TheStory.ie

Here’s a Green Party press release that just arrived in the inbox. It’s headlined “Days of the corrupt politician are numbered – Ban on corporate donations will help clean up politics for good”…

Green Party TD for Dublin North and Justice spokesman Trevor Sargent has welcomed the latest progress in relation to investigations into the allegations that money was paid to politicians in return for land rezoning votes during the 1990s.

… “There is still some way to go yet, but no person who either gave or received a corrupt payment should be let off the hook for their shameless disregard for sustainable planning and development.”

Deputy Sargent concluded: “It is for this very reason that the Green Party in Government is working to bring forward an immediate ban on corporate donations to political parties. This ban is not just in regard to Government parties either. It is common knowledge that both Labour and Fine Gael accept corporate donations to support the funding of their respective parties and their elections.”

Firstly, all the councillors were from Fianna Fáil. Fianna Fáil continue to accept corporate donations. No mention of that in the press release.

Secondly, the alleged payments were not donations. Does Mr Sargent believe the alleged payments would not have been made were a ban on corporate donations in place at the time? Does Mr Sargent really believe the people allegedly involved would have taken heed of the proposed law were it on the books?

Thirdly, Mr Sargent’s party is in Government with Fianna Fáil who only two days ago applied a whip to its members to reject the Lost at Sea report from the Ombudsman. The report raised serious issues about the ‘maladministration’ of FF TD, Frank Fahey, when he was a minister in the department of agriculture. Where was Mr Sargent on this matter?

Back to donations; as I have said time and again; our current system would work well if the disclosure thresholds were simply lowered or removed so that details of all donations were made public, not just the tiny proportion declared currently. A ban on corporate donations will simply see donations come through other, less public – perhaps less legal – means.

As the Council on Corruption in Europe (GRECO) has said time and again for the last eleven years – repeat, eleven years – all political parties should be forced to publish financial accounts. Ireland has been continously criticised for not legislating for that by the Council. Just last January GRECO published a report on Ireland. In an unusual move our own Standards in Public Office Commission explicitly stated the Government should implement the GRECO proposals.

The Government – led by Fianna Fáil, with whom the Greens are now in office, for the whole period – has ignored them consistently. Mr Sargent, when will the GRECO recommendations be acted upon?

By-the-bye; GRECO does not recommend a ban on corporate donations.

Still, if the Greens are going to do it, they should get on with it. They’ve been issuing pressers on this in-the-works legislation since entering office.

FOOTNOTE: On the topic of the Green Party and corruption; yesterday John Gormley announced that the era of bad planning was over. Just like that.

Green Party leader John Gormley said this evening he was confident the era of bad planning had come to an end.

Speaking in Downpatrick at the AGM of the Northern Ireland Greens, Mr Gormley said he had “noted with interest” the announcement yesterday evening that corruption charges were being brought against four former Dublin City councillors.

“I am reminded of the episode where one of those charged, former councillor and senator Don Lydon, put my colleague Trevor Sargent into a headlock in the chamber of Dublin County Council, as Trevor highlighted payments to politicians involving land zoning,” he said.

“Then as now, the Green Party was a solitary voice against bad and reckless planning, while councillors from Fianna Fáil , Fine Gael, Labour and Sinn Féin – at the behest of developers – rezoned as much of our countryside as they possibly could.”

… That comes two weeks after this press release was issued.

Green Party Senator Niall O Brolcháin has lashed out at rezoning councillors on Galway City Council, claiming that they have learned nothing at all from the property crash.

Following a decision to rezone over 20 acres of land in various locations across the City to commercial and industrial use, Senator O Brolcháin said: “Councillors are still rezoning land to feather the nests of individual property developers and speculators – indeed some of the Councillors are developers themselves and have been forced to declare conflicts of interest in the past.

“I would commend the Councillors who have stood firm against this rezoning, which was carried out against the advice of the acting city manager and senior planners. The current mayor went so far as to use his casting vote to rezone one of the most controversial sites on the Tuam road…

Doesn’t seem like the era has ended to me. Still, you’ve got to commend O Brolcháin for publicising it. I suppose you can’t legislate for… err, idiocy, let’s call it this time. But “then as now” is pretty much dead right.

Via Conor Pope on Twitter

The Irish Times: Former Dublin City councillors Tony Fox, Colm McGrath, Sean Gilbride, and Don Lydon charged with corruption.

More details soon, I’d expect.

UPDATE: Bit more context. All deny it.

Lydon is the guy who put Trevor Sargent in a headlock in a panic after Sargent waved a cheque from a builder in the air at a council meeting and asked “who else got one of these?”

He went on to become a Fianna Fáil senator.

Gilbride was an unsuccessful Fianna Fail general election candidate in 1987 and and 1989. He was a councillor in Balbriggan. Here’s a 2006 report from the Indo on the Mahon Tribunal hearings…

Former FF councillor Sean Gilbride took a career break from his teaching job to canvass for the Quarryvale development and also for a seat in the Dail, the Mahon Tribunal heard.

Developer Owen O’Callaghan paid him IR£15,500 for his efforts but the bill was never invoiced to Mr O’Callaghan’s company, Riga.

Yesterday Clare Cowhig, the auditor who prepared the accounts for Riga, told the tribunal that she had not looked for an invoice from Mr Gilbride.

She had been told by Mr O’Callaghan’s business partner, John Deane, what this IR£15,500 was for and accepted it without an invoice as the amount was small in the overall context.

But tribunal counsel Patricia Dillon put it to her that if she was prepared to accept the word of a director in the absence of an invoice for the payment to Mr Gilbride, then it was conceivable this could be done in relation to other items in the accounts.

A corrupt payment of €1,000 to Mr Gilbride was also included in the list of charges against disgraced former Fianna Fáil press officer and lobbyist, Frank Dunlop.

Tony Fox was a Fianna Fail councillor in Dundrum. He was removed from the ticket as a candidate in the recent local elections by party headquarters following the charges against Dunlop. He ran as an Independent and won a seat in DL-Rathdown.

Frank Dunlop described Colm McGrath as Mr Insatiable according to this December 2000 Indo report…

FORMER Fianna Fáil Councillor Colm McGrath, the man dubbed “Mr Insatiable” by Frank Dunlop, is now alleged to have received at least £60,000 in payments to assist in rezoning.

The Flood tribunal was told on Friday that he received £30,000 in cash to assist in the rezoning of part of one of Europe’s leading breeding farms Airlie Stud in Lucan from agricultural to residential lands in 1993. The payments followed persistent demands by McGrath, who originally wanted £50,000 in cash from Sonja Rogers widow of Captain Tim Rogers, renowned thoroughbred breeder, former aide de camp to Winston Churchill and a close friend of Charles Haughey.

He ran in the recent local elections as an independent but failed to win a seat.

Amazing how these things happen on a Friday afternoon, isn’t it?

I admit to being pleasantly surprised on seeing this headline in the Irish Independent, especially since there isn’t much to be gained publicity-wise from it (as opposed to the political benefits of a Seanie Fitz arrest).

Multi-millionaire businessman and property developer Jim Kennedy was in garda custody last night after officers arrested him for questioning about corruption and bribery allegations.

The 63-year-old man was detained by officers from the Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) — which has sought to question him for the past seven years.

Kennedy has since told Gardai he felt unwell in custody and been brought to hospital.

It is alleged Kennedy paid Frank Dunlop, the disgraced former Fianna Fáil press secretary and lobbyist, to bribe councillors in Dun-Laorghaire to rezone agricultural land in Carrickmines as industrial. The land is owned by Jackson Way, property company which is linked to Kennedy and an Isle of Man based solicitor, John Caldwell. The rezoning immediately raised the value of the lands from €7.9m to about €60m.

Any sale, transfer or disposal has been frozen by the courts since 2006. After interviewing Dunlop and county councillors, CAB officers provided an affidavit to the High Court stating they believed Kennedy and Dunlop had an agreement that Dunlop would receive the commercial value of one acre of the land (c. €60,000) if they were ‘successfully’ rezoned.

Both Dunlop and Goerge Redmond, the former Dublin assistant county manager, have served time on charges relating to corruption… maybe one day we might get on to the politicians? Ye’ know, the lynch-pins of the whole scheme with the blatant corrupt actions?

For the record; I reckon nothing much will come of the Kennedy arrest. Could be wrong, could be wrong.

Any news on that lobbyists register that you think will make a difference, dear ol’ Green Party?

Malachy Browne of Politico.ie has developed a useful and welcome database of national representatives. It contains details/profiles for all TDs, senators and MEPs and takes updates from KildareStreet.com, Google News, the Magill and Village archive, and the individuals’ Facebook and Twitter pages.

Excellent stuff. Only thing I’d question is naming the salary and expenses section ‘The Gravy Train’. But who am I to question cynicism… Very nice work, Mister Browne.

Letter in Saturday’s Irish Times…

A chara,

I write to voice my concern about the future of this country. I am sitting on the steps of the Department of Justice & Law Reform, the sun is beating down on my shoulders and I write to expel a dark thought from my mind. What is to become of the disenfranchised generation of Irish citizens whose future happiness and prosperity in this country has been cast in great black shadows by the criminal activities of our financial institutions and the gross mismanagement of our national affairs by our trusted Government?

Like so many other young Irishmen and women, my partner and I have decided to leave Ireland to live and work in another country. I came to the city today to prepare some things for our trip and to say goodbye to the capital for a while, to soak in some of her unique flavour before departing for Perth in Australia. What is it that makes Ireland a special country? What are the deepest moral values that are the foundations of Irish society? As I walk, thinking about Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan’s recent announcement of the country’s national debt (death?) I was deeply concerned not that I no longer knew what this core moral value might be, but saddened to find that I no longer care.

Seemingly, the woeful economic state we find ourselves in is merely a symptom of a far more threatening problem – a spiritual or existential crisis at play in Irish society. My own sense of moral apathy makes me think a deep wound has been inflicted by the bankers’ greed and it is not in our pockets but sadly in the collective heart of the Irish people. We can endure the toxic financial wreck that is Nama’s balance sheet, the grossly unfair debt saddled so abruptly on honest, hard-working tax-payers.

We cannot endure however, the sheer sense of injustice and the total loss of moral law at the filthy hands of these so-called rogues and sleeveens (it is equally disheartening to see we have had cause over the years to establish a colloquialism to best describe such recurrent characters in Irish society).

An example has been set by the leaders of this country that their selfish and cynical behaviour is an acceptable discourse in modern Ireland. Our potential to act meaningfully and righteously in this society has been shrouded in this cynicism by the greedy, ignorant brutes that head our banks and by the lacklustre unimaginative politicians that sit in our Government offices.

As a young able man I am ashamed that my chosen course of action is not violent protest (there should be rioting in the streets outside Dáil Eireann and Anglo Irish Bank); rather I choose to leave the wreckage – feeling as if a bully has just entered the playing field, burst the ball and walked away.

Sitting outside the Department of Justice Law Reform, whose steps feel like empty totems of the now laughable notion of justice, I think that the task at hand is not to set the country’s financial institutions back on track. It is to inspire an entire generation of skilled workers leaving our shores to return at some point to rebuild Ireland in the spirit of honesty and hard work, with a belief in our ability to live for the prosperity of others as well as ourselves. – Yours, etc,

BEN MULLEN,

Raheen Park,

Bray, Co Wicklow.

Wexford-based blogger Guido Fawkes – who usually focuses on the goings-on in Westminister – has published what he says is “the list of foreign Anglo-Irish bondholders as at the close of business tonight.”

That’s a pretty refined sentence. He doesn’t mention if they’re senior or sub-ordinated, though you’d guess at sub. Nor does he say if there is a corresponding list of Irish-based bondholders, though you’d presume there has to be.

Also, it’s only €4bn of €30bn and many are funds probably running accounts for clients.

Still, it seems he has figures – some damn important context – for each one published too, so if you’re interested stay tuned there.

Of course TheStory would be interested in any similar information also! Props to Guido on obtaining the list assuming it stacks up.