Category: Irish Politics

There can only be two reasons for this, either the person involved is incompetent and therefore should lose his job or it was a deliberate act and therefore he will be prosecuted.

This was the angry reaction of a federal investigator after it was revealed that some documents had been shredded by an employee of Arthur Andersen, the accountancy firm for Enron. The Enron corruption was discovered in December 2001. A mere six months later Arthur Andersen was found guilty in a court of law of the shredding charge. Subsequently, Arthur Andersen was totally destroyed because of its involvement with the Enron scandal.

Less than two years after the corruption was discovered Andrew Fastow, a financial officer with Enron was sentenced to ten years in jail, the maximum possible, for his part in the scandal. Several others have subsequently been jailed and the investigation is still strong and ongoing. Keep these facts in mind as you read the rest of this article.

In 1998, the High Court appointed two investigators to look into certain activities at National Irish Bank. Five years later they complete a draft report but cannot make it final because they have made ‘adverse comments’ about some NIB personnel. The draft report is sent to NIB so that these people can read what has been said about them and consider whether it’s appropriate or not.

(A little diversion here – The Gardai bust a major drugs operation and compile a report for the DPP. Before actually sending it to the DPP, they post it off to the drugs gang to see if they are happy with their conclusions, the gang peruse the document, make some changes and return it to the Gardai)

It took nearly a year for NIB to consider the draft report, so, six years after the start of the enquiry we have a report. OK, let’s have prosecutions? Sorry, that could prove very difficult as evidence gathered for the report cannot be used as it was given voluntarily. Figure that one out.

Hang on, I’m having a flashback here, yes, Mary Harney, when asked earlier this month why the investigating officer disagreed with her decision to axe the enquiry into companies associated with the Ansbacher corruption replied

Unfortunately, it’s a criminal offence for me or anyone else to reveal anything that comes to light during these enquiries.

(Who makes all these very convenient laws?)

Anyway, let’s bring things up to date. It is reported in today’s Irish Times that the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement (ODCE) is in the High Court in an attempt to force the NIB investigators to reveal the names of those who made up NIB’s board audit committee.

What’s going on here? Seven years after the start of the investigation and seventeen years after the criminality at NIB began, a so-called State regulatory body, ODCE has to go to the High Court to force investigators, who were appointed by the High Court, to reveal the names/addresses of some of the people responsible for the criminality. Apparently, according to the investigators, there are points of principle involved in the request for such information. Principles? If so, it will be a first in the Irish corporate world.

Well, you might say, at least ODCE may take prosecutions? No, ODCE is only interested in considering disqualification proceedings against those involved in this major criminality. This means they will be barred from holding directorships, believe me folks, nobody takes this so-called punishment seriously. (By the way ODCE secured TWO prosecutions in 2004 for company law offences, expenditure for the authority was €3.07 million)

Revenue is also considering charges for tax evasion and the DPP is considering charges for fraud. (Please, please, don’t hold your breath).

So, Enron, less than two years after the crime and people are slopping out, NIB, seven years after the investigation began and six months after the bank was found guilty of widespread criminality, we still don’t even know the names of those responsible. Welcome to the (Banana) Republic of Ireland.

Anthony Sheridan

I see the PDs are at it again. Mary Harney, (The minister for stopping enquiries) has announced that the Dunne enquiry into post-mortem practices in hospitals is to cease in less than six weeks time whether the final report is ready or not.

The scandal involves the taking of children’s organs without permission and selling them to pharmaceutical companies. Dozens of hospitals were involved in the secret practice. The history of the scandal takes the usual route common in a Banana Republic. It was set up on a non-statutory basis. This means that nobody could be compelled to give evidence or provide records and of course several hospitals and personnel have taken advantage of this and told the enquiry to take a run and jump. Parents giving evidence were required to sign a secrecy clause preventing them from going public with their stories. The changes made in the FOI also made the enquiry even more secretive. The enquiry has missed several deadlines because of the volume of work involved. Initially Michael Martin (The Minister for reports) said it would be complete in six months.

So, what are to make of this decision to suppress yet another enquiry? Well, the Government will probably say that it is costing the taxpayer too much – €20 to date. Martin Cullen, evoting and about €60 million will be enough to kill that excuse. Perhaps senior counsel Ms Anne Dunne is incompetent? Don’t be surprised if they roll that one out. Perhaps the real reason is that what has been discovered is of such magnitude that, like the Ansbacher enquiry, it’s time to bury it.

This fits in with the Government’s plan after the enquiry is squashed – The Dept. of Health is to commission a new independent expert to draw up a report based on the information that has been gathered by the existing enquiry. This plan is enough to send shivers down the spine of even the most cynical enquiry/tribunal watchers and raises some questions.

How is this so-called expert expected to produce a report when Ms Dunne and her staff who are deeply intimate with the all the details are unable to produce a report at this time? The Dunne enquiry will cease to exist on the 31st of March; does this mean that Ms Dunne and her staff will have no input into the ‘expert’ report? It seem so. Will the report be published or will Ms Harney use the same excuse for keeping the Ansbacher details secret – Sorry folks, it’s against the law to properly inform citizens.

This is my opinion. The enquiry is being gagged because to allow full disclosure would have too many consequences for too many ‘important’ people. The so-called expert will produce a whitewash. There will be some anger, especially from the parents of the children involved but they will be fobbed off and the usual Banana Republic excuses will be mouthed. Yes, it was terrible but it’s all in the past, things are different now, we must make sure that this never happens again, going forward…, blah blah blah

Ms Harney can then confidently depend on her statement during the Sheedy scandal. “The Irish people will have forgotten all about it within a monthâ€? Unfortunately for Ireland, she’s right.

Anthony Sheridan

Several people were arrested in Douglas, Passage West and Farran earlier today though this RTE report fails to mention that. A substantial sum of money was also found. I have little doubt it is related to the Northern Bank robbery in Belfast. One of those arrested is believed to have direct connections with Sinn Fein. Three men were also arrested in Dublin yesterday,£94,000 in cash was seized. I hope to have more details soon. Slugger has more details with alot of comments..

Update: (21.15)

From the grapevine here in Cork – and it should be made absolutely clear at this stage – nobody has been charged, and nobody has been found guilty of anything, people have only been arrested on suspicion, they are entitled to due process under the law. But these names will likely appear in tomorrow’s papers.

The money found in Farran in Cork, £2.6million, was apparently in a bin at the back of a house. The man arrested in connection with the investigation is Ted Cunningham, a financial services man for a company in Ballincollig. The woman arrested is his girlfriend.

The man arrested in Passage West is a former Sinn Fein counciller, Tom Hanlon(image), who is believed to have been found with £60,000 in Northern Bank notes. He is a painter by trade. He stood for election in Cork South Central in 2002.

To my knowledge, nobody has been charged as yet, they are being held under Section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act.

Update: 23.20

The Guardian has details on the grounds for arrest:

A 23-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of armed robbery, kidnap, handling stolen goods and firearms offences. A second man and a 27-year-old woman are being held on suspicion of conspiracy to commit armed robbery, conspiracy to commit kidnap and firearms offences. The second man is also being held on suspicion of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.

A 22-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to commit armed robbery and conspiracy to commit kidnap. Two woman, two men and two girls are being held on suspicion of handling stolen goods.

This looks like Hanlon (‘second man’), who would be in his late 30’s now, may have been arrested on suspicion of very serious offences. It is hard to tell who Cunningham may be in that report.

What will it mean for Sinn Fein that a man who stood for election for them may be charged with these offences, that obviously relate to the Northern Bank robbery?

Update:

It is believed a large volume of data and files have been seized and are being examined. It is also believed that money was in the process of being shipped to the Continent in order to be laundered.

Update:

The Scotsman reports more details

Update:

Richard has pointed out that the Times of London has named Hanlon.

The arrest in Cork comes after weeks of denials by Sinn Fein that the IRA was involved. Tom Hanlon, who in the past stood for the Irish Parliament as a Sinn Fein candidate and is a former councillor, was arrested with two other men and a woman. Three more men were arrested in Dublin.

Update:
Rumours abound of more arrests in other counties.

Update:(Feb 18, 8.50)

It seems like the rumours of more arrests has been proved right, the Irish Times reports:

Garda raids were continuing last night in Louth, Meath and Westmeath after euro and sterling notes worth a total of €3.6 million were seized in Dublin and Cork.

Update: (Feb 18, 9.00)

Richard goes into the detail of links with the government via an article by Sam Smyth. Richard notes:

Unimaginable buzz at moment – sources close to government say the next 48 hours are going to be a whirlwind. So fasten your seatbelts, kids. We’re in for a bumpy weekend.

An article by Leslie Mallory in yesterday’s Sunday Independent talks about planning corruption in Spain. The general tone of the article is ‘If you think things are bad in Ireland, take a look at Spain.’ In other words Spain has a greater problem with corruption than Ireland. The article spoke of local politicians appearing in court, local government members charged with planning offences, creative accountancy and perversion of the course of justice and a deputy mayor facing four years in jail.

The key words here are ‘ ‘appearing in court’, ‘charged’, and ‘jail’. In Ireland, this simply does not happen, corruption is either ignored, side-lined into never ending tribunals or simply not noticed because it’s such a part of our culture.

In properly run democracies, when corruption is detected a sequence of events follows: police investigation, charges, court case and if guilty, appropriate punishment. This is usually done within a reasonable time frame.

Let’s make a comparison. The very powerful American billionaire Martha Stewart was found guilty of lying to investigators about the sale of some minor stock. It took less than two years from the date of the alleged dodgy stock sale to Martha finding herself slopping out with the great unwashed in jail. (Note that Martha got jail for lying to investigators, something that is regarded as a national pastime here by the so-called great and good)

Ray Burke was first investigated by the Gardai in 1974. Despite constant questions about his ‘activities’, it took 31 years before Irish justice caught up with him.

Of course there is corruption in every country but the difference between an accountable democracy and a Banana Republic is the action taken to counteract it. Leslie Mallory suggests that Spain is more corrupt than Ireland because so many politicians are facing prosecution. I maintain the opposite – the fact that no Irish politician has ever faced corruption charges is an indication that the system itself is corrupt, that it protects rather than exposes the guilty.

The Progressive Democrats, once the bright shining light in the murky and corrupt world of Irish politics. The only party that had principles and actually stood by them. The party that stood up to Haughey’s rotten Fianna Fail. The party with the passionate rallying call, “We are either radical or redundant”. Well, they certainly aren’t radical any more but neither have they become redundant, instead they have rejoined the Fianna Fail fold, indeed it could be said that they have become more FF than the FF’s themselves. The following examples will serve to illustrate the point.

Speaking on Morning Ireland on February 2nd, Mary Harney being questioned on why she chose to terminate the investigation into companies associated with the Ansbacher affair despite the authorizing officer in charge of the investigation disagreeing with her decision. These are her main points:

“I acted on strong advice from officials in my Department. I did not initiate the ending of the investigation, my officials did.” The investigator was coming across tax matters which should be dealt with by Revenue and also others matters that the tribunals should be dealing with.

When asked the direct question – “You wanted to end this enquiry, the authorizing officer wanted to keep going, why did that officer want to keep going? Here’s Mary’s telling reply – “There’s lots of things, unfortunately I can’t say, it’s a criminal offence for me or anyone else to reveal anything that comes to light during these enquiries”. Perhaps Labour leader, Pat Rabbitte got it right when he suggested the investigations had been terminated “not because they have come to fruition but rather because they might”.

Ah, a PD supporter might say, the law’s the law and must be obeyed but the PDs are still intent on strong investigation into corruption. Hmmmm… PD senator John Minihane reacted on Morning Ireland to the launching of the Centre for Public Enquiry, an independent group with a mission to investigate corruption in Ireland. He noted:

A private body funded from outside the State, accountable to no one… people want to undermine the institutions of the State.. shows a lack of confidence in state bodies like the Gards, Revenue and even the Oireachtas itself…we are a sovereign State and should only operate under that State…very dangerous step…we have to protect the institutions of the State.

Hardly a ringing endorsement for accountability. In fairness, it should be said that all the other major political parties also expressed a negative (but not as hysterical) reaction. Funny isn’t it that all the main parties want to keep control of the investigation of corruption where they make laws that forbids anyone from revealing the outcome of such enquiries.

But, our erstwhile PD supporter might exclaim, the PDs are still strong on accountability, for keeping an eye on the ‘baddies’, in particular in Fianna Fail. Hmmm… On January 24th PD Tom Morrissey was on the Vincent Browne Show when he was asked why the PDs didn’t act when Ray Burke lied to the Dail in 1997.

We’re not in the business of asking for heads on plates anymore. When we did, what thanks did the electorate ever give us? We’re not there as a watchdog anymore.

Judging from the attitude of Mary Harney and John Minihane, it seems indeed that the PDs are not in the business of accountability anymore. So where does that leave the once idealistic party? In power but out of principles, I would say.

Did anyone catch Questions and Answers tonight? The McGuinness vs Durkan, O’Dea bout was pretty interesting. Am I the only one that feels that the Sinn Fein itself is imploding? I have never seen McGuinness so much on the defensive, and so much under attack. He seems like he may be buckling under the pressure. His refusal to answer certain key questions was pretty lame too, but then any politician would have done the same, one would guess.

The BBC is reporting on a new report by the Economist, which concludes that Ireland is the best place to live in the world. The top ten are :

1 Ireland
2 Switzerland
3 Norway
4 Luxembourg
5 Sweden
6 Australia
7 Iceland
8 Italy
9 Denmark
10 Spain

The UK is ranked 29th, while the US is ranked 13th. I shall have to get a copy of the “World in 2005” report.

Thanks to Twenty Major and Rob for this one: a movie depicting the new Irish cabinet – hilarious.

A new blog, Twenty Major, with a funny list of things that would make Irish politics more interesting, including:

2 – Money could be raised for charity if Irish people pledged donations for every minute that Brian Cowen spoke without spitting and drooling.

7 – Televise Dail Eireann but sell advertising space and make Jackie Healy-Rae do all the voice-overs.

Hehe.