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.
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
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, can you say you were surprised! And this is just the start, and its not the first time either
With the leaking of politicians expenses, we are beginning to see a buildup of this topic, as we saw in the UK.
However, our politicians are so overpaid that corruption on expenses will not be such an issue.
I still believe that Taoiseach Cowen is a fundamentally decent and honest man, but the FF party are corrupt to the core, and that is something he cannot deal with effectively
Some politicians really do take the micky, in particular those with a dynastic sense of entitlement.
BEVERLY FLYNN
Another example of the faults in Ireland's dynastic system is the bauld Bev Flynn.
Elected to her fathers seat in 1997 she is a good example of what is wrong with our system.
And don't think this is an anti Bev rant, she is just an example of what one can get away with in constituency based politics.
Flynn has had a complex relationship with Fianna Fáil.
She resigned from the party in February 1999 because of the allegations against her but rejoined November that year.
In April 2001, she was expelled from the party but was allowed to rejoin Fianna Fáil again before the 2002 general election.
She was expelled again in May 2004 after the results of her libel case were made public.
She successfully contested the 2007 general election as an independent and was readmitted to the Fianna Fáil party April 2008, and that's an important date in relation to expenses.
On a national level she is best known for the libel case cost that the tax payer a fortune.
RTÉ journalist Charlie Bird claimed that while at National Irish Bank Bev had assisted clients of the bank in evading tax by funnelling undeclared income to schemes in the Isle of Man.
Flynn denied the claims and sued for libel in the High Court in 2001.
The jury found the allegations were found to be substantially true - that RTÉ had proved Flynn had encouraged people to avail of illegal investment schemes.
So we have a sitting TD, guilty of advising people to illegally avoid tax.
Thus, despite Flynn technically winning the case, she was awarded no damages, along with costs being awarded against her. Flynn then appealed the decision to the Supreme Court of Ireland, where she lost.
Flynn at first offered to settle with RTÉ for €590,000. RTÉ rejected this and moved to have her declared bankrupt in 2007.
Being bankrupt would stop her being a TD
Her lawyers were granted a postponement on proceedings to allow her to challenge the constitutionality of legislation which bars bankrupts from Dáil membership.
It was a litigious frolic in her own interest. She subsequently abandoned plans to challenge the legislation.
In June 2007, Flynn announced that she had reached a final settlement with RTÉ, with Flynn paying €1.24 million of the outstanding €2.4 million.
That leaves the tax payer with a bill of €1.16 million for RTE's legal bill as RTÉ, Ireland's public service broadcaster, is part-funded by a television License fee.
It also shows a two tier law system, a person fined 600 Euro could not say to the courts 'I'll pay half of it' - she essentially did.
Other funds that are questionable
ADDITIONAL INCOME
In 2008 she rejoined Fianna Fáil, but still claimed an entitlement to a tax-free allowance available to independent TDs.
However, upon her return to Fianna Fáil there were questions about whether or not she continued to qualify.
She responded that, in addition to her €106,000 basic salary, she still qualified for the €41,000 allowance as she won her seat as an independent TD.
After meeting with the Taoiseach Brian Cowen January 2009, she stated that she would no longer claim the allowance.
In 2004 she claimed enough mileage last year to drive around the circumference of the Earth two times over.
She even claimed over €8000 in mileage for a period when the Dail only sat six times.
Bev Flynn was a member of the Western Health Board from 1999 until 2004. I did try to find out how much she claimed in expenses for that period from the WHB - which is declared separately from TDs expenses, but was told I would have to pay €200 for administrative purposes - so much for freedom of information.
She was also a member of Mayo County Council from 1996 to 2003, one would also like to find out what her expenses were during this period, which overlaps with her work as a TD for 7 years.
In last weeks municipal elections in Iceland, voters sent the old party system a clear message.
Reykjavik, saw the new Best Party take six out of 15 council seats and more than a third of the vote.
The new party won the elections by protesting against a system it says has failed.
I can only hope that Amhran Nua can achieve the same thing.
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
As readers well know, Ireland is a small country.
As readers will know, and as I have written about here, we have a political and business caste, with dynastic politics.
We need a full, public and open investigation into the banking crisis.
It was this crisis that has created NAMA and put our National Debt at levels that are almost incomprehensible.
It also needs to be set up in a way that does not allow political interests to be catered to, and it must be limited in terms of time and cost - not to be milked by the legal eagles as the Tribunals have been.
Iceland has taken steps towards this with the appointment of Eva Joly, a Norwegian born French judge with an outstanding history investigating corruption by politicians and vested business interests.
Her work investigating corruption is impressive, taking on, among others, former minister Bernard Tapie and the bank Crédit Lyonnais.
Her most famous case was that of France’s leading oil company – Elf Aquitaine. Despite death threats, she carried on the case to uncover several cases of fraud.
With that CV she seems ideally suited to investigatig the banks scandal.
We have seen the results of the Tribunals arranged by the Irish Government, little truth, little accountability, few prosecutions and all of this done in a protracted and costly manner.
Our systems are not working, so it is time to take a fresh approach - but will any Government have the courage of their convictions to actually really try to find the truth?
Props to http://celticmeltdown.webs.com/corruption.htm, which details her work in Iceland well
