Clash of Titans

Another feature of the spat between Minister for Defence, Willie O’Dea and Fine Gael deputy leader, Richard Bruton on last Monday’s Q & A was the embarrassed smiles of the audience and other panelists as these two “Dead Sheep’ attempted to maul each other. (Question 2)

At best, Richard Bruton was inept as he struggled to score points against Willie O’Dea, the Groucho Marx of Irish politics. Groucho, finding himself in the unusual position of actually dominating a political debate, completely lost the run of himself.

It took John (Headmaster) Bowman some time to calm Willie down and move on to the next question.

Fact checking Willie O'Dea

Well the question was bound to come up on Questions and Answers, and it took a good bit of waffle before we could down to the meat of the question.

Enter random audience person with very specific question (18th minute):

…last week the Taoiseach, when he was accused of rip off and mismanagement, stated and I quote, that the accusations were erroneous, not true, unfair and incorrect. If they guy at the top doesn’t think there’s a problem, what’s the story there?

Those words were used by the Taoiseach on October 4th during Leaders questions. To quote him:

…I will just touch on some of the issues. The PPARS system started off first in the mid 1990s when the health boards decided they needed a better payroll system because they did not even know how many people were working for them at the time. They looked at setting up a payroll system for a number of the health boards at the time and the estimated cost was €9 million or €10 million. Early estimates changed over the three-year period from 1998 to 2000 to €17 million. The highly respected Hay organisation undertook a full appraisal and review of the level of investment that would be required to finish the project properly, during its transition from a payroll system to a whole human resource management system that would be unlike what was envisaged or presented at the outset. The initial payroll system became a system dealing with personal information, pension payments, recruitment, time management and rostering. It became an entirely different system. The Deputy’s suggestion that the projected cost of the system increased from €10 million to €150 million is erroneous and unfair and should not be entertained.

[Emphasis added]

Now enter Willie O’Dea, master political tactician – but only recent recipient of cabinet level post.

O’Dea: I think, I think in fairness now, I have to refute that last comment. He wasn’t talking about a waste of public money. He was, he was, he was talking about some of the arguments advanced in the Dail, some of the other examples used. I mean he wasn’t referring directly to this. The Taoiseach came into the Dail, the Taoiseach came into the Dail and admitted, quite freely, quite freely, that there was a, quite freely, that this was just quite frankly unacceptable.

[Emphasis added]

That is contrary to the facts. Go look. The answer given by the Taoiseach was in direct reply to a question specifically dealing with PPARS, and nothing else. And after looking through leaders questions from last week I have yet to find anywhere the Taoiseach ‘quite freely’ admitted it was unacceptable, if anything the tone of the Taoiseach was denial.

I guess one could say that Willie O’Dea lied. But that language might be too strong, might it not?

Late garda had no link to forgeries, says expert

Meanwhile over at the Morris Tribunal into Garda criminality in Donegal there have been yet more developments. I’ll try and put this in black and white so it’s clear.

A. Garda (retired) John Nicholson says it wasn’t him who forged signatures on earnings certificates.

B. It was, according to Nicholson, his dead colleague John Keogh (who obviously can’t speak for himself).

C. Nicholson pleaded guilty in court and was prosecuted for submitting false certificates in 2002.

Counsel for the Tribunal puts it to the the expert witness:

Paul McDermott SC, for the tribunal, asked: “So your conclusion is that Mr Nicholson essentially forged the name Ben Maguire on four Bernard Conlon certificates?”

Mr Nash said: “That would be correct, my lord. He would have written those.”

Mr McDermott said Mr Nash also concluded that the late garda Keogh had nothing to do with any forgery. “There was no evidence to connect garda Keogh with any signatures or the body of the writing on these documents,” Mr Nash said.

Make up your own mind. The tribunal continues, and this is not a criminal trial.

Fitzwilton to seek tribunal files on Burke payment

You might have all forgotten, since in a strange decision (well normal for those of us who believe in the Banana Republic) Ray ‘Rambo’ Burke was let out of prison quietly, early, and on the sly, in order to avoid a media scrum. How nice. Anyway he did spend time in prison, but the Mahon Tribunal still plods along. In the latest twist:

The President of the High Court will next week hear an application by Fitzwilton Ltd for access to documents from the Mahon tribunal.

The company wants the documents before the tribunal begins public hearings into a £30,000 payment by Fitzwilton to former minister Ray Burke for Fianna Fail funds.

Fitzwilton was last month granted leave to challenge, in judicial review proceedings, the tribunal’s decision not to divulge the contents of documents.

Mr Justice Joseph Finnegan will hear the case in the High Court next Monday.

Fitzwilton is seeking to quash the tribunal’s decision refusing access to particular documents and also wants an order compelling the tribunal to make the documents available to its legal team.

The High Court was told last month that, before the 1989 general election, Fianna Fail had officially solicited a political contribution of £30,000 from Fitzwilton, which the company agreed to make via Mr Burke.

The court heard that Mr Burke handed over only £10,000 of the contribution to Fianna Fail and that the company had not become aware until 1998 that Mr Burke had retained £20,000.

Fitzwilton was contacted by the tribunal in April 1998 about the contribution, which is now the subject of an investigation by the tribunal.

Now of course it is argued that the £30,000 (which was alot of money back then) was merely a political donation and no benefit would come to Fitzwilton for making it. Whether Rambo was supposed to get two thirds of it is another question.

Green councillor gets leave to try to quash report

Mary Carolan has one of those stories in the Irish Times today that make the news, but don’t quite make the headlines. These type stories are usually symptomatic of something happening throughout the country, but are either not reported or reported very little.

A Green Party councillor has brought a High Court challenge aimed at overturning a report which found that Wicklow Fianna Fail councillor and solicitor Fachtna Whittle had not breached ethics legislation in proposing and voting for a quarry rezoning without disclosing he was acting for the quarry owner in legal proceedings.

The action has been brought by councillor Deirdre de Burca against the Wicklow county manager and the chairperson of Wicklow County Council, with Mr Whittle as notice party.

Mr Justice Iarfhlaith O’Neill yesterday granted leave to senior counsel Gerard Hogan, for Ms de Burca, to bring proceedings to quash the findings of the report following a formal complaint to the ethics registrar about Mr Whittle’s conduct during a Wicklow County Council meeting on July 12th, 2004.

This certainly isn’t the most serious case I have heard of, but it certainly indicates that this kind of behaviour is considered perfectly acceptable to many.

Warning over 'huge' cost of excavating prison site

Back to that story about the over-priced land purchased to build a new prison in North County Dublin. Frank McDonald writing in today’s Irish Times notes:

The 150-acre site in north Co Dublin selected for a new prison complex to replace Mountjoy could cost millions more to excavate than the €30 million paid for it, according to leading archaeological experts.

Ten days ago the High Court granted leave to objectors to commission their own geo-physical survey of the site. If this confirms what is already known from aerial photography, an archaeological excavation “would cost an absolute fortune”, one expert said.

Dr Mark Clinton, who headed a similar excavation of the Carrickmines Castle site in south Co Dublin, said the Thornton Hall site was part of a known archaeological landscape extending back to prehistoric times and “can’t be isolated from it like an asteroid floating in outer space”.

He said the archaeological excavation at Carrickmines involved a core area of three to four acres. The cost came to €6.5 million by the time it came to an end in 2003.

John Maas, an expert in analysing aerial photographs, said the much more extensive Thornton Hall site contained “layer upon layer of archaeology from continuous habitation, probably dating back to around 7,000 BC” and the State had “a duty under law to excavate it”.

And McDowell’s thinking on this issue?

Minister for Justice Michael McDowell is on record as saying that he would not be put off building a prison by any “guff about fairy forts or architecture”.

McDowell is a dangerous man with regard to the heritage of the Irish nation. Do you agree?

Bank fraud v Welfare fraud

Still no accountability on the massive and well planned theft by National Irish Bank during the 1990s. The State’s corporate enforcer, Paul Appleby is still trying to get a number of NIB executives disqualified from working as senior company managers. The judge hearing the case adjourned until Thursday to consider issues raised by NIB executives.

It is interesting to observe the language used in reports about white collar crime and that used when reporting on social welfare fraud. The NIB executives who organised the theft of millions from their own customers and the State are merely referred to as being ‘involved in a number of improper practicesâ€?. When it comes to reporting on social welfare, however, there is no hesitation in using words like, “prison’ “fraud’ “criminal’ and “prosecution’.

For the record, 259 criminal prosecutions were taken against social welfare recipients last year with 36 of them going to prison. The total amount involved was just over €1 million. Hundreds of millions have been stolen by the banks in recent years but not a single bank official has even been charged never mind serve time.

Irish/Italian accountability

The ongoing case involving the Bank of Italy’s governor, Antonio Fazio makes an interesting comparison with how things are done in the Banana Republic of Ireland.

Fazio is facing questioning by magistrates for allegedly abusing his position by favouring Italian banks over foreign banks. If Italian standards of investigation and accountability were applied in Ireland, there would be dozens if not hundreds of Irish executives and politicians in jail.

Let’s just compare the Italian case with one of the hundreds of corrupt practices uncovered in the Banana Republic in recent years.

Irish banks and other financial institutions robbed hundreds of millions from the State through a well organised fraud involving DIRT tax. The Central Bank, Dept of Finance, Revenue Commissioners and various Ministers for Finance all knew that this fraud was in operation. Indeed, Revenue actually facilitated the fraud by issuing a memo that specifically prevented its own officials from checking the banks.

When the media (the only effective regulator in Ireland) uncovered the fraud, the banks were only required to pay back a portion of the money stolen, with some interest. No police, no magistrates, no courts, no jail, no accountability.

In Italy, Fazio is merely accused of favouring an Italian bank over a foreign bank in a takeover bid. For this he could be facing a three year jail sentence. In Ireland, this kind of activity would attract praise and promotion.

But most astonishing of all for Irish citizens, used to living in a state without integrity or accountability, is to witness the Italian Economy Minister, Domenico Siniscalco, resign in protest over the scandal saying that Italy’s reputation was being damaged.

On the waste of money

Looking back at Leader’s questions from last week I continue to be amazed, or dismayed even, at the nonsense Bertie Ahern comes out with. Machiavelli would be proud.

The Taoiseach: Deputy Kenny tried to say that it is an IT system. It is not an IT system.

Mr. Allen: It is a system that does not work.

The Taoiseach: It is a human resource system being developed for the entire HSE into the future. A large part of it is working.

Ms Enright: It is not working.

The Taoiseach: The firm in question, Deloitte & Touche, did not get the money just for consultancy. It implemented the system, trained 140,000 staff and tried to put the entire system together. That is what the money was paid for. We should have more honesty. There are difficulties with the system, but we should not have presentations, either here or elsewhere, which are totally dishonest.

Mr. Allen:A donkey is always a donkey.

Mr. Kenny: I have rarely heard such rubbish as the Taoiseach’s defence of this system.

The Taoiseach: The Deputy does not like the truth.

Mr. Kenny: He has blamed the consultants, he has blamed the health boards, he has blamed the workers and he has blamed the nurses for not working regular hours.

Ms O. Mitchell: He has blamed Fine Gael.

The Taoiseach: I have not blamed anyone.

I think that’s part of the problem Bertie.

It’s not an IT system now. But wait:

The Taoiseach: …The ICT system in question——

Ms Burton: The Taoiseach said earlier that it is not an IT system.

The Taoiseach: ——was procured following an EU tendering process and international evaluations.

Ms Burton: He said it a few minutes ago.

Truly great leadership we have.