I moved to Ireland over ten years ago and although there is much to love and admire about the country and its people it does have its perplexing side as well.
I spend much of my time listening to talk radio as this is how I keep up with what's happening in the outside world. Which station I listen to depends on where I am at the time as it is governed by the strength of the signal (or rather the weakness. Ireland is not exactly cutting edge when it comes to radio waves, cell phone coverage or high speed broadband).
When I'm in Galway I go for Newstalk, the best station in Ireland as far as I'm concerned as it has great presenters in Claire Byrne, Tom Dunne, Sean Moncrieff, Karen Coleman and George Hook et al. When I'm in Leitrim I choose the UK's BBC Radio 5 Live, again largely for presenters such as Victoria Derbyshire, Mayo & Kermode, Peter Allen & Anita Anand, Colin Murray etc. Humourous, opinionated, consumate professionals all.
This way I stay informed about events on both sides of the pond. Each station excels at sports reporting (sport on the radio is surprisingly entertaining) but their news coverage is my main reason for tuning in.
I've had great fun over recent months listening to revelations about the shenanigans in both Dáil Éireann and the Commons. The Credit Crunch, NAMA, WMDs, E-voting machines, bankers' bonuses and, of course, TDs' and MPs' expenses have all been given a slap.
Only yesterday Newstalk played an unexpurgated clip of Green Party backbencher Paul Gogarty's outburst during a parliamentray debate, “with all due respect, in the most unparliamentary language, fuck you, deputy Stagg, fuck you,”. Brilliant radio, and hats off to Newstalk for not bleeping.
The political scandals afflicting both Ireland and the U.K. are broadly similar yet the fallout from them is radically different in each country and I'm not entirely sure why.
In the U.K., in the wake of the MPs' expenses furore, there were several cabinet and ministerial resignations (including Michael Martin, the Speaker of the House!), and many MPs have declared their intentions to stand down at the next election, all due to the backlash from an outraged electorate.
And in Ireland? Here's a few quotes from 'emara.org', an Irish news website:
"Our poltroon politicos don’t do resignations. They do you, me and the political system but not resignations – those are for queer hawks. Voluntarily abdicating power is something for an English MP, a German politician or some other Johnny Foreigner such as the Swedish Minister for Culture who resigned after admitting she had not paid her television licence fee."
"Resignations, you see, are for people who take politics seriously, such as the Speaker of the House of Commons, Michael Martin, who resigned because of the way he handled a controversy over MPs’ spurious expenses and allowances."
"Here we have a culture of unaccountability. The politicos don’t care what people think."
So it's official - Irish politicians don't resign. Having said that, John O'Donoghue, until recently Ceann Comhairle (the equivalent of the U.K.'s Speaker of the House), did exactly that over expenses he'd claimed dating back to his time as Minister for Art, Sport and Tourism. But, boy, was it hard going, as emara points out:
"OK, so the Opposition managed to wring from him (O'Donoghue) some weasel words that were designed to sound like an apology. However, according to an Irish Examiner commentator, what we got was a self-serving and unintentionally hilarious account of how embarrassed he felt at the way his considerable costs were incurred in arrangements made on his behalf. The result, said the local scribe, was that his self-proclaimed embarrassment turned ‘the ex-Minister of Fun into a national figure of fun’."
Following months of 'will he, won't he' in the Irish media O'Donoghue finally, and very reluctantly, fell on his sword, albeit it with a very nice golden parachute and the prospect of remaining as a TD.
And that's it. One man gone.
I arrived in Ireland in the midst of several public enquiry tribunals. The Moriarty Tribunal (all the tribunals are named after the legal bods who chair them), for example, was set up in 1997 to investigate irregular payments made to politicians in respect of 'services rendered'. Now, being a bear of little brain, I don't understand the fine detail of the tribunals. What I do understand is that after twelve years this one is still ongoing and that it's going to cost the country an estimated 100 million euro, with most of this dosh going to the barristers. Nice work if you can get it.
The Mahon Tribunal into planning irregularities (payments to councillors and politicians in exchange for favourable results for planning applications - sounds very similar to the Moriarty Tribunal, doesn't it?), was also set up in 1997, is also still ongoing and has also cost a bundle.
The common thread linking these goings-on seems to be that, as far as I can make out, very few people have lost their liberty. Frank Dunlop is one. His main crimes seem to have been (a) being the guy who delivered the cash-stuffed brown envelopes and (b) getting caught. Certain other individuals have been identified as having been at least a 'bit iffy' in their dealings and some large sums of money have been taken from them but they walk the streets freely.
It's all very complicated, but what is it about the Irish psyche that allows this sort of carry-on? If you listen to Newstalk you'll hear just as much public outrage during the phone-ins as you do on Radio 5 Live, but nothing much results.
Well, Eddie Hobbs, Ireland's very own celebrity financial guru, has a theory to which I subscribe somewhat. Another emara quote:
"Eddie Hobbs suggests that the main reason disgraced Irish politicians do not resign is because we, the voters, are tacitly complicit in a ‘grey system of quasi-corruption’. We have a superfluous amount of TDs, he said, and a number of constituents which is small enough to encourage rampant clientism. ‘The farmer who hopes to get a piece of land rezoned, or the businessman in pursuit of a grant are not going to seek the head of a local TD simply because of a whiff of scandal involving expenses,’ he argued."
So there you have it. Irish voters will re-elect the bastards in the hope that their granny will get a new bathroom or that the local council will be persuaded to drop a nice bit of tarmac on their driveway.
Different strokes for different folks,
oldblodger
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