Irish people cheated by an Irish solution to an Irish problem
IT IS often claimed that the reason so little changes in public life is that we are too fond of the concept of “Irish solutions to Irish problems”.
By this, we mean that, when it comes to dealing with crises over issues as diverse as contraception in the 1970s and the tribunal-led response to corruption in the 1990s, governments favour appearing to deal with rather than actually dealing with real problems.
Sadly, under a Coalition which promised a “democratic revolution” in how we govern ourselves, the politics of the Irish solution to the Irish problem appears to becoming more, rather than less, prevalent.
The announcement of a commission of inquiry into IBRC was accompanied by a plethora of bells and whistles. Even the Government was anxious to sell us the notion that a great U-turn had been made.
Ministers were at pains to explain that the concerns of the people were being listened to.
Amid such unity, it seems almost impolite to be a dissenter. However, the decision to set up a commission of inquiry into IBRC actually raises far more questions than answers.
The Gov's reported plans for our media, if true, will ensure Denis O Brien's monopoly of Irish media is enshrined in law. #BananaRepublic
— Lucinda Creighton (@LCreighton) May 31, 2015
The first and main problem is that we already have an ongoing commission of inquiry, which is being conducted by Justice Fennelly, into the resignation of Martin Callinan, among other matters relating to An Garda Síochána.
Over the 14 months since the commission was set up, Taoiseach Enda Kenny has consistently used the existence of this inquiry as a shield to refuse to answer any questions about a matter of serious and immediate public importance; namely the resignation of the previous Garda commissioner in murky circumstances.
Can we really expect, therefore, that a different position will be taken when it comes to any commission of inquiry into IBRC, Siteserv, and Denis O’Brien? The Coalition has attempted to dress up the establishment of this commission in a mantel of transparency and accountability. The naked political truth of things, however, is that the very reverse is taking place.
Setting up a commission of inquiry means that the Government has a get out of jail clause to eliminate and excise any discussion of IBRC, Denis O’Brien, and Siteserv from the floor of the Dáil.
The democratic revolution is in a tattered state indeed when the “people’s” representatives are effectively disbarred from raising the issue of how the peoples’ tax payments were spent with the people’s Taoiseach, Enda Kenny in the people’s chamber.
Rather like the era of Bertie Ahern and tribunals — where Mr Ahern used the Mahon Tribunal to shield himself in a similar manner for many years until the force of public concern became too much — it is hard to avoid the impression that the Coalition are hiding in full view on this one.
The Coalition has made much play out of claims that any report will be out before the next election.
7 month timeline for IBRC (assets <€30bn) inquiry is ridiculous & cynical. Lehman inquiry (assets >0bn) took 12 months. #ElectionLooming
— Lucinda Creighton (@LCreighton) June 4, 2015
Their claims on that front look pretty threadbare too. Even if we do not have a November election, the December deadline — Christmas Day perhaps — for a report is unduly optimistic.
In truth, Leo Varadkar has already let the cat out of the bag with a public admission that there is a distinct possibility that no report will see the light of day until after the election.
However, while Mr Varadkar let the cat out of the bag those who are really purring are Micheal Noonan and Mr Kenny, satisfied as they are that this latest scandal to plague the Government has been successfully pushed off the agenda.
As for the Labour Party — they have been noticeably silent on this entire issue. The supposed watchdog of this Government seems to have won the wrestling match with its own conscience. I expect there was not much of a fight.
I recognise that, when compared to the previous state of affairs, whereby IBRC was to be reviewed by the same company, KPMG, that was involved in a number of its controversial deals, including Siteserv, a commission of inquiry has some initial attractions.
However, it is difficult to see how the public good can be served by a process that will only serve to sweep all of these issues under the carpet until sometime after the next election.
Perhaps the greatest source of concern in all of this is the absolute determination of Fine Gael and Labour to maintain the €10m threshold on the extent of the losses the commission of inquiry will investigate. There is a valid argument that setting the threshold at too low a rate would risk creating a reprise of the Mahon Tribunal, where excessively broad terms of reference allowed the entire inquiry to drift into the sands.
However, it should be noted that one of the key matters of public concern and public interest for that matter when it comes to Siteserv was the €5m payment its owners received for allowing the sale to go ahead.
My recent piece on the 'lads' mentality in Dáil Eireann http://t.co/zahWa3QZuR
— Lucinda Creighton (@LCreighton) June 2, 2015
Such a payment, or the €1m pension deal secured by Micheal Fingleton, to cite another example of matters that are still in the public interest, are not covered by the current terms of reference.
In the eyes of ministers and mandarins, €1m may seem a trifling enough sum, but if any inquiry into IBRC is to retain the confidence of the public, it is the minimum acceptable threshold.
It is also a matter of some concern that the transfer of loan assets from IBRC to Nama is excluded from the review.
To put it mildly, such exclusion again compromises any attempt to suggest that what the public will see is a warts and all review of the IBRC performance.
Many years ago, I got into a little bit of trouble when I raised concerns that Fine Gael under Mr Kenny were in danger of turning into Fianna Fáil Lite. I was wrong. We are in fact getting the full-blown version as the “democratic revolution” becomes a very distant memory.
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