterday, RTEs John Murray Show, hosted by Kathryn Thomas, began with the following skit at the expense of former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

Lads, what do you make of the former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, he’s some buck. I nearly fell off my chair watching the news last night listening to it.

He’s lost his appeal against a four year conviction for fraudulent accounting at a media firm and apparently the 77 year old is too old to go to jail in Italy so he’s been banned from leaving the region of Lombardy.

He has an eleven pm curfew (laughter) and he has to do four hours community service a week in an old folks home. So I suppose he’ll be finally hanging out with people his own age.

Let me know what you think.

Clearly, RTE sees the Italian way of dealing with political corruption as hilarious.

Curioiusly, the station’s listeners don’t seem to share the same sense of humour. I listened to the show while doing something else but I’m pretty sure not a single response was read out in support of the skit.

In fact the item seems to have been dropped completely.

This is very unusual as there is almost always a big response to such invitations for humourous comment from the Irish public.

I suspect this was because the overwhelming reaction was similar to the email I sent in – which, of course, was not read out.

On Berlusconi:

Italy is generally seen as the most corrupt country in Europe and yet they have put a corrupt former Prime Minister through their court system showing that at least they are acting against even the most powerful.

The people of Ireland can only look on with envy and wonder if they will ever see their justice system make a Prime Minister or former Prime Minister accountable.

They would not be advised to hold their breadths

Anthony Sheridan
Cobh

Copy to:
John Murray Show

I am not a 'customer' of the State, I am a citizen

I recently received an email from the Department of Education in response to a query which included the following sentence.

To assist you, the following links provide answers to queries frequently raised by our customers.

I find the use of the term ‘customers’ to be obnoxious. I am not a customer of any government agency, I am a citizen of the State within which every government agency works on my and every other citizen’s behalf.

Somewhere along the line there was a culture change when some politician/civil servant decided that the term ‘citizen’ bestowed too much respect on citizens. It was decided to create a culture whereby the state raised itself to a position above that of the great unwasahed.

It was decided that ordinary citizens were to be looked down upon as no more than ‘customer’s’ of the ruling elite.

I totally reject this obnoxious attitude and will work to destroy the arrogant system that seeks to dilute the quality of my citizenship.