State contempt for consumers

“Utter contempt for consumers”

was how the Irish Independent reacted to the decision of the Department of Finance to appoint barristers, bankers and civil servants to a committee set up as part of the financial regulation machinery. The article also gets it right on the future effectiveness of this committee –

“…we will probably hear little of its activities, such is the culture of secrecy in this country.”

As I have said in the past, secrecy is one of the most powerful weapons in the running of a corrupt state. The following example will make the point.

Last September, I requested from the Financial Regulator a list of all the financial institutions that overcharged or otherwise abused their customers in the previous two years. This kind of abuse/theft is common in Ireland and therefore it is vital for consumers to know which financial institutions can be trusted and which ones to avoid. The very fact that such simple information needs a request is a disgrace; it should be readily available and indeed advertised by the regulator.

My request was ignored (Ignoring consumers is not unusual in a corrupt state).

When I persisted my query was forwarded to the regulator’s press office (Lack of courage in answering questions and buck passing is not unusual in a corrupt state).

The press office replied to my query with insulting waffle (Treating consumers with contempt is not unusual in a corrupt state).

When I continued to persist I finally got an answer of sorts:

“In answer to your query, The Financial Regulator is restricted, under S.33AK of the Central Bank Act, 1942 (as amended by the Central Bank and Financial Services Authority of Ireland Act, 2003)from disclosing confidential information.”

(Using the law as a means of avoiding awkward questions is not unusual in a corrupt state).

No doubt, many Irish citizens are still labouring under the illusion that the so called Financial Regulator is mainly concerned with their financial welfare – wrong. The regulator is actively and strongly concerned with protecting the interests of financial institutions over and above the interests of consumers, including those institutions who have robbed millions from consumers.

The only information/advice a consumer is likely to get from this sham organization is a paternal – ‘shop around’. As the Irish Independent says; utter contempt for the consumer.

The pre-eminence of profit

“They’re not the same kind of open society as we are, they haven’t got the same parliamentary democratic process as us and we have to understand those sensitivities. It would be very wrong of us other than to understand and doesn’t take away from the fact we pointed out areas where there is concern internationally.”

Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, (Six One News).

“It is also the case that we have to have respect for other cultures and societies in a world of difference. It is all a bit more complex than saying this is just a simple matter of human rights.”

Enterprise and Employment Minister, Micheal Martin, (Irish Independent).

“On what basis would we not talk to them? We can’t go around the world judging people,”

Frank Ryan, chief executive of Enterprise Ireland, (Irish Independent). (All emphasis mine)

“On 3rd September 1992…Sadiq Abdul Karim Malallah was publicly beheaded in Saudi Arabia after being lawfully convicted of apostasy and blasphemy.” (The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins, page 287).

Sending some letters

Fianna Fail Junior Minister Tony Killeen is in trouble because he sent letters to the Minister for Justice seeking the early release of a sex offender. He defends himself as follows:

He only meant the letters to raise the issue of the sex offender’s deteriorating health and an alleged prison assault but couldn’t prove this because the letters were ‘accidentally’ deleted from his computer.

He accepts that the minister did respond to his pleas but he did not see the minister’s letter because his staff did not show it to him.

He says he ‘failed to see’ a letter sent to him by the Minister which made clear that the sex offender would not be given early release.

So, a misunderstanding of his intent, a defective computer, incompetent staff and a missed letter are all to blame – not Mr. Killeen.

To top it all, Mr. Killeen is using a public relations firm to help ‘explain’ his case – I wonder who’s paying the bill?

Pay up or die

I then came home, flicked on the TV and got into bed. The first ad on the TV was from the Government telling people that bowel cancer can kill, but not if caught in time. If Bertie Ahern or Mary Harney or Michael McDowell were within reach I would have killed them. Literally, I’m not joking.

This quote is from a woman who is dying from cancer because she is a public rather than a private patient. If she had private health insurance she would have been treated in time but because she is a public patient she was put on a long waiting list, this delay has resulted in her cancer becoming terminal.

Her case has been passionately discussed on Liveline over the last number of days (Her letter to Liveline is on the site and is worth reading). The response from most callers was one of anger, frustration and powerlessness.

This is a normal reaction for citizens living in a corrupt state. They, and everybody else, are very well aware of what the problem is – corruption, incompetence and political cowardice. They know that the political system will not help them; they know that unless they pay up they will not get access to treatment.

On Questions and Answers, the Minister for Health, Mary Harney responded like politicians always do in corrupt states. She went into denial – It’s a great system, mistakes will happen, when they do, it’s someone else’s fault.

She blamed the victim’s doctor; she blamed hospital consultants and, incredibly, claimed that Ireland does not have a two tier health system. Harney leads a party that passionately believes in promoting private health care for profit over public health care for everybody.

There are, of course, many other reasons why Ireland has a third world health system. Recently, the Irish people agreed that it was ok for our Prime Minister to accept large payments from businessmen while he held public office.

For so long as Irish citizens accept such low standards from their politicians they will continue to get the same low standards in public services, with the same consequences

Courage and graft

I finally got to see the much praised film The Wind that Shakes the Barley. It brought back the great personal sacrifices that those people made for independence. Death, injury, torture and the loss of family, financial and career opportunities.

One comment in particular caught my attention. Just before one of the principal characters executed a British landlord and one of his own IRA men for informing, he said something like – I hope the country we’re fighting for is worth it.

I wonder what these people would have thought of Bertie Ahern’s recent whine that he was unfairly treated over his prostitution of ministerial office for money from Manchester businessmen.

Justice delayed – until after election

It is now over three years since Fianna Fail TD, Michael Collins was found to have had a bogus offshore account. Since then he has been charged on two counts; cheating the Office of The Collector General by applying for a tax clearance cert at a time when he had undeclared tax liabilities and obtaining a tax clearance cert by false pretences.

The Director of Public Prosecutions has dropped the first charge, no reason was given – it’s a state secret.

Action on the second charge has been adjourned until July because; according to Mr. Collins’ defence counsel

“the accused is a member of the Oireachtas, which was now at a particular stage in the electoral cycle.”

The curious thing is Mr. Collins has already announced his intention to retire from politics, so why has justice been put on hold until after the election?

The more cynical among us could be forgiven for thinking that this apparently seamless cooperation between the justice and political systems is designed to avert any political embarrassment for the principal government party.

Give us the money but not the regulations

Recently, I wrote about Irish farmers demanding that they be given 14 days notice of any inspection by the Dept. of Agriculture.

On today’s Six One News, IFA president, Padraig Walshe, was threatening to make the controversy an election issue if the Government refuses to comply with their demands.

According to Walshe, the dept is ‘over vigorous’ in its enforcement of EU regulations. If the decision was within the power of Irish politicians, there would be no inspections; no Irish politician has ever had the courage to stand up to the powerful farming lobby.

At stake here, however, is an incredible €2 billion in annual EU subsidies to Irish farmers – if the regulations are broken, the money dries up.

Any responsible government would insist that farmers comply with the rules. Incredibly, the Minister for Agriculture is actually going to go whingeing to Brussels to make yet another special case for irresponsible Irish farmers.

Dawkins answered

It was just coming up to one o’clock in the morning, I was reading Richard Dawkins’ latest book, The God Delusion and listening to RTE’s excellent late night show, Late Date (4th Jan, 57min). Suddenly, the soft but resolute voice of a certain Mary O’Malley was taking the good Mr. Dawkins to task for his latest attack on her belief system.

In common with all those who fear Mr. Dawkins’ devastating and unanswerable demolition of religious superstition, Ms. O’Malley could only respond with gobbledygook and personal attack.

Her use of a story about five blind men describing an elephant serves as a perfect analogy for the superiority of science over religious belief; not, I think, what she intended.

Here’s the full sermon.

The famous Mr. Richard Dawkins is at it again. Mr. Dawkins is certain that there is no place for religious sensibility in this world and he rants on like some born again creature to save us all from the perfidy of belief. He has no time for poor fools who haven’t reached his evolved state of scientific clarity about the absolute badness of all religion, everywhere.

Scientists like Dawkins remind me of the story of five blind men describing an elephant. Each convinced of the truth of his own touch; the tail, the giant legs, the long trunk. Along came a sighted man and scorned them for their foolish beliefs.

God made the world in six days and on the seventh day he rested. Then the oceans quickened under the moving spirit and life as we know it began. Adam, Eve, temptation, the bite of the juicy red apple, a house, kids, the whole catastrophe. Then they spoil the kids, then murder. The plot thickens after that with more twists and misery than a Schwarzenegger movie and don’t’ expect scientists to come up with anything better.

A big bang, then a lot of invisible activity that takes forever, then things crawling out of the primordial slime, it sounds like rugby.

The thing about most great stories is that we know that they are not true, not literally, most of us. Do you believe in the fairies granny? I do and I don’t Alana. But to give another twist to an old saw, I mightn’t believe in them but I still need them and most of us need, if not faith, then hope.

The right to choose to live in the light and work by the light, we need not be stupid or gullible but allow us to savour the beauty of a story well told and the wonderful power of fable. Sometimes, it’s all we’ve got.

Secret police force

The various reports from the Morris Tribunal have established that the Irish police force is a corrupt, indisciplined and incompetent organization.

Furthermore, nothing is being done to correct this state of affairs because of what the Irish Independent calls “the debased culture of Irish politics and public service.” Secrecy, the most powerful weapon of a corrupt state, protects these policemen and allows them a free hand to continue with their corrupt practices.

For example, last Wednesday, it was reported that Garda Headquarters refused to disclose details of thirty one police officers who were found guilty of a range of offences before the courts or what specific disciplinary action would be taken against the officers. A garda spokesman said:

“The breakdown figures you seek are not routinely disseminated and as a consequence are not readily available. The amount of time required to assemble these figures is disproportionate to any perceived benefit.”

Clearly, this dismissive statement was issued in the the confident knowledge that no further accountability will be demanded.

Public crook

For me, the highlight of the year has been to be in a position to call Charles Haughey ‘a crook’ in a national newspaper. The destruction of this man’s false legacy is the most important event for Ireland in 2006.

Madam,

Now that Charles Haughey’s true pedigree has been officially established, would it be too much to ask his supporters in Dingle to replace their recent monument to this crook with a representation of the hard-pressed taxpayer – the actual source of their good fortune?

Yours, etc,
ANTHONY SHERIDAN,
Carraig Eoin,
Cobh, Co Cork.