My vote for new leader goes to grandson of Dev, Eamon O’Cuiv. I think he is the one best suited to lead the rotten party into oblivion. Micheal Martin, on the other hand, might be the acceptable public face that sees it back in power in four years’ time.
And speaking of corruption, clientism and chicanery, few will raise their eyebrows at the news that finance minister Brian Lenihan has decided to retain tax shelters for investors – the very tax shelters that inflated property prices, racked up massive bank debts, and contributed so much to the financial ruin of the country.
Apparently, the Government was the target of “intensive lobbying” when it was announced that the tax shelters would be scrapped in its recent finance bill, so Fianna Fail decided to put the move on hold, pending a study into their “economic impact”.
No such research was conducted, of course, into the economic impact on the working poor, and their families, who had their minimum wage reduced by one Euro an hour. Little notice was taken of the “lobbying” by thousands who took to the streets in protest at wage cuts and tax increases for ordinary people who did nothing to contribute to the financial mess, bailing out the bankers who freely loaned billions to speculators who took out interest-free mortgages on “investment” properties, spurred on by Section 23s which allowed them to write off tax on rental incomes. So how do we “lobby” the Government, then? It seems to be quite easy for some to have their voices heard and heeded.
This stroke means that the most parasitic class in Ireland is getting a longer free ride from the Government, at a time when most people are seeing huge chunks hacked out or their PAYE paypackets. Mark Keenan, in yesterday’s Sunday Times, cites Section 23 investors as “the scourge of the boom’s first time buyers”. Even now – not content with having priced people out of the market back then – they are a scourge, as according to a report by the Society of Chartered Surveyors, 30% of them with apartments in recently built blocks withhold management fees, which residents have to pick up.
What have the IMF to say about this? What about our colleagues in Europe whose taxpayers’ funded the bank bailout? What about the Greens?
The Irish investor class – the greedy motor behind the economic crash – took all the gain in the “good times”. Now we must take all the pain. Yet another “f*** you” from Lenihan and Fianna Fail.
The Greens have pledged that they will support the finance bill when it comes before parliament. Let's hope they attempt to salvage some credibility by insisting that Section 23 tax shelters are abolished for once and for all.
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17 comments:
@GM
"What about our colleagues in Europe whose taxpayers’ funded the bank bailout? "
Small correction, as Ronan Lyons explains..
"... what has happened is something designed to be a win-win for France, Germany and other EU states. Not only do their banks – the bondholders of the Irish banks – get off scot-free, while Irish taxpayers foot the bill, they as European governments earn a tidy little profit from the interest rate differential, middlemen between the markets and Ireland. In that context, the irony is the general perception that European taxpayers are helping to bailout Irish banks, while it is in fact Irish taxpayers helping to bailout European banks.
see http://www.ronanlyons.com/2011/01/18/the-irish-bank-sandwich-time-for-the-eu-to-face-up-to-reality/
Byzantine Politics
Byzantine Brian and Heil Mary (bloody disgrace) will go, but do not be fooled. Fianna Fail believe themselves to be the natural rulers of Ireland and they will be just as dangerous (maybe even more so in opposition) because they will have time to regroup and plan even greater connivance and chicanery in opposition as they are not being distracted with government issues.
Fianna Fail have, and always have had the machinery of power behind them, e.g. The Catholic Church is Fianna Fail at prayer: The GAA is Fianna Fail at play: An Garda Síochána is Fianna Fail in strength: Óglaigh na h-Eireann is Fianna Fail in power. Fianna Fail “FF” clearly displayed on the badge of Óglaigh na h-Eireann, so that there is no mistake about who rules Ireland.
Fianna Fail have the power and they are going to keep it until the Irish people wake up. Only a fool (an Irish fool) will expect change. Remember the Charles Haughey joke: “your money is safe in my pocket” (some joke). Your Money is going to remain safe in the pocket of Fianna Fail.
DBMG
Problem is GM the majority of investors in property were middle income people, providing for their family and future. The majority of them were suckered into a scheme which was heading up a blind alley anyway. My feeling is, if they are gone after especially for reliefs which any other business could write off legitimately (not takling about S23, specifically) then the wreckless large investors will take the majority of them down with them. I also think Labour should be ashamed of their reaction to this crisis, as Joan Burton is doing nothing but stirring up trouble and playing to the galleries, when hard pressed families are just surviving. Its clambering for votes on top of peoples misery. Dispicable.
I fully agree with you GM when you mention the working poor (and it was disgraceful that individuals on the minimum wage got a decrease in their wage!), the problem is, this generic term now encompasses not only the individuals on the new minimum wage, but also the middle waged as well. (This new USC is a cowardly disgrace. Only in Ireland would it introduced under the radar!).
It's a very nasty environment.
Tell you what, Max (Anon). I'll go down to the my local bank or credit union, take out a massive loan, and when I don't want to pay it back I'll just tell them that it was their fault for lending me the money. I am sick of this nonsense. The Irish Government made the banks' debts sovereign when they issued the bank guarantee. Ireland could not borrow on the bond markets because rate were prohibitively high - as the international markets knew we were a basket case. I suppose the EU were supposed to just sit and watch as Ireland brought down the Euro due to greed, Government tax incentives and stupidity?
Once again, here we have Irish people who won't take repsonsibility for their actions and the mess that they - and they alone - created.
@ David. As I say, they'll be out of power for four years max...
@ Dakota. It sure is... and it'll get nastier I think. In fairness to Joan she was good on the issue of the property-based tax shelters in the past... in fact she's the only one who seemed to see (or wanted to see) where they were headed.
But yes, it's all theatre with the opposition parties. You've got the most unpopular government in the country's history and an opposition that can't offer any real alternative, it would seem.
STUPID
Imagine that it is 150 years ago in Ireland. The Irish land overseer at the behest of the English landlord arrives to evict poor people. He is supported by a company of Dragoon Guards. The family are thrown out on the road and the house is torched.
Metaphorically, the same thing is happening to Irish people as their debts are being called in. It does not matter that the TD’s (of all parties) have literally made millions of euros over the last ten years and they have the money safely tucked away in some tax haven.
A respected political pundit recently predicted that Fianna Fail may not gain a majority in the next election but they will not suffer political annihilation either. If so, that suggests to us that many Irish people approve of Fianna Fail’s theft and embezzlement and that they will vote along the same traditional party lines as their forefathers have done. STUPID
AMAZING STUFF GM they are really covering themselves in glory as they head for the exit, shure and begorragh them auld europeans are to blame for chucking their money around who can blame the oirish picking it up, they didnt say they wanted it back did they, its bloddy outragous of them to come along now and demand interest as well. - tis a grand soft sort of a day here in the hills UP DEV
FF time out of govt will be short lived for 2 reasons.
a) the opposition have no Plan B and
b) people will quickly come to realise that this long spell of FF govt from C.J. Haughey to B. Cowen was the best thing that ever happened to Ireland.
Granted it has all gone a bit sour this past year or two but taken over all Ireland has been transformed by FF, and very much to the good. That is the reality that will quickly dawn on people once they leave office.
Mike
@ BH. Yes, my friend. Everybody elses fault, apparently.
@ Mike/Max. Thanks for providing us with a yet another big belly laugh, as usual. Albeit under another assumed name.
THE KILLING OF IRELAND
To: The New Taoiseach
Dear Sir/Madam
I beg of you to read: Eamon de Valera, 1882-1975: Irish Catholic Visionary by Anthony J. Jordan because within the pages of this book there is cogent and inherent analysis of Ireland’s problems. The problem essentially is: Bunreacht na h-Eireann (the Irish Constitution) which was ghost written by John Charles McQuaid at the behest of Pius XII.
Philosopher, Michael Oaksshott summed up the constitution as "a catalogue of rights that was really is just a Hibernian version of Catholic natural law doctrine”. In other words Roman Catholic Teaching disguised in political language.
This concept is reinforced by John A Costello with his obsequious and sickening declaration of loyalty to Pope Pius XII in 1949 after The Republic of Ireland Act 1948, which was a mistake because now many Irish people would not object to being in the British Commonwealth.
Please revoke the Bunreacht na h-Eireann as your first task and declare Ireland to be a secular state (without any religious influence in government) and remove their power and influence in 93% of schools in Irish education. Please remove the disproportionate power of the outmoded Conradh na Gaelige (the Gaelic League) to influence and contaminate Irish Politics.
Please release RTE from state control, as practised in totalitarian dictatorships and allow it to float on the free market instead of it being the tool of one party: Fianna Fail.
If you do not move into the 21st century now, Ireland will become like the island of Haiti without backup or resources. Ireland has to understand that it is not independent and never has been because it cannot sustain power without Britain.
For example, Irish Army Officers have to perform part of their training at Sandhurst, because, Ireland does not have the armaments and sophisticated technology to be independent. The same applies that Military Pilots are obliged to be trained by the RAF. This is a good thing and Britain is a good friend to Ireland.
I have lived here for fifty years and I have known more tranquillity, peace and happiness in England than I have ever experienced at the hands of The Irish Christian Brothers, The Jesuits or in Ireland as a whole. Ireland today is the laughing stock of the financial world.
King Brian (not Boru) and Lady Mary Macbeth (his Consigliere) have murdered Ireland.
Sincerely DBMG
Finally. I agree that Mike is correct in his assertion that Fianna Fail will be back in power sooner than anyone can imagine, because they know where the money is and where the skeletons are buried.
NO! TO MRS WINDSOR
At a Christmas gathering I heard an irascible woman shout “No to Mrs Windsor visiting Ireland”. Out of interest I asked her why she was objecting to one head of state visiting another state. Her objections were absurd. She began a venomous tirade with the invasion of Ireland by Henry II and continued ad nausea about: Cromwell, Father Murphy of Boolavogue; Henry VIII and the Monasteries, Elizabeth I; The Famine; 1916; The Black and Tans etc.
It soon became clear that his lady had no idea of Irish History other than the bigoted, subjective and venomous account taught in Roman Catholic controlled Irish schools.
When I suggested to her that Henry II did not invade Ireland, and was very much against it, she became more irritable.
When I purported that Dermot Mc Murrough’s daughter Aoife and Richard de Clare (Strongbow) had the idea of declaring Strongbow: Ard Ri (the High King of Ireland) she shouted racist and religious abuse at me.
When I said there is some suspicion that (like Macbeth) that they murdered Dermot McMurrough, and only then did Henry II reluctantly become involved with Ireland out of self interest, she went into a violent rage.
When I put forward the role of the Pope Adrian IV (Nicholas Breakspeare) the only English Pope who published the Papal Bull “Laudabiliter” in which Adrian urged Henry II to invade Ireland to bring its Celtic Christian Church under the Roman system she said that I was lying.
When I mentioned about the Pope betraying Roger Casement she became physically abusive. She was completely oblivious to the real truth. She had never read a history book in her life and she was completely controlled by obsolete historical rhetoric.
Until this sort of senseless bigotry and misinformation is expunged from Irish education and Irish politics, Ireland will be a land of social illusion and intellectual waste.
DBMG
GOD IS DEAD
If Gerry Adams is elected as a TD in the next election, then God is dead, and Sam Giancana is the new Francis of Assisi.
The Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams was named in a posthumous statement by former Provisional IRA Belfast commander Brendan ‘Darkie’ Hughes in the book Voices From The Grave last year as the man who ordered the 1972 kidnapping and murder of Ms McConville.
Read more: http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/mcconville-daughter-to-fight-adams-143175.html#ixzz1C3o108PT
THE STINK OF SHITE
It most disconcerting to learn the Mary ‘Faux Pas’ Coughlan and John ‘Amadán’ O'Donoghue have been reselected to be TD’s for the forthcoming election.
Would it not be better to go to the Zoo and find a couple of amiable baboons to stand in both of these Fianna Fail constituencies.
The baboons would be more honest and popular than the present incumbents, and they would might get elected with a bigger majority.
This would prove less costly for the Tax payer. The baboons would not require fast government jets to take them to Donegal or Kerry on useless, extravagant (fraudulent) journeys.
The baboons would be just as articulate (maybe more so) and more honest (definitely more so) than both of these imbecilic candidates.
The baboons would probably have a smelly breath, and would probably fart, piss and shit a lot and cause foul smells. The stink would be no worse then the present stink of corruption caused by Brian Cowan and Mary Coughlan, together with the rest of the Fianna Fail, TD‘s , Senators.
Hi GM, will he (BIFFO) or won't he stand for election? Now let me see, if he does (& gets elected) he will get a nice td salary and if he doesn't he will be in receipt of a pension of EURO 60,000 per annum more than a td salary, oh and his bruv might get a td job out of it. What a f..king country!
Fintian O'toole put it so well at the Nov 2010 GPO rally, I agian repeat his words:
" On one side of this street, in 1913, James Larkin was arrested as he addressed the workers of Dublin who had stood up to claim their dignity as citizens rather than serfs. On the other side, in 1916, Ireland was declared to be a republic under the control of its own citizens.Today, we gather here to reclaim that sense of citizenship. As the fate of our country is being decided, it is a case of mind over matter. They don’t mind, and we don’t matter. Our rulers have no shame, and they believe we have no voice.
They tell us we have no choice, that there is no alternative. A government with no mandate will do a deal with people we have never elected. On the one side, we will borrow yet more billions to bail out the banks. On the other, there will be war on the poor and the vulnerable: a savage assault on the minimum wage, cuts in welfare payments and attacks on basic services for the old and the young, the sick and the disabled. And this will happen while the elite that caused this catastrophe protects its own interests. Under the government’s plan, a single person earning €40,000 will pay exactly the same amount of extra tax as someone earning €300,000. This is not a plan to save Ireland, it is a plan to save the Irish elite.If we really have no choice in all of this, let’s stop pretending that we are a democracy. Let us, as part of the austerity programme, cut two whole years – 2013 and 2016 – because otherwise we will mark those centenaries amid a mockery of their ideals, as a powerless people in a country of mass unemployment, mass emigration and growing poverty and inequality.But we do have a choice. We can emerge from this crisis with a renewed sense of solidarity and justice and with a vigorous democracy in which power has returned to the people. We are here today to say that we are not economic units whose only function is to behave ourselves and pay off the gambling debts of our masters. We are not children who must take our medicine or be sent to bed without our supper. We are not subjects, we are citizens. And we want our republic back."
SURELY NO-ONE THINKS THIS IS JUST A TINY BLIP FOR FF? That they'll be back in 4 yrs?? Why would you want them???
DO You realise other nations suffered serious losses- and are not broke like us? why?? because other nations did not gift the nation's wealth for 9 decades to all kinds of tax breaks for the rich- they built up INFRASTRUCTURE FOR ALL: ICELANDIC PATIENTS ON HOSPITAL TROLLEYS??? NO- these are spotted as often as a poor Fianna Fail TD.
Now: get on www'fintanotoole.ie, and sign his petition for better government.
And get on www.checktheregister.ie- still a few days left to get registered to vote...and get out and vote in Feb. If you changed address recently, just go back to your old polling station. Another fallacy- yes you can still vote even if you don't get a card ( its just to tell you where your station is) just turn up with ID. Vote honest Tds in.
Can't wait to see the faces of the FFers on their judgement day.
WHEN IN A HOLE, STOP DIGGING
Read: Palestineupgrade strains Israeli relations
Irish Independent By Fergus Black
Wednesday January 26 2011
Even though one of the founding fathers of Fianna Fail was Jewish, there is now an inherent anti-Semitism in Ireland. Last May, Fianna Fail TD Chris Andrews made his feelings clear about the impending terrorist attacks on Israel, with the support of The Dail.
Sinn Fein have also declared their blatant anti Semitism with the recent remarks of Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin about Gobbles and about Sinn Fein’s acquiescence to HAMAS ideals. Gerry Adams has also made insulting disparaging comments about Israel.
Ireland is exacerbating it’s stupidity by alienating Israel with it’s recent upgrading of Palestinian diplomatic services. At the moment it might seem to be wise to support and appease HAMAS, but in the long run, in terms of National Security it may prove to be foolish.
The State of Israel and the Jewish race have no intention or wish to destroy, Catholic and other Christian Churches, but HAMAS have a clear objective of killing any opposition to their Fundamental Islamic Ideals. Calls of appeasement by Fianna Fail with HAMAS will not stop their Islamic World Domination objective.
It is strange as reported in today’s papers that Fianna Fail leadership contenders are talking about returning to basic founding political idealism of Fianna Fail, which was to have a Roman Catholic, Gaelic Speaking, United Ireland. Please read: Eamon de Valera, 1882-1975: Irish Catholic Visionary by Anthony J. Jordan. The unattainable, quixotic political ideology is clearly set out. It is so bizarre that will never happen. NEVER!
Does Fianna Fail and Sinn Fein combined, intend to buy discarded rusty WWII guns from HAMAS and discarded NATO combat uniforms from Zimbabwe, and attack some Post Office in the hope of attaining a United Ireland, while HAMAS are amassing suicide bombers (by the back door) to blow Ireland and the Catholic Church off the face of the earth?
What will the “Republican Party” do when a “dirty bomb” blows up Ballinasloe of some other Irish town, or blows ‘Leinster House’ and it’s inhabitants to smithereens.
So when Fianna Fail ( The Republican Party) ensures that no British soldiers remain on Irish soil (their pristine objective) and Sinn Fein slaughter more and more innocent people, then what is left? A small minded, bankrupted country with nothing to give and nothing to say!!!
DBMG
‘Wacky’ Beyond Words
Ireland has had Countess Markiewicz and Count John McCormack, but Irish politics are even more "whacky' now that we have Gerry Adams “The Baron of Northstead”. I have heard of the bizarre The Adams Family, but Ireland is becoming ‘wacky’ beyond words inasmuch that “The Baron of Northstead” is now on an equal baronial level with Baroness Thatcher. No wonder this announcement caused such mirth and hilarity in the House of Commons
It would suit contemporary Irish politics to have Baron Frankenstein represent a Fianna Fail constituency to frighten and intimidate the electorate and turn them into rapacious monsters.
Count Dracula could represent Sinn Fein and he could bleed the electorate dry of every drop of blood, (and every penny) which Sinn Fein probably intend to do. There are said to be several Sinn Fein millionaires.
Section 23 rich investors are gone they have used up the allowances and scarpered.
Those who are left are up to their eyes in massive loans, many in neg equity.
I paid 100k extra for the relief........so leave us alone !
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