Callely’s comeuppance delivered by jail sentence over expenses

I’VE surprised myself by feeling a little sorry for former Fianna Fáil junior minister Ivor Callely this week.

Judge Mary Ellen Ring made the correct decision when she jailed him for five months for fraudulently claiming mobile expenses at Leinster House while he was a senator.

If ever there was a politician waiting for his comeuppance it was Ivor. The regard in which he held himself (and possibly still does) was breathtaking. He truly did believe that he might end up running the country, and indeed that it was his destiny to do so.

I interviewed him on a programme on Radio One in the mid-2000s. It was a bit mean to even ask him really because I was guaranteed some seriously good quotes, knowing even then that Ivor’s ego would deliver, but publicly it would be at his own expense.

In fact we journalists loved Ivor because he was great for a quote, loved the publicity, and wasn’t afraid to stick the oar in. There would be wagers at the beginning of each December to see what scenario he would dream up for the annual family tableau depicted on his Christmas card. One year the card was of the then junior transport minister and his family at the Fry Model Railway Museum in Malahide (in his constituency) with a caption: “Ivor believes it is vital that our nation’s capital has in place an efficient public transport system that allows people to commute in the shortest possible time, allows industry to prosper and allows tourism to develop.” Cue much mirth.

When it came to the content of the radio interview the FF wide boy didn’t disappoint. From memory he told me he did indeed hope to lead the Fianna Fáil party one day, and that his destiny had been foretold by a woman on a bus who told his mother that the then toddler Ivor would one day be President.

Each week on the programme, at the conclusion of the chat, the guest was asked to choose a favourite piece of music. Rather than opting for the usual Beatles tune or somesuch, Ivor had rather more grandiose notions, and brought in his niece (or maybe it was his wife) to sing and play the piano, which she did beautifully. He told me the entire family loved to gather around the piano at Christmas time. I’m betting it was was a grand piano.

Roll forward to his time as senator and the fraudulent €4,200 mobile phone claims. This was a deliberate and rather crude attempt to swindle the State. But I know any of us would be challenged to find a room full of Irish people where at least the vast majority hadn’t pulled some sort of a fast one on their expenses at some stage. It was probably smarter and less crude than Ivor’s effort and for less money, but it’s one of those things we Irish consider an inherent part of our national personality. The logical defence offered is: Sure who’s it hurting anyway?

So Ivor, despite his stoicism on the day the sentence was handed down, must have been feeling as if he had been harshly dealt with by the court.

He must have been thinking of those responsible for the banking crash, and our ruinous recession, and wondered how his relatively small fry misdemeanour had earned him a prison sentence. He had some entitlement to think that given our national talent for “hookiness”, and how it almost always goes unpunished, he too would escape far more lightly.

This shadiness of ours came to mind relating to something else this week, and that was our tax system, and how US president Barack Obama was letting off more steam about how aspects of it allowed for “gaming the system” by American companies who relocate their headquarters here. Anyone for the double Irish?

For sure our international reputation has recovered somewhat with the exit of the troika and our fiscal prudence of recent years. But it is not so long ago that our reputation was in tatters, and we were regarded as seriously dodgy when it came to matters financial. As things stand there remains the sense that we’d rather plump for the fast buck tax dodge than the long haul. Our current tax regime simply serves to perpetuate that notion.

Remember in June how California governor Jerry Brown, with obvious sarcasm, said Ireland had attracted so much of the business of technollogy giant Apple with “creative accounting”.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny has previously protested that really the details of our corporate tax regime, beloved by multinationals, could be picked apart by a five-year-old.

Indeed we’ve heard this so often there are five-year-olds who could recite it, but murky tax measures in Ireland and abroad mean that effective tax rates paid by some multinationals have the clarity of a toddler’s finger painting.

At present the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), is looking into some of these “creative” tax strategies and how they might be curbed internationally. It’s due to publish recommendations and these will subsequently be open for discussion. But a binding international tax plan is not far down the road.

The Government now says it is committed to closing off the tax loopholes, but when it comes to our 12.5% corporation tax rate it won’t be relenting. We can end up arguing this one for a long time but the fact is that without change our reputation will remain one of being tricky dickies when it comes to matters financial.

But it is a relief to see the Government is facing the reality of international pressure. As Jobs Minister Richard Bruton said there is a need to “look over the next hilltop and plan for the future” as he revealed details of a new plan yesterday for attracting foreign companies to come here to do business.

Facing the writing on the wall the Government now seems filled with a reforming virtue. Bruton says that support for reform of the international tax system should in fact be part of our strategy to encourage continuing foreign direct investment (FDI) in the years ahead. One of the key elements of the plan, unsurprisingly, is a commitment to keeping the 12.5% corporation tax rate, allied to support for multilateral reform of the international tax system.

Wouldn’t it be a good idea for us to keep ahead of the posse on this, and use the October budget as a starting point for us to make our own changes regarding these tax laws? If we’re seen to have a reforming zeal (despite our past sins) we’d make up considerable ground, not least with the Americans. If we are determined to hang on to our 12.5% it would be good politics to clean up our act elsewhere, and not be the butt of so many jokes.

This is all a long way away from Ivor Callely in his jail cell. But it is indicative of how people take their lead from the top down. Despite all the protests from ministers over the years that it’s all above board the public has recognised all this carry on as another “Irish” way of doing business with the world. By setting this sort of example the trickle down effect can only be a positive one.