Moriarty …… March 22, 2011
Posted by irishelectionliterature in Uncategorized.Tags: Irish Politics
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I see that the second (and final) report of The Moriarty Tribunal is out.
It doesn’t reflect well on Denis O’Brien and Michael Lowry (although oddly enough The Irish Independent thinks Ben Dunne is the big story from the report).
A little taster….
In the cynical and venal abuse of office, the brazen refusal to acknowledge the impropriety of his financial arrangements with Mr Denis O’Brien and Mr Ben Dunne, and by his contemptuous disregard for his taxation obligations, Mr Lowry displayed qualities similar in nature, and has cast a further shadow over his country’s public life,”
another bit …
“In aggregating the known payments from Mr. Denis O’Brien to Mr. Michael Lowry, it is apposite to note that, between the granting of the second GSM licence to Esat Digifone in May, 1996, and the transmission of Stg.£420,000.00 to complete the purchase of the latter of Mr. Lowry’s English properties in December, 1999, Mr. O’Brien had made or facilitated payments to Mr. Lowry of £147,000.00, Stg.£300,000.00 and a benefit equivalent to a payment in the form of Mr. O’Brien’s support for a loan of Stg.£420,000.00. The value of those sums, in today’s terms, is obviously well in excess of the amounts transferred at the various times mentioned in this Report.”
So what happens now?
I’d assume that there will be lots of media coverage of the report but will anything concrete come from it?
In any other country some of these “businessmen” would be behind bars.
But this is Ireland – so don’t hold your breath!
http://soundmigration.wordpress.com/2011/03/22/lowry-confirmed-to-be-a-lying-corrupt-gombeen/ I like this image
Those who lost out on the “tender” process have a case for compensation. As usual we the public will pay.
That’s the worst of it. The taxpayer (i.e. ordinary workers NOT businesses!!) pay hundreds of millions to get to the truth; and we then have to pay hundreds of millions more (possibily billions) to compensate the capitalists who lost out!! All the while the main beneficiary of this particular government decision will get to keep his 4.2 billion net worth AND get to instruct his manservants in Independent News and Media to muddy the waters about his role in the whole affair. The only avenue open (which absolutely zero chance of getting off the ground) is to prosecute some of individuals named in the report. There are quite possibly a few FG skeletons from that period that could make an appearance if O’Brien were targetted, so I doubt there is any enthusiasm among the current governement. So, business as usual, then.
Talking to someone this evening who might know their analysis was that Lowry wasn’t incorrect in his analysis that the Report wasn’t a legally instrumental document.
That said it looks awful.
Will Sarah Carey’s column appear this Thursday in the IT, I wonder? She certainly doesn’t come out of the report well, either.
Sarah Carey is on Primetime right now.
She gave quite the performance too:
Anyone remember the rather good Irish new wave single Why Did You Have To Lie by The Sweat whose chorus beging poignantly, ‘why did you have to lie/was it really worth the pain/and if you had it all to do you’d do the same again.”
Emotionally involved. Poor woman. Why should the IT not publish her column. No problem with publishing Dermot Desmond either.
Wonder what Douglas Gageby would have done in the circumstances?
I find it highly suggestive that this attack on the fabric or society and the good names of entrepreneurs, journalists and politicians is led by a man called Moriarty.
When you’ve eliminated the improbable – like the collusion of 17 (count them!) civil servants – then what remains…
fabric *of* society
Most damning aspect of tribunal report is that nobody is likely to face prosecution
The President of the Workers Party, Michael Finnegan, has said that the final report of the Moriarty Tribunal is a damning but largely impotent commentary on corruption at the heart of government in this country. Mr. Finnegan has called for the cabinet papers of the then coalition government relating to the awarding of the mobile phone contract to Esat to be published in the national interest. This was particularly important as some of the members of that government are now back in cabinet.
He said that the report, which shows that former Communications Minister Michael Lowry had helped billionaire businessman Denis O’Brien to win a lucrative mobile phone contract for Esat Digifone and that Mr. O’Brien had made large payments to Mr. Lowry’s account, confirmed the Golden Circle of corruption already exposed by previous tribunals.
However the Workers Party president said that most damning thing about the Tribunal report was that neither Michael Lowry nor Denis O’Brien is likely to be prosecuted or indeed face any public sanction for their actions. “The very fact that the tribunal has taken an incredible 14 years to finalise its report means that the any possibility of a Garda Fraud Squad investigation has been stymied”, said Mr. Finnegan.
“Mr. Lowry continues as a member of the national parliament, Dáil Éireann, while Mr. O’Brien has continued to enjoy close contacts with the levers of power despite long-standing questions over his business practices which have now been laid bare.”
“This report, and the equally damning tribunal reports which came before it, demands urgent action to ensure that never again can we have a situation whereby corrupt or questionable dealings are referred to toothless tribunals where they merely become a slush-fund for lawyers and consultants for a decade or more. We need real accountability and we need to have strong legislation to make those who are culpable pay a price. This means a system for recalling ministers, TDs and public officials who have acted inappropriately and a mechanism for thoroughly investigating corruption along with legislation to ensure that nobody is above law in this country”.
Mr. Finnegan concluded by saying that the debacle also raised questions for the new coalition government as a number of those now sitting around the cabinet were ministerial colleagues of Michael Lowry. “The then coalition was slow enough to dissociate itself from Michael Lowry, indeed many of them sprung to his defence at the time. We need to hear from those ministers, who include the Taoiseach, Enda Kenny, what they knew about how Mr. Lowry was conducting himself as a minister. In this regard, the Workers’ Party calls on the government to publish all cabinet documents relating to the awarding of the ESAT licence, as a matter of public interest”
[...] Moriarty Report…redux March 23, 2011 Posted by WorldbyStorm in Irish Politics. trackback I don’t know if I’m alone in having this sense that the ultimate outcome of the Moriarty Report hangs in the balance. There’s no end of spinning going on, and there’s almost a feeling that the findings arrived at by Moriarty may well be dismissed by the excuse that they’re simply ‘opinion’. Well, perhaps so, but having flicked through both volumes of the Reports that’s quite a lot of research that backs up those opinions. And no end of familiar names too. Some surprisingly familiar, some with an ‘emotional involvement’ as noted here over the last day or two. [...]