Mahon points up the past lines in the sand

A long time ago I canvassed for Bernie Malone in a general
election. It was a bleak autumn day when we were packed into cars and made our way to Dublin County Council in the heart of Dublin just up from the Carlton. Bernie was whip at the time on Dublin County Council and had to be there to vote on a rezoning motion.

The old council chamber had 78 members and a small public area which was roped off where councillors sat. We took our place along side the gentlemen in suits who leaned forward to consult with the lobby fodder who were doing their bidding. Just 3 parties were represented on the council at the time, Fine Gael, Labour and Fianna Fail and there were a handful of Independents. Labour was at the time at the receiving end of stick due to its part in the Fitzgerald government which was struggling to deal with the economic meltdown Fianna Fail had visited on the country.

Despite this in 1985 Labour was successful in north Dublin in the local elections while in the city it was reduced to 2 seats out of 52. I’ve understood why for a long time, last week the rest of the country caught up with what was common knowledge in County Dublin for a long time. Fianna Fail and Fine Gael had effectively handed the development of the county over to vested interest for the price of meals in posh restaurants, election expenses and pints in Conway’s bar around the corner. Let’s leave Bertie Ahern and his $45,000 war chest in his chest of drawers for a minute. The real damage is that we will pay for this planning shambles long into the future.

Land values climbed against a backdrop of rocketing house prices as land was drip fed onto the market in areas where maximum return would be made for private developers. At the same
time many in inner city Dublin relied on the Gregory deal to secure decent accommodation
as they were priced out of the private market even in 1982 prices.

For those who could get into the market, the community facilities, the transport infrastructure was a figment of the developer’s imagination. Everything was about maximising profit and return. The stereotypical builder was a self made country man in his mid 40’s who didn’t have an arse in his trousers the day he arrived in big smoke and how through good connections wasn’t afraid of work and had done well for himself as the saying was at the time.

The stereotypical house buyer had a spouse, 3 or more children, one family income and a 20 year mortgage at a high interest rate that reduced disposable incomes. You were always told that you can’t lose in bricks and mortar. Well now we know that you can lose on anything.

To Labours credit the only councillor who supported Dunlop’s orchestrated corruption was sent packing 19 years ago after just 2 years on the county council. The mess has yet to be cleaned up and the real price is to be paid by communities where the car is now king and retailing has moved from the city centre to the shopping malls that surround the outskirts. Sure the malls have created jobs but what a shop worker’s salary can now buy when compared to 30 years ago are not comparable.
Few could realistically expect to cover a mortgage. That’s where the 100% mortgages came in with the holiday, car and spending money for the decking was all rolled into one. That’s where the guys in the bank with their bonus based on the size of the loan they advanced and the letters through the box offering cash in your account by 5 pm came in too.

Any punishment that CAB or the courts can dish out will be a mere drop in the ocean to what the real cost will be into the future. Whatever damage Bertie Ahern has done to his credibility it pales into insignificance with that done by the Fine Gael & Fianna Fail councillors in Dublin.

Out with the old and in with the new

Ironically for the day that’s in it that former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern should announce his retirement at years end, 19 years after Mikhail Gorbachev threw in his hand . But threre the comparison ends. Whereas Gorbachev never achieved his goal of reconstructing the Soviet Union into a modern socialist state, Bertie the sociaist sure changed our society for many’s a year to come and I for now know that as I’ll be paying his bills as well as his pension for quite some time yet.
Bertie’s greatest achievement wasn’t the Good Friday Agreement, I’ll credit that to John Hume the genuine and greatest Irishman ever. No, Berties’s greatest achievement of which there were very many was hoodwinking the Irish people into the fairytale that he was the Dubs and Man U loving Bass drinking working class lad from the inner city who made it to the London School of Economics and created the wealth that was described in the media as the Celtic Tiger. I can never take any of that away from him. He was none of tha. the genesis for our tiger economy of the late 90's was put in place by the Rainbow. By 2001 Fianna Fail had trashed it and replaced it with a consumer boom
Once the Bertie myth had been put out there by a compliant media led by O’Reilly who saw advantage and profit for themselves the re-creation of our country as the ideal right wing playground for the illusion of wealth that is Ahern’s Fianna Fail, the slump was inevitable. Ahern's first move was to create a post intellectual society where tax write offs or buy offs or celebrity politics sub planted debate and discussion. If you suggested a bust you were talking down the economy (as some economists who wouldn't share my analysis did and they were right). Bertie famously turned up on RTE’s “The Premiership and Hung with Hector. Dumbing down rather than levelling up. The acquiescent media and an opposition that competed with one another to bed down with the Frankenstein that he’d created rather than square up all played their part in trashing the state.
I remember at one election commenting to any one who’d listen that Labour was neither sadly big enough to pose a threat to Fianna Fail nor thankfully small enough to be of use to them. Ahern found his toadies, a TD from the Gaeltacht who wanted to watch BBC, Lowry who feared a tribunal report, Healy Rae, the greens and of course Harney and her zealots in the PD’s. The rest isn’t so much history as the evidence needed for a treason trial. In reality I don’t think we will see here what the Icelandic people will get from their PM who tee-ed up their slump when he goes on trial.
We don’t have government for the people by the people. Our unique democratic system is more government by alibi for the guilty. Lehman Brothers, Europe, the regulator, the Central Bank, the builders and the bankers all according to Ahern were outside this control and if he was in power he’d have kept a closer eye on things as the recently reminded the Poles.
The reality is that our current mess resulted from his and Fianna Fail’s abandonment of their responsibility to protect the state from the collateral damage of moneymen and cowboys doing the only thing that that they know what to do. Those of us who are more cynical would say that the moneymen could only do what they did with the support of Ahern and his toadies.
He didn’t enter politics 40 years ago for the money but he sure got out of it for the pension. Thanks for nothing Bertie! You’re a leprechaun in comparison to real politicians like Hume or Gorbachev.

Those the gods destroy they first make mad!

I’m reminded of this old Greek saying when I watch Fianna Fail flailing around in the pensions issue. Most TD’s could see this coming last week when the spotlight turned on Bank Of Ireland’s Richie Boucher.
When Richie was a young lad and went to boarding school the school’s motto was “constancy in the midst of change”. While Richie well and thoroughly ditched this motto last week it seems that FF back benchers are manfully standing like the last soldiers defending Stalingrad against the onslaught of the babarian hordes. Fianna Fail were notorious for their internal discipline but now it seems that Brian Cowen’s writ doesn’t run anymore as far as Ned O’Keeffe or Michel Woods. In O’Keeffe’s case he recently defended the light touch regulation regime of Bertie Ahern while he;s also on the record as describing the FF coalition as the most right wing government in the history of the state. Michael Woods has been here before over his pension, benefiting uniquely from an arrangement to circumvent pension conditions that Brian Cowen saw to, now there’s gratitude for you.


What really surprises me is that Cowen is like a spectator in all of this. Unable to enforce and unwilling to offend, Cowen’s loyalty to Woods and more so to Geoghegan Quinn, his original comrade in the Country and western set whose arrogance started off this issue on Friday, has gone un-rewarded. MGQ made it clear that she wasn’t having Deirdre De Burca but even an EU Commissioner isn’t god almighty as her predecessor and fellow member of the Country and Western Set Pee Flynn found out 11 years ago.
Why is that FF learn nothing and why is that they are condemned to repeat the errors of their past? Is it that they think we’ll forget it all or is it that we don’t elect the commissioner?
Whatever the reason FF are now left with their munificent 7. Ex ministers who stand up and be counted not in defending hospitals or schools or jobs but their incomes! Perhaps it’s that the ex-ministers feel that Cowen was central to their removal from office and that he legally can’t force them to return the pensions. It doesn’t hugely matter now whether the remaining pensions are returned or what value is out on the remaining pensions. The damage is done, people see FF TD’s dragging their heels on the matter. It’s not hugely relevant if FG TD’s keep the pension tax credits nor if they donate the value of the pension to local charities even though that is open to a cynical interpretation.
In the overall scheme of thing the amount of money involved is small but what is at risk in the minds of the voting public is incalculable. It’s interesting that once more it’s small sums of money that the individual can relate to while the large amounts used to bung Quinn Group make the electorate’s collective eyes glaze over.
But theirs one thing I suspect and this is it; This escapade will stay in the political conscience for a long time yet, it’ll be thrown at the door at all candidates from opposition parties.
FF knew what they were doing when they decided to string out the resignation process, to quote Jim Larkin; An injury to one is an injury to all; when one politician is damaged they’re all bruised.

Slump Coalition’s greatest myths; Part 1; “We all benefited from the boom”

The above sound byte is frequently used in the media by neo-liberal economists, bankers, builders, property developers, FF and their Green and independent patsies. This statement is never challenged.
A small number of property developers amassed enormous land banks for the purposes of development. To aid them the FF & PD government incentivised building. The construction sector needed domestic customers for housing so mortgage lending criteria were relaxed, second homes and buy to let schemes
incentivised. Profiteering saw the average price of a house climb under Ahern & Harney between 1994 and 2007 from €73k to over 320K! During the same time inflation in the building sector suggested the average house price should be just €132k. The difference between the 2 is accounted for by profiteering. To keep up with rising prices, the value of mortgages rocketed and while wages grew they couldn’t keep pace with profiteering in the building industry do it became more difficult for ordinary people to get their foot on the property ladder.

A hysteria resulted where even reality TV programmes got in on the act to find properties for first time buyers, in one case a government TD acted as a judge and newspaper property supplements bulged with seductive ads for new developments.

So let’s not confuse higher pay with any putative direct benefits from the boom, unless you think that it’s somehow a privilege to own your own home! Many of the houses built in the boom were distant from where people worked and involved a long commute usually by car, expensive child-care and when the child goes to school above average pupil teacher ratio.
When Bertie Ahern proposed to increase his salary by €38K per annum he ignored the reality that for 1.5M in the state €38K was their total household income! Many in the workforce have little or no pension provision for their retirement. At the same time total tax reliefs in the state were valued at 25% of the total tax take! The top 1% when you leave out residential property own 34% of Irelands wealth. During the Ahern period when a wealthy person could find tax shelters to invest in (private hospitals, hotels, 3rd level facilities, nursing homes, holiday camps, student apartments, park and ride facilities, car parks, and refurbished flats), childhood poverty rates were at 7.5%, just 21k social houses built, pupil teacher ratios were among the highest in Europe, hospital waiting lists grew, marginalisation grew as Michael McDowell said he believed in inequality as a motivator in society.
At the same time state assets such as Telecom Eireann, Aer Lingus were flogged off to the market, cash reserves depleted to an extent that investment in broadband significantly lags most EU countries. In the case of the electricity market, prices were driven upwards so as to make the industry more profitable for new entrants. This policy is being encouraged by the greens to an extent that price of power is now a key expense in SME’s.

Consumption replaced production in our economy. Ireland has now nothing to sell on an international market other than low tax to attract company accounts to the IFSC. Unemployment is now set to hit a record 500K this year, 4 businesses are going bust a day, tax take has slumped, social welfare and spending cuts are a reality. The party is over. Like any party the guests are gone leaving the clear up to the hosts.

News of the World’s star signing’s own goal spin!

I’m not a reader of the News of the World but I’m told that Bertie Ahern has recently been signed up for his exclusive views on sporting matters. As far as I know he’s got no particular expertise in sport. True he attends matches regularly in Croke Park and Old Trafford and I know he’s knowledgeable on Irish soccer because he frequently reminds us of his great interest in League of Ireland soccer on those radio ads, although I’ve never met him coming out of Ferrycarrig Park. No more than myself he’s never achieved any notable success in sport and while I‘ve given up hoping to make the breakthrough I’m delighted to see that the self styled Iar-Taoiseach persists and has taken advantage of the pending closure of the transfer window as seen in today’s Sunday Times to sign for some team who wear red jerseys and play in a stadium that resembles Old Trafford. Ahern has some achievements, most notably the Good Friday Agreement, but at the back of it all, Few think if Michael Collins who knew something about delivering international treaties had lived would he have confined his middle aged years to sharing his views with the nation about the likely destination of Sam Maguire?
To save you the embarrassment of buying the NOTW and wading past the topless pictures I understand that in today’s paper he’s backing Meath to beat Kerry and make it to the All-Ireland Final. Most interesting his endorsement of the Royals is contextualised with a straight face; “I can’t remember the last time I cheered on Meath”. Pity to see his memory is still giving him trouble! I wonder if his enthusiasm for the Meathmen will see him go as far as place a bet on them given the long odds they carry today and his stated experience in successfully picking winners. In previous 2 horse races he always picked the winner, Haughey, McAleese being just 2 of the names that spring to mind.
The relative ease at which Ahern, a man not noted for outstanding intellectualism nor sporting aplomb, could pick up a column in a paper says a lot about the values in Irish media at the moment. Lets face it few actually believe Ahern has neither the time nor the ability to put together this column. Previous holders of the office of Taoiseach would cringe with embarrassment if a paper had offered them a sporting column on retirement rather than accept it as Ahern did. This column is probably ghost written by some unfortunate just out of DCU’s excellent journalism course and then read to him over the phone while he okays it. Ahern brings nothing to the table other than his name. In a country with a huge affinity to brands he realises it’s a brand that can keep him in clover until another nixer comes around. Media is about money and how circulation can be upped or rival papers trumped. The fact Ahern is “writing” is news and generates interest for the paper whether you buy it or not. Advertisers respond to that. In a recession getting an efficient return from your advertising budget ultimately is sound money management.
But media is now about opinion and not about news. When was the last time the headline was the result of an investigation by a media outlet? When did you see the result of a Freedom of Information Request reported ? Instead we get regular columns by cabinet ministers, soft focus on business people and their decisions.

Time was media was about getting to the truth, now it’s about celebrity politicians and celebrity business people. If many of the enthusiastic journalists that are coming out of college had the employer who was so minded to investigate the bubble in the economy in the last 10 years, I wonder would our slump have been so bad? I smile when I see the business editor in the Sunday Independent waving the big stick at speculators when its own parent INM’s shares are on the floor. With all the conflicting demands on the actual newspaper where is the space for the journalist? To be fair there are some journalists who will plough on and ask questions, Vincent Browne, Eamon Keane, Fintan O’Toole, Matt Cooper and sometimes they infuriate me when they persist in what I consider a pointless line. But that’s their job and that’s my tough luck.
If they don’t do it the alternative is a media packed with Ahern and his ilk peddling nonsense with a nipple count. Was it for this that trees were cut down?

Holidays!

Could it really be a year since Brian Cowen had a whale of a summer opening golf clubs while the economy colapsed? Is it a year since I started this blog? A lothas happened since I put up the statcounter on this blog. Over 5,000 visits have been made to the blog from all over the world but mostly Ireland. My youtube channel Menapia has had over 7,000 hits since Christmas.

We'd our last meeting of Wexford Borough Council last night. Tomorrow I'm away for a break so the blog will be on hold for a few weeks. Before you ask we're staying in Ireland.
There's good weather and as you can see form the pix it's a chance to share an ice cream with your friends in the good weather. I hope the weather is good where you are and that you get a good break.


See you after the hols!

Law Knave Bertie

Another St Patrick’s Day, is almost upon us and it’s a chance to reflect. If a week is a long time in politics what does that make a year? A year ago Spy Wednesday saw the unfolding of Bertie Ahern. Who’d have thought that exactly one year on from Bertie Ahern’s humiliation by his former secretary Grainne Carruth that rehabilitation would be possible?
However it seems one is well underway just 15 months after a poll showed that Brian Cowen was significantly more popular than Ahern. The little matter of the Mahon Tribunal Report aside the subtle distancing by Ahern from his successor are well underway while an alternative career as a TV anchorman come international statesman and conference tourist blended with a new website have all compounded the smokescreen created by his IFTA award winning series.
The power may be gone but not the opportunity.
Indeed there’s plenty of scope to spin and re-cast the Bertie Myth; He’s peddled several notions in the recent past that clearly show him to be in denial; “The slump wouldn’t have happened if I was in power”, “The rivalry with Tony Gregory wasn’t personal” or “I won it on a horse”. The “ordinary” man who was the most devious of them all and returned the compliment describing his mentor Haughey as “a patriot to his fingertips” didn’t get the original accolade for nothing.
The down to earth socialist who counted plumbers plasterers and publicans as friends yet walked tall with Blair, Sarkozy and “the great President Bush”. When under pressure he hid behind a mask of inarticulate Dublinesse mumbo jumbo to deflect and play for time. A sort of Bang Bang meets Mandela. Extraordinary!
However Bertie’s relationship with Fianna Fail grassroots was quite different to that of Haughey. Haughey’s cumann members would travel the length and breadth of the country to support him during heaves. Ahern on the other hand packed out the court yard of Dublin Castle with cynics who booed him. On more than one occasion while he gave evidence to Mahon I was minded of the emperor having no clothes. It was all for the media. For Ahern it was all about how he was perceived rather than the faithful. Haughey on the other hand knew how to work the party faithful famously saying he’d wouldn’t cut someone’s throat unless there was a percentage in it! Haughey never made it to the Arás but for Ahern the chance is still there in 2 years time. He knows if he can pull something out of the fire in Dublin Central that he’ll feel the people view him differently from Cowen’s FF.
The next 12 months are crucial to Ahern’s undeclared wish to secure another home paid for by someone else once more, this time it’s the tax payer who he hopes will foot the bill in the form of the Arás. So get ready to pay once more for his make up. At least in Cowen’s case that’s one expense the taxpayer has been spared.
However there may just be one fly in the ointment. Should the Mahon Tribunal make a decision that the taxpayer should pay Ahern’s tribunal costs, The overburdened middle class tax payer who seem to be hit for everything and are more likely to vote may take a dim view of Ahern and his antics. As Ahern used to say “A lot done more to do!”