Power corrupts

I've written before on the Shell to the sea campaign and the possible use of terrorist tactics by Shell to control the protesters in Westport. How can a government turn against its people like this, in a democratic country? Watch this



Eamon Ryan used to campaign for Shell to the sea. Now he is overseeing the process. It didn't take him long to sell out his principles when power beckoned.

It's really no wonder that the green parliamentary party manipulated its members into voting their continuing in government. Considering the string of broken promises, expenses revelations, green betrayal and putting their self-interest above the interest of the country, they will never get elected again. Although maybe Ryan will, when he joins the maFFia. Short term gains all. Foolish strategy. Seriously, read The Altruist in Politics or Politics: A Treatise on Government or even a first year text book or buy a clue.

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.

Off with its head

Democracy that is.

When a government uses an out-of-date statute to shut the opposition up, do we still have a democracy in Ireland?

The Irish Times and the Oireachtas Reports have more.

A GUILLOTINE on housing legislation allowed just one minute and 20 seconds for each of the 170 amendments to be dealt with, Labour whip Emmet Stagg told the Dáil in repeated criticism of end-of-term deadlines.

... Fine Gael deputy leader Richard Bruton also rejected the guillotine – the imposition of a deadline for the passage of legislation in the House – and said the Dáil was “entitled to debate the amendments properly”. He said “flashing guillotines everywhere is unhelpful to Dáil business”.

Mr Stagg said “the guillotine will allow one minute and 20 seconds for each amendment tabled. Our assembly is supposed to debate and correct legislation... What the Government is doing is unconstitutional, because there’s no case for the guillotines.”

He said it was not the function of the executive to make law and tell the Dáil to rubber stamp it in a couple of minutes.”

Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan said the Bill was initiated and discussed extensively in Seanad Éireann. It has been before the Dáil since the new year”

Mr Stagg: “Some 100 new sections were stuck into it one week ago. The Minister should not pretend that the Bill has been debated for a year.”

Lenihan is fiddling as Ireland bleeds.

Dear Leader

Please explain the astronomical petrol prices. When oil was $140 a barrel, the price at the pump was around €1.35. Now oil prices have dropped to around $70 a barrel but now the average price of petrol per litre is €1.16.

Now I know there are various costs but seriously?

The people at Pumps.ie break that price down

Current average petrol price: 116.9
Current Vat: 20.69c/litre
Fixed Duty: 50.79c/litre
Government take: 71.48c/litre
Cost before tax & duty: 45.42c/litre
Retailer & distributor margin (est): 11c/litre
Base petrol price (est): 34.42

Seriously? €0.45 tax on each and every litre going into the government coffers and Lenihan still can't balance the budget?

We're doomed.

Biffo's Hallelujah

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

Bludget 2009

Bludget day

I'm sure the Marian Finucane meant budget but bludget is appropriate. Lemonade Lenihan will probably bludgeon the people of Ireland with taxation, cuts in social welfare, VAT hikes and plenty of belt-tightening a la Haughey in the 80s

I wish to talk to you this evening about the state of the nation's affairs and the picture I have to paint is not, unfortunately, a very cheerful one. The figures which are just now becoming available to us show one thing very clearly. As a community we are living away beyond our means. I don't mean that everyone in the community is living too well, clearly many are not and have barely enough to get by, but taking us all together we have been living at a rate which is simply not justified by the amount of goods and services we are producing. To make up the difference we have been borrowing enormous amounts of money, borrowing at a rate which just cannot continue. A few simple figures will make this very clear...we will just have to reorganise government spending so that we can only undertake those things we can afford.

Let's hope third time is the charm for Lemonade Lenihan and that he actually makes an effort to make his banking, property developer and assorted other buddies pay for a situation they created.

Follow the fun on twitter #bludget

GUBU squad calling

It's been referred to as Cowengate, GUBU 2 and on twitter as #picturegate but the story of the illegal hanging of two nude paintings of Brian Cowen is what's buzzing on the Irish corner of the net. Is this the best public relations strategy in the history of the FFers or a major fuck up by people such as Michael Kennedy TD, who can only comprehend a situation when it is put in terms that he understands. His wife was kind enough to enlighten him on the grevious nature of l'Affaire Cowen.

But soon enough the smiles were wiped from our faces. Dear Leader's minions were up in arms when RTE had the temerity to report the news story.



God knows that we could do with a bit of a laugh – half the country has lost their jobs and the other half is being losing half their income on taxes. But the FFers have lost all sense of proportion and humour, assuming they had any to start off with.

Then Kennedy, the prince of village idiots, contacted RTE director general Cathal Goan and complained about bias and the obviously neferious ageda of RTE. Instead of telling Kennedy to go shite, RTE relinquished its last smidgen of credibility and apologised.

Let me reiterate that. The national broadcaster apologised to the Government for covering a news story.

The broadcaster received a number of complaints about the item on Monday’s 9pm television news, including one from the Taoiseach’s office. RTÉ had deemed the report to be inappropriate before complaints were received, a spokeswoman said last night. Consequently the report did not run on subsequent bulletins and was taken down from the RTÉ website, she said.

Here is the apology:



An impartial news broadcast on a publicly funded channel requires censorship and apologies? Difficult to believe of course since we allegedly live in a democracy, but it happened. Of course, this is the same government who claimed that dissent was unpatriotic. And this is the same RTE who requested Oliver Callan to ease up criticisms of Cowen on the satirical Nob Nation:

RTE has asked satirist Oliver Callan, of Nob Nation, to "go easy" on the Taoiseach stating that his increasingly controversial portrayal of Brian Cowen as a drunken buffoon "might be perceived to be a bit personal at this stage".

... Supporters of Mr Cowen are known to be upset at the Nob Nation portrayal of him as a hard-drinking and sometimes crude politician surrounded by Cabinet members who are also frequently portrayed in a similar manner.

Rumours which, by the way, are confirmed by the patrons of Doheny and Nesbitt's pub near Government buildings. Oh and by the way, the Government most certainly did not request that RTE censor Nob Nation. I'm sure they're insulted and appalled at the very suggestion. Yeah just like that time Conor Lenihan "assured" me that no one got a particular position through the old boys network. It's time to quote Hamlet, methinks.

So RTE apologies and proceeds to censor "in the national interest". The managers of Ireland Inc. throw their weight around like a pack of rapid rhinos, crushing freedom of the press in the process. Then the gardaí were ordered to the offices of Today FM with the dubious demand for emails and the artist information. “The powers that be want action taken”, Will Hanafin, was told.

At least one broadcaster in this country has the ethics to stand up to government bullying. Today FM refused to release any information without a warrant.

Mr Hanafin told The Irish Times he was “totally shocked” to be confronted by a garda. He said in “no circumstances could this be considered an appropriate use of Garda resources. It seems to me that the powers that be have lost their sense of humour.”

Fine Gael justice spokesman Charlie Flanagan criticised the Garda move. “At a time when the majority of gangland murders remain unsolved, to have gardaí spending their time investigating what amounted to a practical joke that offended the Taoiseach’s ego is a scandalous waste of resources,” he said.

“Today FM has clearly come under pressure to hand over e-mails about this matter, while RTÉ News has obviously been browbeaten into a grovelling apology. The way this matter has been handled is more reminiscent of Russia in the 1930s than Ireland in 2009,” said Mr Flanagan.

Wouldn't the gardaí be better served arresting the bankers, property developers and other criminals rather than persecuting an artist? Are we returning to the normalisation of a stagnant culture where books like "Brave New World" and "Gulliver's Travels" are banned? Are we regressing to the time when the powers that be decided that "Natural Born Killers" or "Clockwork Orange" was too corrupting for the Irish people.

Censorship is the enemy of democracy and with democracy, as with many other system, what is most important is the behaviour during the tough times, the bad times and the ugly times. That RTE is cravenly bowing to the government during this recession is a very bad omen for the future of democracy in this country.

Freedom of the press and freedom of expression are being stifled in this country. What the hell happened to our human rights? What the hell happened to this country where the Dear Leader is covering his government's ass at the expense of the people; where "I didn't read that part of the report" is an acceptable reply to accusations of incompetence; where a bank is nationalised to save one interest group and the Minister for Finance does not even report the report; and where artists are persecuted on trumped up charges?

I call for a general election now. I don't want to wait until Brian "I didn't read the report" Lenihan submits his third budget of the year. Third? Ridiculous doesn't even begin to cover it.

Out, out, out.

Our glorious financial leader

brings in an advisor three weeks before the third state budget

ONE OF the country’s leading economists, Dr Alan Ahearne, has been appointed economic adviser to Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan, just three weeks before one of the most important budgets in the history of the State.

Dr Ahearne, who has written for The Irish Times on economic issues over the past few years, was one of the first economists in the country to warn that the property bubble would crash, with devastating consequences for the economy.

Yeah I have every confidence in the government \sarcasm

Ooopsies

Lenihan fucks up again. Can we please have a new Minister for Finance now?

Embattled Finance Minister Brian Lenihan has admitted that his decision to increase the VAT rate in last October's budget was a "serious mistake" which has cost the state over €700m in lost trade to the North.

...

His startling concession comes a few weeks after Tanaiste Mary Coughlan admitted in an interview with this newspaper that the VAT increase had been a "total disaster".

Guests at the event said Mr Lenihan appeared to be "incredibly relaxed" and ad-libbed most of his address to the 150 people at the business lunch. Other senior Fianna Fail figures in attendance at the dinner included Eoin Ryan MEP and Michael Woods.

... the minister said: "If I have one act of contrition -- I should not have interfered with the VAT rates. It was a mistake and the wrong thing to do. We have lost €700m in revenue going to the North."

...

In an extensive interview with this newspaper, Mr Dempsey said: "We made the best decisions we could at the time with the information available. A lot of the time you get it right and you carry on. Some of the times you get it wrong, and you should say you got it wrong."

No shit Sherlock

Screwed

We are so very screwed.

Among the measures included in an options paper prepared for Minister for Social and Family Affairs Mary Hanafin on ways of tightening eligibility for welfare schemes are:

- Means-testing payments for dependants of recipients of social insurance-based payments, such as the job seeker’s benefit, carer’s benefit and State contributory pension;

- Abolishing the entitlement to two social welfare payments at the same time, eg lone parent’s allowance, the half-rate carer’s allowance and widow/widower’s payments

- Abolishing or reducing additional allowances, such as the “living alone allowance”, paid to older people on social welfare;

- Axing the universal entitlement of over-70s to household benefits such as a free TV licence; telephone allowances; electricity allowances;

- Reducing payments such as fuel allowance and household benefits such as electricity and gas benefits.

Cos slashing the payments of vunerable people is what this government does best. Out, vile jelly! Where is thy lustre now?

h/t Cedar Lounge

Irish censorship

There's nothing really new about record companies pushing their weight around. Since Napster they have shown themselves as the one greediest pond scum corporations that are making billions on the back of others.

Bloody Metallica it's their fault and it's especially poor-spirited considering that they only got famous because of bootleg tapes but that's a whole other story.

Now IRMA have taken the fight to the ISPs in an illegal attempt to block Irish internet users from accessing certain sites. They are focussed on The Pirate Bay where in addition to legal music, one can torrent open source ebooks, computer programs and applications and other material. Now the issue of blocking legal content is serious enough but what is truly disgusting, to my mind, is the censorship issue.

We currency live in a democracy that is supported by rule of law for the most part. It is completely inappropriate that an outside interest group should attempt to control interest usage for a state. This is not China. Ireland cannot legally censor internet content and that this action is being enacted by Eircom is disgusting. Our broadband rollout scheme is possibly the worst in Europe. I've had better and more reliable connections in developing countries. The idea that, in addition our pathetic rollout, we add censorship beggers belief. What industry will set up in Ireland with internet censorship?

Record companies tried the same thing in Italy a few years ago

There was a very similar case in Italy where ISPs were forced to block The Pirate Bay’s website after pressure from the music industry (the result was that Italian traffic to the site increased by 5%) . The ban was judged illegal in court under European Directive, 2000/31 CE which is also applicable in Ireland.

A letter published recently on Digital Rights shows that IRMA have no qualms about blocking gigabytes of legal material to get at the tiny fraction of illegal downloaders.

Eircom has agreed that it will not oppose any application our client may make seeking the blocking of access from their network to the Pirate Bay or similar websites …

Please confirm that Blacknight will also work with the record industry to end the abuse of the internet by peer to peer infringers … in the event of a positive response to this letter it is proposed to make practical arrangements with Blacknight of a like nature to those made with eircom.

What's next? Will critical blog posts be censors? Will bloggers we on the run from the government? Damien Mulley puts it best:

So first they’ll start with the Pirate Bay. Then comes Mininova, IsoHunt, then comes YouTube (they have dodgy stuff, right?), how long before we have Boards.ie because someone quoted a newspaper article or a section of a book? And don’t think they’ll stop there too, any site that links to The Pirate Bay and the others on the hate list will probably be added to the list too…

I’m sure the business case for eircom was they didn’t want any more costly High Court actions with McDowell biting at their legs on the command of the music industry but this is going to open up a can of worms with IRMA demanding more and more attacks on how people surf the net, this is what it is in my view an attack on our freedom to read, our freedom to write, our freedom to move around the web. All so a very rich but rapidly becoming poor group of luddites can feel better for seeing the future and trying to fight it.

And of course the costs of communications with IRMA and of the filtering is going to be passed on to the consumer. The cost of blocking a single site will be almost nothing I suppose but as more sites get added and as the arms race between the pirates and the ISPs escalates, then it’ll become complicated and complicated costs more. So again the majority get to pay…

Most pirates know how to get around these bans. It doesn't take much technical knowledge to set up a proxy server or to reroute the signal. The general public is not familiar with Pirate Bay and have no idea what a torrent is - I just polled a couple of internet users. This attempt by IRMA to block sites is unlawful and ultimately useless and shame on Eircom for agreeing to the illegal censorship.

Take action as indicated here. I've already sent off my letters.

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.

Happy Gilmore

The government's economic plan consists of bailing out the rich and screwing the middle class. After weeks of indecision Brian Cowen announced his shortsighted half arsed plan of taxing public sector pensions. The opposition shot him down. From Eamon Gilmore's response to Brian Cowen on 3 February

If those reports are correct then let me try to translate what all of that means for a public servant such as a garda, a nurse or a teacher on an income of €45,000 per year. They are already paying approximately €5,000 of that income, between PRSI, pension contributions, health levies and income levies. What that proposal will mean - not that the Taoiseach has given us the figures, but if the figures that are reported in the media are correct - is that such a person will pay an additional €3,375. That is approximately €8,500 from the pay of a person in the workforce for approximately ten years before she pays tax, child care or her mortgage.

What she wants to know, and what the Taoiseach has not provided an answer for, is for what is she paying that. She did not create the problem. She did not borrow money from a bank to buy shares in the same bank. She is not somebody who drinks champagne in the hospitality suites of racecourses. She is just somebody who has gone out to work every morning, worked hard, tried to make a living, rear a family and provide for herself. All she wants is a modest standard of living. She understands that the country has economic problems at the moment and that there is a need for everybody to put their shoulder to the wheel. She is prepared to do that as well but she wants her Government to level with her and the Taoiseach has not done that today.

I am happy at Gilmore and Enda Kenny' argument but I am thrilled at Gilmore's words. He used the female pronoun in his example of a public servant. I don't remember that happening ever before. Way to mix it up Gilmore. That gave me a smile in spite of recession woes.

The government doesn't bear any responsibility

Dermot Ahern, the man who's indifferent to the torture of young girls, had the rank hypocrisy to say on Prime Time tonight that everyone in Ireland must take responsibility for the economic shitstorm together and that the government doesn't bear any responsibility.

That's fucking unbelievable. This government has been in power since 97. They carved up the country, drove prices up and rode the property boom to its death rattle.

If Dermot Ahern really believes that the government with its system of cronyism and nepotism does not bear responsibility for the current crisis he should be fired. He is obviously incapable of understanding the situation.

Irish satire

Holy Ireland is a new blog with biting wit. Check it out

The only nano-tech
in this economic wreck
is the dwarves malign
Brian and Brian
in our national pantomime
called "Pigs and piggy banks"...

I love this stuff. Great to have something funny after the week that just finished.

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.