AFTER SGT. MAURICE MCCABE: ON PENSIONS AND PROMOTIONS

Maurice McCabe wasn’t always a hero. At the start – before his saga began – he was an ordinary person behaving with an ordinary level of integrity. He became a hero by persisting when his managers, colleagues and even friends opposed basic integrity. This prompts a question that should not be avoided: What is to be done about those who are opposed to integrity?

To begin with, there is quite a difference between the relatively passive sleveens who did not support him and those who did wrong in order to damage him.

Some offenders have retired on pensions far greater than his. It is frequently argued that pensions cannot be withheld or reduced. The justification for this line of argument can be that it would be wrong to make pensions subject to a career performance review on retirement. Yes, that would be wrong but there is no question of looking at mere performance in the job. Equally there should be no question of routine pension payment when actual, conscious wrongdoing has been discovered.*

Another line is that a pension is an entitlement or is owned by the retiree and beyond the possibility of review. During the economic bust, pensions were reduced, indicating that they are not sacrosanct. However, even if they were utterly untouchable, that is not a situation that the state can allow to continue for the very simple and compelling reason that it saps the morale of the nation. Bluntly, a way must be found to prevent wrongdoers retiring with a full pension – sometimes an outrageously large pension.

The Gardaí who posted threatening and hurtful social media material directed at M.McC were active wrongdoers and should be dismissed but they seem to have been outnumbered by the sleveens who lacked the integrity explicitly to support him. Even colleagues and friends turned away. While it is very doubtful that there is any place for such people in public service, the notion that they might be promoted is deplorable; they are “the wrong stuff”. **

Ireland has history when it comes to tolerating proven lack of integrity. The banking scandals saw a handful of jailings but nothing was done about those who sat meekly at meetings and failed to utter a word of opposition to the mad nonsense. Indeed bank managers who competed with their own customers for investment loans kept their jobs. This time it’s more important and it would be a shoddy outcome if An Garda took the same course as the banks. It may be that whistle-blower legislation needs to be changed because it can have no long term effect if the sleveens remain secure. ***

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* The RTE documentaries point to three officers and a number of lower ranked Gardai as active wrongdoers.

** In another blog I have argued that demonstrable integrity should be a formal criterion for promotion.

https://colummccaffery.wordpress.com/2017/10/21/in-recruitment-banking-an-garda-etc-what-is-valued-integrity-or-the-lack-of-it/

*** Here’s an expansion on the requirement to deal with the silent chancers: https://colummccaffery.wordpress.com/2017/03/03/if-we-are-serious-about-whistle-blowing-we-have-to-talk-about-the-chancers-who-say-nothing/

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BOARD MEMBERS: WHAT THE HELL DO THEY THINK IS THEIR PURPOSE?

How many times can, “It wasn’t brought to the board.” be accepted before these chancers are relieved of any responsible role in society? They are managing to create a self-serving stereotype whereby a member of a board is a childlike innocent with no education or experience who sits at the boardroom table waiting for … well, things to be brought forward for attention.*

Any half competent, decent – even curious – person appointed or elected to a board would ask questions and if they weren’t answered would become suspicious. If treated like a complete fool, they would become very bolshie indeed.

In order to accept that the passive innocents who sit on boards waiting for information are at least honest, it has to be accepted that they’ve never before sat on a committee of any kind. Is it possible that they’ve never been on the executive of a football club, a residents association, a trade union branch, a professional association, a branch of a political party, a company, a student organisation, a charity? That’s hardly likely and prompts the question of who would appoint to a board a person so lacking in ordinary experiences.

There is another possibility: that they have experience of boards and committees but that they brought nothing to them beyond a bovine presence.

There is of course a place for a board member who participates but who despite their efforts fails or is tricked. When ultimately they are made aware of the truth, they will be furious. They will defend their integrity. They will talk about their experience and how it compares with previous experiences; they most certainly will not state stupidly that something wasn’t brought to the board.

Time and again in scandals, investigations and failed organisations board members have been allowed offer passive stupidity as an excuse. In a society rich in experienced, educated, thoughtful people of integrity, careful selection must be required to find such dunderheads.

Incidentally, it’s not as if the problem hasn’t been considered. In debate and research on worker directors a basic theme was ensuring the appointment of not merely average people but those who were up for and able for a possible information struggle with hostile executives and at least some fellow directors.

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*  An example: https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/hickey-s-dominance-gives-olympic-ticket-report-a-familiar-ring-1.3186728

If we are serious about whistle-blowing, we have to talk about the chancers who say nothing

 

It has become far too uncommon for a citizen or a worker to speak up when confronted by something that is wrong. Worse, while objecting and arguing is taken as heroic, there would appear to be a consensus on silence: that keeping one’s mouth shut is acceptable. What is at stake here is the abandonment of integrity, i.e. the ordinary responsibility of the ordinary citizen in workplace, institution, club, on or off line and in casual interaction to speak truth to bad behaviour, illegitimate instructions or plans and indeed complete bollocks.

It has been necessary to surround whistle-blowers with protective laws and institutions. This is to protect their right to … well, their right to what? You see, there is an enormous difference between protecting their right to be exceptionally heroic and protecting their right to behave as any decent person should. The difference plays out in the treatment of those who knew and remained silent.

The protection offered to whistle-blowers makes it just about possible for an individual to act with integrity. Yes, it incentivises doing the decent thing but not overly so; it offers a measure of security but it also applies a label and probably ends a career. It is a contradiction – even madness – to accept that ordinary integrity be treated as exceptional and in need of protection. It is, therefore, essential to incentivise integrity by treating it as an expectation. That is to say, whistle-blower legislation must include the obligation that after enquiries are completed and perhaps offenders dealt with, attention should turn to those who remained silent, i.e. attention should focus on those who demonstrated a lack of ordinary integrity. In at least some cases the failure to behave properly will mark these people as unfit for the positions they hold. However, the main reason for extending the process beyond the individual whistle-blower is to incentivise whistle-blowing.

It has to be made clear that citizens are required to operate with integrity. Moreover, it has to be emphasised that integrity is a requirement for most jobs, and failure to demonstrate it – should the occasion arise – will result in opprobrium at least. It is not acceptable that the one or two demonstrably good people in an organisation should walk off as heroes into obscurity, leaving time servers and chancers to rewarding careers.

We are where we are and we’re staying

In Ireland it is rare that particular classes of wrongdoers pay a penalty for their actions or inaction. When crime from dodgy dealing to hideous violence is dragged into the light, the clichés begin; establishment voices call for a line to be drawn under it and for new regulation to ensure that it can’t happen in the future. The anodyne call to forgetfulness is, “We are where we are.” Less popular are, “We must avoid the blame game”, “It was the culture of the time”, “Everyone was at it” or “We must avoid a tendency to demonise”.

What this nonsense means is that with a handful of sacrificial exceptions the elite in Ireland can avoid being held accountable. The political party responsible for the building scam which brought the country close to ruin is once again popular. Those in education, media and management who lacked the ability to see the property/lending folly or lacked the integrity to speak out at the time are still in place. The c.e.o. of Allied Irish Banks considers it a firing offence for managers to take out loans for speculation but no one who did it in the past will be fired. There’s a gunrunner sitting in the Dáil surrounded by colleagues who supported civilian slaughter for years but it is now considered “not done” to scoff at their concerns about inequality and suffering. Indeed looking to recent violent history is considered detrimental to the “peace process”. It would appear that no one guilty of assault or keeping slaves in laundries will face prosecution. Likewise teachers who ignored the rules in regard to corporal punishment can enjoy retirement. Then there are the auditors and board members …

The list can seem endless but around it is the protective, “We are where we are.” It suggests a new verb: “to go wawa”.* Like so many things, going wawa is not a method of escape for everyone. It’s reserved to protect the pillars of our establishment. While citizens will be asked to go wawa when it comes to managers, politicians, teachers, journalists etc., hell will freeze over before a judge says to a car thief, “I’ve agreed to go wawa on your offences. You may leave.” ___________________________________________________________________ * http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Wawa&defid=6964261

Pay attention to Frank Flannery’s argument

There’s no point in attacking Frank Flannery or indeed Angela Kerins. His argument needs to be addressed. What he is saying is that because Rehab is a private company which sells to the HSE among others, the State has no business looking into its internal affairs. The problem is that the way things are he’s right.

Let’s leave aside the question of supplying citizen services through a private company and consider implementing public policy by way of placing conditions on the awarding of state contracts. We do this already in that companies seeking state contracts have to prove they are tax compliant.

If ludicrous salaries paid within companies working for the state are to be addressed, it will have to be a condition of the contract. A condition of a state contract could be that no employee or director or pensioner of the company has an income in excess of some multiple of the lowest paid employee or perhaps the legal minimum wage or the median wage in Ireland.

It’s really a matter of deciding whether or not we want to do anything about ludicrous salaries. If we do, it will necessarily mean discussing and deciding on an amount above which we do not want our state to facilitate.

Apart from stratospheric incomes like those of the top 1%, rich people tend not to consider themselves rich or to be in receipt of ludicrous salaries. They think their pay is moderate and that they’re worth it. They need to be disabused of that view.**

They also tend to resort to “fairness” to oppose any move to reduce inequality. They argue that it would not be fair to do anything to anyone until all of those similarly situated can be treated equally. Like all forms of “whataboutery” this argument should be vigorously resisted.

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* http://www.irishexaminer.com/analysis/faith-hope-and-clarity–the-rehab-saga-276392.html#.U9DIpmjKHkg.facebook

** https://colummccaffery.wordpress.com/2014/01/16/limited-outrage-discussion-of-the-crc-scandal-avoids-the-central-problem/

How long would a bricklayer last?: Integrity, An Garda and a general tolerance of “middle class” failure.

I seem to keep on returning to the notion of integrity. I don’t know why it doesn’t feature in public discussion of Ireland’s growing list of scandals, so many of which were caused by failure to speak up and do what was clearly the right thing.

The usual excuse for hiding in a crowd which is doing wrong or behaving stupidly is fear. That is understandable and a reason to forgive lack of integrity – until the nature of the fear is examined. If integrity might lead to death or injury or even losing one’s job, then let’s be forgiving. However, if the fear is no more than a vague feeling that one might lose out on a promotion or worse a fear of being excluded from a group of chancers or fools, then no! In such circumstances a lack of integrity is completely unacceptable and a person so lacking – especially one who has demonstrated the flaw – cannot have or continue to hold a position of responsibility. Does that seem harsh? It is and it needs to be because in Ireland at least we’ve been far too tolerant of the cowardly sleveens whose overriding virtue is to fit in and get along with people.

Here’s Fintan O’Toole laying the blame on an excess of loyalty and suggesting that showing integrity involved paying a high price: “We’ve seen this time and again: in the crushing of the internal auditors who warned that our major banks were up to their white-collared necks in skulduggery; in the systematic protection of child abusers by the Catholic Church; in the extreme reluctance of many health professionals to shout stop when they saw dangerous and even deadly practices; in the parade of politicians coming out to assure us that Charles Haughey was a patriot to his fingertips who would no sooner take a bribe than he would kiss a Brit; in the vicious shouting-down of those who suggested that the property boom might be a bubble.” *

“Crushing”? “Vicious shouting down”? This is silly exaggeration. If a person cannot speak up in the face of a shouting or overbearing fool, he/she is either too timid or too lacking in integrity to continue. Moreover, the position of the timid would be improved if proven lack of integrity were not tolerated and indeed punished when found out.

Ireland is about to appoint a new Garda (police) Commissioner and the talk is of the need to recruit outside the force or outside the country. This is evasive rubbish, prompting a straight response: If there is no one in Garda management with sufficient expertise, experience and integrity to be promoted, then they should not be in Garda management.

In the same article Fintan raises “a squalid event” in Waterford: Garda assault and the perversion of justice when a surveillance camera was turned away. Gardaí went to jail but Fintan also mentions the decent Gardaí who gave evidence of wrongdoing and implies that some did not. The latter should be gone by now because they have shown themselves to be the wrong stuff.**

Similar can and should be said of the quiet failures in so many institutions and professions whom Fintan (above) is prepared to whitewash in the lime of “culture” and exaggerated fear or ignore in a zealous attempt to get a handful of senior sacrificial victims.

A bricklayer found out as unable for or unsuited to the job would have to find alternative work. A professional found out as lacking a modicum of courage and integrity should have to find alternative work just as quickly.
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* http://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/if-institutional-ireland-were-a-stick-of-rock-the-words-loyalty-is-prized-above-honesty-would-run-through-it-irish-authorities-always-choose-loyalty-1.1741919

** https://colummccaffery.wordpress.com/2012/04/25/garda-ombudsman-corrib-comments-and-the-wrong-stuff/

Whittling away integrity: Election candidates and their pledge to resign should they leave the party

On the recent resignation of an elected politician from the Labour Party, a number of aggrieved party members raised the point that before becoming a Labour candidate an aspirant must sign a pledge to resign the seat should they decide to leave the Party. Now, I’ve never known this to happen.

Usually the politician leaving the Party claims to have moved to a position on higher moral ground than that occupied by the party or claims that he or she has not changed but that the Party has fallen away from previous or traditional standards. Another approach is to say that the decision of the public at the election carries greater democratic weight and neutralises any mere personal or party pledge. A variation on this is to look forward to the next election and say that success will legitimate all.

The truth is that the Party pledge has become meaningless. It cannot be enforced and hardly anyone grants it a moral force. I even recall the chair of a selection convention joking about the pointlessness of the pledge as a candidate was singing. We too readily accept the term, “empty gesture”, as if no harm is done when the truth is that all these false pledges and signatures amount to a nasty tangle of cynicism.

I have argued for taking seriously again the notion of integrity.* Now, candidates signing pledges for a laugh in front of knowing members is hardly an important issue today but it may be a significant cut as integrity in public life is whittled away. Moreover, many will dismiss the very notion of integrity as unimportant either because their view of politics is cynical or because we face far greater issues.

Let’s set down some testing points in relation to pledges and personal integrity. Firstly, I doubt that many citizens would want as a public representative someone for whom a formal pledge freely given is meaningless. Secondly, I doubt that many citizens would be impressed if told that at a party’s selection conferences a cynical charade is played out time after time as election candidates pretend to enter into a pledge. Thirdly, I regret the number of times I’ve been present and bitten my tongue rather than speaking up while the demeaning charade went ahead. I accept that this is entrenched, unenforceable and that there’s little an individual can do but I’ve resolved that if present in future I will try to force at least a discussion when a candidate is “invited” to sign the party pledge.

In short, when it comes to resignation pledges, election candidates should not make fools of themselves, their party colleagues and citizens generally by acting falsely.

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* https://colummccaffery.wordpress.com/2012/05/03/from-the-cardinal-to-the-chancers-its-time-to-make-integrity-important/

Limited outrage: Discussion of the CRC scandal avoids the central problem

“Former CRC boss got more than €700k pension package from charity fund”*

This has nothing to with theft. This has nothing to do with proper governance. This has nothing to do with private funding versus state funding. This has nothing to do with paying for exceptional talent. This has nothing to with capitalism.

This has to do with rich people looking after those similarly situated. While too many on the left rattled sabres at the richest 1%, quietly the majority of the rich – say, the top 10% of earners – were establishing and maintaining excessive pay, bonus, expenses and pension norms while pretending to be “middle income”** and very likely joining in complaints about the 1% rich. The movement started in private companies and spread to the elite in state employment.

I have argued for a long time that €50k p.a. is an exceedingly good pension and that all public service pensions and pensions in organisations funded or part funded by the state should adopt this figure as the maximum permitted. Some years ago it was objected that a court had decided that a public service pension was a private asset and could not be touched. Public service pensions, however, have since been reduced. That leaves the real objection: Rich people, the top 10% of earners, the ruling class, the elite (Give them whatever title you prefer.) don’t regard €50k p.a. as a great deal of money or as creating sufficient inequality to maintain elite status or lifestyle.

It’s long past time the 80% or 90% of earners insisted on straight talking and a grasp on reality. €50k is a fabulous pension and above that it quickly becomes ridiculous.
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* http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/former-crc-boss-got-more-than-700k-pension-package-from-charity-funds-29922420.html
** https://colummccaffery.wordpress.com/2009/10/09/middle-income-and-a-distortion-of-public-debate/

Irish PR-STV liberates the leftist to argue against the majority

I was talking to a T.D.* recently, a leftist one. He said that his basic function was to serve his constituents and that if he is re-elected to the Dáil, it will justify his political decisions. I disagreed, saying that his was a perfect statement of populism. The function of a leftist is neither to schmooze nor to patronise but to argue honestly and plausibly.

Now, Ireland is a society in which the overwhelming majority is comprised of liberals, conservatives and believers in the infantile notion that the “political class” is the ruling class. In this society honest and plausible argument would seem the road to electoral failure because it means opposing and possibly offending that overwhelming majority. That is why leftist parties seeking electoral success employ researchers who i) try to keep policy and statements in line with those of a majority or ii) try to be both vague and appealing to those receptive to facile slogans.

It’s a real dilemma: how to get elected while opposing (trying to persuade) the majority? The situation is made worse by a realisation that slogans and implausibility will drive away the thoughtful voter.

The good news in Ireland is that the leftist doesn’t have to appeal to the majority or convince a majority in order to win. In Ireland we have PR-STV ** and election can be achieved by way of a minority vote. This offers the freedom to argue, to oppose consensus, to offend, to break icons but it’s far from an easy option. It’s difficult and lonely to decide to be unpopular. It is however the only way for a leftist to win on a leftist platform in Ireland.

There are of course implications for participation in coalition government but that’s work for another day.
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* Teachta Dála, a member of the Irish parliament.
** Proportional Representation by means of the Single Transferable Vote.

St. Edmundsbury, Lucan: An invitation to chancers new?

Decades ago Lucan was in at the start of the land rezoning scams. It was so bad that Charles Haughey was sufficiently embarrassed that he asked Liam Lawlor to stop. Now a “for sale” sign has appeared at St. Edmundsbury, Lucan which has prompted thoughts of “Here we go again!” Offered for sale is a “STRATEGIC LAND BANK”. A what? Yes, that’s what I’m thinking too.

Developers have been eyeing St. Eds for a long, long time. Their problem is this: The lands present a unique opportunity to create something very special and the local citizens know it. Have a look at a map or at Google earth and see that the lands between the Lucan/Chapelizod Road and the Liffey are reasonably undeveloped. The sensible course is to create a Liffey Valley park all the way from Lucan to Chapelizod. This is why rezoning within the Liffey valley itself has been resisted successfully on a number of occasions.

Read the ad on myhome.ie. It reads as an open invitation to a chancer; it holds out the hope of rezoning at some stage. It says,
“This is a strategic block of land located on the edge of Lucan, Co. Dublin. It represents a unique opportunity to acquire a large land holding close to the City with superb profile and potential. …
The setting is unique affording privacy and quality yet with the possibility of future alternative uses. …
The sale represents an ideal opportunity for those speculators, investors, land bankers, institutional, educational, sporting organisations and farmers looking to acquire assets with long term growth potential combining location, profile and quality.”*

I’m pleased that my branch of the Labour Party is back on the case with this one.** I remember the evening many years ago when Eamon Tuffy – now Deputy Mayor of South Dublin – showed me the Lucan maps with the land purchases highlighted and talked about land rezoning and corruption. It was all about to start on a scale way beyond Lucan.

The present “for sale” sign is a reminder of chancers now gone and an invitation to chancers new. It should be taken down.

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* http://www.myhome.ie/residential/brochure/st-edmundsbury-lucan-dublin-county/2613980
** http://www.labour.ie/caitrionajones/news/13782147583466708.html

“How stands the republic?” is a conservative question

There is a report in today’s Irish Times on papers presented to this year’s McGill Summer School on the theme, “How stands the republic?” The report headlines the contribution of Professor Diarmuid Ferriter. ( http://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/seanad-abolition-a-grubby-power-grab-ferriter-1.1478603#.Ufa-e8C0aQY )

Diarmuid says, “If we accept a definition of republicanism that is about participation, a say in our fate, civic engagement and realising freedom and self-determination among citizens, we face the conclusion that any exaggerated celebrations in 2016 will mask the persistence of ambiguity and the endurance of the gulf between rhetoric and reality.”

That definition would be at odds with a minority staging a rising and with the views of the founding elite of the new state. Moreover, there has never been a gulf between rhetoric and reality. Apart from misuse of the word “republican”, their rhetoric matched the reality they created.

He also says, “One of the chief causes of the contemporary crisis was the absence of alternative views and insufficient scrutiny of flawed decision-making,”

In a republic the media provide citizens with challenging viewpoints and citizens are expected to think, speak and come to judgement. This did not happen because we tolerate poor performance and lack of personal integrity particularly among our professional elite – journalists, academics, teachers, managers etc. The crisis was certainly caused by political policy and ideology but it was also caused by very many people failing to do what they were paid to do and thereby letting down their fellow citizens. Those people are still in place: https://colummccaffery.wordpress.com/2013/05/12/they-are-known-to-be-useless-and-they-are-all-still-there-a-reminder-from-eddie-hobbs/

The McGill choice of theme, “How stands the republic?”, is revealing. It implies an argument: that we are engaged in evaluation of an ideal or a project, that we can go on as we are with some minor changes. A better theme would be, “Should we create a republic?” Such a starting point would argue that we are thinking about doing something that we’ve not done before, breaking with the 1916 founding myth and its tawdry legacy of oppression, cruelty and malfunctioning elites.

Some nitwit in the HSE wants “a ceiling uplift” and it’s not at all funny

According to last Tuesday’s Irish Times, the following appears in an unpublished draft of the HSE’s spending plans.
“It is planned that the investment will take place in quarter 4, 2013 contingent upon the achievement of the PSA [public sector agreement] savings. A ceiling uplift is needed for these developments,” – http://irishtimes.newspaperdirect.com/screenprint/viewer.aspx

“A ceiling uplift”!! Jesus wept! Now, this kind of complete bollocks might be funny if it were not indicative of a parasitic scourge which prevents effective management. The parasitic element is usually distinguished from management by use of the term “managerialism”.

Whoever wrote the HSE draft should go and anyone more senior, who did not fire the draft across the room and insist that it be rewritten, should join him or her. Furthermore, the report itself should be disregarded because – being infected by managerialism – it will be self-serving. Its purpose will not be to improve the HSE or to serve the citizen. Managerialism doesn’t work like that; it uses a language deceptively close to the language of efficiency and business to ensure the prosperity and growth of its adherents.

To get a hold in an organisation, managerialism must first oust efficient managers; it is no friend of business. The bizarre language that is used cloaks futile activity in terms that give the impression of innovation, progress and effective decision making. It also creates a layer of employees who live off information processes that effective management would never tolerate. It is a very, very serious problem and dealing with will be difficult because its adherents now hold key positions and because doing away with it would result in many job losses.

However, many organisations could usefully look at their structures and staffing of about ten years ago and see what has been done to them as systems became central rather than service, as job titles increased and became bizarre, and as the language of effective management was reduced to complete bollocks.

Giving a child a gun was as crazy in 1916 as it would be today

“The jury expressed the opinion that something should be done to prevent boys getting possession of firearms.” – Recorded by the inquest jury into the death of 2 year old, Herbert Lemass, in early 1916.*

A little boy, called Herbert, died of a gunshot wound to the head because his 16 year old brother, John, was “fiddling with a revolver”.This happened in the family home on Capel Street, Dublin and a sister witnessed it. Anyone reading this unaware of the people involved would assume that the revolver belonged to an adult family member or perhaps an adult visitor to the house. However, John – or Seán outside of the family – was a member of the Irish Volunteers as was his 17 year old brother, Noel. Seán joined when he was fifteen and went on to fight in the GPO a few months after he had accidentally killed his little brother. After the GPO surrender he avoided arrest because of his age.**

The founding myth of the Irish State is bloody but the establishment view is that it is heroic and that questioning is “revisionist” and a bad thing. When it comes to light that a fifteen year old was allowed to join a rebel army and was given a gun to take home, it doesn’t prompt even the Irish Times to comment. Quite a number of children were among the volunteers and the excuse offered is that this shouldn’t be judged from today’s perspective. Normal shock and outrage are soothed by talk of things being different back then. Apart from the fact that the British considered Seán a child and let him go, the jury’s note at the top of this piece illustrates that in 1916 arming a child was as crazy as it would be today.

There’s nothing new or specifically Irish in mature adults sending young impetuous kids to their deaths. However, in Ireland a national newspaper can publish on the shooting in 1916 of a toddler by his big brother and not even ask what kind of nutters put the gun in his hand and what kind of parents allowed it to happen?

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* http://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/revelation-of-family-tragedy-provides-insight-into-lemass-s-political-persona-1.1469508 This is a front page report on a longer piece by the historian, Eunan O’Halpin, “Lemass’s Silent Agony”, published in the Irish Times Weekend Review of July 20th 2013

** http://test.scoilnet.ie/Res/maryodubhain100899224214_2.html

All of the victims of the Irish property scam are not equally innocent and the reason for bailing out many of them is the same as that for bailing out the banks.

Let’s be clear. This was an Irish scam. Lending companies had access to lots of relatively cheap “international” money. This was “imported” and lent to the relatively poor so that extraordinary property prices could be paid to the rich.

In terms of page-one economics the price of a house was determined by whatever people were prepared to pay. The graph shows that income and costs increased steadily but house prices took off on a bewildering upward trajectory.

From Michael Taft’s Notes from the Front. http://notesonthefront.typepad.com/politicaleconomy/2013/06/the-hulk-says-crush-household-debt.html

Traditional lending conventions linking income with loan size were dropped in order to maximise borrowing and this made large payments to the rich chancers possible ( https://colummccaffery.wordpress.com/2012/05/27/if-the-banks-and-building-societies-were-giving-crazy-loans-which-could-not-be-repayed-by-how-much-should-we-penalise-both-their-and-their-customers-foolishness/” ). The scam was greased by making some people desperate (“You need to get on the property ladder.”) and by convincing others that they too could be successful speculators (“It’s a no brainer; property prices don’t fall in Ireland.”).

The interesting question is this: How did so many people fall for the scam? Firstly, it needs to be emphasised that not everyone fell for it. Secondly, while citizens correctly expect those of their fellow citizens who are paid to think, manage and comment to warn them of scams, they were sorely let down. I’ve argued elsewhere that these well-paid failures who did not speak out time and again either because they were too stupid to see the scam or so lacking in integrity that they abandoned their jobs to hide within the scam, should now be moved to jobs more suited to their shortcomings. In short a significant portion (perhaps a majority) of Ireland’s professional elite has been exposed as thick or turpid or both. ( https://colummccaffery.wordpress.com/2013/05/12/they-are-known-to-be-useless-and-they-are-all-still-there-a-reminder-from-eddie-hobbs/” )

It is, however, a mistake to view all of the victims of the scam as blameless. No matter how many times managers and media encourage a person to be foolish there remains a personal obligation to be prudent. Of course there are times when a scam is so well done that little or no blame can attach to the victim but that is not the case in relation to the Irish lending scam. Despite the elite chatter and media torrent in support of foolishness, ordinary conversations about the dangers were commonplace and there were many warning voices which could have been heeded. Moreover, as the scam developed there was increasing concrete evidence in plain sight sufficient to warn all but the wilfully blind or the addicted risk-taker.

Young people are particularly vulnerable to scams and are often preyed upon. The property scam was no exception. The pressure to “get on the property ladder” was relentless and in a just world a nasty fate would await anyone who dispensed this advice – especially when it was dispensed as it became more and more clear that the end was approaching.

Mature victims drawn into a reckless gamble were less vulnerable and their fellow citizens should be less forgiving of their stupidity and/or avarice.

The argument that the victims should be bailed out for reasons different to those offered for baling out the banks is untenable. There was no moral or legal reason for baling out banks. Leaving aside young people and cases where no blame could attach, there is no moral or legal reason to bail out victims of the scam either. However, a functioning liberal economy or the view that these people in aggregate qualify as “too big to fail” may be very good reasons why careful, thinking citizens will have to bail out these people as well as the banks.

Less Respect, More Argument

While there are no details as yet as to the motivations of the murderers of the English soldier at Woolwich, the web is already alive with opponents and defenders of Islam. More significantly for those of us who value public discourse, many thoughtful and tolerant people are taking the position that Islam – and by extension all religion – is not a problem. Paradoxically it is this kind of blanket tolerance that can lead to trouble.

For as long as religion is “respected” in public discourse, particular religions will be attacked because of the actions and statements of their most extreme adherents.

When we discuss values and matters concerning values, religion has to be ignored and certainly cannot be allowed become a trump card. For example, debates about abortion cannot be side-tracked by stuff about respect for catholic beliefs and nastiness to gays cannot be permitted because the speaker believes in Islam. When a society takes seriously claims that something should be or not be because God or a prophet said so, it encourages belief as opposed to argument. Every single cruel, divisive and – yes! – inegalitarian belief should be hauled out from under religious cloaks and tackled.

When that has been established, we can say with some confidence that an act of barbarity had nothing to do with religion.

They are known to be useless and they are all still there; a reminder from Eddie Hobbs

On this morning’s Marian Finucane radio programme * a discussion began about the culpability of former Taoiseach, Brian Cowen, for Ireland’s economic mess. From former minister, Mary O’Rourke, came the familiar routine of “we all had a party, so no one is at fault” and then Eddie Hobbs offered the view that the ordinary person couldn’t be expected to understand an economic bubble and that those he calls “gatekeepers” failed to warn the general public.**

Eddie is wrong. Anyone with normal intelligence, a basic education and a little interest in their surroundings could see that – whatever about the wider world – Ireland was headed for a fall. Failing to see this required enormous stupidity or wilful blindness. It was a topic of discussion among ordinary people, many of whom could see that the property boom was a scam, bound to end. These ordinary people held on to their savings and/or didn’t borrow to buy property.

Eddie is right, however, to blame “gatekeepers” for failing. The term usually refers to media workers but Eddie included public service economists. Two points need to be made. Firstly, the distinction is correctly drawn here between people who are paid to think, write, speak up and manage and the rest who are merely expected to do these things. It is the difference between citizens and those whom society expects to do a particular job because they are paid for it. Who are these people? Clearly, elected politicians, advisers, civil servants, economics professionals, journalists, producers and researchers are included but so too are public commentators, lecturers, teachers and managers – particularly managers in banking and finance.

Secondly, nothing whatsoever has been done about this failure. Let’s be blunt: If an electrician or plumber failed to perform to the point of wrecking the house, they’d hardly be let continue. (Well, in view of the dangerous buildings now coming to light, that may be a topic in itself.) In the case of those paid to think, write and speak up … Nothing! They are all still there. They did not do what they were paid to do and they are all still there. They are known to be useless and they are all still there.

They didn’t fail to perform some difficult task. There are many failures trying to find cover in the fabrication that Ireland’s economic crash came as a surprise. It bears repeating that only a complete fool could have confused a building boom with a productive economy and only the wilfully blind could have failed to see the bricks and mortar evidence accumulating across the country. (That some did see the problem but remained silent is a different kind of failure. ***)

It is simply implausible to suggest that some kind of recovery could be achieved while so many of those paid to think and to manage are demonstrably unable or unwilling to do their jobs.
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* http://www.rte.ie/radio/radioplayer/rteradioweb.html#!rii=9%3A10146436%3A70%3A12%2D05%2D2013%3A
** At about 11.00 mins. into the programme.
*** https://colummccaffery.wordpress.com/2010/11/24/time-for-a-clear-out-who-misled-and-who-remained-silent-as-a-completely-irish-made-fiasco-developed/

“AIB chief executive vows to tackle property loans to managers” Is this a misleading headline or does it reflect acceptance of the view in Ireland that none among the establishment can be touched?

John Fallon reported in the Irish Times today that David Duffy, the CEO of Allied Irish Banks, intends a clean-up within the bank.* However, what is reported is that David Duffy has joined Fianna Fáil and Sinn Fein in asking citizens yet again to go WAWA (“We are where we are”). Yes, here we go again. What he proposes is that past wrongdoing be attributed to “culture” and that the bank makes a fresh start without getting rid of wrongdoers.

The wrongdoing in question is managers borrowing from their own bank to become developers or investors. David Duffy is clearly of the view that this is not just a bad practice but unethical and lacking in integrity. He is resolute that it will never happen again and that if it does, the manager will be dismissed.

The problem of course is that it can’t be wrong today but not wrong yesterday. That’s where the old reliable WAWA escape clause comes in and it’s all too familiar: “No one is guilty; it was the culture”. It’s a constant refrain in Ireland today. It is offered as an excuse for all sorts of failure and for crimes: failure to speak up while the economy was ruined, child abuse, political murders, laundry slavery and now dodgy borrowing by bank managers has been added to the list.

It is simply not credible that the chancers who were involved in these loans will now suddenly become people of integrity fit to be managers in an important institution. It is not acceptable that the CEO of this institution is prepared to go WAWA and to leave those not fit for office in place.
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* http://m.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2013/0223/1224330416276.html?via=bnews

The McAleese Report is disgraceful: No profits, no assaults! This is mockery and it should be stopped now

All the indications are that the McAleese report on the Magdalen Laundries is a disgrace. Criminals are hiding behind the familiar device of highlighting the formal responsibility of the state. Moreover, discussion of this awful report is diverted into guff about whether or not the Taoiseach should apologise now or next week.

Look at and listen to the woman at 08.30 here: http://www.rte.ie/player/ie/show/10108232/ She is owed wages and pension contributions by people who hid her from factory inspectors. She was kept away from school. She was beaten. She is not old. It is certain that at least some of the perpetrators of the crimes against her are still alive. The state has a responsibility alright: to investigate these crimes and to apprehend the perps. There is a role too for the Criminal Assets Bureau.

Conservative journalism and the victims of austerity

“The Frontline’s speakers often had knowledge of specific cutbacks that prompted blank expressions, never mind any justification, from ministerial faces. The audience, regularly comprising the many victims of austerity, would be hard-pressed to come away from the RTÉ studio feeling in any way satisfied with the empty promises and emergency damage-limitation words they heard back from officialdom.” – Laura Slattery ‘The Frontline’ is dead, long live a revamped ‘Prime Time’, Irish Times Thursday, January 31, 2013 (http://m.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2013/0131/1224329469784.html)

Laura is getting close to the problem with the mass communication of political debate but she remains within the tent that is journalism.

Journalism has a political perspective. It is conservative, it poses no challenge but it manages to appear anti-establishment, pro-“people” and remain within the strictures of balance and fairness.

What it amounts to is this. There is, it is said, a “political class”. From this point on journalists are on safe ground. There’s now not the slightest chance of an accusation of bias or lack of balance because politics as a clash of parties, ideologies or major political perspectives – like liberalism or socialism – has been excluded.

There is of course a range of views which sees this as a managerial or a technocratic or a post-political approach. There’s quite a lot of sense here but it’s a whole lot worse because the participative citizen developed over centuries is about to be demoted to peasant!

Back to journalists. The “political class” controls the state, taxes and spending. People participate by putting pressure on the “political class” (Sometimes referred to as the “establishment” so as to secure an anti-establishment image for the commentator.) through pressure groups led by “activists” who share the journalists’ disdain for politics. An effective group wins a concession from the “political class” usually at the expense of a poorer and/or less well organised pressure group. Journalists function by siding with, reporting on and sorting out which pressure groups are most powerful, and then helping the “political class” decide which concessions must be made so as to maintain the system.

Yep, it’s really a great distance from citizens talking about great public controversies. It’s more like supplicants or peasants appealing to the ruler for preferential treatment and threatening unrest if that doesn’t work.
Laura Slattery came close when she observed the conservative futility of having “victims of austerity” state their cases for preferment. She then opted for the attractive diversion that is talk about broadcast programme formats. The problem is the abandonment of politics. The citizens need to talk about public priorities – setting a hierarchy of public spending – for in here lie real political differences over freedom and economic inequality.

Fear in the family: Are mothers who remain silent always blameless?

Very many criminals and other wrongdoers are victims. Many have had a dreadful childhood or have committed crimes while in fear of someone. It is right to be sympathetic but it is wrong to excuse them completely. We have developed ways of dealing with different levels of responsibility; lesser charges can be laid or lenient – perhaps suspended – sentences can be applied. It is, however, wrong to ignore completely crimes committed under duress or being an accessory to crime while under duress. This is because duress is variable and requires judgement. It is expected that a person with integrity will stand up to duress and do the right thing but it is also accepted that duress may be so extreme that no one could be expected to resist. Each case calls for judgement.

The case of a mother who was silent or who facilitated the rape of her child must be examined and judged.

The following appeared in the Irish Times in relation to the conviction of Fiona Doyle’s father for rape. “The problem most people have when stories like Fiona’s come out is that everyone wants to know about the mother – why she didn’t intervene – and it takes the focus off the father and the abuser,” says Paula. “But, in most cases, the mothers are as much the victims.” (i)

Certainly nothing should happen to divert attention from or dilute the guilt of the rapist but to say that “in most cases” the mothers of child victims of rape are “as much the victims” diverts attention from the seriousness of rape and undermines the child’s particular and terrible grievance.

Another Irish Times piece on the same page argues that it would be very wrong to blame the mothers in such situations. (ii) That might appear progressive and decent at first sight but it suggests that all are blameless.

It is worthwhile to consider a further wrong committed against Fiona Doyle in which duress might be the defence.

The following is from another piece in The Irish Times. “Rape survivor Fiona Doyle has said no alarm bells rang when as a child she was treated for a sexually transmitted infection. ‘I was brought to the doctor . . . and the doctor told my mother I had warts and they were that bad that I had to go to hospital to have them lasered off. But I didn’t know until I was in my late twenties that I had an STI,’ she told last night’s Late Late Show.” (iii)

The doctor and those at the hospital who remained silent having treated a child for an illness that was sexually transmitted, bear some responsibility for subsequent rape attacks on the child. The duress which motivated their silence would be of a different type and a much, much smaller degree than that faced by the mother but the medical staff, like the mother, have questions to answer.

The point is this: The time to have sympathy for those who under duress participated in or facilitated a crime is after their behaviour has been examined and the extent of the duress established.
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i. This is Rosita Boland quoting Paula Kavanagh, another victim of a father’s sexual abuse. http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/weekend/2013/0126/1224329285532.html
ii. The piece is by Kitty Holland and it appears on-line at the same URL and follows on from Rosita Boland’s article.
iii. http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2013/0126/1224329304072.html