Comments on: What is wrong with Ireland?

By: Sean

Sean — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 06:38:29 +0000

well said, should be more people like you brian, bring on the revolution, stand up and be counted fellow Irish men.

By: Brian

Brian — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 06:16:34 +0000

hi, as human nature follows typical trends, i.e. greed, power, self importance, happiness, sadness, violence, we wonder where it all goes wrong, like the monarchy of old "dear subjects" we now have an organised so call elected elites" Us, cannon fodder and peasantry" only you have more comforts in life in comparison to days gone by. Capitalism was and is the ideology of humanity. This is fact "The system" however steps must be take to insure that fairness and humility privile. The elite "The leeches" who rob from the hard work of many and proclaim to have special insight into making money, remember they are using your money as their own private piggy bank , your money is invested in your assets "home" speculative knowledge is applied to grow their pyramid scam. Why I might ask? is there nobody protesting, maybe we Irish are afraid of the garda, the corrupt bunch of I.F.A sons of bitches are the muscle of the elites, the brains are the soulless corrupt political classes and the payed mouth pieces, come on what the fuck are we sheep or men, the best way to really explain how far we have got as “Ireland Inc Public” take a look at the corrupt set up in R.T.E. The banana republic is alive and well, at least the Greeks showed their elites the two fingers, it makes me ashamed to be Irish, with all our drink talk, it any wonder the English invaded.

PS: These thieves have just stolen 24,000 euro from each man women child, to help their friends and sold you a crap 13ftX13ft (approx 169 sq ft) square foot of Irish house, that’s a great investment.

Capitalism excess should, induce a violent reaction to the speculative dreams of others. The selfish mess of human misery, that is the sham Capitalism

clare boy..

By: James Lawless

James Lawless — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 17:45:09 +0000

Well it's an interesting post and an excellent essay but I'm not entirely sure what is wrong with our political system (which you say is broken and beyond redemption). I'm not referring to the behaviours of government or the points 'check'ed above, rather the process by which we elect our representatives. The alternatives would seem to be either 'First past the post' or perhaps a list system. The latter would be a greater change but both are just tweaking. Ultimately the people still do decide. It is really up to the people if they want change. And they have free will to exercise that each election. I suppose trotskyite revolution could pose a theoretical alternative but generally that's reserved for systems where free elections are not held, at least that's my understanding. The people will have to start rewarding and discouraging behaviours at the polling booths if they want change but they have that choice already.

By: Mutton Island

Mutton Island — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 21:29:30 +0000

Somebody commented that we do not have a left vs right political spectrum. Actually we have three parties trying to pretend that they are centre left. The largest (historically) is aspiring towards getting it’s hands on the nation’s wealth, and exerting the values of the poor on the wealthy. The scond largest is obsessed with keeping the nations wealth in the hands of the wealthy. And the third is (the Champagne Socialists) is obscenely obsessed with exerting the values of the wealthy on all of society, and expressing class differentiation (were you in Trinners or Belfield before the free education system was founded).
Throw in the Greens (hypocrites who will galdly take money from corporate concerns), and the Shinners (who have one foot in the Northern Rock Bank and one foot in a private firing range in Bulgaria. Oh yeah, and the one PD TD. (and even that is more than the country can afford).

The political system is an expression of the Post-Catholic, post-Socialist, post-working class, vulgar, indulgent, delusional, consumerist, I am having whatever I can get away with, and I am making up the rules to suit my self as I go along.

And because everybody does it with Pride, (the official term used instead of the more accurate term ‘arrogance’), the individual is never obliged to take any notice of the rest of the community.

In the last fifteen years, the crows have come home to roost. And most people have been too utterly stupid to notice. But this in itself is not a wholy Irish problem. In the UK (that includes all parts) it is even worse.

Welcome to the Kerry Katona Age.

By: Colm Carrigg

Colm Carrigg — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 18:39:10 +0000

Well if we just give up then we’ll never know if the NO TO NAMA campagine will be a success… All we need is a minority of people to demonstrate. Once others see this they might take courage from it! Every individual must ask himself or herself if they will be satisfied down the line to have someone elses mistakes dumped on them when they could have come out onto the street and protested againsted it when it actually mattered… There is no point in feeling sorry for our selves when its too late.

By: v-u

v-u — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 19:12:34 +0000

The sad reality is, the majority wont take to the streets, as they are so underinformed… We are just too meek

By: Colm Carrigg

Colm Carrigg — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 00:32:25 +0000

p.s. for any one who disagrees with NAMA, go to the “No to NAMA” group on Facebook!! Join up and invite your friends! People commenting on this blog complained of in-action, well these guys are encouraging people to write to their TDs and are also planning actual street protests against NAMA, provided they get enough people to join! (they need 50,000 people on Facebook). Within 3 days of starting this group on facebook they had 1,500+ members!!

By: Maggie

Maggie — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 00:24:36 +0000

Gavin, I agree with your: “As a nation state, we are a failure. As a democracy, we have failed. As a country we are bankrupt, both morally and financially. We are the emerging market, banana republic of the European Union. Our political system is broken. It is beyond redemption.”
There is no doubt that Irish-style ‘democracy’ has failed. A general election will solve nothing – except a few yahoos from the partisans.
If I bet on a horse and lose – so be it. I am responsible – full stop; yet our oligarchs do not take responsibility for their actions and need long-term financial cossetting.
Everything is relative. I think this save-the-developers NAMA thing is a mis-direction. Who are the bondholders??????? This group was specifically mentioned in Mr Lenihan’s guarantee of 30 September 2008 and have been overlooked in majority of comments.
I look forward to the IMF in charge of Irish finance.

By: Colm Carrigg

Colm Carrigg — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 22:47:59 +0000

Well justin, don’t get me wrong, I do agree with the idea of the anti-nepotism law, but it would be good if it could be moulded into the frame work of that legally backed up “system of ethics” for political parties…

In reality, this system would never be adopted by the majority TD’s, councilors or government. It would have to be made mandatory in order to garner full complience from all concerned. The simple fact is that the system is self-regulated and that is the biggest hurdle that such legislation would have to get over. God forbid that they would loose out. Although I’m sure that there would be a small few TD’s who would be interested…

However, I can’t help but wonder; what if the mainstream media picked up this Idea, and it started to take root with the public. The people might demand that the system be implemented. It sure would save money on tribunerals and would help to make greed, dishonesty, back stabbing and possibly incompetence in public office a thing of the past…

As for the hotels, there are approximatly 10,000 too many rooms in this country, we simply can’t sustain them. The idea of government/bank run, tax backed hotels will also destroy localised family hotel businesses. This is unfair and anti-competitive. I used to work in a hotel a few years ago and the thought of seeing all the full-time staff who i used to work along side loosing their jobs worries me. That said, alot of hotels were treating costomers unfairly by charging far too much for rooms, food and drink etc.

Since today is the day of the leaving cert. results (congrats to them all) another problem facing young people in Ireland is the fact that they are going to have the burden of up to E30,000 in the form of tuition fees to pay when they finish college, that and the fact that student loans are not as easily gotten as they once were is compounded by the lack of part-time work available to them, as mentioned above. There’s a rough road ahead…

By: John de Montfort

John de Montfort — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 12:42:52 +0000

Not only are “the hotels …looking for taxpayer funded grants to put them into mothball”, but many have been pocketing tax reliefs to build them in the first place. If you have enough input into the political systerm you can get subsidies to build something there is no market for, or that you are not competent to make a success. You then get bailed out by the taxpayer when the chickens com home to roost.
By the way, does anyone out there know how much the government could save by abolishing section 23 relief on property?

By: justinf

justinf — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 20:07:50 +0000

“Colm Carrigg on August 10, 2009 at 11:34 pm”

thinking about it – i think your right. anti-nepotism “laws” would infringe on individual freedom.

it would be nice for political parties to introduce such rules. and that would be the better option. but if they dont – i think the law should be introduced to enforce it.

we have to start from somewhere. and anti-nepotism is one aspect in that renewal of the republic.

By: justinf

justinf — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 19:59:13 +0000

just off the phone with my dad in ireland.

apparently the hotels are now looking for taxpayer funded grants to put them into mothball i.e. pay off the loans, lay off the staff, but remain as going concerns rather than going bankrupt.

when things go bad, it is amazing how these people suck at the teat of the taxpayer.

By: Gavin Sheridan

Gavin Sheridan — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 01:38:34 +0000

Anglo. Nationalised before it could collapse under the weight of its own crap.
Sovereign debt. IF the country cannot right itself , we did barely, by writing a blank cheque to our banks in the form of a guarantee.
ACC/Rabo is not doing as other banks by virtue of its non-Irishness. This adds further weight to the oligarch argument (nexus of politicians/developers/bankers) outlined in Johnson’s article.

Interesting fact, based on?

Solutions to what, exactly? Endemic corruption?

By: GOM

GOM — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 22:42:39 +0000

* “Enormous companies teeter on the brink of default, and the local banks that have lent to them collapse.”
Check.
Uncheck – what local banks have collapsed?

* “If the country cannot right itself before that happens, it will default on its sovereign debt and become an economic pariah.”
Check.
Uncheck – we have not yet defaulted.

* “Squeezing the oligarchs, though, is seldom the strategy of choice among governments.”
Check
Lets see what happens with some of the developers’ trying to dodge ACC

Interesting fact, most bloggers offer the problems but rarely offer, or are part of, any emerging solution. Bloggin is great, removes the need to be responsible for anything ;)

By: Colm Carrigg

Colm Carrigg — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 22:34:58 +0000

Well justin, I don’t know if an out and out ban with regard to children following in their parents political footprints should be enacted (it’s a civil rights issue)…

However, I strongly disagree with the Idea that sons or daughters should be alloud to simply “walk right on in” to a TD’s seat. You want it, you’ve got to earn it! You join the youth wing of which ever party you are interestd in and muck in and help out like all the other young party activists.

If and ONLY if your judged, by your elders, to be competent, intelegent and have the drive to the right thing, not for ones self but for the good of the country as a whole, should you then be alloud to engage in local politics and progress from there… The best statesmen are those with a no-bullshit approach to problem solving, party and ideological interests have to take a back seat.

But this would only work in a perfect world and the world is an imperfect place. The Irish political political system being a prime example of that imperfection.

As for Donnachas point about Fianna Fail being a tinge left of centre… It is a good point, BUT, if you look at NAMA and who it is designed to protect (Developers and Bankers), then look at who is paying for it (tax payers) and then look at who will suffer the crippling cuts to vital public and health services (the young, the old, the sick, the disabled, the impoverished etc. etc.)… the picture is changed some what.

They tell us that it is “the right thing to do” and that in the years to come we will be recapitalised by it, but the sad fact is that it is croneyism in its purest form. Not very left of centre… Bertie Ahern’s “conversion to socialism”, was at best only a populist gag to trick would-be labour voters and at worst a smoke screen to make him look better before he went to the Morriarty Tribuneral.

As for Fianna Fail being a party of pragmatism… well one of the problems with many Irish (and other) politicians is that they are only really good at one thing and one thing only… thet is VOTES, they will sing any song and dance to any tune as long as they get those votes. Doing the popular thing is the main idea! Promise ‘em the sun, moon and stars and that’ll do the job. when you get elected and they ask you to live up to the promises you made; fuck them, blow them off and ignore them.

Politicians should just be frank with the people and treat them like adults, not children. i.e. “I can’t get the old factory to re-open… those jobs are going to go to the places where they can be done the cheapest. But I can promise that we will allow for you all to attend special courses in the Institutes of Technology that will allow you to get up-skilled and thus enable us to attract the kind of industries that will stay here on a more permanent basis etc etc…”

But this would only work in a perfect world and the world is an imperfect place…

By: justinf

justinf — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 18:46:16 +0000

“A solution to this would be to introduce a system of ethics for political parties which was leagally backed up, i.e. introducing a blanket ban on all corporate donations and publishing a list of all private donations in excess of E100 to politions regardless of party! Act the “cute hoor” and recieve a life-time ban from politics, loose your pension and recieve a summons for the special criminal court.”

100 per cent agree. thats a good central kernel of an idea that everyone , no matter what the political shade, can subscribe to.

A ban on nepotism wouldnt go amiss either.

By: justinf

justinf — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 18:42:28 +0000

“Its a party of pragmatism.”

maybe thats the entire reason why we got into the mess.
no core principles. all things to all men.

and if you have no core principles – well , you end up looking like New Labour.