Michael Collins Revisionism

Frances Fitzgerald, Minister for Justice,
Equality and Law Reform.

Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald today addressed the annual Beal na mBláth commemoration in West Cork, a celebration of the life of Michael Collins, at the place where he was killed during the Civil War. Instead of honouring the man, or making a statement of vision, or progress, Minister Fitzgerald chose instead a thinly veiled attack on Sinn Féin and the parties of protest, in anticipation of the coming general election. It was grubby, disrespectful and low, reminiscent of the excesses of her predecessors Shatter and McDowell. What is it about the portfolio that makes its ministers so dislikeable?

The Tort of False Imprisonment

Tánaiste Joan Burton changes cars before being evacuated
from the protests in Dublin.

Several activists are reportedly about to be charged with false imprisonment for the protest in which Tánaiste Joan Burton was trapped in her car for over two hours, including TD Paul Murphy. Mr Murphy's objections are substantially that there was an element of 'political policing' in the process - particularly in the arrests, and 'dawn raids' on the activists who had been involved. He claims that charges would have not be brought were it not for a sense that they had offended the establishment, and in the exercise of discretion, it had been decided that the application of the law would come down firmly on the accused.

Tools for a New Ireland

The challenges Ireland faces in the modern world are new and daunting. Technology and the Internet have created conditions within which Ireland is competing with Singapore, threatened by ISIS, and selling to China.  Multi-national corporations that are based on technology and the Internet are both threats and opportunities, yet they operate at a level that is completely alien to the state administration functions that we operate today.

This is not to say that the current administrative functions are remaining idle. There are pockets of capability, projects underway, and champions of innovation across the public sector that are all attempting to bridge the gap between legacy service delivery, and the changing environment within which we operate. What we need to do is to recognise and harness those islands of capability, amplify them, and extend them across the public service.

On Russia: A Response to Luke 'Ming' Flanagan

Not a joking matter.

MEP Luke Flanagan voted against the recent resolution in the European Parliament censuring Russia for its violations of Human Rights, breaches of International Law, and destabilisation of its neighbours. In speaking against the motion, he cited the Nice Treaty re-run as an example of the EU's disregard for National Sovereignty, as he saw it. The EU has no right, in his view, to lecture anyone on sovereignty.

First of all, this was not a vote on sovereignty, save insofar as it had been denied the people of Eastern Ukraine. It was a vote of censure, an expression of sentiment in foreign relations. If Mr Flanagan is of a view that the EU has given up any entitlement it may have claimed to have a view on foreign government behaviour, then he is in effect denying it any strategic position at all. Furthermore, if he really believed in his position, he would have abstained; for in voting no he was effectively making a counter claim, and therefore expressing a judgement on Russia.

What he instead chose to do was to court publicity. Brussels is a long way from home for a Roscommon politician. It's hard to get noticed. Try telling that to the dead and the disappeared of Putin's Russia, to the bereaved thousands of families in Ukraine, to the threatened of the Baltics. Luke Flanagan has a position of extraordinary responsibility. It's time he grew up and did his job.

Nationalism in Ireland in 2015

A debate has begun in Ireland on how the country should celebrate Easter 2016, one hundred years after the Easter Rising.  Thus far it has taken the shape of an external-relativist debate, particularly in relation to the UK; and a peace-violence debate, and whether violent uprising should be celebrated, especially given the question about what it actually achieved.  The official launch video in November was almost universally panned for seeking to look to the future (with the British Queen's visit seemingly the starting point) and almost completely ignoring the Rising itself, and the proclamation of independence.  I have some sympathy with the designers of the video; if we look deep enough into the dark past of history, there is some danger that the country may fall back into it.

Undue Control of Media in Ireland

Denis O'Brien (left) and Alex White: What are
the Media Mergers Guidelines really all about?

Communications Minister Alex White has published the department's 'Media Mergers Guidelines' an initiated a consultation therein.  Much public attention has shifted to Mr Denis O'Brien, whose empire has recently extended to include the top two non-RTE national radio stations as well as a significant (though according to the courts non-controlling) stake in Independent News and Media.  It has been suggested that perhaps Mr O'Brien's acquisition of Today FM in particular would not have passed a new 'undue control' test that the department proposes to introduce. Whatever the wrongs and the rights of it, it remains unlikely that the BAI would ever seek retrospective enforcement, and force a breakup of the O'Brien empire; for one thing, such a process would outlast any Chairman so brazen as to initiate it, so one is bound to wonder what the point would be.

Post-2016: A Dáil in Chaos?

Was it for this etc.?

Much recent commentary on the rise of independents has begun to extrapolate current trends into and beyond the next general election.  Pat Rabbitte said he feared for the very future of politics.  It does indeed seem as if we are in for a period of political turbulence.

Rural Ireland Deserves Better

Rural Ireland: Not bad if you're a sheep.  Because sheep
don't need broadband, roads, services, healthcare...

The Irish Times are hosting a commendable section dedicated to rural Ireland and its concerns, and solicited comments from Labour's Ann Phelan, Minister for Rural Affairs.  We'll stop this donut effect, she said, making sure large supermarkets don't locate outside town centers. Other than that, she's not promising anything because she says "I probably have a maximum of 18-21 months to do something.”  Her main focus she says is on job creation; there is no budget (save that from other departments) with which to directly fund projects.

Stephen Donnelly: Ireland's Ralph Nader

Nader was vilified and heavily criticised
at first, but his book transformed the car
industry in America.

The first Chevy Corvair launched in 1960 was a roaring success. Jack Kennedy was President, Elvis Presley was on the radio, and America was fighting the Communists in the dark corners of Eastern European cities. It was a sleek designed power grunt of a machine, with swing-axle suspension. That meant that it needed a significant tyre-pressure differential between rear and front tyres, which resulted in a dangerous amount of over-steer. In lay mans terms, that means that when you turn the car left, the wheels turn much more left than you had intended. There was a significant danger of 'tuck-under', where the left front wheel in a left turn could essentially flip under the car, causing an accident.  Many people died as a result, though the car industry was unperturbed - driver error, was the response. If you drive at a safe speed, you're fine.

The Next Anglo-Scale Crisis Will be in Data Protection

Billy Hawkes has his work cut out for him

I've argued for some time that the problem in Ireland is not one of light-touch regulation, but of culture. The failure that led to such catastrophic circumstances was not down to Lehman Brothers, or the Global Meltdown, or Anglo, or the Financial Regulator, but culture. A culture that said 'go on sure you'll be grand,' a culture that basically said take what you can get away with, so long as you don't get caught, a culture that told politicians - jovially - that the only thing, the *only* thing they had to protect was their seat.  That caused an abdication of leadership and responsibility, an absence of ownership, and a complete abandonment of the principles of the nation. So we are - as they in Leinster House so wearily put it - where we are. The implication of that phrase, of course, is that we do not learn from our mistakes, we forget about the past, and we fix the problem we are faced with rather than contemplating the uncontemplable - that we are fundamentally wrong about all sorts of important stuff that's really hard to fix.

The Liberal Left and the New Religion

Narcissists? We've been heading
in that direction for some time.

In an over-used and most likely incorrectly attributed quotation, when asked what the influence of the French Revolution had been on Western Democracy, the Chinese Foreign Minister replied that is was too soon to tell.  Given the apocryphal nature of the story, and the layers of invention that the Internet places on such stories, we don’t know if Zhou Enlai smiled as he said it.  The most significant shift that happened with the French Revolution – and the Enlightenment generally – was the shift from peoples and tribes to individuals and rights.  The Cartesian fundamental coigito ergo sum (I think therefore I am) had made its way through the corridors of time and consequence from arcane academic existential consideration to politics, and war, and statecraft.  If Millenials are accused of being all about me, me and me on the cover of Time Magazine, it’s only because we've been heading that way for several hundred years.

Why Ireland Needs Drones

Drones come in all shapes and sizes, not just Predators
with sidewinders attached.

Drones have got something of a bad press recently, what with all of the extra-judicial killings and what not, and Human Rights Watch, the United Nations Special Rapporteur, and all sort of other folks getting concerned about the automation of lethal force.  Much of the focus is on the US, but it should be noted that there are dozens of countries deploying their own drones now, and not just for pre-emptive strikes on irksome alleged terrorists outside state borders.

More Unbelievable Truths from the CRC?

Ham Goulding's attempt to clear the air in a series of interviews at the weekend, in an attempt to pour water on the raging fire of the Central Remedial Clinc scandal, appears to have failed.  The Public Accounts Committee still wants them all in, and Mr McGuinness will have his show.  Goulding claimed that the settlement was an attempt to save money, because keeping Kiely on as Chief Executive would have cost €2.1m over six years.

Let's do the math.  First, the settlement of €740k means that the net saving would have only been €1.36m over the six years, which Goulding acknowledges.  However, they then immediately agreed to appoint Brian Conlon on a salary of €125k (later reduced under pressure from the HSE).  That's a total of at least €750,000 over six years, which leaves the benefit at €610,000 at most.  Therefore, adopting Goulding's logic, they paid €740k in order to save €610k.  This is despite the fact that one board member went so far as to have it noted in the minutes her reluctance to agree to the departure of Mr Kiely - being such a fine Chief Executive - but for it appeared that he was resolved to leave.  Go figure.

NAMA: Rebadging Failure as Success

Photo Credit: Google Images

Fintan O'Toole calls out the economic failure in Ireland in today's Irish Times (and, incidentally, in The New York Times also) and in particular those politicians who hold the country up as an example to others. The debt has soared, public services have been slashed, and quality of life has deteriorated for all but those who have emigrated in the last five years. Things are admittedly pretty awful, and made worse by rich men in expensive suits praising the country for its prudence and fortitude.

NAMA was actually designed to do this.  Its model works thus: you have a property worth $50m, for which a developer has a loan of $100m, you pay the bank $20 for the loan, re-capitalise the bank for the $80m shortfall (i.e. repay the German inter-bank lender) through off-books sovereign debt, then sell the property for $30m, making (ahem) a $10m 'profit'. So NAMA then is a success, because it drove a profit from its loan book. The State, meanwhile, is crippled.

Anyone can be successful if they are allowed to define the rules for success themselves.  Small minds are destroying this place.

A No-Vision Rest Home for No-Vision Politicians: The Conservative Reform Alliance

Didn't get the memo then?

In Susan Neiman's 2008 Moral Clarity: A Guide for Grown-Up Idealists, there is at least some part of the answer to why we are all so cynical these days.  Neiman talks of things like reason and hope - not incompatible, it seems - and says of aspiration that so long as it is limited by the actual, no other idea has a chance.  Good bedtime reading for Lucinda Creighton, one suspects.

Her fall from high office has been well documented, losing the whip on the abortion bill, and subsequently forming the Reform Alliance, an entity not quite a political party, but registered for fundraising and populated by politicians.  Today, it emerged that several high profile independent TDs would not be supporting the breakaway movement, dealing a significant blow to the Alliance, and seriously undermining any ambitions it may have had to real power. Which is a shame.

Ireland: Land of the Blind

Just when you think it really can't get any worse.

It's bad enough that we pushed the national debt towards €200m, or roughly four times what it costs to run the country every year.  Furthermore, we've destroyed the construction industry, crippled the property market, and plunged anyone who bought a house in the last ten years into negative equity.  We're cutting our way to growth, which seems insane, insisting on paying all of our debts - notwithstanding the systemic flaws in the Euro structure that have been at the heart of Ireland's inability to recover.  We have acceded to the decimation of our population and its future through youth emigration, of a type that we have never seen before - it's not financial, and these ones don't intend on coming back.  This is no mere release valve for unemployment with some of them going because they're young, free, and up for a bit of an adventure.  It's not a lifestyle choice, it's a life choice.

Seanad Result: An Irish Identity Crisis

There are those who would argue that the Seanad result is a vote against the government, a protest vote. Others say that it is a vote in favour of reform. I think it runs deeper than that, however. What we are seeing in this country is a pattern of negativity and absence in our politics that has become progressively worse over the last ten years.

The problem is that there is no vision, no direction being articulated by our elites.  Elites have never been a problem in this country, we are a people seemingly happy to subjugate ourselves before our betters, whether that's the British, the Catholic Church, or Fianna Fáil, though each of them found that there was a limit to our patience.  Each represented a kind of vision, an identity, a belief that we could attach ourselves to.  With the British, we were a part of Empire; with the Church, we were a Catholic Leader country, with education, healthcare and the entirety of our social fabric tied up in the Church; and with Fianna Fáil it was the political extension of the late nineteenth century Gaelic Revival, a kind of Irish exceptionalism, we saints and scholars, a cult of the extraordinary that was almost fascist in its design.

Retaining the Seanad: Vote No!

I was unsure about this referendum.  The Seanad has long been a bit of a wasted opportunity.  A landing spot for failed Dáil candidates; Bertie's appointment of Eoghan Harris; the famous 'weekend Senators' who get appointed for a couple of days at the end of a term in order to get past-members' parking rights and all that other bullshit.  Generally speaking it is a failed institution, and in truth we won't miss much if and when it's gone.

I'm voting to retain the Seanad.  Why?  Because of the cynical, populist, and arrogant way in which the Government has decided to execute its campaign.  This isn't reform, it changes nothing.  The problem is with the concentration of power, and this does nothing to address that.  This is nothing to do with saving money - no permanent jobs will go, and no buildings will go.  Yet the Government has said that this is why they are doing it, and, according to the Irish Times poll on Monday, that is why most people are in favour of abolition. Kenny and Fine Gael may have trumpeted the abolition of the Seanad loudly as a policy platform in the run up to the election, but they never once mentioned cost.

The abject lack of reform in the Dáil is what is being swept under the carpet here.  Once this has been put to bed, electoral and Dáil reform will be off the agenda for the remainder of the Dáil term.  The whip system will remain.  The electoral system will remain the same.  The excoriation of the Dáil as a relevant chamber will persist.  The concentration of power in the executive, in the top of the executive, will endure.  The government has succeeded in creating an effective dictatorship, without checks and balances, without accountability, and doomed to repeat the same mistakes that we made the night of the Bank Guarantee.  The government is too close to see it, and the rest of us are either blind or disinterested.  Sure, we have elections, and we can change who the dictator is.  But the song remains the same.  

Dealing with the Data Protection Commissioner

My case went in an official 'file' in a 'filing cabinet' :)

So, I started getting these funky emails from a job coaching crowd called Jobcare.  Unsolicited, unwanted.  I told them to stop.  They didn't.  Then, they started sending me emails with all the other email recipients' email addresses - including mine - exposed.  I told them to stop, then I copied everyone and told them to stop, saying this was spam.  They didn't.  So I told them they could deal with the data protection commissioner, who I alerted.  Here's what happened:

Fine Gael and The Will To Power

Abolishing the Seanad is an intellectually lazy and
populist move that will compound our system's failure

I shared a plane journey to New York yesterday with a man working with NGOs, in the area of global co-ordination.  We talked about how difficult it was to control egos where righteousness levels seem to know no limit.  "People get into this," he said, "with the best of intentions - then they forget about why they're there, they forget about the children, and the starving, and the organisation becomes an end in itself.  You can get a lot done when you remind them about why they're there."