Coming soon to Myopia

A three part series with analysis on the death and impending death of the political parties that elected Bertie Ahern as Taoiseach in 2007.

Part 1. Death of the PD's.

Part 2. Death of the Greens.

Part 3. Death of Fianna Fáil. 

Corruption after Mahon

Reconstruction of a Dublin County Council meeting circa 1997

The Mahon Tribunal, originally set up in 1997 by the Fianna Fail Minister for the Environment Noel Dempsey has finally reported 15 years later. It was set up following an offer of a reward of £10,000 by the chairman of An Taisce Michael Smith for information relating to planning corruption. It is likely to end up costing us more than €250million.

Listening to some political journalists, commentators and politicians today describing the report as shocking is nothing short of a farce. Any serious person or organisation involved in public life who claims to find the report shocking is clearly doing it for dramatic effect because there is nothing particularly new or shocking in the report. This mock outrage itself is part of the problem.

After 15 years the planning system has not substantially changed nor will it, without a change of attitude by Irish people. At local authority level, dodgy rezonings are still taking place and rumours of bungs to councillors are still commonplace. In my experience, there are always some councillors who are inherently corrupt and others who are effectively corrupt. It is important to note that there are others who are neither.

To point the finger at former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and Fianna Fail while correct at one level misses the point that it requires a majority of councillors on any local authority for corruption to succeed. Simple maths will show that there are others besides Fianna Fail involved. It also misses the point that all the watchdogs are failing to do their jobs properly. This particularly applies to the media, the judiciary and the police. An investigation into the properties bought and sold during the recent boom by media people, legal people and police people would prove to be extremely interesting.

The Mahon report said that corruption affected every level of Irish political life. Yes, we all know that and so do the dogs in the street. The important question from this very lengthy and very expensive report is; will anything change for the better as a result of it? It will of course. The level of awareness of corruption has increased. That in itself is a change. However, to what extent will corruption continue to be tolerated in Ireland? None of us can be sure of the answer to that.

Many people in Ireland put pressure on politicians to help them circumvent the rules. That is corruption. In some parts of Ireland, the first thing a young couple does when they want to set up a new home is to go and see a local politician to organise planning, rezoning or a social house for them. Just because everybody does it, does not mean it is anything other than corrupt.

In all probability there will always be a certain level of corruption in public life just as there will always be a certain level of crime in society. However, under no circumstances should corruption ever be tolerated or indeed become part of the system itself. The financial chaos that Ireland finds itself in today can be directly linked to planning corruption in public life. If, after the publication of the Mahon report our society continues to tolerate corruption then we are a truly myopic society. Therefore it is crucial that people stop voting for clearly corrupt politicians.

The attitude of the state to special needs is utterly Myopic

President Higgins at NUI Galway

A recent article in the Examiner by Dr Tony Humphries entitled Core Connection was the last straw for so many parents of Autistic children in Ireland. The article maintained that “the adults they researched live predominantly in their heads and possess few or no heart qualities”. His article effectively said that autism was caused by a lack of love from the parents. His article was systematically discredited by parents, journalists and experts alike. However, his attitude is not unique. While it flies in the face of the reality for families with special needs children it is a view shared by some of those in key decision making positions. “Blame the parents”, is their mantra.

Parents of children with special needs face an incredible uphill struggle in Ireland. The principle of early intervention is a sound one. It has two main benefits. When children are treated at an early stage of development, many potential difficulties can be bypassed. For example, speech therapy is more effective, the earlier it starts. Secondly, costly institutional care can be avoided if a child with special needs gains crucial self-reliance skills at an early age.

Unfortunately early intervention is far from a reality in Ireland and it is really only available to people who happen to have a bit of spare cash. The state system of diagnosis is horrifically slow, with waiting lists at every turn. So the only easy way to get an early diagnosis is by getting it privately. Even with a diagnosis, services are very hard to get.

The argument for early intervention holds little sway with the department of finance because long-term savings are never valued to the same extent as short-term ones.

Parents of special needs children need far more care and attention than other parents. What they actually get is the opposite. They face a constant battle for rights that don’t really exist, an endless entanglement in red tape and constant pressure to fundraise for services which should be provided by the state but are actually provided by charities.

Over the years many parents have gone to court in order to get the required services for their children. The reality is that the state does not provide adequate services for special needs children and their families. Rather than proactively helping parents along their difficult paths, endless blockages are put in their way. People who get carers allowance are constantly being asked to justify themselves and fill in forms. Surely this could be done through the schools and other institutions involved rather than the constant harassment of parents.

The Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs (EPSEN) Act 2004, states that “a child with special educational needs shall be educated in an inclusive environment with children who do not have such needs”. It also talks about “inclusion” rather than “exclusion” and contains many other progressive measures. However, most of the provisions outlined in the Act have not been implemented. Recent budgetary cutbacks have certainly not improved things but are perhaps used as an excuse.

The reluctance to fully implement the EPSEN Act is myopic. The long term social and financial benefits of early intervention are clear. We need a way to ensure that long term benefits can over-ride short-term financial considerations. It really shouldn’t be that difficult to achieve.

Must the Irish always emigrate to succeed?

Bono and Bob Geldof

Emigration from Ireland is far from a new phenomenon. It has been common for as long as anyone can remember. The number of emigrants has ebbed and flowed but emigration is now very much part of our social and political systems.

From the Flight of the Earls in 1607 to the Flight of the Wild Geese in 1691 through to the Potato Famine and the Young Irelanders rebellion of 1848 the brightest and best Irish people have always felt the need to emigrate.

The success of Irish emigrants abroad is the stuff of legend. Notable examples would include Thomas Francis Meaghar, the Kennedy Family, Admiral William Brown and Oscar Wilde.

Unfortunately the success of Irish people at home is not quite so legendary. In more recent times, people such as Bono and Bob Geldof have hit the headlines for all the right reasons. In both cases they had to go abroad before they were fully recognised in Ireland. Indeed another notable emigrant James Joyce is famous for saying “Ireland is the old sow that eats her farrow”.

At the moment, large numbers of Irish people are once again heading for the boats and the planes. Foreign recruitment fairs are totally oversubscribed and yet there is a commonly held view in Ireland that other countries cannot provide a better life for Irish people. Any rational examination of the economic and social indicators will give a lie to that. For example the unemployment rate in Ireland is 14.8% while the UK rate is 8.4%.

From those I know who have gone or are planning to go abroad, many people want to leave Ireland simply because they are disgusted with the political leadership of the country and they want to get the hell out. Irish entrepreneurs are leaving Ireland in their droves. It is currently very hard to set up a successful business in Ireland. Without foreign entrepreneurs and inward investment Ireland would now probably be considered a third world country. There is an urban myth of an Irish businessman who got nowhere with any of the Irish agencies until he registered his company in Boston and pretended to be an American. If it were true he probably would have just moved to Boston.

If our brightest and best always leave when the going gets tough, then mediocrity will always prevail. Our political system tends to favour political dynasties who are good at attending funerals rather than people who have any real leadership skills. Those with talent who emigrate tend to make it easy for those who wish to perpetuate the system of “it’s not what you know, it’s who you know…” that has bedevilled Irish public life for generations.

Surely we must start to value our brightest and best and to hell with the begrudgers. Will we ever learn to value Irish people in Ireland or must Myopia always prevail?

The real cost of Ireland’s bank bailout

(We need a latter day “Marshall plan”.)

Central Bank - Dublin

Ireland’s National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) has estimated that the total cost of the bank bailout to the Irish state will be €62.9 billion. Forget all the other numbers that are being thrown around, this is the crucial one. By any standards, this is a lot of money. Half of this is effectively financed by promissory notes relating to the former Anglo Irish Bank. The apparent need to save Anglo from default was greater for the European Central Bank (ECB) than for the Irish Central Bank.

With budget deficits running well into the negative and the costs of borrowing prohibitive, it looks fairly impossible for Ireland to manage itself out of the present financial crisis through austerity alone. The reason that there has been so much emphasis on austerity is an attempt to make the Irish economy more competitive by significantly reducing expectations. However, the unwillingness by successive Governments to restructure the public service is a very real problem. It is perhaps time for a “Benchmarking II”, process.

To deal with Ireland’s economic woes in the longer term, a three step approach is needed as follows;

1. Making Ireland’s economy more competitive.

2.  Restructuring our debt so that it becomes possible to repay it.

3. A latter day Marshall plan for Ireland. (NewEra?)

The third step is the most important one and has not yet emerged from the waffle and the spin following on from the 5 point plan that saw Enda Kenny and his Fine Gael party sweep to power in 2011. At the time of writing, the Government seems to be working hard on the first two steps but without any obvious flair or panache. There is very little sign of anything real happening with NewEra or the “Smart Economy” as the previous Government called it.

It was so easy for Enda Kenny to stand up in opposition and promise to create 100,000 new jobs, largely in the green tech sector. It is much harder for him to actually deliver them in Government. In fairness he is being constrained somewhat by his coalition partners the Labour Party who will do nothing to upset the sacred cows in the existing semi-state companies. However, if anything is to really be achieved then some sacred cows will need to be slaughtered.

Take Energy and Communications for example. Many of the promised jobs are in these sectors. No semi-state company is realistically capable of doing anything ambitious from a financial point of view or from an organisational point of view. They simply won’t be able to borrow the required capital as their finances are too entangled with Government finances. They are set up organisationally to manage their existing business and not to start anything new. New semi-states might be capable of doing something but the private sector provides a much better option to get things done. We need a vibrant private sector with ambitious new projects to boost the economy and effectively bail us out of our “bail out”.

Boosting private enterprise can be achieved by the Government taking a very proactive approach and backing major projects in the green tech and high tech sectors. It is more important that they back them by facilitating them and by removing obstacles rather than by throwing public money at them. The lack of progress with high speed broadband is one example. The slow rate of progress in connecting our electricity supply to the European super grid is another.

There is private funding available if the stranglehold of vested interests in the semi-states is reduced by Government. To be fully effective though, the Government has to make sure that the existing business of the semi-states is not damaged in the process. However, huge gains can be made by targeting areas of new business such as the export of renewable energy or by allowing a privately funded rail link to be built from Dublin city centre to Dublin airport.

The advantage of a Marshall plan or NewEra approach over austerity is that it will achieve three major objectives rather than one.

·         It will increase GDP, thus reducing the debt to GDP ratio.

·         It will provide employment, thus reducing the dependence on the state.

·         It will further reduce the budget deficit by increasing tax revenue.

Austerity only succeeds in reducing the budget deficit. It has largely negative impacts otherwise.

It is hugely ironic that the German economy was rescued from the abyss after World War II by the Marshall plan. Its current politicians and institutions appear to be favouring the austerity approach for its wayward partners in the Euro zone. That approach led to the rise of the Nazi party and caused the war in the first place. That’s myopia for you.

Defining Ireland’s political system

Government Buildings - Dublin

Despite the blanket coverage of politics in the Irish media, very few people have any real grasp of how politics actually works in Ireland. So what is our political system? Perhaps we could compare it to our economic system, something that Irish people have a much better understanding of. In fact the political system is all about power. The currency of politics is power just as the currency of economics is money.

While many people like to think that they are not part of the political system, to a greater or lesser extent they are. Politics is not just a small group of politicians sitting up in Leinster House making grand pronouncements on the telly. Nor is it the hyped up election count where winners are hoisted in the air to a cacophony of cheers and losers are depicted with grim faces tearing up pieces of paper. It is in fact the sum total of all human interaction.

The wielding of power happens at all levels of our society. There are power structures in every local school and sports club. There are power structures in families, in institutions, in companies and in all human relationships. The balance of power is constantly shifting as people interact with each other. This is quite comparable with economic interaction where wealth is affected as money changes hands. The difference with power is that it is much more complex and not easily measured.

Politics does affect our daily lives. Decisions and rules are put in place by all sorts of institutions most notably the Government, the EU and local councils. However, banks, businesses, courts, colleges, clubs, museums etc. all make rules that affect people.  Most of them are not very effective as people are ingenious in how they break them or get around them. Many of the laws that Government brings in are not enacted and an even greater number are not enforced.  People just do not have time to resort to the legal system to resolve every single dispute. If they did the legal system would soon grind to a halt.

In Ireland the wielding of power is now very unclear. Low level political interactions are not the problem. The problem lies with governance. Local authorities are dysfunctional. They are now effectively the local agents of national government or merely a vehicle for providing local services. At local level, the balance of power lies with the paid officials and not with the elected councillors. This is not the case at national level where real decisions can be made. However the civil service does most of the real work and decision making because Ministers tend to be tied up with far too much constituency work. Much of the progressive decision making in Ireland in recent years has been put in place by the European Union but this is now grinding to a halt as the EU is getting strangled by bureaucracy and financial worries.

 In short the system we have is hugely imperfect but it sort of works after a fashion. The big problem with our system overall is that it encompasses very little long term or strategic planning and what does exist is usually tokenistic or ineffective. Yes there are those who plan for the longer term, most notably businesses. However, in the system of Governance that we have, short term thinking or political myopia is predominant. The purpose of this blog is to explore ways in which we can bring a greater level of effective long term planning into the Irish political system.