Incompetent government will bury the controversy

Does the Taoiseach really not understand the laws of this country, or does he just think they are there to be twisted to his will whenever he faces a spot of bother, asks Shaun Connolly

WELCOME to Time-Warp Nation, the country constantly looking over its shoulder, yet doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past and unable to deal with the present, let alone prepare for the future.

The Rocky Horror Show that passes for Irish public life is one of the longest running farces on the Western political stage as the Siteserv shenanigans have once again showcased.

To recap, toxic bank Anglo, renamed IBRC, sold the construction firm to a company controlled by billionaire tycoon Denis O’Brien, at a loss of €105million to the taxpayer, including a €5m “sweetener” to the shareholders to approve the deal — even though Siteserve was bankrupt.

READ MORE: ALISON O'CONNOR: An inquiry into Siteserv will justify Independent TD’s efforts .  

Civil servants were so deeply concerned about the situation, pointing to the facts higher bids were in play, that companies in the same trade as Siteserv were somehow excluded from bidding, that the same legal firm acted for both sides in the transaction, that shareholders were being given such a huge amount of cash for a busted firm, they called for an independent commercial review of the deal.

This plea was ignored by Finance Minister Michael Noonan, who instead insisted he had been given assurances by IBRC chief, and former Fine Gael buddy, Alan Dukes that everything was in the interest of the State.

IBRC’s adviser in the deal, Walter Hobbs gave us a chilling glimpse of what was really going on as he tried to defend the €5m handed to shareholders to approve the deal.

“People had power, they had votes and their votes had to be bought.”

So, the shareholders of a bankrupt company would not act to save it, they would not act to save the 1,500 jobs involved, they would only move if they got €5m?

Nice people.

But, don’t worry, we will get to the bottom of it because, after all the claims of potential conflict of interests, it is all going to be investigated — by the very people who liquidated IBRC.

That the liquidators, KPMG, were given the job after days of dithering sparked immediate concerns over yet another conflict of interest. But Ministers are not really interested in learning lessons, they just want to try and bury the controversy for as long as possible, hopefully beyond the next election.

And, despite the August 31, deadline, that could well happen as some 30 other IBRC deals involving losses of more than €10m to the State are to be looked into, and these type of probes have a funny habit of needing extensions, which just happen to be convenient for the Cabinet.

DISCOVER MORE CONTENT LIKE THIS

After days of confusion, Enda Kenny arrived at an EU summit insisting he had “nothing to hide” over Siteserv.

It was the inverse of Oscar Wilde’s arrival in New York when he announced: “I have nothing to declare except my genius.”

Mr Kenny arrived in Brussels with the rather less arresting line: “I have nothing to hide except my incompetence.”

Does the Taoiseach really not understand the laws of this country, or, in the manner of a tin-pot despot, does he just think they are there to be twisted to his will whenever he faces a spot of bother?

Whichever the reality is, they are equally unacceptable.

During the Shattergate saga of last year, we had the ridiculous sight of Mr Kenny running around repeatedly misquoting the Garda Siochána Act of 2005 for two full days — despite journalists telling him he was wrong — in a bid to evade giving any answers.

When pressed on whether he had given evidence to the Fennelly inquiry probing the sudden departure of former garda commissioner Martin Callinan, Mr Kenny, once again blatantly made-up nonexistent laws on the spot.

This may be because the Fennelly inquiry could finally show he lied when denying he effectively sacked the commissioner and thus misled parliament on the matter.

In another attempt to evade scrutiny, Mr Kenny insisted he would be breaking the law if he answered the very simple question of whether he gave evidence or not.

This came as something of a surprise to the actual inquiry which pointed out there was no problem with saying whether you spoke to them as long as you did not reveal the details of what you said.

Now we have the sorry saga of Siteserv and Mr Kenny’s announcement in the Dáil on Wednesday, following days of stonewalling, that the Comptroller and Auditor General could investigate the situation.

DISCOVER MORE CONTENT LIKE THIS

Shame the State’s financial watchdog then had to point out he did not have the powers to do so.

And who knows when we will get to the truth as this week saw the Oireachtas inquiry into the financial crisis finally get to the evidence under oath stage some seven years after the event.

Next week will see the Oireachtas inquiry question former ECB president Jean Claude Trichet — except that it will not really. Because the TDs will be granted a truncated audience with him after he gives a speech in Dublin.

Hardly a raptious moment of transparency and accountability, but then as the Oireachtas probe will not even be able to apportion any blame, what is the point anyway?

But voters have to take the blame for that one as we rejected attempts to restore the parliamentary powers of inquiry enjoyed by Westminster and the US congress in a fit of classic “enabling” behaviour, which just helped perpetuate the rotten system where nothing gets done properly and no lessons are ever learned.

But some scores may be settled for Siteserv has served us the sight of quite the little fall-out in Fine Gael with Mr Noonan quite willing to try and throw fellow ex-leader Mr Dukes under the train by insisting he was assured it was the best deal for the State. Mr Dukes is clearly not happy about any attempt to paint him in an unflattering light and is not afraid to strike back.

A subsidiary of Siteserv, now owned by Mr O’Brien, a businessman who had adverse findings made against him by a Tribunal of Inquiry, went on to win a highly lucrative contract to supply water meters as the Government moved to impose the hated domestic levy.

After all this, is it too much to hope that we finally change the record and do not do the time-warp again?

Almost certainly.

DISCOVER MORE CONTENT LIKE THIS

READ MORE: ALISON O'CONNOR: An inquiry into Siteserv will justify Independent TD’s efforts .