Denis O’Brien and the Irish Taxpayer

In a serious of interviews with Sunday Papers, Denis O’Brien revealed that the Moriarty Tribunal has ruled against him in sixty areas. Since the inception of the Tribunal O’Brien has tried and tried again to portray it as having an agenda against him, often seeking injunctions against it and even once bringing it to the attention of the European Court of Human Rights. In these interviews he switched his spin machine into overdrive, suggesting that the results would greatly hamper Ireland’s reputation and declaring himself a champion of civil servants. There is a strange irony here that Denis O’Brien should also be worrying about the tax payers in that, just before he sold Esat, he fled to Portugal as a tax exile and avoided paying tax on the sale.

O’Brien holds the belief that the State has wasted vast sums of money on the tribunal, even going so far as to buy anonymous ads in newspapers concerning the expenses of some tribunal lawyers. To date the Moriarty Tribunal has cost just over €200 million, it’s findings will leave the State vulnerable to possibly paying between €3-400 million to two loosing bidders, Persona and Cellstar. O’Brien has argued, and will undoubtedly continue to argue that the state cannot afford these. Those who agree with O’Brien are overlooking one very important factor here however.

Since the original granting of the license in 1995, vast sums of money have traded hands between all parties involved in Esat, TELNOR, BT, and Teléfonica. In 1999 the TELENOR and Esat boards began to disagree over the running of Esat Digifone as it had become known. With each board attempting to buy out the other’s stake and neither being successful. In 1999, BT, backed by the Esat board took over the company in a friendly takeover for a sum of £2.2 billion. With £1 billion going to Telenor, and the rest being divided between Desmond and O’Brien and others. Neither TELNOR nor BT can claim ignorance here to say they were unaware of what they were getting into as the rumours of the questionable awards process were well under way. BT also placed a health warning in the spinoff prospectus of mmo2 saying there was potential liability concerning the award issue. The company later became o2 Ireland after the spin off of mmo2. In October 2005, the Spanish mobile communication company Telefónica bid (successfully) for o2 Ireland. They may or may not have been warned of the issues concerning the license process. If they were it is entirely possible they took out a mitigation measure.

It is now entirely possible that the Irish state was subverted by business interests and if so it is not innocent. The cost of the tribunal and the payouts it will have to make are only a fraction of how it stands to gain. After the ruling of the tribunal a file will be sent to the DPP and CAB. Immediately the government can pursue the £2.2 billion and all of it’s subsequent investments as well as possibly reopening of the license bidding process which should allow it to be sold for more then the Esat consortium originally paid. If this were to happen it would be the single greatest CAB seizure in their history and a major windfall for the Irish exchequer who are currently scrambling to find money anywhere they can. The upside for the Irish taxpayer could amount to offset several months of borrowings for the state.

The Battle of Lisbon 2009

In the impending battle for Lisbon we see that already there is a multitude of colours sharpening swords. It appears it will be a battle not of parties but of people. The yes side has conscripted celebrities for their army including Bill Cullen, Eimear Quinn (Of Eurovision fame, apparently) and Mick Gawley “rugby legend”. These are people made up of the “We Belong” club. A celebrity based 3rd party who are campaigning because am… we belong in Europe, apparently. Judging by their site, and campaign team, they are going to be a primarily internet based campaign aimed at young people. Joining these we will have Generation Yes, a team of Trinity College attending children whose leader, Andrew Byrne, left them to work with the Cox/Laffan lead “Ireland for Europe, the successor to the Alliance for Europe. Over all the entire yes side is shaping up to be a crowded place, and each team will need to make a lot of noise to be able to claim the most credit. As they all appear to be preparing an online campaign (with the exception of Generation Yes who I don’t see as being very active outside of Dublin), they will be required to be very vocal in what they do and I don’t think Brigid Laffan is prepared to run down Grafton Street with flares in her hand singing “High School Confidential”.
On the No side we have Coir, Sinn Fein, Socialist Party, Socialist Workers Party and the other lefty fringe groups. Now, I’m sorry, but none of these groups are able to pull off a No vote. I’m sorry, it’s just not going to happen unless somehow Cowen and Lenihan implement the An Bord Snip cuts before the referendum.
There is a method to the Yes side’s campaign though. And it’s evident in the Red C and TNS/MRBI polls. Politicians are not popular right now. So by keeping them locked away in their offices and letting Bill “I sold apples for a penny” Cullen and Pat “Let’s hug Europe” Cox take charge this time it’s already putting the yes side 30 points ahead. My own analysis has the result going 80/20 yes due to economic uncertainty and the fear of being cast out of Europe. It will be a vicious battle with vicious soldiers and it begins very, very soon. All that’s left to do now is to cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war.

Social Media?s Potential in Electioneering

My BlackBerry supports email, Twitter, SMS, Facebook, Flickr, MySpace, Bebo, and numerous other social media programs and sites. Nor does it ever leave my hand. I have a routine that from the second I wake up I roll over and check my emails, then I move onto Twitter and finally rest on Facebook. Fast forward though other morning chores and I find myself checking out the news sites, RTE, Irish Times, etc. Again, all on my tiny phone. Throughout the day I will check this stuff again and again. As an experiment I loaded a usage recorder application to my phone which, by the end of one day, told me I spent five hours and 43 minutes using my phone. By week’s end the total usage statistic was 39 hours and 14 minutes. By month’s end, it was 136 hours. That’s about five and a half days of consecutive usage.

That software showed me how reliant I am on my mobile. What struck me about that whole experiment however was how much I was accessible through social networking sites. And not just me; to date there are over 400,000 Irish people on Facebook and 2,000,000 plus on Bebo. In terms of potential markets those are not figures to be ignored. Companies such as Coca Cola and various Hollywood studios are using them to reach new audiences that they otherwise would not be able to. Advertising in mediums such as newspapers or radio is being rendered obsolete through internet use by 13-25 year old consumers who seek their information from online sources.

In a commercial context these sites offer a superior form of advertising model through their ability to accurately seek potential customers based on their web usage. There is no reason however that such sites cannot be used effectively in a political campaign. In a recent experiment (ten minutes ago in fact) I found that a Twitter message has the potential to reach an average of 120 people from once it’s posted and the further potential to be “re-tweeted” 161 times in five minutes; thus giving a single tweet a potential target audience of just under 20,000. While political parties in Ireland have already began using this technology, there is still a great deal of potential to be unlocked from it. At the moment it seems to be confined to re-publication of press releases and trotting out usual party lines.

Politicians who use social media include Ciaran Cuffe TD and Senator Dan Boyle who both administer their own accounts themselves, thus making them directly accesible. To date very few politicians have recognised the potential of social media as a means of reaching their constituents and in turn allowing themselves to be reached. It allows the electorate a greater means of scrutinising their elected officials and enquiring about local issues. Politicians need to recognise that as technology advances, so to will the avenues of communication. For the most part, the electorate the current Dail relies on is close to death, soon to be replaced by a more tech savy electorate who won’t be rushing to shake hands after mass at election time. They will be canvassed through their phones on the DART or through their Facebook accounts in their office. They need to become more aware of how their electorate works and how nobody has the time for hour long chats on the doorstep about “the shtate of da roads”.

Possible Political Repercussions of An Bord Snip Report

I’ve also posted this on http://irishelection.com which has excellent coverage of the report.

The release of the An Board Snip report has been met with anxiousness, hostility and surprisingly, in some cases, welcome. It seems that there is a surprisingly large agreement amongst the people that cuts in social welfare and public sector services are a necessary evil. This seems to be based solely on the media’s war on the public sector. Off course, this will change rapidly once the smaller, less covered aspects of the report are brought to the attention of the public. Aspects including the ending of community employment schemes, grading of job seekers benefit by age and increasing the drugs threshold. The implementation of these measures would once again return the elderly to the streets accompanied, undoubtedly, by many more, unions are already painting the placards warning they’ll be on the streets if certain things are implemented.

The government will have to consider the events of the last senior’s protest concerning medical cards and how badly it hit them in opinion polls before they take a serious look at the proposals on medical cards, social welfare and education. But because these cuts are coupled with so many more drastic expenditure cuts, it would possibly put Fianna Fail in the mid teens and the Greens on less than five points respectively. Of course, there’s also the curious timing on the release of this report with Leas Cross and the ERSI findings both also being published today. The fact they all, coincidentally, emegred at the same time will somewhat lessen what would have been their individual impacts.

This weekend the Green Party holds a special convention which will decide their future (if any) role in Government after the slaughter of their councillors in the June local elections. One must wonder what areas of Snip they’ll take a stand…

It also appears that history is repeating itself given that the proposal to cut 5% off all Social Welfare payments would be the equivalent of Blythe’s cut of the Shilling off the pension as of course there were 20 shillings in the old pound, or 5%. That cut, it can be argued, is what lead to the ultimate destruction of Cumann na nGaedhael. It remains to be seen if the debate around these cuts proposals will affect the Greens. If implemented, these decisions have the potential to destroy Fianna Fail and the Green Party in the near future. There are already cries for the Dáil to be recalled to debate this, and I feel they will fall on deaf ears – the Government knows full well that while they are not sitting the people can’t yell at them. The Government will, over the coming months, remind the electorate that they are the ones making the difficult decisions. It is quite certain that, come election time, the electorate will reply with “Well we’ll make the easy one”.

“Voting against the government does mean leaving the government.” Dan Boyle

In light of the recent Green abstention on the Criminal Justice Amendment Bill, I feel compelled to bring to light comments made by Dan Boyle.

Above we can see Dan Boyle (Green Party Senator) tell his Facebook followers that voting against government means you have to leave government.

After I told him that it didn’t, he continued to tell me it did.

Granted that discussion was on his voting for a blasphemy insert to the Defamation Bill, but surely if Senator Boyle has any ethics he will stick to his belief that voting against government is a statement saying you wish to leave it?

Why I Don’t like the 28th Government of Ireland: Part IV

The Department of Transport

This one is going to be based solely on a personal experience which happened to me on Thursday and Friday when I departed Galway for Dublin and back. I left Galway on a Citylink (private, non subsidised) bus at 15:00. with a single journey ticket which cost me €5 as part of a special offer they are running. On the state service of Bus Éireann, the same ticket would have cost me €8.50 extra, bring the total to €13.50. One of the benefits to my taking a Citylink bus was that it had wi-fi. Now, while I did not use it owing to a lack of plug sockets, one of my fellow journey men did and it seemed to be very functional. This is a massive failure on the side of the DOT to equip their fleets with wi-fi given the need to be in constant reach of information, particularly for people journeying for business.

In fact it is actually the policy of Irish Rail (Not sure about Bus Éireann, I’ll contact their press office tomorrow) not to install wi-fi. http://www.irishrail.ie/home/faq.asp?faq_id=11#11 Now, I’m sorry Noel Dempsey but that is inexcusable and solely the result of your department having the monopoly on intercity rail travel in this country.

So, I got to Dublin anyway and after an enjoyable evening in the Shelbourne the group I was with decided to take a taxi to our respective destinations. One of us was going to Donnybrook, another to Mount Merrion and I was going to Shankhill. So, it seems that to take a taxi that isn’t at the head of the queue would most likely cause a taxi strike. Personally I blame Kathleen Doyle, the Taxi Regulator’s Commissioner. She, and her body has created an environment that makes competition in what should be a competitive industry impossible. There are more taxis in Dublin then there are in New York, charging fixed rates. It’s a ludicrous environment. Talking to a driver I learnt from him that a taxi driver will make an average of €10 an hour gross. Now, take into consideration the insane charges he has to pay to the regulator for plates, his license and the up keep of the vehicle. Again, another failure on the side of the DOT.

The morning after I took the DART to Pearse from Shankhill which took a total of 20 minutes and cost about €4. I thought it quite fair until I saw where it was going. The DART is 25 years in operation this year and to celebrate, Irish Rail decided to launch an advertising campaign through bill boards and stickers. The bill baords were the ones in DART stations and the stickers were on the trains, which, as I’m sure you know, move faster then you can read what’s on the side. Now, we talk about government waste in the building of roads and such, but to advertise a monopoly, on prime advertising space owned by that monopoly… Well, that’s just bat shit crazy! Seriously! It’s a waste of money, particularly in these recessionary times.

So my next mode of transport was the Luas. They say it’s “a state of the art, light rail transit system that provides an attractive and unique alternative to the private car.” I say it’s an uncomfortable startandstopalot that has disproportionate rates. The fact that it costs the same to go from Connoly to Heuston as it does to go from Jervis to the four courts is a massive faux paux on their side. I should not have to pay any more then I need to for the service I use. Simple as. But no, everyone pays the same. There are far too many stops to close together. As an aside I encourage everyone to visit the military exhibition in Collin’s Barracks. I do every time I’m in Dublin and I always find something new to admire and stand in awe of.

So, back to the Dart again, Pearse to Shankhill. I was sitting in the front cabin, right behind the driver’s cabin when it stopped at Blackrock I believe. For ten solid minutes it stood their with my companion and I convinced that the driver was about to step out with a placard reading “Dispute on Here” which of course is what happens with the Irish Public Sector if they become dissatisfied with something. So, or ten minutes we waited, receiving no apologies for the delay nor an explanation other then “We’re experiencing a minor hold up.” So after ten minutes of me grinding my teeth we got moving again.

So then back to Pearse from Shankhill on an uneventful journey, onto the Luas, to Heuston where I had planned to grab a train. One way from Dublin to Galway on a Friday evening costs a grand sum of €48. When i was told that my jaw dropped and then I realised “Oh yeah, it’s a state monopoly.”. Thankfully though the considerate gentleman at the ticket sales counter told me of a “great bus service that you can flag down just outside the door and it’s costs about a tenner”. Well, he was right. As I stepped out of Heuston I saw Citylink coming around the corner and immediately opted for it. €10 for a single ticket to Galway compared to Irish Rail.

The Irish Transport system is a largely inefficient dinosaur that is afraid to change with the times. It is being quickly overtaken by private enterprise and this troubles me. I do not see it being privatised in the near future, however much as I’d like to see it. Why does this trouble me then? Because it will require greater subsidies in the future to maintain a system nobody is using. The department either needs to turn it over to capable hands through a privatisation scheme or else get their hands out of my pockets and start working to create an efficient system. Either way, I will not pay close to fifty euro to ride on an inefficient cattle cart when there is a cheaper, better alternative.

Why I don’t like the 28th Government of Ireland: Part III

The Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform

Over eager legislator Dermot Ahern runs this department. In little over a year Dermot Ahern has banned hand guns, written a terrible gay marriage bill, introduced blasphemy legislation which subsequently passed (1800′s how are ya?) and is now seeking to remove the Juries from certain cases concerning gang land crime. As a result I feelt that Dermot Ahern is possibly the greatest threat to individual freedom this country has ever seen. He is a reactionary, homophobe and deeply conservative man who allows his personal beliefs to get in the way of performing his job.

We all remember his 1993 quote

“Homosexuality is a departure from normality and while homosexuals deserve our compassion they do not deserve our tolerance” and who described homosexuals as being “like lefthand drivers driving on the right-hand side of the road.”

Well, how in the name of all that isn’t covered under a blasphemy bill could this man become responsible for equality in Irish society?

His banning of handguns was a result of oppostion calls for something to be done to tackle gangland murders. Now, my question is this; just how many murders are caused by legally held handguns? Answer? Zero. Zilch. Nada. None. It was a total reactionary measure.

His actions have put to shame the authoritarian measures and dictatorial leglisation offered by  Michael McDowell. It is arguable that his Civil Partnership Bill, Defamation Bill and Gangland Bill all merit scrutiny to decide on wheter or not they require a constitutional referendum.

Why I don’t like the 28th Government of Ireland: Part II

The Department of Trade and Enterprise
The DOTE has the responsibility for ensuring a responsible approach to conducting business in this country. It negotiates on our behalf with multinationals and endeavours to make this country as hospitable to business as possible. It has failed. From the farce that was the Dell negotiations to the sacking of John McGuiness from being a Junior Minister (the man should have been appointed as minister for the DOTE given the fact that he has actual experience building actual companies). Instead it is headed by Sweary Mary Coughlan who seems to be in over her head here. I’m sure however, that there is a method to having a social worker in a position like that. God knows we’ve been given corporate welfare to banks for far too long.

There has yet to be a sensible, coherent policy exhumed from that behemoth that will offer a sustainable level of economic growth for this country in the medium and long term. At the moment their focus seems to be based on a policy of looking sorrowful and hope we take pity on them. Why is it though, that when we have people like John McGuiness who understands both the needs of business and the fundamentals of trade do we continue to allow Mary “Don’t ask me, I’m just a girl” Coughlan to persist in tarnishing this country’s reputation as a place to do business. She failed the people of Limerick when it came to Dell. She failed people who were forced to drive to Newry and Enniskillen for cheaper shopping.

Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government

Since finding himself responsible for the air we breath and the trees we paint, John Gormley has accomplished three things; he’s made car tax more expensive, he’s made light bulbs more expensive and  further immasculated local authorites. One wonders what it is he’s trying to accomplish. Seriously John, why do you want to bring this country back to the age of the ass and cart? Thanks to you lightbulbs cost €5 more then they should, people are driving cars that are not carbon neutral (far from it in fact as is the case with the Prius) and why do you think that taking powers from councils is a good thing? We should be given them more infact instead of systematically changing council chambers into a glorifed nursery for prospective TDs.

Why I don’t like the 28th government of Ireland: Part I

It’s all very easy to dislike the government. Most of those who don’t tend to have agendas or allegiances anyway. But to give actual reasons is another. So, I thought I’d set out my own reasons here and do it department by department.

Agriculture, Fisheries and Food:

This is a department headed by a man named Brendan Smith. Brendan has a BA in Politics and Economics from UCD. Nowhere on his CV does it suggest a reason he belongs in this department. He is joined the DOAFF by Trevor Sargent, affectionately titled “Minister for Parsnips”. Granted Trevor is a bit of a horticulturist so that kind of qualifies him for the role of Minister of State in the DOAFF. Next we have Tony Killeen who seems to have sat in every department, every organisation and every building the government has had a venture in since 1992. Why he’s in this department I can’t figure out.  So of the three TD’s running that department, only one seems to have ever eaten an organic carrot.

Not only does it seem to be ran mostly be inadequates, it operates a policy I and my ilk would find disagreeable. That policy is called “subsidisation”. By subsidising farmers we’re distorting the market by rewarding the failings of business to make a profit and thus rely on the tax payer to keep them from going bankrupt and having to sell of the remnants of the family farm.

Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources

Headed by Eamon Ryan, this department is responsible for one of the greatest fuck ups in the history of the state: The awarding of the state broadband contract to 3. 3 offers an inferior service to Eircom and BT who also contested the contract but still lost out. I even use a 3 modem and it’s crap. The greatest piece of shit I’ve ever bought. So much so that I’m unable to use it right now so am forced to sit in a hotel lobby to blog. Couple this to the lack of a consistent energy plan, and the debacle that is the Shell/Ross Port debate I’m lost to how this Department hasn’t been completely reshuffled from the secretaries on the ground floor to the minister. Oh, and while researching this their site was down.

Department of Defence

We all remember the last time a small man with a moustache was put in charge of a military… Thankfully we are in no grave danger with Willie O’Dea at the head of the DOD. The man seems to be unable to pay his RDF units, let alone Lockheed Martin (if we bought from them that is). June and July are busy months for the RDF who are mobilised for two weeks of the year. This year there has been delays of up to three weeks in payment from the DOD who are blaming it on an administrative error to do with updating a software system.

Debut

So this is my first blog post. I hope to use it as a platform to vent my outrage at everything I dislike about politics, entertainment, society and technology. So you all know I’m a CrackBerry addict (posting from one right now) so expect a lot about them. Also, I really, really don’t like Dermot Ahern so there’ll be a lot of rants about him to come.

More later.