Syriza, Denis O'Brien & Irish Political Cronyism

A win for Syriza is a win for ordinary European citizens.
For far too long mainstream parties across Europe such as Pasok have handed over the sovereignty of their countries and the futures of their citizens to corporate interests and to a rich elite. They represent the interests of the millionaires at the expense of the millions. Today 1% of the world population almost own the same as the remaining 99%. This is no coincidence. Look at how in Ireland the billionaire Denis O'Brien, who was exposed by the Moriarty Tribunal as paying huge sums of monies to a government minister to secure a national mobile telephone license that helped lay the foundations of his financial empire, has not been prosecuted by the state. Furthermore the current government continues to grant him favours. It is one of his companies that got the contract for the water meters and who is allowed to build up a virtual monopoly of the 'independent' media in Ireland while operating as a tax exile. The clear message is that crime pays in Ireland and elsewhere when you have friends in high office.

Focus on Mary Harney
Let us look at just one example of how incompetent politicians can legally take our hard-earned taxes to finance a life-time of luxury.
Mary Harney retired with a package worth more than €300,000 and is entitled to an annual pension of over €120,000. She receives an annual ministerial pension of over €70,000 and a TDs pension of €50,600. She also received a pension lump sum of €160,000, a termination lump sum of about €17,000 and monthly termination payments from the Oireachtas during her first 12 months of retirement worth another €66,900, Mary then married one of the heads of FAS who found it very difficult to explain where the €1 billion (yes billion) a year they were receiving in a time of nearly full employment went. Her Husband left FAS an opened up a training agency himself. I wonder who he gets the work off? It's one big club baby, and you ain't in it, (but we will allow you to pay for it). Note: Thanks to the 'You can stock your water meters up your a...' Facebook page for this piece on Mary Harney)

The Sad Case of Irish Water: Robin Hood in Reverse- Stealing from the Poor to Pay the Rich.

 
Gene Kerrigan in today's Sunday Independent (Oct 19th 2014) is so perceptive in his analysis of the Irish Water debacle. Check out the article

Through the establishment of the semi-state company Irish Water, the government is starting the process of robbing a national public resource for the benefit of a small elite. The civil servants transferred to the company continue the tradition of what they were used to in the 'public' service by getting taxpayer-funded regular bonuses for doing nothing special; politically-connected consultants get millions in fees paid for once again by the taxpayer. Then at the end of it all, we will probably find a national resource taken from us & privatised for the benefit of business people who are close to the political establishment, an example of the cosy old boys network that looks after each other so well.
People like tax exile Denis O'Brien, who was found by the taxpayer funded The Sad Case of Irish Water: Robin Hood in Reverse- Stealing from the Poor to Pay the Rich.
Gene Kerrigan in today's Sunday Independent is so right. Thru Irish Water, the government is starting the process of robbing a national public resource for the benefit of a small elite. The civil servants transferred to the company continue the tradition of what they were used to in the 'public' service by getting taxpayer-funded regular bonuses for doing nothing special; politically-connected consultants get millions in fees paid for once again by the taxpayer. Then at the end of it all, we will probably find a national resource taken from us & privatised for the benefit of business people who are close to the political establishment, an example of the cosy old boys network that looks after each other so well.
People like tax exile Denis O'Brien, who was found by the taxpayer funded Moriarty Tribunal to have corrupted Irish politics, could well benefit. The Irish Water saga has shown that 'Cronyism' paid for by hard earned money taken from you and me (the little people) is alive and well in Ireland. to have corrupted Irish politics, could well benefit. The Irish Water saga has shown that 'Cronyism' paid for by hard earned money taken from you and me (the little people) is alive and well in Ireland.

Abolish Seanad Éireann- a Failed Elitist Undemocratic Political Entity!

The second chamber of the Oireachtas, Seanad Éireann, is an insult to democracy, is symptomatic of an abuse of power by political parties and a waste of the monies taken from hard-working citizens in the form of taxes that are supposed to be used to pay for essential public services such as health and education rather than to provide party apparatchiks with exorbitant payments.

The Seanad is structured mainly around panel seats for agriculture, culture, industry and other sectors of society. Yet as the Senate electorate consists primarily of TDs, senators and councilors, it has never reflected these social strata. All of the political parties have traditionally used this institution as a rest-home for their members rejected by the electorate or as a launch pad for aspiring TDs.  

A typical day of low attandence in the Seanad.

It has therefore been a toothless kitten for most of its history, providing senators with large annual salaries, staff and expenses during the years of the Celtic Tiger whilst having one of the worst attendance records of any political representative entity in Europe.  A few notable courageous independent-minded senators have made important contributions that have benefited the nation. But these members were the exception and came mainly from an elitist university panel voted in by third-level graduates.

Only two pieces of legislation have been rejected by the Seanad in a history stretching back to its foundation in its present form in the 1930s.

As a result of the calamitous decision of the last government who committed the greatest crime in the history of the state by bankrupting the country and its future for decades to come in order to bail out unscrupulous private banks and foreign gambling bondholders, ordinary decent hardworking citizens and their families have suffered increased unemployment and enforced emigration. Those that are lucky enough to hold onto jobs are enduring wage reductions; increased taxes and decreased public services; the closure of schools, Garda Stations and hospitals which they are asked to suffer in a spirit of renewed patriotism in order to save the country from the abyss. 

I have no problem in answering the nation’s call and making personal sacrifices to ensure economic and social freedom for generations not yet born as our forefathers and mothers did throughout our history. But I fundamentally disagree with handing over monies in the form of taxes to be squandered by paying unnamed foreign gamblers as well as political party senators; by providing huge salaries to individual property speculators in NAMA to keep them in the ostentatious lifestyles that they were formerly accustomed too; by allowing Brian Cowen, Bertie Ahern and former government ministers as well as the former financial regulator and other top civil servants, who collectively mismanaged the country and/or who abused their positions of influence, to ‘retire’ as young men in order to enjoy huge ‘golden handshakes’ and pensions worth up to 150,000Euro per annum for their rest of their long lives whilst they also continue to earn big fees from private directorships, after-dinner speeches and media work. I disagree too with former civil servants and politicians such as Alan Dukes being appointed to lucrative positions in state-supported institutions whilst still being allowed to draw down taxpayer-funded pensions.

The new coalition was swept into office by an angry electorate. When he took office, An Taoiseach Enda Kenny promised to implement a ‘democratic revolution’ that would sweep away the political cronyism of previous governments which had brought the whole democratic process into disrepute by awarding taxpayer-funded state contracts, positions on state boards/quangos, senate seats, land re-zoning and legislative bias that too often benefited property speculators, bankers and party members.

Sadly promises made are quickly forgotten as the government parties continue to look after the “old boys (and girls) network” rewarding discredited civil servants and party loyalists rejected by the electorate. At the same time the perpetrators of the crisis go unpunished and continue to taste the good life on the backs of hard-working taxpayers.

However Enda Kenny’s recent decision to keep by his pre-election promise to abolish the Seanad must be praised as a first step in fulfilling the promise of a ‘democratic revolution’.

Maybe there is a need for a second more accountable chamber of Oireachtas comprised of the different components of Irish society from the Diaspora, farming, business innovation, arts, heritage, education, social inclusion etc. Packed with party hacks and vested interests, this will never happen whilst the existing Senate remains in existence.

Time to Strip Bertie Ahern & his fellow Political Lackeys of All Their Taxpayer-funded Pensions & Perks

As holder of some of the most important offices of state, Bertie Ahern abused his powers as a democratically-elected politician for personal gain and that of his 'property speculator' friends of the 'FF Galway Tent'. But he was not the only one as the level of corruption was endemic in the 'body politic'. Time now to strip him, Padraig Flynn and their cohorts of all their taxpayer-funded pensions & perks. Time now to do likewise to those Ministers of the last government that sold our country to benefit so-called 'developers', greedy bankers and incompetent top civil servants.
These politicians are traitors. liars and thieves who betrayed the electorate of this country.

Read Irish Times article about the lies perpetrated by Ahern

Hopes of Iceland's "Saucepan Revolutionaries" Dashed

I recently watched 'God Bless Iceland' a television film documentary on Iceland's economic meltdown. Very thought-provoking and very heart-rending as it followed over many months the daily routine of ordinary people who took to the streets in the 'Saucepan Revolution' to protest against the oligarchy that controlled the Icelandic banks, parliament and the economy, and whose actions were directly responsible for the spectacular financial collapse of a country that was until recently amongst the wealthiest in the world. The programme interviewed all strata of society in their everyday settings from billionaires, bankers, police officers through to those that lost all their life savings.

It covered protestors such as Sturla and Eva, whose hopes were spectacularly raised when popular demonstrations led directly to the government resigning in a fantastic display of 'people power'.

Yet their dreams were quickly dashed, as it soon became obvious that little would change under the new regime.

Sadly the disillusioned Sturlas and Evas, once the heroes of the nation, became part of the huge numbers of Icelanders who are emigrating in droves, something that the country has never before experienced in modern times.

Very very sad.

I Love Iceland!

I have a special affinity with Iceland, having lived there for over two years. There is an awe-inspiring spiritual and natural beauty in its primeval landscapes and seascapes found no-where else in the world. Yet the people share many traits with the Irish. Traditionally, they were family-orientated, hardworking, nationalistic, proud of their rich literary heritage with a respect for nature that was indicative of a people that relied on the land and sea for their survival.

But, as with the Irish, they succumbed in recent decades to the get-rich quick mentality of property speculation, importing low-paid Eastern European workers to build the houses of a construction boom that was unsustainable and nothing more than a facade. For it was the new arrivals that populated so many of the accommodation units that they themselves built rather than to meet the needs of the small indigenous population. As was the case in Ireland, politicians, bankers and developers were trumpeted as ‘role models’ not just at home but also on the world stage.

Members of this ‘nouveau riche’ arrogantly flaunted their new wealth, milked the public coffers via tax breaks and state contracts, and invested their monies in personal aggrandisement and overseas acquisitions. Both countries took their ‘eye off the ball’ and let their natural strengths, that were carefully built up over so many years and which originally provided the foundations of their economic development in modern times, wither away due to the lack of sufficient investment.

In Iceland, it was fisheries.

In Ireland, it was manufacturing, agriculture and tourism. Many Irish people did not want to work in factories, or in the hospitality trade, thinking it was beneath them; farmers abandoned farming and they sold their arable land to property developers. Tourists that use to come for the enjoyment of our countryside and for fishing stayed away as they witnessed an Ireland being contaminated by urban sprawl, high-pricing, pollution and where it was hard to find an Irish pub or restaurant where you could get served by an Irish man or woman.

It has been said many times since 2008 that the only difference between Iceland and Ireland is one letter.