Adams Family Values

Was I hearing right? A party leader has given an interview to RTE in response to a UTV programme fronted by the journalist who exposed both Kincora and the Brendan Smith affair that brought down Albert Reynolds and an article in the Sunday Tribune showing his links to his brother after he first became aware of suggestions of abuse towards his own daughter. That politician just happens to be Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams.
I wonder why this issue is coming out now just before Christmas, is it intended to bury a legacy issue in the annual festive news famine? Adams says the matter was certain to be revealed at some stage so why did it not come out before now? Is the affair being news managed by SF? After all it’s not as if Sinn Fein hasn’t done this before, a few years back the Donaldson spying affair broke days before the Christmas holiday. This is a very serious matter for both family and Sinn Fein within months of a British General Election. Northern Catholics are conservative and mass attendance is higher as there is a stronger identification with the Catholic Church for obvious reasons. I don’t go along with the line that it is a matter alone for the Adam’s family for a number of reasons.
Let’s examine what Gerry Adams did when he knew that his brother, Liam, was abusing his young daughter. The Sunday Tribune reports that Liam Adams was a youth worker in Dundalk in the 90’s at a time when Fr Brendan Smith’s extradition papers were gathering dust on a shelf in the DPP’s office in Dublin. Adams says it was at a later time that he worked in Dundalk and that he had his brother expelled from Sinn Fein. Surely Adams should then have advised the Gardaí in Dundalk of the risk to the young people he was in contact with? Instead he promoted his brother as a potential Sinn Fein candidate in Louth for the 1997 Irish General Election. A picture of Gerry and Joe Cahill posing with the groom at his brothers wedding in Co Louth poses a number of questions in relation to claims that he distanced himself from Liam.

It’s 10 years ago since the Children First policy document was published in relation to protection of children from abuse in the south. Gerry Adams has shown himself to be out of touch with southern politics, one time calling Labour’s 82-87 Health Minister Desmond Barry and in the 2007 debate making Michael McDowell look smart! It doesn’t seem like he’s been in contact with the Southern health authorities in regard to his brother despite the policy. The Dundalk project says it had no contact in relation to possible risk surrounding Liam Adams.
But the ultimate question Adams must answer is why did he not do more? Do you need to have a policy document to tell you how to behave when you hear your niece is being abused by your brother? Who provided the references for Liam Adams to secure a job as a youth worker? This was at a time when the IRA’s Nutting Squad ruled with an iron fist within the Republican movement, punishment beatings for anti-social behaviour were regular features of life in the North. The prospect of a green Kincora now lurks beneath the surface. Set against this backdrop, life and death was dispensed mercilessly by an organisation headed up by a man who ignored his brother’s abuses. The year that Adams learnt of his brother’s abuse was also the year when 11 innocent people were killed at Enniskillen.

Having listened to various bishops excuse their behaviour in the last decade as they re-shuffled deviant clerics round the diocese, I find it hard to see great difference in how Liam Adams travelled around trying to build up his political career from Donegal to Louth. 22 years is a long time to wait for justice and I hope that Áine Tyrell gets her day in court and her abuser is jailed. If any person in Southern Ireland behaved as Adams did there is grounds for investigation under reckless endangerment. In any ordinary political party Adams would be shown the door, however this is no ordinary political party and he may well hang in there for the medium term. This may rebound on Sinn Fein in the British General Election. Watch this space.

The price of everything and the value of nothing

The last day of the legal term sees the builder’s bail out hovering on the precipice. The refusal of examinership to Liam Carroll’s group of companies will strengthen the arm of ACC Rabobank in their campaign to hold on their AAA credit status and muscle the government into a bank buy back while rescuing some liquidity for themselves. Ironically almost 20 years ago the Dail was recalled from a summer recess to put through examinership laws to rescue then FF supporter Larry Goodman. Now another recall is on the cards to bailout more FF supporters, the top 50 developers in the country and their lending institutions through NAMA. The best endorsement for NAMA that explains it to most people was the Green Party description of it as "the best least worse option". Make no m,istake about it the Dail will be back early as the inertia wears down what's left of the specualtors bubble.

Basically it works like this. Bank sells bad (toxic) loans to NAMA and is paid in bonds at a reduced price (discount). NAMA gets to work through these loans with the developer. The theory is that the tax payer won’t be hit because the developer will then be able to draw down money from the bank to complete construction while paying off NAMA. In theory at the end of the day the government thinks it will get back whatever it puts in.

But will this work in practise? When tribunals were being set up we heard that they would raise cash because findings would be actionable by Revenue. The problem was that those with a vested interest trot off to the High Court at the drop of a hat to protect their interests. Costs soared and the tax payer was hit. A developer may well go to the High Court to challenge a move by NAMA or indeed the very legislation that sets up NAMA.

What’s often forgotten is that many of the bad loans handed out are in relation to foreign property investments. I see no value to our economy in bailing out these however the reality is that with many of these in the north or Britain, they have more potential for recovery on the loans than many of the Irish properties destined for NAMA. As Jack O’Connor asks what will be the social role for NAMA in housing? Will the residential property be used to house those on the housing list by the state? My feeling on the matter is that with other econmies set to enter recovery before Ireland’s emigration will increase further reducing the demand for housing and depressing prices and demand. As a consequence to remove the overhang would it not make sense for the state to take up empty residential units as part of the charge to developers within the NAMA basket?
What about completed developments where no purchaser is interested? What should be done with the entirely speculative properties that were built and will not be filled? In the 19th century free market liberal economics meant that Ireland had deserted villages after the famine. Has our economic thinking moved on in 160 years? I doubt it!
My biggest concern with NAMA is in relation to the values put on properties. Which values determine the value on which the discount is established? Are these values the ones when NAMA was set up or when the market was at its peak or when the loans were taken out? I’m worried at what may ensue behind closed doors when it comes to the negotiations to set values. Already we've seen Carroll been accused by the judge of guilding the lily when it comes to values which he claimed were independently established. Can you trust any of these developers who specualted on sentiment as if it was hard currency and how can you protect the taxpayer at the same time?
Either way the tax payer will either give the developer a soft deal and have to compensate the banks or else bail out the banks and effectively re-ignite property speculation based on a tax payer subsidised depression of property prices. Heads they win, tails we lose!