“In these situations it’s always women and children first,” said the senior civil servant soothingly as I complained bitterly about the first major Government response to the debt crisis which Fianna Fáil and the decision takers of the hour had visited upon the country.
Infamously, as we know, the action back then took the form of attempting to take medical cards away from the over seventies.
Some several years down the line under a new coalition, the watchword is still women and children first as wheelchair bound sufferers are forced to piss into cans outside the Dáil as they mount an all-night vigil in protest at cuts in their Homecare packages.
Modern Ireland deserves a damn sight better than it is getting. An unfortunate overtaxed people are striving as best they can to pick up the pieces of the bank’s crash.
They are coping with a factor not sufficiently acknowledged, vastly increased suicide rates, emigration, unemployment and a murderous crime wave which is visibly out of control.
And all this for what? I had an experience recently which made me question the validity of all the financial measures that both this and the previous government have taken.
I applied for a replacement for a lost Share Certificate through the large financial services company Computershare and as I was advised by a stockbroker, had my local bank authenticate my application.
However, I got a letter back from Computershare stating that ‘Bank of Ireland are not recognised by Computershare Investment Services as authorised to conjoin Letters of Indemnity.’ And for good measure, the letter also ruled out Allied Irish Bank, IBRC (the bank mopping up the affairs of Anglo Irish Bank).
When I rang Computershare to seek further information I was told ‘these banks do not meet our criteria’
How many billions have we poured into our reckless, corrupt and negligent banks? Is this the reality of Ireland’s real credit rating behind the posturing on the deal of debt forgiveness which our government expects to get from Europe? Is this the reality for which our people are being scourged?
Given the stoicism and effort which we Irish have traditionally exhibited, it is not surprising that we are coping quite gallantly with our challenges. But we face a monstrous, inhibiting factor, it is the gross unfairness of modern Irish society, the women and children first syndrome.
George Bernard Shaw spoke truly when he said that all professions are a conspiracy against the public. The lawyers, the bankers, the stockbrokers, the accountants and the political class of Ireland brought crisis and tragedy upon their people but they escape justice while the people pay for their crimes.
Not one of the aforementioned categories of professionals have suffered for the misdeeds they committed during the boom years, the reckless lending, the hyping of shares, the covering up of criminal balance sheets, the blind eye turned to regulatory negligence, the political cover given to the disgraceful inertia of the Department of Finance and the Central Bank.
Yet as this is written, public spirited people are patrolling the banks of the Shannon, approaching worried looking citizens to enquire are they thinking of a walk or of suicide. No one has gone to jail. No one has even been asked to give a public account of their failures on watch.
Currently an effort is being made to bamboozle the public by holding hearings of the Public Accounts Committee of the Dáil which enquires as to how public monies were spent. It’s a meaningless exercise, the money is gone and retribution is inevitably far to seek.
However, a proposal which might have helped the people to understand what happened and to provide consequences was nipped in the bud in the early days of the present ‘reforming’ Government taking over from Fianna Fáil. This was the holding of a referendum, to change the Constitution so that the Dáil could hold committee hearings, like those conducted by the US Senate or the UK parliament into matters of public interest and make findings of fact.
The Referendum was defeated for two reasons, one people didn’t trust the politicians to hold such hearings lest they used them for private, star chamber purposes and two because a group of ex-attorneys general (of all parties) gave a powerful jolt to public opinion by writing to the papers saying that such a referendum would take away a man’s right to his good name, and the independence of the judiciary.
One of the signatories to that letter was Dermot Gleeson, the chairman of Allied Irish Bank during the Celtic Tiger era, another Peter Sutherland of Goldman Sachs, a further defender of the individual’s right to his good name was Michael McDowell, who followers of IrishCentral shall remember from journalist Frank Connolly’s article, gave confidential documents from his department to the Irish Independent which formed part of his case outlined under privilege in the Dáil that Connolly had visited Colombia on a forged passport to see his brother, who at the time was in jail as a member of the Colombia Three.
In the uproar that followed McDowell’s manoeuvre, a noble work by one of the most valuable men to ever visit Ireland, Chuck Feeny, was destroyed. This was the public enquiry institute of which Connolly was the chief journalist and distinguished figures like Mr Justice Fergus Flood, the chairman. At the time, Bertie Ahern said on television that no country, not America, not France, could stand for such an outside agency supplying information to its public.
Ahern conveniently overlooked the activities of Sky Television, CNN, The BBC and the Murdoch press when he said this but on losing office, he subsequently took a job with the scummiest publication in the English language, The News of the World, which Murdoch was forced to shut down and the Irish public never read the results of the story that Connolly and his team had been working on - an investigation of Ahern’s finances.
Given this background and the traditional Irish deference to the authority of both Christ and Caesar it is not surprising that the professionals have managed to keep the rich and the venial from appearing before the bar of justice.
But given the disturbed, near mutinous state of Irish public opinion, it is not unreasonable to speculate that unless the state acts to prosecute those responsible for the wheelchairs outside the Dáil the willingness of the Irish taxpayer to submit meekly to the horrors predicted for the next budget and those yet to come may be soon coming to an end.
I certainly hope so.
Tim Pat Coogan’s latest book on the Famine, in which he accuses the English of Genocide will be published by Palgrave Press in November
16 Comments
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Switch to the desktop site to post a comment.SherLinton | Oct 02, 2012, 07:27 PM EDT
I think that the powers that be are ganging up on all of the middle class and poor. They want as many of us dead as possible because the Eugenisists (Bill Gates & Melinda) and Big Pharma want us dead and are poisoning our food with GMOs, our water with chemicals, drugs and flouride, our air with ChemTrails that never quit because of the Global Warming Scam and women and children will always pay because we are seen as the weak ones. O'Bombya's Healthcare won't cover any disabilities, Autism (which is off the charts here in the USA) or senior citizens needs like surgeries - let them wait till they hopefully die first. The drugs on TV ads are killing so many because they think the medical system here is good - it's corrupt as hell and the USA is now owned by the Banks and QE3 is in full force making paper money by the millions and it's all useless. 2.5cents per piece no matter which denomination. USA is corrupt and Communist!
bobby | Oct 02, 2012, 03:47 PM EDT
one of 10, your parents were busy, Irish people had large families in the 50s and 60s, today 1 or 2 is the norm, 3 is a big family.
bobby | Oct 02, 2012, 02:39 PM EDT
billie you are really Thick. Read the 2 links below.
billie061 | Oct 02, 2012, 02:27 PM EDT
Childrens allowance is paid from when they are born,but if they don't attend PRIMARY school when they are suppose to at 4/5 and not living here full-time, they don't get it. How juvenile are you 2egg on my face and look stupid" At least I'm not a racist. Migrant families are large ? Gosh I am one of ten which was mainly the norm some years back. Lets see us Irish went to Aus, U.S., U.K. Canada anywhere else guys ?
bobby | Oct 02, 2012, 07:53 AM EDT
@billie here is a link you can read, citizensinformation.ie/en/social_welfare/social_welfare_payments/social_welfare_payments_to_families_and_children/child_benefit.html
bobby | Oct 02, 2012, 06:44 AM EDT
@billie you will find alot more information if you google it, i suggest you do so, you wont look so stupid next time. Egg on your face........ labour.ie/press/listing/13007277595112182.html
bobby | Oct 02, 2012, 06:36 AM EDT
billie061, i wish you were right, but you are the one in the wrong. Childrens allowance is paid from when the child is born, not when they start in fulltime education. So long as one parent lives in Ireland working or claiming social welfare they are under EU law entitled to claim for childrens allowance for children living abroad. You are the one who is ignorant. Id look it up if i were you. Educate yourself......
WoundedKnee | Oct 02, 2012, 01:40 AM EDT
billie061, are you posting from Ireland? Because it's often the Irish who know least about what's going on in their country. In this case you are flatout wrong. The fact of the matter is that Ireland DOES pay child welfare benefits to children of EU citizens, regardless of whether these citizens are on welfare or working, and ALSO regardless of where these persons' children are living. So that payment IS made in the case of children born and living in other EU countries (usually Eastern Europe). I'll give you the benefit of the doubt on this, that you are mistaken rather than being dishonest. If the latter, you won't get away with your dumb attempt to spread disinformation here. As regards the name Pavel, what is "derogatry" (sic) about it? Are you prejudiced against Polish names?
angrypaddy | Oct 02, 2012, 01:21 AM EDT
Why should the tax payer pay for fat ugly irish girls mistakes African/Irish babby's whatever colour or nationality,deport them all babbys and all
billie061 | Oct 01, 2012, 10:39 PM EDT
Woundedknee and Bobby, you are both wrong, child benifit cannot be paid to Eastern europeans or Pavel ( how derogatry) unless their children are in fulltime education in this country from age 4-5, every child regardless of race or nationality is entitled to a full-time education or would you prefer we go back to hedge-schools. Woundedknee and Bobby your ignorence outshines both of you.
cillowen | Oct 01, 2012, 07:01 PM EDT
Shatter's chimp who aims to please the masters.
KevinKehoe | Oct 01, 2012, 06:46 PM EDT
An excellent article Tim Pat Coogan, right on the money.
bobby | Oct 01, 2012, 01:18 PM EDT
It is not the stupidity of the Irish WoundedKnee for paying this out. It is EU law. There is nothing Ireland can do about it.
WoundedKnee | Oct 01, 2012, 12:43 PM EDT
Two ways Ireland could save hundreds of millions. First, and this will save millions, not hundreds of millions: Stop the madness of paying child welfare to (generally Eastern European) children who have never even been in Ireland. American readers will scarcely believe the stupidity, but if Pavel is in Ireland--working or on welfare-- he can tell Irish Welfare agents that he has half a dozen children in Gdansk or wherever, and they start paying him a grand or more a month. Hard to beat that for sheer stupidity on the part of a country that is bankrupt and actually has to borrow the money to pay Pavel! The second costsaver, and this one WOULD save hundreds of millions: Stop providing free education for the children of foreign migrants. As things stand, an Indian family can arrive in Dublin on a Friday, and enroll their children in Irish schools (no charge) on the Monday. It's utter madness. Make whoever brought in the foreign migrants pay for the education of their children. Ideally, this should apply to all foreign children, with the exception of British, but given the spinelessness of the Irish government they'd never dare impose tuition fees in the case of EU children.
Nicomax | Oct 01, 2012, 12:33 PM EDT
I'm guessing these allowances for children are essentially going to undeserving families since they are more 'takers' than 'makers'. But it was the bankers, both in Ireland and the US, who took unprecedented gambles with other peoples' money, and lost most of it. How deserving are these recognized 'makers'? A lot I guess since they were bailed out by the tax payers, avoided criminal indictments, and got angry when we suggested they were greedy.
bobby | Oct 01, 2012, 09:05 AM EDT
Ireland pays out Billions every year in children allowance. Everyone that has children receives it. Multi millionaires, people on salaries of €100,000 a year. It needs reforming. Many of Irelands immigrant population that have children living abroad can also claim for children allowance in Ireland for these children. It is Crazy costing millions. Childrens allowance rates are one of the highest in Europe. For the 1st and 2nd child you receive €140 for each child the 3rd child you receive €148 and the 4th and subsequent children you receive €160 each. Many of Irelands immigrant population have large families. Receiving hundreds every month.