Saturday, October 06, 2007
WHILE researching High Society, her book on drug use, Justine Delaney Wilson interviewed a Government minister at Buswell’s Hotel, which is just across the street from Leinster House.
She quoted the unnamed minister as saying on tape: "Yes, I do take drugs, just coke though, regularly enough. I am certainly not the only one around here that does. The hypocrisy that surrounds it really galls me."
Once the story broke, the Taoiseach should not have had to wait for anyone to challenge him on the issue in the Dáil. He should have asked his ministers at the first opportunity if any of them was taking cocaine.
On Wednesday, when the Dáil was discussing the Order of Business, which included a debate on the crime situation, Simon Coveney asked if the Taoiseach had questioned any of his ministers.
Knowing the way rumours fly around Leinster House, it would be very surprising if some names are not already in the wind.
"In the context of today’s Order of Business, and statements on tackling crime in particular, which will presumably deal with gangland and drugs crime," Coveney asked, "is the Taoiseach concerned at recent reports of one of his ministers being quoted as saying that he uses cocaine on a regular basis?"
The Ceann Comhairle ruled that Coveney was "welcome to make that point during the course of that discussion, but it is not in order now".
Coveney persisted in asking whether the Taoiseach "has called in his minister to ask whether it is factually true. I have the quote in front of me: ‘Yes, I do take drugs, just coke though, on a regular basis’."
"Coca-Cola," an unidentified deputy interjected.
The vast majority of adults in this country do drugs in the literal sense, but probably most do not realise it. How many readers have ever answered a survey on drug taking?
Those who have were probably surprised to find questions about drinking alcohol, which is a drug.
There is a saying that "Ireland is the only country in the world where they think you have a drink problem, if you say you don’t drink."
Maybe it is not the only country, but it certainly is true of this country. I went off alcohol completely for a couple of years, but I repeatedly found it necessary to explain that I didn’t have a drink problem; I just didn’t want alcohol. When one talks about drugs, most people do not realise that coffee and tea are drugs because they contain caffeine, which is also one of the ingredients of Coca-Cola.
When the minister said he was doing coke, did he mean drinking it, or snorting it? If he was deceiving the journalist on such a serious issue, it was irresponsible, but some people would think it was funny to make a reporter look foolish.
It was Eamon Dunphy who infamously complained to Ireland on Sunday in the late 1990s that "you can’t get good coke in this town".
Nobody should make light of the issue because cocaine probably poses the deadliest threat to Irish society. It is fuelling so much of the gangland activities and violence that has been blighting our society.
Dublin is reportedly awash with cocaine. The estimated intervention rate for cocaine was 42% in 2006, which means that 58% got through to the drugs market. We have had some dramatic seizures this year, but if even more is getting through, the mind boggles at how much of the stuff must be around.
This country had the biggest increase in cocaine use in Europe, according to a recent report of the UN Office for Drugs Control. Cocaine seizures here jumped by 750% between 2002 and 2006, while the number of people reporting for treatment for cocaine abuse spiralled by more than tenfold between 1999 and 2005. The number of cocaine-related offences quadrupled from 2002 to 2005.
Politicians are supposed to be leaders providing good example, but that is a sick joke. What kind of leadership was to be expected from the minister who bragged about doing coke?
When it comes to sick jokes, the ‘Minister for Offence’, Willie O’Dea, deserves a prize of his own. His bull and bluster about standing up for Shannon Airport was exposed when his bluff was called in the Dáil last week. His brave talk turned out to be just so much wind.
He denied Shannon his support in the Dáil on three different votes. But unlike St Peter, who went out and wept, our Willie went and tried to pick a fight in a Limerick pub. Just what Shannon needs to defend it — a would-be, pint-sized pub pugilist! Other instances of bad example in the past week included the disclosure about the perks to the independent members of the Dáil. They get salaries ranging from €95,363 to €101,466 a year, depending on their length of Dáil service. They also get a further €20,718 for phones, constituency offices and maintenance grants, in addition to return mileage to Leinster House, and overnight expenses for those living outside Dublin, as well as a further €34,485 to cover the salary of a secretary.
That’s not all. Each of the five independent deputies — Tony Gregory, Beverley Flynn, Michael Lowry, Jackie Healy-Rae and Finian McGrath —is also getting €39,361 each a year from the Party Leaders’ Allowance. They are free to spend that money as they wish.
REMEMBER the ballyhoo when Charlie Haughey paid for his Charvet shirts and dinners at Le Coq Hardi out of the fund. Was that wrong?
Of course it was grossly wrong, so would somebody please explain why the independents can now do what they like with the money? Not only that, but the Standards in Public Office Commission has ruled that the "funding received under the Party Leaders’ Allowance is not subject to income tax".
This €39,361 is a tax-free perk, which is over €5,000 more than the average industrial wage on which regular citizens must pay tax. Of course, a couple of the independents have had their money difficulties lately.
Beverley Flynn had to pay €1.2 million to RTÉ, but the taxpayer was saddled with around €1.3 million of the cost of her frivolous libel action, while Michael Lowry paid off the taxman for what he evaded. But he did not have to face the mandatory jail sentence legislated for anybody who availed of the 1993 tax amnesty and did not come clean.
In fairness, an argument could be made for not sending him to jail because the case dragged on for around decade, but the system should insist that leaders provide proper example. In other countries he would have been offered a plea bargain. If he had gone to jail, he would have lost his Dáil seat, so the DPP should have made his resignation a condition of settlement.
Likewise with Flynn, if she had been put into bankruptcy, she would have had to resign from the Dáil.
But it seems we don’t apply the laws to the politicians — just call it political privilege. Is it purely coincidental that four of the five independents are backing Bertie?
’Tis a great little country!
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