A day is a long time in politics

I wrote another piece for GlobalComment and it was really difficult to reconstruct the sequence of events! The draft version was over 3000 words.

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As long as I am running this Government, I will run it as I see fit and as I believe, based on my philosophy.

Brian Cowen, Taoiseach (Irish Prime Minister) thundered in the Irish Parliament in January 2009. Two years later, he is still Taoiseach but just a shadow of his former self. His personal approval rating is 8%. Many find it amazing that there are still 8% of people who approve of the job he is doing.

January 2011 was a very strange month in Ireland. It kicked off with the publication of a secret book – The Fitzpatrick Tapes by Tom Lyons and Brian Carey, proofed and published in complete secrecy. Sean Fitzpatrick had been one of the poster boys for the boom. As chairman of Anglo Irish Bank, he was friend to politician and property developer alike, dishing out the money with an even hand. But he was also a gambler – Anglo was a festering mountain of debt that has been referred to as the worst bank in the world. As the house of cards was toppling, the Irish Government first guaranteed and then nationalised Anglo. This bankrupted the country. Fitzpatrick was declared bankrupt.


The politicians with whom Fitzpatrick had intermingled so easily, sought to distance themselves from this pariah. Cowen, who was Finance Minister at the time sought to minimise the links between himself and the former banker. Maybe Fitzpatrick was annoyed or vengeful when in interviews for The Fitzpatrick Tapes he revealed that he had had more contact with Cowen than Cowen disclosed to the Dáil (Irish parliament). The meeting that sparked political upheaval was a round of golf and dinner at Druids Glen in Wicklow.

There was uproar. What had Cowen known when Anglo was nationalised? What was discussed during the game? How did the Taoiseach come to be playing golf with the devil of Irish banking?
When the Dáil finally returned to work on 12 January. Golfgate was the issue of the day. The opposition had a field day. There were accusations of cozy and improper relationships with bankers, economic treason and even questions on the golf handicap of the Taoiseach. The government benches were silent. There was no heckling or eye contact or aspersions cast on the characters of members of the opposition. Questions were flung at the Taoiseach which he batted back with the ever ready bat of I-did-nothing-wrong with a side order of bluster.

He might have gotten away with it too but as it happens, there was another TD (MP) at present at Druid’s Glen that day. Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin of Sinn Féin had been attending a wedding at Druid’s Glen that day. He pinned the Taoiseach with the simple question of who else had been in the company.
Cowen was forced to reveal that in addition to Fitzpatrick, Alan Gray – a member of the Board of the Central Bank and Gary McGann – former Anglo director, had joined them for dinner. Cowen maintained that there was no discussion of the bank or its financial difficulties. He was not taken at his word.

Government backbenchers were furious. The Green Party, junior coalition partners stated that it was not Sherlock Holmes, and would to continue in Government. The Minister for Tourism was trice asked whether she had confidence in Cowen and trice did she dodge the question.

For a few hours, Cowen looked sure to resign. There was a Fianna Fáil (majority coalition party of which Cowen was the president) parliamentary party meeting the next day and when it was postponed by a few hours, rumours were rife that Ireland would finally be rid of the most unpopular Taoiseach in its history. Reports that TDs were packing stationary into their cars surfaced which is apparently a sign of an imminent election.

But it was another false dawn. Cowen would spend some time consulting with the party, catharsis indefinitely postponed while Fianna Fáil navelgazed. Labour tabled a motion of no confidence in the Government but timing ensured that it could not be taken for another week.

After consulting with the parliamentary party, Cowen came out fighting. To quell doubt, he proposed a motion of confidence in himself as leader of the party, to be taken in the following days. Just three hours after Cowen’s announcement, Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin declared his intention to vote against Cowen because “very survival of the party is at stake”.

And it is always all about the party. The motion of confidence was not about the state of the nation but about the state of one political party. Most of the Fianna Fáil Party did not declare one way or another but Martin’s position had support.

The day of the vote of confidence dragged for what seemed like forever. Even the staid media outlets were repeating speculation and rumours. Finally the doors to Leinster House opened to declare that the party was now united behind Mr Cowen and that the issue of his leadership and been “clearly and definitively” dealt with. It was like a body blow. How could even the Fianna Fáil TDs support this man? Martin resigned as Minister for Foreign Affairs.

It seemed we were stuck with Cowen for another while at least but the next two days brought a few developments. A total of seven senior ministers resigned and the situation came to a head on “Unholy Thursday” when the Tánaiste (Deputy Leader) could not say who lead the Ministery for Justice. The Dáil had to be suspended following rowdy protests from the opposition leaders, until Cowen could be found to explain what was going on. Article 28 of Bunreacht na hEireann (the Irish Constitution) states that the Government must not be smaller than 7 members or larger than 15 members and Ministers were rapidly disappearing.

Finish reading here

I, for one, welcome our new ECB overlords

Last weekend, it was painful to watch government ministers lie through their teeth. Everybody knows they lied. Everybody knows that Ireland needs assistance from the EU. Everybody knows the government is corrupt and incompetent.

This week, I continue to be flabbergasted at the maFFia's response to being caught out lying. Reducing the debate to technicalities is obfuscating the issue. There are two types of lies - commission and omission. Commission is saying an untruth. Omission is hiding a truth. Perhaps they technically did not tell untruths but they have been continually hiding the truth. That is lying.

Instead they aggressively ask members of the opposition what would they do. That's totally irrelevant. It doesn't matter. The issue is that the Cabinet has conspired to cover up criminal activity. How much did they know and when? They will not answer. How much personal money did the Cabinet have in Anglo Irish Bank? That has not been answered. We need justice. But the DPP will not act. The president will not act.

The feeling in my belly is repugnance. I feel the darkness inside threatening to come out. Every time I hear another FFer lie, I have to stop myself from flinging the radio across the room. I know they are unshameable. I know a guillotine would bounce off their necks. And despite all they have done, I know there are people in Ireland who will always vote locally not matter what the Party does. I know the Greens have sold out. I know the Director of Public Prosecutions is a political office. I know the DPP never prosecutes FFers even when they lie under oath. So what can I do? I march. I question. I talk to ministers but none of that changes anything.

I hate violence. I've survived violence. I've seen the results on violence - one of my jobs included organising documents and photographs of human rights violations. I have had guns pulled on me. I hate violence but I am being to wonder about the application of violence. The government will not resign. The DPP will not prosecute current and former members of the government that are directly responsible for the economic crisis. Peaceful public protests resulted in brutal retaliation by riot police.  I don't think violence but ultimately solve anything but it is the only way to unembed these disgusting corrupt gombeens?

I am glad the ECB is here. I am glad the IMF is here. I am glad that we finally have some adults in charge of the books - adults that have not been infected with parish pump politics and gombeenism; adults who won't be here long enough to be corrupted by the vested interests; adults who can take mature decisions; and adults who did not have to censor the media and lie to the public.

I don't mourn for our loss of sovereignty. Sovereignty is worth jack shit when the country is broke. I mourn the loss our values in our society. I mourn that people voted Fianna Fáil and thus allowed the FFers to squander the country's wealth by buying the last two elections. I mourn that Irish people voted in a government that always put their party first. And when people reply about there not being any alternative, I want to scream. First of all, we don't know how an opposition coalition would have acted in their place and secondly it is irrelevant. Why continue to vote for someone you know to be corrupt when there are other candidates on the ballot paper?

We need an election. And then we need to overhaul the entire government and senior civil servant institutions. When that is done maybe we can grow up as a country, have politicians who stand for something besides self-interest; and leave civil war politics behind for good.

"We lost the run of ourselves"

I propose a ban on any use of this phrase on public service broadcasts on radio and television. Speak for yourself. We did not lose the run of ourselves. You might have lost the run of yourself but do not tell the rest of the people in this country what they did or did not do.

There are plenty of people who did not benefit from the Celtic Tiger. The country may have been coining it in tax receipts but there were sick people on hospital trolleys for days. Consultants were making out like millionaires but told patients to go and look their newly diagnosed lifelong condition up on the internet. There were jobs to be sure, but after renting the box room in a three bed crappily-constructed house on the outskirts of Dublin and paying for petrol to go to work in an area not served by public transport, one was counting the pennies till the next payday.

We did not lose the run of ourselves. Speak for yourself.

Words matter

Language is important. The right word at the right time can have a profound impact. Last night, Brian Cowen said "I consider that to be beyond the Pale" in response to Eamon Gilmore's statement accusing him of economic treason. Leaving aside the accusation for a moment, I want to focus on the expression "beyond the Pale".

During the Middle Ages, the Pale was the area of Dublin and its surrounds in which life was safe, privileged, civilised and English. The rest of the Ireland of Ireland was dangerous, savage and full of barbarians. The Irish were the barbarians. For centuries the expression literally meant savage dangerous barbarians incapable of civilised discourse.

To use that expression is to accuse Gilmore of being a barbarian, an Irish barbarian, incapable of civilisation, and Cowen is using the words of the English conqueror, a "civilised" man full of contempt for the inferior Irishman.

Cowen is contemptible. He is head of a government that presided over the worst economic crash. Not even Dev's "economic war on Britain" or Charlie's island paradise can even compare to the recklessness and corruption of Brian Cowen. A profound lack of forecasting accompanied his budgets. Guaranteeing the banks in haste and nationalising Anglo leaves us to repent of failing to persuade people not to vote for the maFFia.

Because of this government, every Irish person owes 27 000 euro a year for the next 30 years. It's time to smash this government because quiet and civilised protest is not working.

Enmeshed

This story from the Indo is almost beyond belief - h/t from mediabite on Twitter

NAMA-BOUND property developers Derek Quinlan, Treasury Holdings' Johnny Ronan, Ballymore Properties' Sean Mulryan and Paddy McKillen, one of the so called "Anglo 10", have all emerged as major donors to the Vatican.

The property developers were named in the top 10 borrowers whose loans were bound for Nama in the first wave of transfers last week. Some €16bn worth of loans associated with the 10 biggest borrowers are set to be transferred shortly...

Close to €9m was raised from donors for the restoration project. The donors were given special medallions after a private mass in the Pauline chapel, celebrated by Cardinal Lajolo last July. Solid gold 'Michelangelo' medallions were given to donors who had given more than $1m, with silver 'Raphael' medallions for donors of $500,000 plus. 'Bramante' medals were presented to donors of $250,000 or more. A marble plaque listing the names of all 26 donors, including the Irish builders and bankers, was unveiled in the chapel.

That there are significant links between the Golden Circle and the Vatican feels creepy to me. The Golden Circle represent all that is rotten in Irish property development and banking and they are donors to the Vatican. The same Vatican that covered up the child abuse of thousands in the Dublin Archdiocese. It is repugnant

What was the backhander? Gold medals are one thing but that's no reason for developers to give so generously. They're not exactly known for their generosity to the Irish state anyway.

Given that the taxpayer is paying their debts, the gold should be sold and put towards the reduction of same.

It just makes me wonder, what else is going to be revealed.

Another public representative advocates the concealment of dodgy banking

Michael Ahern contributes to the disgusting trail of parochialism and cronyism in Ireland by trying to sweep the notion of an inquiry under the carpet.

The Chairman of the Oireachtas Finance Committee has said it is not practical to launch an inquiry into the banking crisis at the same time as trying to get the economy back on track.

Fianna Fáil TD Michael Ahern says an investigation would be turned by some people into a circus and it could be damaging to the reputation of banks.

Deputy Ahern also said that the practices that led to the banking crisis - excessive lending and questionable types of lending - were already well known by the general public.

"Anyone that doesn't know that is living in fantasy land," he said.

Everybody knows that something fishy went on but there have been no convictions, sincere apologies or the tearing down of the institutional systems that permitted these excesses. Now is the ideal time for an inquiry. The government cannot decide to put it off by having the minions squawk to the national media.

Fianna Fáil and resignations

From the Irish Times

Mr Cowen yesterday deflected criticism of Ms Coughlan’s decision to approve a “golden handshake” for Mr Molloy last November, which enhanced the long-term value of his pension by an estimated €1 million.

Course he did. Holy Saint Dermot "Back to the good old days" Ahern defended Sweary Mary on Radio 1 this afternoon. Angling to be Tánaiste that one is.

Fianna Fáil have brass necks. They are unshameable. A quick non-apology and back to business as usual. How many of them have committed firing offenses?

• Batt O'Keeffe for the Magdalanes as employees remark
  
• Brian Lenihan for getting the budget wrong and not reading the necessary documents; for nationalising Anglo Irish Bank to bail out FF grassroots members
  
• John O'Donaghue for his expenses
• Martin Cullen for his expenses, e-voting, abuse of government jet
  
• Mary O' Rourke for racism
• Mary Coughlan for the FÁS and Rody Molly debacle
• Michael Woods for negotiating immunity for child rapists and torturers who were in the church
• Mary Harney for the health system
• Bertie Ahern for, amongst other things, the gas and oil deal with Shell
• Brian Cowen for continuing lack of leadership and allowing corrupt public servants to resign instead of firing them
• Dermot Ahern for amendments to the criminal justice lawand the blasphemy law
  

Right, who have I forgotten?

It's not inspiring to think so many government ministers have said and done things that they should be fired for. Where is the political will, accountability and justice there? The government is supposed to serve the people.

There is a cancer in the body politic when we keep returning these corrupt fuckers. New people need to stand for election but the best and brightest are leaving Ireland because who wants to spend their life paying for these fools' mistakes and not a single person is fired or takes responsibility?

Does it take their blood flowing in the streets to get resignations? I abhor violence but I wonder whether anything short of that will get them out of government.

Corruption most blatant

In yesterday's Irish Times The Ceann Comhairle defends his lavish approach to public money

Commenting on the expenses incurred by John O’Donoghue, former minister for tourism and now Ceann Comhairle of the Dáil, the department said “every effort is made to secure the best possible rates” for Ministers and their delegations. The statement was in response to a Sunday newspaper report that documents released under the Freedom of Information Act showed Mr O’Donoghue, his wife Kate Ann and his private secretary, ran up a travel bill of more than €100,000 over a period of two years.

In addition to the expenses detailed in the article, it is common knowledge that O'Donoghue takes a helicopter to Kerry if he's going home of an evening and has his state car drive down from Dublin to pick him up. Likewise he sends the state car down to Kerry to pick up his wife if she fancies a day in Dublin. All this at the taxpayers expense.

I thought we got rid of a ruling class in this country when Ireland became a republic. The truth is simple. Members's of the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party have become the ruling class and try the country as their personal treasure chest. The taxpayers are the peasants, to be disregarded and mocked as the government places taxes and levies that could be likened to pre-revolutionary France. Well France had their revolution and I think the anger of the Irish people won't be contained for long. The streets may not run red with blood but there may be a few grazes.

The success of Fianna Fáil can be explained in part by the Irish Press. Owned by Dev and his family, it was never critical of the FFers or their policies. A perfect little propaganda machine.

Dev killed our economy and impoverished our parents and grandparents. Dev and all the Taoisigh since him permitted the industrial schools to continue despite extensive reports of abuse. In fact, Ministers for Education disappeared complaints and the entire text of the Cussen report from public records. Lenihan Senior was involved in dismissing complaints too.

Think of Haughey. He had a private island, an estate and racehorses all on a TD, Minister or Taoseach's salary. How is such a thing possible. It is not of course but the journalists of the day did not dare to cross the Short Fella.

How many Fianna Fáil TDs have made Irish politics into a hereditary dynasty? Let's list them

• Cowen
• Lenihan
• Coughlan
• O Cuiv
• Kitt
• Andrews
• O Flynn
• Ahern
• Connolly
• Brennan
  

They have been brought up with the arrogance of petty privilege and the perceived entitlement to rule. We the people have bought their line of bullshit but people have become so disillusioned with the state of Irish government that it is easier to emigrate and be a success elsewhere that try and provoke change in this country. Good people will not stand for election because the ruling elites have the money, power and backing of their party.

I was supporting a candidate for the European elections. A bright guy with policies of change. The truth is that it was extremely difficult to get any publicity or to get on or be given any time on The Last Word, The Right Hook, Drive Time, Prime Time, Pat Kenny Show, Morning Ireland or any of the national newspapers or television current affairs programmes. I know because I phoned every day to try and make it happen. Instead the media focused on Ganley, the candidate with the money and the standing MEP's opinions about Ganley. It's easier to serve on the International Criminal Court than to get heard in Ireland without a political party.

People like O'Donaghue are taking advantage of public money because they can. Because they consider themselves elite. Because the people of Ireland are given little choice in the elections. Just consider this:

John O'Donoghue, his wife Kate Ann, and his private secretary Therese O'Connor ran up a travel bill of over €126,000 in the space of just two years.

Among the expenditure were a series of €900-a-night hotels, €7,591 on "airport pick-ups" during a two-day trip to London, €120 for hat rental, €250 for water taxis and €80 to "Indians for moving the luggage".

On one luxurious trip to Venice, the former arts minister, his wife and the civil servant ran up hotel bills of €5,834 at the Albergo San Marco, the Hotel Cipriani and the San Clemente Palace. The ministerial entourage travelled to Italy by government jet, where they were collected by a private airport boat and taken to their luxury accommodation.

He is not even trying to hide the bill padding. And that's what corruption has come to in Ireland. Why bother hiding it when there are no consequences to such spending, never mind the othering of the luggage handlers - "Indians for moving the luggage" indeed.

One of the main contributing factors to our current economic shitstorm is that Lenihan nationalised Anglo Irish Bank. Now he said he did so because the bank was of systemic importance. Of course, he said that he didn't read that part of the report

Brian Lenihan came under intense political pressure last night, following his admission that he only learned about the transfer of €7 billion to Anglo Irish Bank last month, even though his department informed the Financial Regulator about the issue last October.

... Stressing that he only learnt about the issue last month, he said the money transfer was not identified as a risk factor in the 720-page report. “I did not read the report in its entirety but focused on the risk factors outlined therein.”

He added the Taoiseach had not been given a copy of the report. “It was not circulated to the Taoiseach or to other Ministers. I returned any copies I received because I was conscious of the confidential character of the information involved.”

The conclusion is that either Lenihan is criminally incompetent or criminally ignorant. But what if there was another possibility? The real reason why Anglo was nationalised, aside from bailing out Fianna Fáil' developer buddies and getting kickbacks?

Someone I know was serving at a Fianna Fáil banquet two years ago. What is interesting is that all the bills were paid by cheque. What was more interesting is that all but one cheque were drawn on Anglo Irish Bank. And that is the real reason that Anglo was nationalised. The party's money was tied up in the bank. Lenihan, Cowen and Coughlan would be out in a flash if their grassroots supporters lost their money. FF's motto would seem to be party first, developers second and the country in a distant third.

So Anglo was nationalised. And the country is fucked. We bail out the banks, cut social welfare, put levies on the public service, increase taxes, invent new taxes, levies and charges, cut the already mismanaged and incompetent health service, cut education funding among other austerty measures. Now the taxpayer suffers the consequences of the property bubble, the bailout of the Fianna Fáil developer buddies and the choice to put party before country.

The result is that those of us who have children or plan on procreating have to measure whether it is fair to bring them up in Ireland, knowing that they will be paying for Fianna Fáil's failings in their taxes or emigrating because of a stagnant economy. Is it fair on the children to stay in Ireland? Maybe it's just best to leave once the world economy picks up. Or if you stay, will you stand for election? Let's wrest our country back from the special interest groups and loosen the death grip of the FFers.

Biffo's Hallelujah

Not quite Leonard Cohen. Only kinda funny considering it's true

Everybody knows

Everybody knows that the dice are loaded

Two days later, the Government announced it wouldn't put €1.5bn into Anglo. It would instead nationalise the bank, at even greater potential cost to the taxpayer.

Why? Because Anglo is the country's "third-biggest bank". Well, it's not.

Yes, in money terms it's huge. But Anglo isn't a high street bank. It's a casino within which rich people -- speculators, developers, builders -- gambled on the property bubble.

Yes, it's huge in money terms, but not because it's embedded in the Irish economy -- only because it borrowed and loaned to reckless extremes, for gambling purposes.

Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed

No Irish citizen has any interest in Lenihan's great gamble failing, but the unknown, unknowns make the chances of failure extremely high. If we don't know how much the bad debts will be how can we, with any certainty, say that the €7bn figure will be enough?

Everybody knows that the war is over

Mr Kenny instanced the case of a public servant on €15,000 who would have a net reduction in take-home pay of €450, a decline of 3 per cent. Somebody on €19,500 would have a net reduction of €105 because he or she paid 0.5 per cent due to the taxation system.

A single public servant earning €36,400 would have pay reduced by €1,769, while another single person on €40,000 would suffer a reduction of €1,649. A married person earning €45,400 would have take-home pay reduced by €2,537, but somebody earning €55,000 would have €2,403 deducted. “These are clearly anomalous situations,” said Mr Kenny.

Everybody knows the good guys lost

Flare ups in the Dail today as Labour staged a walkout over questions to Brian Lenihan on the recapitalisation package

Everybody knows the fight was fixed

He chose this morning to announce that he was closing the classrooms of over 500 special needs children

The poor stay poor, the rich get rich

people expressing anger at how the bankers, builders, stockbrokers etc who got us into this mess were getting away Scot free. There is an expectation at the few dozen people who contributed greatly to the rapid descent in our economy must pay the price.

That's how it goes

All over the world, governments are being destabilised by the consequences of dealing with the economic trauma. As jobs are lost and incomes cut, disgruntled workers are taking to the streets to vent their anger. The years of plenty are over.

Everybody knows

HE might not be able to bring himself to say sorry to the people of Ireland, or even to his former shareholders, but Sean FitzPatrick will one day admit that he was wrong.

That's what millionaire businessman Ben Dunne believes the former chairman of Anglo Irish Bank will have to do if he is to overcome his "addiction to money".

Everybody knows that the boat is leaking

“I have behaved in a competent manner as Minister for Finance.”

Everybody knows that the captain lied

The circular mechanism used to transfer the temporary deposit enabled Anglo Irish to categorise the money as a customer deposit, enabling the bank to prop up its deposit levels and disguise the dramatic levels of withdrawals suffered by the bank during the unprecedented financial upheaval last September.

Everybody got this broken feeling

No-one has any cash and companies without cash-flow are going bust. This week alone three friends of mine told me they are going out of business.

Like their father or their dog just died

Deflation takes hold and it causes people and companies to go bankrupt which leads to the banking system imploding and the economy moves into a depression. As people feel that deflation is around the corner, they put off spending until the future when they feel they will get a lower price.

Everybody talking to their pockets

There could not be a worse time to announce the investment of €7bn of public money into AIB and Bank of Ireland - or into any bank.

Everybody wants a box of chocolates

The owners said last night it will continue in business under direction of the liquidator, with no loss of the 40 full- and part-time staff jobs. “The existing management and staff will continue with the Sandhouse and it will remain open for business as usual.” The hotel, closed for the winter, reopens on St Valentine’s weekend.

And a long stem rose

Public sector unions have given notice that they intend to stage a day of action next Saturday, St Valentine’s Day, demonstrating at TDs’ offices. It will be followed by other demonstrations. There will be bells, whistles, drums and speeches vowing to fight the pension levy to the end.

Everybody knows

Unlike the previous recession in Ireland, this time there is little point emigrating as other countries such as the UK and the US are also experiencing jobs crises.

Loose lips, sink ships

Click here to find out the story behind this great poster

We need a new finance minister. The current one is broken.

Can we please have a new finance minister now? Lenihan seems to have lost the plot. According to him the economy is thriving.

Ireland "has a thriving economy", and it would be wrong to compare the country's economic situation with that of Iceland's, Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan has said. "The Irish economy has headed into the current recession in a very strong shape. We doubled our workforce in the last 20 years and we have very low public debt, but like economies throughout the world we're under a severe challenge . . . and we have to take firm decisions as a Government to control our fiscal position," he said.

Oh well that's grand so. I'll just run out and tell the car sales people that a 68% decline in sales compared to last year in normal in a thriving economy. Economists saying that house prices may fall up to 80% demonstrates a thriving economy! Businesses closing down and tens of thousands of new dwellings unsold really convince me Brian that we have a thriving economy!

Yanno it takes more than bailing out the property developers / FF contributors and nationalising a bank to shore up the economy. I think a logical thinking person might in fact believe that nationalising a bank and taking on its debt, so certain favoured citizens get to walk away from their criminal decisions, is a clear sign that the economy is not thriving.

As for the very low public debt, we owe the same amount of money as we did in the 80s. The different is that now it's private debt which ballooned up because of 120% mortgages, people getting mortgages they can't afford and bloody property developers sucking the lifeblood and cultural heritage from the country's bones. Nothing was sacred. People are defaulting on their loans and being evicted and you, you who bailed out those vampires, have the temerity to claim that the economy is thriving. It's a load of baldfaced lies and a slap in the face to the public.

We can all look to the US and cluck our tongues at the bailout there as socialism for the rich but you Brian, have made it a reality in Ireland too. Citizens are losing their homes and you bailout wealthy property developers and have the citizen foot the bill. I wonder if criminal charges could be brought

"There's been an alarming growth in our public borrowing this year, and the Government is determined to check that and take whatever corrective decisions are required.

Am I the only one who sees the cognitive dissonance here? The government is the entity that borrows money. Therefore dear Brian, you have to curb your own spending and the spending of your party. Perhaps you think it sounds tough to speak out against public borrowing but you are the person who borrowed - you and Cowen! Do you think the citizens of Ireland are fools or do you just not care?

In a wide-ranging interview on the state of the country's economy, Mr Lenihan rejected suggestions that Fianna Fáil's policies were to blame for the crisis.

Ok Brian then what is to blame for the crisis? You don't get to blame the Americans either. Fianna Fail [sic] have been in power since 1997. Creevy, Cowen and yourself have (mis)managed the country's finances. Take responsibility for the actions and inactions of your party and government. Don't try and brazen it out. Fianna Fail [sic] has been robbing this country for decades. The least you can do is take responsibility. Otherwise how can the people of Ireland have any confidence in your blundering in the future.

To Brian Lenihan

Dear Minister Lenihan,

As a primary shareholder in Anglo Irish Bank, please send all financial details for my perusal.

Sincerely

Mór Rígan
Your employer

The newest banana republic

The Financial Times called Ireland a banana republic and in doing so led us into the honoured halls of banana republicanism. We join such countries as El Salvador, Belize, Nicaragua, Honduras, Zimbabwe, and Guatemala.

It's true if you think about it. The hallmarks of a banana republic are large wealth inequities, poor infrastructure, poor schools, a "backward" economy, low capital spending, a reliance on foreign capital and money printing, budget deficits, and a weakening currency. Let's just see how many of those boxes Ireland ticks...

1. Poor infrastructure
2. Backward economy
3. Poor schools
4. Reliance on foreign capital
5. Budget deficits
6. Weakening currency
7. Poor health system

Bet the EU is regretting letting us into the euro now. What a corrupt little country we are. Fintan O'Toole states it best.

There were two possible conclusions that any rational investor could have drawn. One was that cooking the books is illegal, but that the authorities were rushing to protect a well-got banker with strong connections to the ruling party. The other was that naked deception is perfectly legal in Ireland and that you can’t trust any accounts published here. It is not easy to say which conclusion is more damaging, but either way the consequences were bound to be disastrous.

And they were. The Independent newspaper of London reported: “Analysts were also stunned that the practice was not illegal in Ireland.” The Financial Times called Ireland a banana republic. The description in 2005 by the New York Times of Dublin as “the Wild West of European finance” was widely revived. Whatever shred of credibility the Irish banking system still had was torn apart. The nationalisation of Anglo Irish, with a potential doubling of the national debt, became inevitable.

We have to understand that the “reputational damage” that has caused this crisis is not merely to the banks – it is to our entire system of governance. Once the Government locked itself in, apparently by accident, to the message that FitzPatrick broke no laws, our legal system became, from the point of view of international investors, a joke.

We are an international joke. We are lucky that the EU doesn't just kick us out of the euro. Despite the idiotic mumbling of some, it would be suicidal to leave the euro. Might as well write the country off.

Banking crisis - the Lenihan edition

How does a country go from the Celtic Tiger to almost bankrupt? How can the ruling political party disavow responsibility when they have been continuously in power since 1997? Fianna Fáil has been in power for twelve years. That political party has presided over public spending during the boom years.

Charlie McCreevy, Brian Cowen and Brian Lenihan have been Ministers for Finance during the good years. Now Charlie is shipped off to Europe, Cowen is the Dear Leader and Lenihan is stuck in finance and, god knows, it's not his strong suit.

At least he's in a prime position to help out his buddies, even if he has to throw the country under a bus to do so. It is truly amazing that housing developments lie empty across the country yet the property developers don't seem that affected.

With water cascades, a Japanese garden, triplex penthouses and a chance to live in Ireland’s tallest residential building, a €2m Leeside penthouse in Cork city’s Elysian apartment complex was billed as the ultimate in Celtic tiger living. But four months after units in the 17-storey development officially came on the market, just one person has taken up residence in the €150m complex.

The Elysian was backed by a considerable marketing campaign. It featured in TV3’s The Apprentice, in which contestants competed to design a television commercial for Michael O’Flynn, the complex’s developer. However, even that publicity did not help to shift units.

This is the story all over the country. Vast property developments stand finished but empty. These must be costing the developers a pretty penny. And yet four of the five major property developers have not got bust. How is this possible? Could it be that the developers have friends in high places? Friends that are willing to nationalise banks to ensure the financial security of property developers?

The Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan has told the Dáil the nationalisation of Anglo Irish Bank is necessary to address a 'systemic threat' in the banking sector.

TDs and Senators are debating the legislation to nationalise Anglo Irish this afternoon. The Government wants the bill passed into law by this evening.

Introducing the Bill, Mr Lenihan said Anglo Irish presented a 'particular problem'. He said concerns about corporate governance and the concentration of its lending to the building sector exposed the bank.

The Minister said taking Anglo into state ownership would have no immediate impact on the general Government debt or current deficit. He said there was enough money - €7 billion - within Anglo Irish to take the strain of loan losses over the next three or four years.

Oh right, Anglo Irish is a 'particular problem'. What is that problem, again? Is is that we might bankrupt the poor developers who have finished picking the last of the meat from the carcass of the Celtic Tiger?

Anglo Irish wasn't picky with its loans either. It lent to developers outside Ireland and even outside the EU. Why were Israelis getting property loans from Anglo Irish to buy apartments in New York? Why is the Irish economy now dependent on the decision of a foreign, religious court? Was it corruption or incompetence?

Our Minister for Finance just put the cost of the developers excesses and the moronic financial decisions of the corrupt administrators of Anglo Irish on my back, on your back, on the bank of every taxpayer in the country.

However, not content with leaving the taxpaying population of Ireland to bail out the rich, Anglo Irish aka the government and their idiotic guarantees must now loan these same developers billions,

Anglo Irish Bank looks set to give up to €6.3bn in new loans to property developers and other customers for pending deals, despite the weakened funding position that forced the government to nationalise the bank last Thursday.

If drawn down in full, the loans will force Anglo – and now the government – either to raise more money in deposits or source new funding on the capital markets to cover the commitments.

Industry sources also said it wasn't certain how much of the €6.3bn could get called down, as many of Anglo's customers – especially property developers – have been putting deals on hold or pulling out entirely due to cash problems.

What are the odds that the public will never know the full extent of the wheeling and dealing? I'm writing to all my TDs to get information. And I'm thinking of asking the EU to provide some oversight.

Why couldn't the government just liquidise Anglo Irish? If developers fucked up then they should have to pay the piper. Morgan Kelly has the right idea,

YESTERDAY’S CATASTROPHIC collapse of Irish bank shares stems directly from the Government’s proposal to nationalise Anglo Irish Bank. With the Government’s finances already buckling under the collapse of our bubble economy, financial markets began to fear that with the added burden of Anglo’s debt, the Irish State cannot afford to finance itself, let alone support the remaining national banks.

Facing the imminent collapse of the national financial system, the Government needs to perform a ruthless triage. The worthwhile banks need to be maintained by any means necessary, including nationalisation, while Anglo Irish and Irish Nationwide must be allowed to collapse.

Today Lenihan declared that AIB and BOI would not be nationalised in the event of a crisis.

The Government will ensure AIB and Bank of Ireland are not nationalised and will proceed with a planned recapitalisation, the Minister for Finance told the Dáil this afternoon.

During a debate on legislation to provide for the nationalisation of Anglo Irish Bank, Brian Lenihan said the Government’s “firm intention is that both banks [AIB and Bank of Ireland] remain in private ownership”.

Shares in Irish banking stocks have suffered further heavy falls today with AIB losing a third of its value following a 60 per cent fall in the value of its share price yesterday.

Mr Lenihan said the decision to nationalise Anglo Irish was taken because of the very serious disruption its collapse would have caused the financial system, due to its “systematic importance”.

Well the developers don't bank in AIB or BOI so sure let them collapse.