Well, we know they want to privatize water, which is not a commodity but a human right.
But other state assets are being sold to create a short term solution to bail out banks - in an effort that will fail, that is, the bank bailout.
Already our natural resources have been sold, as with gas and oil resources - or with coillte, will be sold.
We as a country do not have the best track record with privatization. Our Eircom flotation was a failure, Sugar and Steel went to the wall. Sugar in particular was a very bad deal, very short sighted and caused real loss.
Aerlingus shares fell from over 2 euro to just over 60 cents. Aerlingus landing slots are worth more than flight revenue - this is a service, not a business.
Now the ESB- the very foundation of our socio-economic structure is now up for sale. The ESB is a strategic company. The plan is not to retain any of the ESB but flog it.
Control of the network grid is where the money is, and with our shabby history of regulation, better a public than private monopoly.
It is a bad time to sell, the buyers know we are in a bind, it's like going to the pawn shop instead of the antique stores.
Pat Rabbite talks about giving an assurance to the potential buyers that we could sell in the future. This neglects the point that this will hamstring future governments.
The ESB and rural electrification was the jewel in the crown of the early free state. We need to think in creative terms, as they did - ambition on behalf of the nation, rather than assisting the private debts of banks.
We need to look at visionary projects like Spirit of Ireland , keeping control of distribution, improving the grid and generating jobs and income - rather than that the current Government want to sell off an asset that has the real potential to really do something radical and creative and create work, improving the lives of the majority.
Iceland is dealing with the financial crisis, and part of that is holding people responsible. Of those responsible in Ireland, a small select group of bankers, politicians and senior civil servants, they are not being charged, they have been moved into NAMA.
People say that the establishment link between politicians and property developers is a conspiracy theory, but the connections are clearly there.
Bertie Ahearn has instead of facing an investigation about links with property developers and banks has become a paid advisor to Parker Green International, a multi-national property developer.
We will not benefit enough from natural resources like the Corrib gas field, but we are also in danger of losing other resources like our state forestry, Coilte, in a drive to privatize state assets to bail out the banks.
Now Bertie Ahearn is working for the International Forestry Fund, financed by Hevetica Wealth AG - their intention is to take over Coilte, and get an area twice the size of County Meath at a bargain price from the new coalition Government.
Neil Ginty has written at length about this issue. Its not just trees and land though, this is state owned property, minerals will lie under the earth, but we do not know what is there because the survey done is not subject to the freedom of information act.
"Pat Carey’s signing off of the Corrib gas line on Election Day marked what many considered one last act of treason in giving the go ahead for Shell to build infrastructure that will pump gas from the west coast to their interconnectors in Britain."
Bertie is being paid by a foreign company who want to purchase an area twice the size of County Meath!! Is it just me or is there something wrong about this?
The driving force behind the planned sale of state assets is Colm McCarthy. His report wants to sell pretty much everything to the highest bidder. As well as being a lecturer in UCD, Mr McCarthy also works with the ERSI and DKM Economic consultants.
Also on the board of DKM is Annette Hughes - a former BP employee. Ms Huges is an expert on energy, with particular focus on interactions with demographics and regional development - one sees what that means in Mayo. She is also on the board of FÁS as well as being a Director of DKM.
This takes us back to the issue of resources, and the looming threat of fracking, a very destructive means of extracting minerals, and the ownership of vast tracts of land, that when privatized means we the people if we protest can be done for trespass.
We need to stop this happening. We need to hold those responsible for the financial crisis responsible, and certainly not put them into new positions of power to do further damage.
If default happens, so be it. If we need to revert to our own controllable currency so be it.
Iceland was warned that it would never borrow again if it failed to honour the debts of its financial sector.
But the country already seems to have been forgiven by the markets.
The Icelandic government issued $1bn in sovereign debt in June at an interest rate of around 6 per cent.
This was twice oversubscribed by investors. The contrast with Ireland, which assumed responsibility for all the liabilities of its bust banking sector, is stark.
Thanks to Dublin's blanket bailout, total government debt is now more than 100 per cent of GDP, four times pre-crisis levels.
And Ireland's reward from the markets has been a rise in the cost of insuring its sovereign bonds. Iceland's currency depreciation also looks good by international comparisons.
Latvia doggedly kept its peg with euro after the 2008 crash and has experienced a catastrophic 25 per cent decline in GDP and seen unemployment reach 22 per cent.
The economic policy orthodoxy through this crisis supported by McCarthy and others – sale of national assets and pushed by ratings agencies and European politicians alike – has demanded that the national governments honour the private debts of their banking sectors, protect their exchange rates, eschew capital movement restrictions, and impose massive austerity to earn back the confidence of bond markets.
Much of that wisdom was ignored by Reykjavik. And the early signs are that Iceland is doing quite well - it is a model that has been working, and it should be this model we adopt. Part of that is accountability, which again in Ireland is failing badly.
Also, our media is failing to address these issues. McCarthy is a commentator on RTE, but no-one elected him - why does an unelected person get to decide to sell of national assets?
Looking at the independents elected in Ireland, they are now in a position to form a technical group.
As I said in a previous posting, I was delighted to see Luke Flannigan returned.
However, the group must be careful. To enter into any arrangement with a discredited politician like Michael Lowry, Tipp North, a dynastic spawn like Michael 'son of jackie' Healy Rae from Kerry or rats off a sinking ship like Mattie McGrath in Tipp South would be a major error.
These three are career political opportunist's.
As for FG and Labour, the Labour parlamentary party should listen carefully, very carefully, to their grass roots.
Yes, it is important to be in Government and affect positive change, but Labour should not help FG to sell off or privatise public services.
Ireland is not the UK, and as we saw with the Eircom debacle, privitisation in such a small country has a high rate of failure, and room for corruption.
It is quite possible to support legislation that is to the benefit of the country while in opposition, but retain the independence that the Greens and PDs lost as junior coalition partners.
But then again, the main leadership of the party is ex democratic left and workers party, having gone from perhaps 5 seats to taking over the labour party and now having 37 seats, the attraction of weilding power for people like Gilmore and Rabbite may be too much to resist.
As well as that it seems Labour are falling further into dynastic habits with Sean Sherlock and Arthur Spring being returned.
With 20 seats and little in the way of policy or moral difference, it could be quite possible for FG to do a deal with FF, a recipricol Tallaght accord if you will
Well, we have now a decision on the Donegal by-election, if we get that far without a general election.
However, the FF/Green machine will appeal at the cost of about half a million euro of tax payers money.
There are other elections that are needed for vacant seats, and the working majority will be reduced.
Already, FF are at each others throats.
Mary Coughlan and North West MEP Pat the Cope Gallagher became embroiled in a row about whether or not he was approached to contest the Donegal South West byelection.
Mr Gallagher who was given something like 24 hours notice to run as an MEP has said an approach was made to him by senior figures in Fianna Fáil to contest the Dáil seat he himself vacated in June 2009 when he was elected to the European Parliament.
With MEP income and perks for so little work outside the spotlight of the Irish media, I dont blame him for telling FF to F Off
After all, it was his slipping off to Europe that created the vacancy way back in 2009 I believe, abandoning those constituants who had voted for him in what can only be called a palenesqe deriliction, putting party before his own people.
Ms Coughlan told local radio station Ocean FM yesterday she did not believe the cope was approached but Mr Gallagher responded by saying the Tánaiste, the Irish deputy prime minister was “not in the loop” about the behind-the-scenes moves.
Though no opinion poll has been taken, in the Green corner Sinn Féin candidate Senator Pearse Doherty has been installed by bookmakers as the clear favourite.
It was his successful High Court challenge against the 16-month delay in holding the byelection that has bought it on stream.
With the December budget coming on about the 7th, and 14Bn Euro in cuts proposed FF and the Greens will have a hard sell, although Green party members in Donegal broke away from the Dublin leadership quite some time ago.
In the red corner Labour is expected to run Frank McBrearty Jnr, the victim of Garda corruption, who surprisingly won a seat on the county council.
In the blue corner the Fine Gael candidate is sports journalist Barry O’Neill.
And in other bad news from Donegal for FF, Jim McDaid has resigned his seat - the same guy who was stopped driving drunk the wrong way down a main road - guess his sense of direction has improved and its good to get while the gettings good.
However, one thing I would think is that FF will run the byelection in Donegal mid-week, when students and workers may not be able to get to the polls - it gives them a higher turnout among the older population who tend to vote for them, when the cope ran up there they did not count votes - they weighed them.
But in terms of dependency, if FF lose this one, their majority will be further reduces, forcing them to depend more on Lowry and Healy Rae types.
Most dissappointing is the Greens support for the government.
Ivor Calley has been caught out on expenses, and yet he still clings on to the senate seat gifted to him by none other than Bertie Ahearn.
The only apt quote I can think of is from Oliver Cromwell
"You have sat too long for any good you have been doing lately... Depart, I say; and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go! "
Not only has he caused himself grief, he has also given Paul Gogarty a chance to give himself a bit of positive veneer work to save his skin, even though he continues to prop up the Fianna Fail party.
Dan Boyle of the Green Party, another Senate Apointee, called on Ivor Calley to resign from the Seánad.
One unelected Senator calls for another unelected Taoiseach nominee to resign
Another person jumping on the bandwagon is Fianna Fail TD Mary O'Rourke who said the controversial Senator should step down from the Seanad and stop looking for a way out of his problems.
Funny how Boyle, Gogarty and O'Rourke jump on the easy target while totally silent on the by-elections.
This follows his resignation from Fianna Fail following a Seanad Committee investigation into his expenses claims.
The Committee found him guilty of "conduct unbecoming".
There are others who sould be examined as to their expenses, Beverly Flynn in particular. RTE has failed in this regad, but at least TG4 had the guts to start looking into things.
The corruption allegations in the Calley case also draw attention away from the far more serious cuts in public services, NAMA and the fact that the people of Donegal South West do not have proper representation.
Calley is just one example of a corrupted and broken system.
Another quote from Vince Cable MP worth mentioning is that "Sometimes the best thing a government can do is simply get out of the way" i.e. let the Gardai look into fraud and corruption - like falsified reciepts
Fine Gael’s newly appointed deputy leader James Reilly insisted in the Irish Times the party had emerged “much stronger” from the recent challenge to Enda Kenny’s leadership.
He's Back
You have got to be joking, the parliamentary party heave, and its fallout show how ill-prepared for Government the FG party is.
Dr Reilly - no doubt now deputy leader as a reward for his loyalty to Enda said the new bench is a “proven performers and new energy”.
It would be truer to say it is a mass marriage of convenience based on gender and geography.
Kenny could not fire East Coast deputies, as they are at risk from Labour, and had to keep a few token women in the front rows of the FG team, even if it meant keeping those who have publicly stated they have no confidence in his ability or leadership.
Michael Noonan is the new finance spokesman while Richard Bruton, who led the recent heave against Mr Kenny, is appointed as spokesman on enterprise, jobs and economic planning.
How can he plan our economy when he plots for his brothers former job?
Two others involved in the heave, Simon Coveney and Leo Varadkar, were retained on the front bench.
Coveney is a dynastic politician who is importat in the FG power struggle.
Varadkar - who on Primetime stated he had no belief that Kenny could take them over the line next time out is kept on because he is a modern, friendly face for FG - but I doubt very much either would be in a FG cabinet post election.
FG's attempt at damage limitation has been ineffective “There was always going to be a change or a freshening of the front bench,” Dr Reilly told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland programme, suggesting the leadership struggle had merely brought the changes forward.
“We now have a new, exciting, energetic mix on our front bench that has the required qualities to bring this country back from the brink"
Well, I for one very much doubt any of those who heaved against Kenny would be in a cabinet portfolio, it will be the stalwarts in the mold of Noonan, the old reliables
Dr Reilly also said Kenny had the “decisiveness and incisiveness” to lead the country of the morass it finds itself in.
This when he could not even foresee or control his own front bench, most of whom declared no confidence in him and ran around like headless chickens after one bad poll - so much for quality leadership!
Asked if former finance spokesman Richard Bruton has lost his credibility in the recent heave against Mr Kenny’s stewardship, Reilly said: “I believe that Richard believed he was the best man for the job at the time. He went to the party, to let the party decide, and he lost"
We have seen in the past that an individuals political survival is far more important than the state of the nation. We are in crisis and should have a government that picks the best person for the job - and at a time of crisis we should perhaps look at a government of national unity.
However, as usual, loyalty to a leader is more important than competence. Horse trading is the most important part of the Irish Economy
With this in mind Phil Hogan, Alan Shatter, Jimmy Deenihan and Michael Ring along with Reilly are certainties for ministries.
Others who may well make future Ministers are Noonan, Catherine Byrne, Deirdre Clune, Andrew Doyle, Frank Feighan, John Perry, David Stanton and Paul Kehoe.
Speaking of Richard Bruton Reilly said “He understands perfectly well he has a huge important role to play in the future of this country and he will be in the next government and he will be a minister in the next government,” he said.
I really think that's a non-starter, If FG manage to become the leading party in the next election, Bruton will be on the back benches, in the good company of Charlie Flanagan, Coveney, Varadker, Bruton, Olivia Mitchell and Fergus O’Dowd.
Revenge, as they say - is a dish best served cold.
If Fianna Fail had one bit of good news in the past few weeks, it was FGs melt down. The media management has been magnificent..
The entire medias eye was off the ball, and FF will get away with the biggest failing in the political history of the Island.
The two reports dealing with a disasterous financial meltdown that lay the blame squarely on the Government.
Dermot Ahearn said the crisis was no ones fault, and the mantra is repeated.
The FF/Green manta is the crisis is outside our control - it was due entirely due to external factors.
This is a lie
The Watson/Reingling report states the crisis was home grown - and due to overly light regulation and political mismanagement.
Governor Honohan said in his report that the collapse of Lehman Brothers did not cause the Irish banking crisis.
The financial regulators were disfunctional, 'intrusive demands" from line staff were set aside when senior regulators were approached.
To quote the Watson Reingling report “internal procedures were overridden, sometimes systematically.”
The regulators did not do their jobs, and on the basis of political and business favours they were overlooked.
Having light touch regulaton is one thing, but the shelving of investigations is to me criminal, and someone needs to answer that.
The excuse that the crash was unforseen is untrue - there were some very serious people who warned of the crisis.
In April 2007 Prof. Morgan Kelly warned we were heading for a recession with a hard crash because we had a classc set up for a property bubble bust.
Bertie in response to this and other warnings said that sitting on the sidelines moaning and cribbing - and was surprised that people who warned of a potential bust did not commit scuicide.
Regling / Watson said that by the middle of the decade, the financial and property boom in Ireland presented features that should have sounded alarm bells loudly.
Domestic financial stability reporting by the Central Bank had failed in this regard.
Brian Lenihan emphasised that the reports were "preliminary, scoping reports", which would point the way to a more detailed examination by a Commission of Investigation.
One wonders who is going to be in charge of it? Perhaps a tame high court judge or Fianna Fáil Senator Ivor Callely?
It will investigate the banks, but not the government, this is pointless - the politicians were as responsible as the bankers.
In the banks already a few token heads have rolled.
But the people who have been bought in to run our banks were alreeady senior members of those boards.
We are leaving foxes in charge of the henhouse
I believe we need someone like Eva Joly, a Norwegian born French judge with an outstanding history investigating corruption by politicians and vested business interests.
She finished her work quickly in Iceland.
We need to know what senior regulators failed to investigate concerns, we need to know what politicians were involved in getting tax breaks for regulators.
We need to uncover and prosecute those guilty of corruption and incompetence - otherwise they will do it again.
Well, again we see the headless chickens running the coop, or ruining the coup perhaps, as Enda Kenny has fired one of the most popular deputies on his bench.
It also shows that FG, after a few polls not favouring Kenny, hit the panic button and head for self destruct.
At the age of 24 Enda Kenny - like Brian Cowen - was elected to the Dail to replace his father Harry died.
Kenny is currently the longest-serving TD in Dáil Éireann still in office, and is the incumbent Father of the Dáil.
He was challenged as leader by Richard Bruton, the brother of a former leader who - unlike his brother John - seems popular with people, and is very bright.
We want change in this country, we need a change in the way things work - but yet again, in the main opposition party, we see the same names and the same families and that will not deliver change.
With the set up that we have, dynastic politics are here to stay, and make no mistake about it - it wont change, as that requires legislation, so politicians voting to reform the way things are done on this Island is like turkeys voting for Christmas.
It is laughable when FG talk of reform, the same clans have been in politics since the foundation of the state.
They are as culpable as FF for the current system, which is not fit for purpose.
This jittery response also took the attention off FF and the banking reports published by Klaus Regling and Max Watson, which are far more serious issues than the internal squabbles of dynasties within FG
Well, gombeenism is still alive and well in Galway East. I wrote about Michael 'The Stroke' Fahy - Galway coco councillor before.
After being released from Prison on appeal he was allowed - how I dont know - to stand and win a seat at the council as an independent.
On his return to Galway coco Cllr Fahy did not refer to his own absence - but noted other developments such as the green light for the re-opening of the Athenry-Limerick railway line.
"It lifted my heart last Friday when I arrived back near my own home to see the work started on the railway line. It will be a huge boost for south Galway"
And we should have seen this as a warning shot of his intentions.
So, the Western corridor opened, and the Stroke pulled off another one, using his position to benefit himself from public finances.
He was jailed in 2007 in relation to fraud and attempted theft in connection with a fence constructed on his property during a road expansion in his area.
He was sentenced to a year in jail and fined 75,000, in a retrial in 2008 he was again convicted fraudulently obtaining benefits from the Council, convicted and fined 30,000.
He is appealing this.
But not to lose the big picture, while he is costing the tax payer money in apeal after appeal, he now has had a railway bridge constructed on his property, worth in the region of 2 million Euro.
A spokesperson from Irish rail would not confirm the cost on the grounds that individual prices paid for such strucures were sensitive commercial information that could predudice future transactions - so we cannot find out how.
The Councillor is one of only four farmers to benefit from the use of an overbridge on the railway line, he described its costruction as a coup.
A level crossing was not good enough for him.
This waste of resources, when 100,000 euro has been removed from the Galway west budget is a disgrace.
On the main Clifden Galway road, major roadworks are underway, and yet the people of South Connemara are not to get a traffic filter at the Recess cross road, which with the increase in speed on the road is becoming increasingly dangerous, with high road usage.
However, Cllr Fahy has managed to have an expensive structure built on his farm during the construction of a new railway line!
This has to be taken in context when we see that Representatives of Iarnród Éireann and of its parent body, CIE, appeared before the Oireachtas Transport Committee after media reports claimed that fraud and malpractice at Iarnrod Eireann could have cost the company close on €9 million.
Iarnród Éireann Chief Executive Dick Fearn broke down the €665,000; €271,000 related to collusion with a contractor, €363,000 to the illegal sale of railway equipment such as sleepers, and €30,000 to invoices for work not done.Three employees were dismissed as a result – but not, apparently, tried for fraud or jailed for what might well be described as theft.
Although the Stroke resigned from FF he is still close with senior members of the party, Mary Hanafin TD, daughter of Sen. Des Hanafin in particular - does this nepotism ever end!!
Sen Hanafin senior was a very conservative FF member, oposing divorce, and his son continues in that vein with his opposition to gay marriage.
Mary Hanafins Mother Mona, and Brother - Senator Hanafin - were among a select group who welcomed him home on his release from prison.
Since then Sen. John Hanafin has been appointed to a very plum position on the permanent delegation to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).
And there is the issue that despite the fact he could not attend meetings because he was jailed County Councillor Michael Stroke Fahy kept his council seat and pay.
Galway County Council approved a request by Cllr Fahy that ensured he would not lose his sea
A resolution proposed by Cllr Michael Regan (FF) and seconded by Cllr Tomás Mannion (FF) meant that the local government act did not apply to Cllr Fahy for missing meetings in March and April because he was "sick and in Dublin"
These actions allowed Fahy to keep his seat and further benefit himself at the publics expense, at a time of cutbacks, reductions in public spending and increased hardship for the average citizen, the Stroke got his bridge to nowhere.
Tribal loyalties and ties to FF still hold strong, despite corruption and gombeenism.
Justice must be done, and must be seen to be done. We the People are expected to accept - in good faith - the word of the Government, accept paycuts, levees, cutbacks and increased direct and indirect taxes to bail out bankers and developers who paid a lower rates than mid level earners at the height of the boom.
Thats all well and good - until the media (finally) start to ask questions.
Then answers are refused under the so-called freedom of information act.
A private enquiry is of no use, a tribunal is too expensive, what we need, and what we deserve is a DIRT style enquiry now. And dont think for a minute that it will be any different under FG
There are too many of them involved in speculation and land deals to be any less wary.
How much more of this do we have to put up with - seriously FF/FG are two cheeks of the one arse, and we need a change.
Voting for FG to replace FF is like turkeys voting for Christmas - it is not in our best interests.
One poster at boards found many Fine Gael politicians engaged in significant property development and the usual dynastic traits.
Sean Barrett FG - investigated by the Mahon Tribunal - with a portfolio of interests is registered in Jersey
Frank Feighan FG has properties in France, Bulgaria and dotted around Ireland.
Deirdre Clune FG - succeeded her father Peter Barry and Grandfather Anthony Barry as TD
Simon Coveney FG - succeeded his father Hugh Coveney as TD
Michael Creed FG - succeeded his father Donal Creed as TD
Now we learn that Herr Klaus Regling, a former IMF economist, has been appointed to investigate the crisis.
Mr Regling will publish a report on the crisis in tandem with Central Bank Governor Patrick Honohan.
Lets not forget that Mr. Honohan's central bank, with lack of oversight and regulation allowed us to sleepwalk into the current crisis, and people involved in the investigation may not want all details to come out.
The two preliminary inquiries are due to be completed by the end of May,
Neither report will be subject to a public hearing.
Already Herr Regling has said this timeframe is not likley without a 2nd assistant.
Only after the initial investigation will a Commission be established and asked to report by the end of the year.
Its terms of reference will be set by the Oireachtas but its proceedings will be conducted in private - which regardless of what Mr. Gormley says, is secret.
Yes, if we are to have an enquiry there must be terms of reference, but will this be a drawn out investigation to see FF - and other partys - through to the other side of a General Election?
A cause for concern is that people from inside a bureaucracy often do not ask the right questions, as the UK Iraq War inquiry is showing. Focus on procedure can stop questions on how decisions were actually made, and who made them.
This might also repeat the mantra that there is no alternative to NAMA, and a drawn out investigation into the past avoids debate into NAMA alternatives and how to deal with the future
I do not doubt Herr Regling's integrity but we need someone, outside the system, with a focus on dealing with corruption, not mechanism.
I would also like to see full and frank disclosure of Herr Reglings financial interest in Ireland in relation to his work managing funds.
And we need someone with no vested interests in the Irish financial or political systems - like Herr Regling and Mr Honohan
People who see certainties where others see nuances and shades of meaning are either prophets or a quacks, and our politicians are not prophets.
Our Minister of Finance cannot even accurately predict profits, or lack thereof, from the biggest gamble that Ireland has ever undertaken.
We have seen years of mismanagement and poor decision making of which NAMA is the most recent example, and with the Lisbon treaty we have chosen to say No, to dissent.
Dissent and disagreement with Government is the lifeblood of democracy, it is also essential because every once and a while it is right, and the powers to whom we try to speak are wrong.
One very important lesson came from America, from a courageous commentator Edward R Murrow - but more about him later.
The elected, transitional, holders of power in our state, our employees, continue to impugn the intelligence and the loyalty of the people of the state of Ireland in relation to the European Union.
Some media pundits credit our politicos with a knowledge and understanding of the challenges facing Ireland and Europe which neither common sense nor their track record suggests they deserve.
If our politicians had proven their self declared knowledge, foresight and planning, about finance, the economy, health services etc. we might be able to accept the premise that they knew what the hell they were talking about.
But to date this Government has proven little except their own arrogance and hubris in spite of its failure.
With bank bailouts, NAMA, toxic debts, rising unemployment and a real sense of insecurity and uncertainty their failures have enveloped the country in a fog of fear.
This fog, fear and confusion in addition to the BCI ruling on referendum coverage may yet be used to push through the Lisbon treaty on a second attempt.
THE GREATEST LESSON IN DISSENT
One of, if not the greatest American journalist of the modern era was Edward R Murrow. Never in a thousand years could my writing even come close to how he phrased a warning about Governments who felt they - and they alone - knew everything, dismissed accountability and marginalized dissent. In 1954, in a challenge to the McCarthyite witch hunts he said:
"We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. We must remember always that accusation is not proof and that conviction depends upon evidence and due process of law. We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason, if we dig deep in our history and our doctrine, and remember that we are not descended from fearful men -- not from men who feared to write, to speak, to associate and to defend causes that were, for the moment, unpopular"
These words are utterly appropriate to our challenges today.
We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty or allow the refusal to accept the Lisbon Treaty to be confused with our commitment to a European Union. Dissent is said to be the highest form of patriotism.
A No vote in a referendum is just that, we do not accept the proposition put before us by our elected legislators, and want a better deal.
We simply want a Union for the benefit of the people and communities, not for the politicians and corporations.
Our country was not created by people who achieved great things with courage, reason and conviction, not fear - and we must "not be driven by fear into an age of unreason based on illusory guarantees and clever editing.
When we dig into Irish history we see despite censure, public ridicule and the real danger of death we have had the incredible fortune to have had leaders who never allowed themselves to be subdued or cowed, and who supported just causes despite their unpopularity.
Our greatest leaders came from hugely diverse backgrounds. Jim Larkin overcame media vilification for Union organization.
James Connolly died for his belief in workers rights. Griffith’s commitment to self determination, O Connell’s belief in the right to vote, Parnell’s belief in fairness, Tone and Emmett’s belief in secular democracy and women’s rights fought for by people like Winifred Carney now buried in an unmarked grave in Milltown cemetary and Constance Markiewicz have all shaped our sense of nationhood.
We must remember that accusation is not proof, the cheap innuendos by Dick Roche and his ilk about funding of the No campaign mean nothing, particularly when dual standards exist in relation to the funding of the Yes groupings.
If the Government had accepted the recommendations of the Standards in public office, this issue would be more transparent and more in the interest of the democratic process but perhaps not in the interests of the Government.
DEALING WITH DISSENT
With other EU states going for parliamentary ratification of the Lisbon Treaty, without plebiscite, the attempt to force through the second Lisbon vote is an appeasement of sorts.
Again, we can learn from history. Dealing with dissent at home so as not to upset Europe was a policy followed in the 1930's by the Chamberlain Government who appeased an unaccountable system in Germany.
Chamberlain knew most of all that the staunchest critics of his European policy had to be marginalized and isolated - his supporters in the media portrayed the foremost critic as, if not totally senile, at best morally or intellectually confused - he was called Winston Churchill. History has taught us that all Chamberlains' certainties were in fact miscalculation and confusion.
That suggests that the office can not only make the man, the office can make the facts. The solemn guarantee Mr. Chamberlain held in his hand after the Munich conference were about as believeable as those Mr. Cowen has shown us.
But by unremittingly repeating these pointless garuantees (about what is not in the treaty) the illusion is created that the context of the treaty rejected by the Irish, as well as the constitution rejected by the French and Dutch, has fundamentally changed.
FIANNA FAIL FIXATION
At the launch of the Fianna Fail Yes campaign on September 2nd 2009 Mr. Cowen aptly demonstrated this arrogance by stating he did not even contemplate the rejection of the Lisbon treaty on a second attempt.
This is possibly the last chance FF have to 'win' an electorial victory before 2012. As the major party in power it is FF who, along with the greens and indies, have the power to put the referendum to the people, again, and have decided to do so, so it is primarily their referendum.
I for one do not want to see a triumphful FF telling us how they assured we won Lisbon. Its their only chance to win anything at this point, with the support of the opposition, corporations and even the church.
If Lisbon goes through they will use it as a further justification to go full term even with a 17% approval rating (i.e. family and friends) and as their are no more local or EU elections in that period, this is almost certainly the last chance people have to voice their dissent at the ballot box until 2012
CONCLUSION
We cannot allow a failing, self serving and corrupt Government, hardly worthy of the legacy of nationhood that they have inherited, or their corporate supporters to use control of the media and the fear of a deeper financial crisis that they themselves precipitated to force us to vote against our own best interests, and the interests of our fellow European citizens.
This country faces a great challenge. With the clear and present danger of financial ruin and longterm hardship, the confusion we as citizens must now address is stark and forbidding.
But note with hope in your heart we have made it through in the past.
The confusion and debate about Lisbon is really about if the Irish Government actually know what they are talking about - and their track record of the management of our country in health, education, financial regulation or economic planning does not engender any belief in their abilities to have made the correct judgement on the Lisbon treaty.
The chance to pause and reflect after democratic rejection has not been used to build the kind agreement that We the People really want, a desire that really exists
We want our leaders to give us a treaty that is accessable, that gives greater democratic accountability and transparency, and if they deliver that we will work with them to develop a better future for all.
Again, as always – thanks for reading. Even if you don’t agree with me – I hope you give some thoughts to the points made
It is no wonder Ireland is rapidly going down the tubes. We have a situation where the Law is not enforced in relation to standards in public service.
In the recent local elections, East County Galway Loughrea electoral area, Michael 'Stroke' Fahy of Ardrahan was re-elected.
In Ireland the nickname “stroke” is for someone good at “pulling strokes” - that is getting things done in a sly way for family, friends and supporters.
Now Mr Fahy has pulled a big Stroke for himself - In 2004 he resigned from FF when it emerged that he was at the centre of a Garda investigation. He continued to serve as an independent councillor.
After due process and a Jury trial in 2007 the Stroke was finally jailed in respect of the erection of more than a mile of fencing on his land. He was sentenced to 12 months in prison and fined €75,000.
A Jury at Galway Circuit Criminal Court found him unanimously guilty on seven charges brought under the Larceny and Theft and Fraud Offences Acts arising from the erection of boundary fencing on his land under a local authority improvement scheme
At his conviction, the Judge - Mr Groarke - told him that the most aggravating factor was the serious breach of trust by an elected public representative, who had defrauded the very body to which he had been elected to a position of trust.
Passing sentence, Judge Groarke said that while the offences were serious enough in themselves, Fahy had attempted to implicate an innocent man and had shown little concern or remorse.
He had displayed "bombast, bluster and bluff" in the witness box while he gambled with the reputations of honest men.
Support
In an attempt to remove him a motion was entered.
A councillor may be deemed to have resigned his seat if absent from meetings of the authority for a continuous period of six months, and he had spent 7 months in prison - but there is provision within the Local Government Act for the local authority to take into account a councillor's illness or failure to attend "in good faith for another reason".
Jail is hardly a measure of good faith
On September 11 2007 he got another unanimous verdict.
This time the backing of his council colleagues for his bid to hold onto his seat - the defeat of a motion apparently aimed at heading to have him removed from his seat for failing to attend council meetings - a bit tricky when in prison
Around 19 of the councillors of the 30 who were in power of the time have been re-elected
What is wrong with them?
Why are they willing to support a convicted thief who tried to damage honest council staff ?
On Pay???
It actually gets worse.
What makes this whole case galling is that after finally being incarcerated - due to the support of the other elected councillors - the council had to continue to pay Stroke even though he was in jail for defrauding the council
- and could not attend meetings - i.e - do the job for which he was being paid!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This was apparently because of the appeal process.
Stroke confirmed he received the payments when contacted by the Irish Independent.
Thats our money - being paid to a convict who is in jail when he was meant to be working for us!
Stroke said he would have lost his council seat if the payments had stopped.
Fahy refused to say whether he was able to provide a service to his constituents while he was in prison. "I've no comment on that," he said.
He received a total of €21,083 in wages, expenses and allowances from the council in 2006.
He received a total of €20,298 in wages and conference expenses in 2007.
Stroke said the conference expenses, which totaled almost €3,700, were claimed for conferences he attended prior to his incarceration.
He said absolutely no expenses were claimed by him during his time in jail - one would hope so.
Of course, on his release – and at liberty on appeal he has fought and won another election, and one assumes he was paid by the council through 2008 and 2009.
Re-election
Now, we actually have laws against criminals running for office.
Certain people are disqualified from becoming members of a local authority:
People who have been imprisoned for a term longer than 6 months. People who have been convicted of fraud or dishonest dealings, corrupt practice or acting while disqualified.
(This is for 5 year after end of sentence, not 5 bloody weeks)
People who have failed pay local authority charges. People who have failed to comply with an order of a court to pay money due to a local authority.
Also excluded are members of the European Commission, Parliament or Courts, A Minister of the Government, the Chairman of the Dáil and the Chairman of the Seanad.
Judges, The Comptroller and Auditor General, Members of an Garda Siochana (Irish police force) or a full-time member of the Irish defence forces.
Civil servants such as teachers, health board officials etc. are also excluded!!!
It seems to me if I dont pay a parking fine - I cant run, but even after defrauding tens of thousands, and being convicted he can ?
The reason he could run again it appears is even though he had served eight months when the Court of Criminal Appeal struck down the conviction and ordered a retrial.
So he ran - and won.
Two months after his release he has had his case listed for retrial in Galway Circuit Criminal Court. Although the case has been referred to the Galway courts by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), there is speculation that it will be sent to the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court on the grounds that it would be difficult to convene a jury in Galway that would be unaware of the original trial.
Friends say that news of the retrial has come as an enormous shock to him. I find that hard to believe.
How much more will this man cost?
Regardless of court costs incurred by the tax payer so far, don’t forget that the Stroke is perhaps the longest serving member of Galway CoCo, he has been in the Council since 1979.
That’s 30 years.Each outgoing councilor is entitled to something in the region of EUR 3500 per year served, so to be conservative – lets say 3000 per annum severance, that’s 90K if not more.
What a Country? Feck that, What a County!
To those 18,292 (58.9% of the district) of you who went out and voted - I applaud you - even if you voted for this guy - and a lot of you did.
But the other 12679 of you who did not, and could have stopped a convicted corrupt politician being re-elected, I have one thing to say -
Made famous in the hymn Jeruselum, in his preface to Milton, William Blake wrote about 'Dark Satanic Mills' The expression is sometimes interpreted as the destruction of nature and human relationships in the early Industrial Revolution.
I cannot think of a more apt term to describe Irelands Industrial schools and institutions where such staggering abuses took place.
I am rarely moved to tears, but the heroism and honesty of Mr. Michael O Brian on RTE’s Questions and Answers was something nobody could not be moved by.
His courage in the face of such savagry and his decency in search for redress is readily apparent. The same qualities of decency and morality are sadly lacking in the legal, political and spiritual establishments on this Island.
As an aside, with his record of public service I feel Mr. O Brian should be appointed to the Seanad, if he is willing to serve a State that has failed him so abysmally - he owes the State nothing – but that perhaps in such a position he could help steer the implimentation of legislation and needed constitutional change. The numbers involved are so staggering there is no question of constituancy.
The state, education system, legal structures and clergy all failed these people, as did in many cases the general public.
Mr. O Brian has not.
He has already served the country that failed him as a child when an adult as a Mayor and Councillor. He has also shown himself to be a man of honour, conviction, bravery and determination in his work for other survivors.
Mr. O Brian and others who survived have been failed again by this country. Their treatment during the legal inquiry is nothing short of a continuation of abuse. The cowardice of the political establishment further abuse. The weasel financial chicanery of the orders is further abuse. The lack of accountability and a credible apology further abuse.
Mr. Ahearn and his Governments deal with the Orders is an absolute abomination.
Of the Orders involved in the endemic and systematic abuse of innocents, the Christian Brothers are among the largest.
The Christian Brothers speak of review resources for reparations, and as investment in child education and welfare for present and future generations. They speak of maintaining resources to maintain their community, as well as commitments at home and overseas.
The continuation of the Christian Brothers as an entity is, I believe, not tenable, and any connection to any education system is completely unacceptable.
The Brothers have been down this road before. After similar horrific systematic cases in Canada and the US they transferred or attempted to transfer assets and properties into complex trusts to protect against liability. Brother Garvey, the current spokesperson for the Brothers, was then world leader of the orginisation.
This patern is being repeated in Ireland. The reason given is to protect Catholic Education. I believe this Island and the world has seen enough of the Christian Brothers concept of education. It is time for them to disclose, divulge, deliver and disband.
They and their colleages in CORI have continued to drag their feet, and the Government acting like Pontius Pilate have decided to wash their hands of any further responsibility in the palace, while the crucifiction of the Nation, morally, emotionally and financially goes ahead.
It is time for them to show some backbone, be less Catholic and more Christlike.
And what can we do as a Nation? I do not know, but I would suggest that we consider using our unprecedented connectivity - the internet, social networking sites, forums, emails, our mobile phones to arrange to go to our churches every Sunday - not to enter, but to stand outside and hold silent protests or even prayer meetings, until the clergy understand that without the solution to the problem to the satisfation of Mr. O Brian and other survivors, that without our participation and support - that they cannot ignore our wishes.
We as a nation failed to stand up for children in the past, let us not fail to stand by the survivors today and tomorrow.
In the great song Bu$hleaguer, a b-side on ‘I am Mine’ Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam asks how do they do it – the same song gives the answer – drilling for fear makes the job simple.
Keeping people uncertain of the future and creating fears for the wellbeing of themselves and their families makes them easier to control and manipulate
There is now the implied threat from all the major political parties in Ireland that rejecting Lisbon will cause economic meltdown to follow.
They failed to win the argument in the last referendum simply because the treaty could not be sold in a normal, positive way. So now fears and uncertainties are being generated based on fear of the collapse of our economic systems.
The use of scare tactics of what may happen to you if you do not vote the way your told by a discredited group of people is downright nasty.
If they want they want me to vote in favor, then they have to give positive reasons, not simply generate a fear to manipulate us at our most vulnerable level.
If there is one thing we have learned from the last US election, is that the electorate can achieve change they can believe in.
President Obama ran a campaign that made the majority of the electorate feel that their opinion was worth something, it bought the sense of empowerment back to a generally disillusioned population.
We have seen a campaign where the desire for change on what the citizens of the US wanted overcame fear mongering.
Yes, the EU also needs change in the way it works, I support the ideals of the EU but change to Europe should be what is decided by the population of the Union, not by a narrow segment who – using abstract political and failed economic theories – wish to impose. We need more democracy and accountability, not less.
Also, lets not forget the politicians in Ireland who will use this fear mongering are the same people that got us into this economic mess in the first place, bailing out the financial institutions who bypassed regulators, using loopholes and – in some cases if not illegal – methods certainly not in the spirit of regulations in a distasteful way of maximizing perceived profits.
Again showing an astounding lack of understanding and judgment, in January 2009 the Irish Government decided to nationalize Anglo Irish Bank. Irish taxpayers now own a private bank that was suspended on the stock markets with a loss of 98% on share value. This was despite the prior knowledge of a financial trick used to mask losses.
The way it worked was like this – bank executives took out loans in order to purchase Anglo Irish shares. Then, the loans are transferred to another bank prior to the end of year-end audits, thereby causing "Loans to Directors" to be understated.
In 2008, the loan to Messers FitzPatrick and Bradshaw amounted to €87 million; but the transfer loophole resulted in the accounts showing only about €40 million outstanding to directors, instead of €150 million.
The regulator said, "While it does not appear that anything illegal took place in relation to these loans, the Financial Regulator was of the view that the practices surrounding these loans were not appropriate.
Now, the people who carry the can for this are workers in the public sector with a levy, a reduction in their income, on their pensions.
Perversely the pension package of Mr. Fitzpatrick and others were in the private sector, and their pensions will probably remain largely un-affected.
This is simply one example of what happens when appointed, unaccountable people are given to much power, and that we end up paying for it.
Voting for Lisbon wont stop this hapening, it may even make things worse.
But it sent such a shock through the Irish economy.
Rather than an example of Government ineptitude, this fear, this economic crisis, has created uncertainty, and this is a way of forcing the Yes Vote !
We joke about Catholic guilt, but there are some aspects that should be looked at.
Society is a complex thing, affected by many historical communal factors. One that cannot be ignored is religions affect on the way our society works in the past and in the present.
In a tangential way, guilt is fear – whether to suffer for sins in the next life or just the more tangible idea of Karma – that what goes round, comes round, exists in most of us. 92.2% of Irish people have had some exposure, even nominally, to Christian concepts.
As a nation we also have a sense of fair play, and are generally a grateful and compassionate group of people.
We are told that Europe has been good for us, that we should be grateful, that we should afford other European Citizens the general good fortune that we have had, and not to do so is ungrateful and shameful.
I agree that Europe has been good for Ireland. I agree that others should be given a fair shot at sharing in a European idea.
But I think it would be more shameful, and unfair and wrong to accept the Lisbon treaty as it is, with little understanding of it, eroding the importance of the nation state and create an unanswerable bureaucracy that would pass laws to allow the exploitation of our fellow European Union Citizens.
Erosion of the rights of the Nation State is dangerous, of the worlds top 100 economies, 51 are now corporations!!!
And we have seen where that leads. in bank scandals right across the EU.
Their primary job is to create wealth for their shareholders – by any means necessary - unlike the concept of nation state which is for the improvement of society.
There have been economic downturns before, they will happen again – and the very transfer of economic planning to external, unaccountable bureaucracy and de-regulation has helped cause the current downturn.
As I have explained in previous podcasts and blogs, our fellow Europeans have been denied the right to, along with us, make the choice to change the way our union works.
Like Chuck D from Public Enemy said back in 1990 – Power to the People - Gotta Give us want We want – Gotta give us what We need
Its our choice.
Again, as always – thanks for reading, thanks for reading or listening.
Even if you don’t agree with me – I hope you give some thoughts to the points made
And please let others now about these blogs, podcasts and youtubes.
