Are they having a laugh?

Letter in today’s Irish Independent.

I NEED to express my concerns at the proposed pension levy for public service workers. I am a member of An Garda Siochana.

This morning, Sunday, February 8 2009, I read a report that Bank of Ireland Staff were to receive a 3.5pc pay increase.

Are they having a laugh?

Are the banks not getting a state bailout of €8bn from the state pension fund? And now they want us to pay an extra 6pc into this state pension fund to make up for money guaranteed to the banks, while the banks give their staff pay increases?

Again, I ask, are they having a laugh?

ESB, too, are to give their staff a pay increase. The Government owns ESB’s shares, yet they do not face a pension levy. And ESB rates have gone up. So recently I have faced more costs through larger ESB bills and now I am going to have less income.

Are they having a laugh?

Both ESB and bank staff get to return home every evening and weekend while we sacrifice our sleep patterns, relationships and quality of life. Accepted, we receive allowances for working nights, Saturdays, Sundays and weekends, but does this compensate us for facing abuse from certain elements of the public?

Operational gardai are putting their family life, personal safety and mental health on the line every day facing verbal abuse, being assaulted and injured, being threatened, stabbed, sometimes even shot at or killed.
Unsocial hours allowances don’t compensate for this.

All of this to protect the security of the State. And it wants to return the favour by hitting us with a 6pc pension levy, or pay cut, or whatever you like to call it. Mutton dressed up as lamb is still mutton.

Again, are they having a laugh?

After my mortgage and car payments I will be left with a pittance. I face selling my car in order to have some income left every week. There is not an adequate public transport service to facilitate our working hours and I certainly will not be able to afford taxis.

I, for one, am not laughing.

I would like to also sympathise with the thousands losing their jobs every week whose pain and distress must be on a totally different level.

name and address supplied

Banker in denial

“I’m frustrated that the banking sector in Ireland has been tarnished by what has materialised in Anglo Irish”, National Irish Bank (NIB) chief executive, Andrew Healy told the ‘Sunday Business Post’ (Irish Independent).

Clearly, Mr. Healy is totally ignorant of the long and dishonourable record of Irish banking and he’s obviously ignorant of the mafia type operations indulged in by his own bank in the past.

The Anglo Irish Bank scandal is not an isolated case that has brought a previously honest banking industry into dispute. Rather, it is just the latest example of dodgy dealing by Irish bankers who have robbed countless millions from customers and state over many decades.

The Irish financial sector is a totally discredited industry awash with crooks and gangsters. That situation will only change when long jail sentences become the norm; I’m not holding my breadth.

Copy to:
Andrew Healy

Inescapable (but futile) logic

Letter in Sunday Independent.

Mansergh needs a reality check

Sir — It was with a sense of bewilderment and dismay that I listened to Minister of State at the Department of Finance Martin Mansergh state that “the government jet and ministerial cars (with two garda drivers) were necessary for ministers to do their jobs”.

As principal of a large voluntary secondary school I am now expected to manage a school in line with the recently announced cutbacks.

This in reality will mean three less teachers (seven per cent cutbacks in staffing), reduced subject choices, no funding for free books, radical adjustments in programmes for students with special education needs, a reduction in essential grants, no funding for Traveller children, reduced substitution and supervision resulting in a curtailment of school-related activities and the availability of adequate time for subject planning and curriculum development.

Set against this background the minister’s comment would seem to be most inappropriate. The implication of his statement is that the provisions that have been withdrawn from schools were not necessary for school leaders to do their jobs.

Such logic further demonstrates how removed from reality the minister is and also how unimportant equality and social justice is for this Government.

Shay Bannon, Principal,
CBS High School,
Clonmel, Co Tipperary

Pain for everybody except bankers and the ESB

Ok, just so we’re all clear on the situation. The global economy is going down the tubes, wholesale closure of industry and mass layoffs with countless millions of previously wealthy people facing a very bleak future. Some countries, like Ireland and Iceland in danger of complete meltdown. It’s a crisis on a scale never before known to humanity.

Politicians and a whole myriad of experts are agreed that everybody must feel the pain, sacrifices must be made, all bets are off; everybody must put their shoulders to the wheel – except the banks and ESB. Why?

Well the ESB had a previous agreement written in stone by god himself apparently, so that’s impossible to change and the greedy bankers who got us into the mess in the first place must be paid because, apparently, their bonuses are ‘historical.’

Now, where did I leave that sackcloth?

Golden circles and obscure data

Two articles worth reading in the Sunday Independent.

In an analysis of our financial situation Shane Ross tells us of a tiny table of numbers he came across in the Financial Times.

“The table was forbiddingly titled “Bonds — 10 year Government Spreads”. As Charlie McCreevy said about the Lisbon Treaty, “no sane mortal” would read it.

But its message was alarming.

In layman’s language it told where Mother Ireland rated as a credit risk among 21 selected countries.

Go on, guess.

All right, you are bang on. Twenty first. Out of 21 countries listed on Wednesday, we were considered a worse credit risk than the destitute Greece. In Greece there are riots on the streets.”

The second article, by Louise McBride, analyses the Irish golden circle.

It’s an amazing story of the incredibly incestuous crossbreeding within the corporate sector. It is particularly disturbing to note the number of senior civil servants who casually and without any restrictions move into the golden circle.

Obama targets Ireland

According to a report in the Sunday Tribune President Obama is about to crack down on overseas tax havens.

This is very bad news for Ireland which has, effectively, acted as a money laundering state for US multinationals. (See previous post on this matter).

The Department of Finance said the issue was being oversimplified but international tax expert Richard Murphy said the Irish government was “in a state of denial.”

So what’s new?

The ongoing farce of political transparency and accountability

I received the following email from the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission in response to my inquiries regarding the new, and much vaunted, system of allowances and expenses for TDs and Senators.

Anthony,

The new system of Members expenses, adopted by the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission, has yet to be agreed by the Minister for Finance so unfortunately there are no further details of the expense system available just yet. When we have been advised further by the Department of Finance we will be happy to answer all of your submitted questions.

In relation to questions being submitted to our office in writing, the only reason that we ask queries to be submitted in this manner is for administrative ease. Usually queries with multiple parts require coordination from many different sections so if we have it in writing we can direct it by email which speeds up the process of response. In the event that citizens seeking information do not have ‘access or ability to make a written submission’ then we are more than happy to deal with their query by phone.

Hope this helps but if you need any further information please feel free to contact me here in the office.

Liam O’Brien
Houses of the Oireachtas,
Communications Unit,
Leinster House,
Dublin 2

My reply:

Liam,

“This is a significant action. It represents a real break with long-standing tradition and is a clear demonstration of how members of the Oireachtas are not only transparent and accountable, but will now be seen to be to a greater degree.” John O’Donoghue, TD.

Before I lifted the phone to make inquiries I knew, from long experience, that I was wasting my time.
Could you give me an estimate, say within the timeframe of the next decade, of when citizens can expect the Minister for Finance to adopt the new system?

“To bring greater transparency and accountability to the way members of the Houses of the Oireachtas receive expenses and allowances.” John O’Donoghue, TD.

Yours sincerely
Anthony Sheridan

Revolting (in bad) weather

Received the following email from the Union of Students of Ireland in response to my post on wimpish students.

Hi Anthony

I would like to advise you that the Health and Safety of students expected to attend the march is of prime importance to USI and given the weather warnings from the Met Office and the fact that marchers would be coming from all corners of the country it was incumbent on USI to take heed of weather conditions and if it appeared that conditions would be hazardous, both for travel and underfoot at the march, it would have been irresponsible for the march to proceed. I hope you understand this view.

Regards

David Byrne
GM

My reply:

Consider the following David.

Padraig Pearse is making final plans on the night before the Rising when, suddenly, the door bursts open and a fellow revolutionary declares. The weather forecast is terrible Padraig; we’ll have to cancel the rebellion on health and safety grounds.

OR

The mob has just completed its siege of the Bastille when they receive news that storm clouds are gathering. The leaders declare; everybody go home, it’s too dangerous to revolt in the rain.

For feck sake, what hope for (corrupt) Mother Ireland if the students are too delicate to kick ‘ass?

Financial Regulator – The leopard doesn't change its spots

On 21st Jan last (2nd report), the chairman of the Financial Regulator, Jim Farrell, appeared before the Oireachtas Finance Committee to answer questions on the banking crisis. Here’s what he had to say about the Anglo Irish Bank debacle.

“The action that was taken was in the context of the environment of the time…The Financial Regulator has relied on appropriate management and controls in firms ethical behaviour and true and fair reporting by firms and their auditors as well as on site inspections by supervision actions by the regulator. It is clear that in the case of Anglo Irish Bank this did not happen. We are committed to putting in place measures to try and ensure nothing of this sort can happen again including if necessary requesting government to introduce new legislation.”

This is a standard reflex response employed by politicians and bureaucrats in defence of light touch regulation that has allowed financial institutions to rob countless millions from customers and the State.

As I write, the ‘environment of the time’ that Farrell speaks of is still with us and his promise to introduce new measures to rein in the vermin that infest the Irish financial sector is, at best, dishonest. It is an absolute certainty that no effective action will be taken to deal with these people.

The following day, On Morning Ireland (3rd report, 2nd item) , Jack Fitzpatrick of the Professional Insurance Brokers Association responded to Farrell’s comments.

“We represent almost a thousand member firms in every county in Ireland. Regulation seems to be for the small guy, the regulator already has the power to fine any individual up to €500,000 and any company up to €5 million so the legislation is there. Sanctions have been imposed on small and intermediary some have been put out of business. No sanctions have been applied to banks, nobody in the banks has been fined and we’ve had various things ranging from the NIB tax evasion, overcharging by banks to customers, all that happens is refunds, nobody resigned, nobody was fined.”

Fitzpatrick went on to say that there was no reason why current legislation cannot be used against former Anglo Irish chairman, Sean Fitzpatrick and that there was a far too cosy relationship between the regulator, the Central Bank and the banks.

These comments prompted Jim Farrell to ring Morning Ireland (3rd report, 3rd item) (He didn’t have the courage to go live on air) to dispute Fitzpatrick’s claims that the regulator enjoyed a cosy relationship with the banks. Mr. Farrell said the authority did not have powers to impose fines when the overcharging emerged but it later recovered €167 million on behalf of customers.

This dishonest statement is proof positive that the Financial Regulator has not changed its spots, that it remains a staunch defender of a ruthless and, for the most part, corrupt financial sector.

Farrell’s claim is dishonest because the Financial Regulator has had the power to impose fines since 1st August 2004 under the Central Bank and Financial Services Authority of Ireland Act, 2004.

Since that time there have been numerous instances of overcharging but not a single institution or official has been fined. The effective policy of the regulator towards errant banks still remains – just pay back the monies robbed and carry on.

Copy to:
Financial Regulator
Jim Farrell