The sins of the fathers

I met John Barrett in the shop today. I’ve known John for years as he has an intense interest on schoolboy soccer and our teams often met on the soccer pitch. John is a survivor of child abuse who spent his early years in the institutional custody of (I can’t use the word care because he didn’t get any) the Christian Brothers. John is justifiably angry at the treatment he received from both the state and the order that ran the institution. He established an organisation called Right of Place. He is at present writing a book that sets out his experiences and it will be published in Ireland and Britain in the new year.
John is not surprised at the findings of the Yvonne Ryan report into Dublin archdiocese. Neither am I. The findings and the modus operandi of all responsible is broadly similar to what went on in Ferns. Bishops prioritised containment of scandal in Ferns and Dublin. Garda inquiries ran into the sand in both diocese when they went up the line from investigating younger gardaí. The Ferns report was released four years ago and at the time I thought that there was nothing that would suggest that the level of clerical abuse in Ferns was no less and no more than what was going on elsewhere. At the time the suggestion was made that because Ferns had its own seminary that the small number of seminarians made abuse easier and that the problem may be ring fenced in the south east. This excuse cannot be rolled out now. Other dioceses have question marks over leadership and the values taken when dealing with clerics accused of sexual abuse.
The Catholic Church is like any institution. The desire to protect the institution from scandal apparently superseded all. It is no longer about a church leader hiding behind health or an alcohol addiction. No system failure in Dublin. The system worked and worked well down through the years in the interest of the institution and against those of the victim. Those in authority in the church and the Garda colluded in what today we call reckless endangerment and effectively the perversion of justice.
At the time of the inquiry I met Dr Walsh who was the administrator of Ferns. I think he had the most difficult job in the Irish church and he came out of affair with his reputation enhanced. That’s why I’m disappointed when I heard him on radio today dodging the question as to whether investigations are now needed in other diocese. I think they are.

Don’t forget that the late Fr Fortune was effectively run out of the boy scouts in Belfast within weeks of reports of inappropriate behaviour there. How can standards be better 25 years ago in the boy scouts, a voluntary organisation that’s just 100 years old than in a 2000 year old church that shortly will mark the birth of its founder? There has to be the same level of commitment in child protection in all diocese otherwise we’re condemned to repeat the errors of the past. It’s not enough for the state to stand back from the issue and set the standards and allow self regulation of child protection. In economics we’ve seen how self regulation doesn’t work. The state has a duty to those of our citizens who it shares the responsibility for ruining their lives in the past and also to today’s children

John Barrett and I talked about the importance of his book. Survivors not only need to tell their story but to get vindication from our society that they were the victim. That’s why there is a need for a further enquiry. I’d rather it to be quicker than our tribunals for the sake of the victims and the church itself. It is in the interest of the Catholic Church and its adherents that best practise is in place asap in a clear and transparent manner.
I hope John’s book sells well, I hope that its still read in 30 years time and that people then will ask how did we have a country like that but more importantly what did we do to change it, and Yes negligent church leaders must resign.

Can you make Sense or Sensibility from Mary Coughlan?

Our Tanaiste has an extraordinary talent for grabbing the headlines. Her namesake who sings the blues must be mortified when she hears some of the things she comes out with? One Mary Coughlan sings the blues, another delivers them big time! Since her promotion by Brian Cowen she has rarely been out of the headlines because of her gaffes. If there was an Olympic medal for gaffes, this minister’s neck would have sores from the weight of metal hung from it. To be fair to her I’ve always suspected there’s a certain amount of bias against her because she is a woman on the part of the media. For all her incompetence, she didn’t ignore the FAS shambles as Mary Harney did, sanction e-voting as Noel Dempsey or Martin Cullen did or hide behind civil servants as Micheal Martin famously did or sanction PPARS or sell out the tax payer as Woodsy did as he was going out the door to some religious orders.

The constant focus on Mary’s gaffes once more underpin the truth of what Albert Reynolds once said, “You get over the big issues but it’s the little things that trip you up”. So I’ll excuse the slip of the tongue today in the Dail when she mixed up the election with the budget which sounded extraordinarily like “bullshit” when she actually got round to saying it. Likewise I won’t too worried about her not knowing that many years ago each EU country appointed one EU commissioner only because FF have no EU allies and have no role of any significance in EU decision making. I don’t fret when she uses expletives when out canvassing for a FF candidate nor when she mixes up Einstein with Darwin, she’s not a science graduate but a social science graduate and there’s a big difference. I start to wonder when I hear she will legislate to discriminate against gay people.

I get more worried when she wades in with suggestions that McCarthy’s Report makes no sense. She was speaking in the absence of the Taoiseach and representing the government. To make matters worse the most senior other Minister technically her junior, basically has just rubbished her view. It seems to me that her credibility is melting away and that she is this year’s Sarah Palin. Now Sarah didn’t get her hands on the levers of power, Mary on the other hand has been pulling hard for all she’s worth for some years and the more she pulls the more uncredible she gets. When McCarty proposes cuts and Coughlan says they male no sense, don’t minister tell me what you think tell me what will happen.
The FRC in The Rocks needs the money McCarthy will cut to survive, not Minister Coughlan’s inner thoughts. Parents with children with SNA’s need to know if their child will still benefit from this vital help, not whether the minister view of how much, much of the report, makes no sense. I could go on but I think you get my drift. When the Tanaiste starts to stop being a figure of fun and starts being a source of obfuscation, I start getting worried. I think the Tanaiste will be marginalised by her colleagues. She plays no role in Lisbon but admonishes the other parties. She is out of her depth, her humiliation at the hands of Dell management in the run up to job losses there earlier this year inspire no one that this is the Minister that will turn around the unemployment crisis. It’s the stuff of nightmares and the man responsible for this is Brian Cowen. What’s more I fear no one is asking the Taoiseach why he appointed her as Tanaiste when many were suggesting that Mary Hanafin or Brian Lenihan would be better in that role.
It’s a matter of being afraid, be very afraid!

Taxing questions for future generations

Today the Commission on Taxation has reported after 18 months. Both Brians as Finance Minister have put off decisions on revenue citing the report. It goes hand in hand with the McCarthy report, McCarthy was recommending what would be cut and the commission on what would changed in terms of revenue. Most age earners expected this report to set out tax equity but nobody told the commission that what McCarthy was taking with one hand that the state would redress in terms of revenue.

What is significant is that the trade union rep on the commission refused to endorse it. Many reliefs for PAYE workers will end if the report’s proposals go through. Its suggested that tax credits for union membership and waste charges will go. There’s no wealth tax, tax exiles remain outside the net while carbon taxes, water charges and a property charge will come in. The commission plan to tax social welfare and child benefit. There’s no mention of the pension levy. Workers (many in low pay) in the civil service will see the report as a further pay cut dressed up as a type of equity. The Irish taxation system penalises those on low income, they benefit least from changes in the tax system. Carbon taxes will increase how much people pay for fuel. Those on low income pay more of the income on fuel than the likes of me. They call it fuel poverty because these people cannot afford to insulate their houses yet if they could, they’d save even more. As Deputy Mayor I launched the WARM project in Wexford to insulate houses of elderly people. Could there not be a better return if a national insulation project was rolled out simultaneously with the carbon tax, a tax that I fear will drive Northern motorists out of Southern forecourts.
I don’t object to a property tax if it’s collected by the local authority on all property. A flat charge of €900 per house is mind boggling but I suspect that this plan will not go through and the old reliables of those on low to moderate incomes will shoulder the burden of the collapse in property based revenue measures. Another to bite the dust is the plan to categorise agricultural buildings as commercial from the point of rates. Expect the Bed and Breakfast sector to protest against the proposed rating of these premises. Increasing the landfill levy in addition to removing PAYE tax credits for service charges will see bin charges rise when in the last year they’ve dropped. Expect back yard burning to increase and perhaps well boring too!
So what would I do? Well I’d suggest ending tax shelters, pursuing those who have taken their money outside the jurisdiction, I’d introduce a top tier of tax on incomes over €100K. Do we actually now need tax relief for nursing homes as according to Minister Eamon Ryan hotels in the NAMA basket of properties should be redeveloped as nursing homes. But to tax child benefit? Last years row over Over 70’s medical cards will be like a tea party by comparison.
The report is still predicated on the McCreevy plan to have a low effected tax rate but to deliver top rate services, but it’s an impossible circle to square. We can only re-distribute what we raise, my difficulty is that those who need it more seem to get it less from the report.

McCarthyism’s TINA, I beg to differ

The special one has given his considered verdict. FF and the Green’s dirty work has been cued up for them. When social welfare cuts hit or SNA’s disappear,the line minister will simply say that they’re following advice. Recently when Mary Harney was being questioned about Crumlin Hospital she defended herself by saying that she had to stick within financial guidelines. Sure we all know that you can’t print money (well most parties anyway!) but being in office is about priorities. Releasing McCarthy’s report ahead of the report on taxation psyched the people up for cuts as opposed to looking at income. The use of words like snip suggest that what's being cut won't really be missed in to the future. Like the other snip, a vasectomy, it'll have no effect on your general health or life's outcomes. Never could you be so wrong! Like a vasectomy there'll be no going back to where Ireland was once the government sets about implementing any of its proposals. Unnoticed this week the PD's are finally officially wrapping up their project and when the Dail resumes Mary Harney is officially an independent. Gone from the stage when their vision is within their grasp but handing on their values to FF and The Greens.

Margaret Thatcher invented the acronym TINA, “there is no alternative”. The reality is that she was wrong, there is always an alternative. Some could be significantly worse than where we are now but some could be better.
I believe we should look at what money there is and how to raise revenue. Charlie Chawke seems to have enough spare cash that he considered launching a bid of €100M to buy an average English soccer team. Our tax exiles, god bless the modern Wild Geese, from JP to Bono to Dinny O’Brien who trade on the national image of sport, arts and chancer’s from Doncaster to the Dorchester need to be pursued to loosen their pockets in this time of national crisis. Has the time come to look at our nationality laws once more and make the issuing of an Irish passport dependent on being tax compliant within the state?.

How would that affect the Good Friday Agreement and the right of those born in the north on the island but outside the jurisdiction the right to Irish citizenship? Can a form of words be found by which citizenship can be dependent on tax compliance within this state for any earnings made within the state?
Ireland is now entering a dangerous stage in its history where decisions are being farmed out to the very group of people who got it spectacularly wrong in the last 10 years; FF, economists and bankers. The spin is that the green shoots of recovery are already there and all we need is to cut a bit more and building will start again. This promise is being held out to divert the real thrust of what Fianna Fail along with the Greens hope to achieve, the re-casting of our society into an economy where the only sin is losing money; so up the price of electricity to create false market for power, cut back spending on hospitals or schools, introduce charges for water while at the same time handing over the provision of water to a quango, bring in road tolling close rural railways and bus services, and if you can’t charge for a police service reduce it. Make no mistake about it the new Irish right are waiting to reclaim the ground that the PD's vacated. This is where McCarthyism will take Ireland. Let’s not go there, There is an alternative!