Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Ireland and the abuse of democracy....Jan 2007.

Paddy Martin | 17.01.2007 14:58 | Analysis | World

How political corruption and ineptitude affects everyone.

Ireland and the abuse of democracy....Jan 2007.
For the last ten years Ireland has been governed by a two party coalition made up of Fianna Fail and The Progressive Democrats. Even though our economy has gone from strength to strenght, the lives of a huge number of ordinary people have not changed for the better. In fact, as a result of our government's ineptitude at managing this strong economy, the cultural and day-to-day life of it's people has suffered irreparable damage.
Political corruption exists in every country in the world but, because a lot of it is on a small scale, a blind is turned and if, through negligence etc., the corruption is discovered, it generally means that someone has to resign.
We in Ireland have a different way of dealing with such problems. In Sep 2006 our Prime Minister, Bertie Ahern
admitted to taking €50,000 from businessmen back in the 90's while Minister for Finance. Some of these people were appointed to lucrative and handy little jobs working for the government later.
You would think that this admission would would lead to calls for his resignation. Not alone did he not have to resign but, his ratings in the opinion polls went UP.
This man's career in sculduggery began when he was Secretary of the Fianna Fail Party working under Charles J Haughey back in the 80's.
According to himself, while working in this capacity, he used to sign books of blank cheques for his master without asking any questions as to what the purpose of the cheques was.
It has since emerged through various Tribunals of Inquiry that Mr. Haughey was embezzling money from his own party and acepting millions from big business interests to finance his own extravagant lifestyle. He maintained that no favours were given in return for the money and that these 'friends' shovelled money his direction because they liked him.
The Tribunals of Inquiry also found that many members of the Fianna Fail Party and other political parties in were in on the fiddle too.
Reports from the Tribunals can be seen at:  http://www.flood-tribunal.ie/asp/index.asp and:
 http://www.moriarty-tribunal.ie/asp/index.asp?ObjectID=636&Mode=0&RecordID=399 and:
 http://www.eirbiz.com
All this sets the scene for today's 'Celtic Tiger' Ireland where the rise in corruption coincided with an explosion of economic activity...a race to the top for everyone who had their thumb in the pie.
Unfortunately for the population in general, our politicians were either busy facilitating greedy businessmen or busy covering up both sets of tracks. They just didn't have the time to attend to the work that they were elected to do and now we have a country awash with money and where nothing works properly.
Some examples:
Health System.
Our Health System is a total shambles with...as I write this...339 sick people waiting on trollys in our hospitals because there is a shortage of beds. Some of these patients are elderly and may have to wait for days in crowded corridors until a bed becomes available. Just yesterday Jan 16 in a Limerick hospital ambulances were detained at the A&E section because ambulance trollys had to be used. Ambulances could not leave the hospital without their trollys.
A good number of people would have turned up at A& E Departments as a last resort to get treatment as waiting lists to see consultants can be years long. Of course, if you have insurance, you can be seen almost straight away.
More details:  http://www.eirbiz.com/index-health.html
Crime Rate.
Ireland is now a country awash with drugs and guns and, this, combined with government failure to anticipate
along with it's failure to do anything worthwhile to curtail the huge escalation of crime, means that we now have a country that is a criminal's paradise with foreign gangs feeling right at home. Gang wars are ongoing and tit-for-tat murders are a regular occurrence with the judiciary allowing serious criminals out on bail, when arrested, to continue as before. Street violence is increasing and many people are afraid to walk the streets.
More details:  http://www.eirbiz.com/index-crime.html
Transport...Gridlock on our roads.
Because of our economic success, the numbers of vehicles on our roads is growing at such a fast rate that any road improvements are immediately being overwhelmed. It can take 90 minutes to travel 18km in Dublin City. If, on any day there are a couple of vehicle breakdowns, the whole city grinds to a halt. Just before Christmas we had the longest traffic jam in the history of the state when there was 22km of vehicles virtually parked on the M50. This moterway was built with no rest areas and during the backup, people, including women had to urinate in plastic bags while others had hungry babies on board which were screaming to be fed.
More details:  http://www.eirbiz.com/index-gridlock.html
Housing.
The price of an average house in Dublin is now close on €400,000 and there are families with two parents spending three or four hours a day commuting to work in an effort to pay a 35 yr mortgage and who only see their children for an hour or two every day. This scenario is a direct result of our government's propensity to facilitate building developers at every turn instead of maintaining a balance. Planning laws were largely ignored and huge housing estates were built with no plan to install infrastructure like schools, roads, shops etc. In other words, developers with money and access to political pals could build virtually anything anywhere they wanted.
Finally.
In the eyes of the world Ireland is seen as a great example of economic success but, the reality is that for many people, the cultural and social life that we were so famous for is fast disappearing as the scramble for material possessions intensifies. The smell of money has driven large sections of the population mad.
You can see the full picture here:  http://www.eirbiz.com/
Paddy Martin.

Paddy Martin

Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech