Political monkeys

Independent Senator Shane Ross was on the Mooney Show yesterday. The Senator was explaining to a very impressed Derrick Mooney how he uncovered all those dodgy activities going on at FAS. Both men discussed the matter as if such scandals were extremely rare in Ireland.

The senator was doing well until he was asked about the generous pay and pensions for politicians. I think I get about €70,000 per year and politicians do receive generous pensions even while they’re still in employment.

Is that right Mooney asked him?

Well, because I’m a politician I do have a certain sympathy… political jobs are very insecure…how do you attract good people to the Dail and Senate unless you pay them reasonably well…wisdom is very important, legislative ability is very important.

For years politicians were paid peanuts and most of them were monkeys. Now they’re among the highest paid politicians in the world and guess what – They’re still monkeys.

The 'Rubber room' republic

A SENIOR An Post manager has been awarded a bonus of €11,000 on top of his €95,000 salary, even though he only worked for 11 weeks of last year.

The manager was assigned to An Post’s ‘resource centre’ in January 2007, an area known by post office employees as the “rubber room”, where staff that are “surplus” to the company’s needs are deployed.

Politicians are sending out thousands of Christmas card to constituents they don’t even know. It’s all part of the never ending vote buying machine known as Clientism. Each member of the Oireachtas is entitled to 21,000 pre paid envelopes every year. This year, the overall cost of the facility comes to €2.3 million.

Mary Harney said that we must all pull together in the coming year in the face of savage cuts in health. The ‘we’ she speaks of does not include highly paid and well protected politicians.

Two years ago the Equality Tribunal ordered the Department of Education to pay €12,000 to two students who were discriminated against in their Leaving Certificate.

The two students, who are dyslexic, had explanatory footnotes added to their exam certificates which could have put them at a serious disadvantage when applying for jobs.

The department said it was appealing the case to get clarity on the matter. The appeal cost €8 million – I’ll just repeat that – the appeal for ‘clarity’ cost €8 million.

The Government has decided that a certain number of 12 year old girls will have to die because the country cannot afford the €10 million needed for a cervical cancer scheme.

Former Taiwanese president Chen Shui-bian and his wife have been formally charged with corruption. Political corruption has yet to be recognised as a crime in Ireland.

Mr. Chen’s son in law has been jailed for seven years for insider trading. Insider trading has yet to be recognised as a crime in Ireland.

The former chairman of the Nasdaq stock market, Bernard Madoff, has been arrested and charged with securities fraud. He could face up to 20 years in prison. Corrupt businessmen in Ireland are never arrested, never charged, never go to jail.

Marc Dreier, a prominent New York plaintiffs’ lawyer and founder of Dreier LLP, has been charged by US federal prosecutors with securities and wire fraud in a case alleging a multimillion-dollar real-estate fraud involving hedge funds. Dreier could be facing a 10 year jail term.

If Mr. Dreier lived in Ireland it’s likely his case would be ‘looked after’ by his legal colleagues in the Law Society. If he was unlucky he might receive a mild reprimand.

The essence of Irish democracy – Dead

Morning Ireland (2nd report) did a piece on the arrest of Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich for allegedly attempting to sell Barack Obama’s vacant Senate seat.

The presenter, Cathal MacCoille (I think) expressed astonishment at Blagojevich’s sheer brass neck. The whole tone of MacCoille’s response seemed to be – How could Blagojevich think he could get away with such blatant corruption?

On Wednesday last, former Fianna Fail Councillor Michael Fahy was yet again found guilty of defrauding Galway County Council of €7,055.

Here’s a brief but truly astonishing outline of Fahy’s case.

2001/2002 – Fahy defrauded Galway County Council of €7,055. His crime didn’t come to immediate notice because the then county manager, Donal O’Donaghue, decided to deal with the matter behind closed doors. O’Donaghue has never been brought to account for his part in concealing the crime.

2004 – An FOI by the Irish Independent brought the matter out in the open and the Garda were informed.

2007 – Fahy was found guilty, sentenced to one year in jail and fined €75,000. The presiding judge described Fahy as

“An arrogant, greedy and determined fraudster”, who had “knowingly implicated” Thomas Byrne, “a totally innocent man”, leaving him open to “vilification and ruin” if the truth had not emerged.”

2007 (Sep) – Galway County Council held a meeting and decided, unanimously, to ignore the law. They all agreed to pretend that Fahy wasn’t in jail at all and further agreed to the fraudster’s request that his absence was due to “illness and his attendance in Dublin”. Fahy received his full representative pay of just over €16,600 despite spending seven months behind bars.

The law concerning Cllr. Fahy’s behaviour couldn’t be clearer.

2001 Local Government Act, Section 13.

(1) Subject to subsection (2), a person is disqualified from being elected or co-opted to, or from being a member of a local authority if he or she—

(i) fraudulent or dishonest dealings affecting a local authority.
(ii) corrupt practice.

2007 (Dec) – Fahy received a warm welcome from his fellow councillors when he attended his first meeting a week after his release from jail. At the meeting the fraudster delivered a strong speech deploring the rise in crime in recent times.

“It is just not good enough that people who are out at the shops or at Mass come home to find their houses ransacked. The people who do this sort of crime need to be caught and punished.”

His speech was greeted with enthusiastic applause. (Yes, yes, I know, but really, it’s all true)

2008 (Feb) – I’m not sure what happened next but it seems that a some point Fahy was acquitted of all charges and this prompted the DPP to re-enter the charges against the councillor.

Fianna Fail Senator Terry Leyden was very angry. This man is being persecuted for ‘doing his duty’, it’s a waste of public funds; this man has suffered enough, he should be left alone, thundered the Senator.

2008 (Dec) – Fahy was again found guilty of robbing €7,055 from Galway County Council. The presiding judge called on Fahy to ‘act with honour’ and resign adding that

“Fraud by a public representative attacks the very essence of our democracy and erodes public trust in our elected representatives,”

‘Attacks the very essence of our democracy’?

Fahy received widespread sympathy and support from local citizens and politicians and has only received minimal attention in the media.

Apart from this website and the judge, I know of no other person, organisation or official who has condemned Fahy’s behaviour.

Perhaps this is because the essence of Irish democracy has long since died.

Copy to:
Galway County Council

Chickens coming home…

Jimmy Guerin, brother of murdered journalist, Veronica Guerin was on Liveline today complaining about the high level of coverage given to the bacon crisis in comparison to the patchy coverage of Aiden O’Kane’s murder in Dublin on Sunday night.

Guerin claims that Government seems to give priority to pressure groups over those who are suffering as a result of crime, that nothing is being done, that the Government is inept, insincere and no real action is being taken to protect the vulnerable.

Guerin certainly has a good point but his argument is somewhat diluted when we recall that he’s a fanatical supporter of the corrupt Haughey, the principal architect of our corrupt and inept state.

Anti democracy campaign gathers strength

The Government is doing a very good job in recruiting allies to its strategy in the run up to Lisbon II.

The Oireachtas sub committee on European Affairs published its report on how to get around the democratic will of the people as expressed in Lisbon I.

Ireland could be “severely damaged” if things remain as they are and the country could suffer serious economic consequences in a two tier Europe the committee reported.

RTE also enthusiastically joined the Government’s campaign by doing a hatchet job on Libertas leader Declan Ganley. Ganley is seen by the Government as the greatest obstacle in its strategy to reverse the democratic will of the people.

The Standards in Public Office Commission, an organisation that’s usually as quiet as a mouse, has come out with all guns blazing in an effort to force Libertas to reveal the source of its funds.

Libertas has been issued with a formal warning and given one week to respond or face the consequences. To my knowledge this is the first time Sipo has actually issued a warning, formal or otherwise – to anybody.

The stark contrast between its strong attack on Libertas and its complete failure to challenge the secret funding of political parties suggests that this so called independent body is nothing more than a government pawn.

The McKenna and Coughlan judgements are also under attack. The McKenna judgement forbids government from using public funds to influence the outcome of a referendum. The Coughlan judgement ruled that both sides of a referendum should be given equality in terms of broadcasting.

Dr. Barrett, UCD School of Law said that the McKenna judgement “crippled the Government’s right to persuade the public of its cause and led to the emergence of groups such as Libertas.” The Coughlan judgement, according to Dr. Barrett “had the effect of neutralizing the role of political leaders.”

Clearly Dr. Barrett is deeply concerned by the problems an open democracy can cause to government wishes.

Fine Gael TD Jim O’Keeffe’s suggestion that the policy of giving equal airtime to both sides in a referendum debate “could result in a group such as a paedophile association being given 50 per cent coverage” is an indication of how obnoxiously low the Yes side are prepared to sink.

Redundancy – Irish style

A final decision has yet to be made on whether a redundancy option for workers at Aer Lingus is legal or not (Six One, 8th report).

The deal would see employees take a nine weeks pay per year redundancy package and then return to the airline under a new contract with lower pay and conditions.

If it is decided that the deal is legal Aer Lingus can claim a significant statuary redundancy rebate from the State and employees will receive very favourable tax treatment on their lump sums, all at the expense of the taxpayer.

It is, of course, a typical Tammany Hall tactic in order to ‘get around’ the law.

The Dept don’t want the hassle of more trouble at the airline, Aer Lingus want a deal with the workers but don’t want to pay for it and the workers want generous compensation for accepting a new deal from management.

The solution – agree a dodgy deal and make the taxpayer pay the cost.

Docile Irish – Passionate Thai's

I’m not familiar with the ins and outs of Thai politics but it was fascinating to witness the passion, determination and sheer delight when people power eventually forced the Prime Minister to step down on charges of corruption.

A constitutional court found that political parties were guilty of vote buying in the last general election. In Ireland vote buying, through Clientism, is an accepted part of our culture.

Thai people working in Ireland must be amazed to witness how docile the Irish are when it comes to political corruption,

Irish journalist treated roughly by FAS?

I heard a report that Niall O’Dowd, the New York based publisher of the Irish Voice, was very supportive of the disgraced FAS chief Rody Molloy. According to O’Dowd, Molloy ‘did the State some service’.

That phrase, associated with the corrupt Haughey, always gets my attention but I was puzzled about what possible connection O’Dowd could have to the scandal.

All was revealed in an excellent article by Maeve Sheehan in the Sunday Independent. It seems that O’Dowd is one of the legions of freeloaders who have benefited from the generosity of Irish taxpayer’s on the FAS gravy train.

O’Dowd couldn’t recall if a flight from New York to Houston Texas was paid for by Irish taxpayer’s but, reassuringly, he tells us he didn’t travel business class.

“Frankly, it was a very modest trip. We had dinner at a restaurant near NASA, not a fancy place, and another dinner at an Irish pub.”

What? I’m shocked, such shoddy treatment. Surely this man deserves compensation – an all expenses paid, round the world holiday perhaps?