O'Donoghue defends his Expenses as Minister

John O'Donoghue (photo), the Ceann Comhairle (Speaker or Chairman of the Dáil, the lower House of Parliament) has made his first public comments on the expenses controversy surrounding his time as government minister.

O'Donoghue defends his record as the Minister for Arts, Sports & Tourism (in the cabinet of Taoiseach Bertie Ahern) and as Ceann Comhairle in a letter to all members of the Dáil, which was sent last Friday.

He says he had "stayed silent so far on the extensive media coverage of expenses" in order "to protect the impartiality" of his current position.
It would "not be proper" for him "to become involved in public debate" concerning his time spent as a minister, despite what he called "the natural desire to cross swords with critics" in his own defence.

This is a pretty lame excuse from a man who has wasted taxpayers' money on a grand scale, running up expenses of more than € 550,000 for a lavish lifestyle that was in no way justified by his position as one of the minor Irish cabinet ministers.

He acknowledged that some of the costs incurred "appeared high", and "sincerely regrets that they occurred".

But he pointed out that arrangements were made by civil servants, and as a minister he would not be informed of the details of such expenditure.

On the basis of this statement, one has to wonder who is actually in charge of our government departments. I am sure that any minister who would want to keep expenses low would easily be able to do so. And if a minister would ask his officials what things cost and how much is spent on his travels and engagements, no one would refuse to tell him.

But old-style Fianna Fáil spongers like John O'Donoghue would never care what Irish taxpayers have to pay for his grand ambitions and lavish lifestyle. As long as he has not to pay for it with his own money, only the best is good enough for him and other political parasites.

Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny said that O'Donoghue's response did not go far enough and that he needed to apologise to the people. Well, that would of course be better than his lame excuses. But what the Ceann Comhairle should really do is to pay back at least some of the money he squandered while living like a king.

Roisin Shortall, the spokesperson on Social & Family Affairs for the Labour Party, said the Ceann Comhairle's statement did not appear to appreciate the extent to which the public has been shocked by the level of expenses incurred.

And she is quite right. John O'Donoghue only appreciates a life in luxury, but not where the money for it comes from. If he had any decency left, he would resign - as Ceann Comhairle and as TD - and free the nation from his unpleasant presence in politics.
But this would be too much to expect from a man like O'Donoghue, whose greed and ignorance are only matched by his selfishness and arrogance.

The Emerald Islander

Galway Maritime Festival attracts large Crowds

About 150,000 people from all over Ireland and from abroad have come to Galway for this long weekend to attend the city's two-week-long maritime festival, which is organised to celebrate the stop-over of the 2008/2009 Volvo Ocean Race (see my entry of May 24th).

According to experts, the Volvo Ocean Race is 'the 6th-biggest sporting event in the world', and the fastest and most expensive sailing boats ever built are taking part in the 37,000 mile round-the-globe challenge.

The Garda Síochána appeals to motorists travelling west to allow themselves "considerable additional time for their journeys", as long tail-backs are expected on the roads to Galway.

Fáilte Ireland, our usually quite useless tourist board, says that it now believes the additional income from the festival will far exceed the € 43 million it had originally predicted.

Attendance figures will set new records for a maritime event in the West of Ireland, but they will not reach the numbers Waterford has seen four years ago, when we hosted the start of the 2005 International Tall Ships' Race. In only four days, during which we had 88 sailing vessels in port - including 28 famous class A ships (which are at least 40 metres long, but many are a lot larger) - Waterford registered more than 450,000 visitors to the city (which has only about 60,000 inhabitants).

In two years' time - in early June of 2011 - we will host the same event again and I am looking forward to it already in great and happy anticipation.

The Emerald Islander

Stay away from Ireland!

According to a survey, one in five foreign tourists coming to Ireland are dissatisfied with the cost of living here.

New research from Fáilte Ireland (our strangely named national agency for tourism) shows that 22% of tourists view the general cost of living in Ireland as a disadvantage.

This is no surprise to me. In fact, if anything does surprise me in relation to this matter, it is that only 22% of our foreign visitors are dissatisfied with the cost of living in this overpriced rip-off country. Perhaps the rest are too polite or too embarrassed to complain, or maybe too disgusted to say anything to an Irish person doing a survey on tourism.

Almost everything in Ireland is on average twice as expensive as in the other EU countries in Western Europe. And the differences with the newer EU members in Eastern Europe are even larger.
Irish customers - the natives as much as the tourists - are ripped-off systematically by those who control the means of production (as Karl Marx put it). Industrialists as well as traders are growing rich and fat on this small nation, and it has always been that way in Ireland.
When the founding fathers of our autonomous Free State (that later became our independent Republic) began to create our own national structures, they only concentrated on the State and the (Catholic) Church, but left the Economy to those who had always controlled it: the English, the Anglo-Irish ascendency and some wealthy locals who managed to fit into a few niches left by them.

Meanwhile most of our Economy is controlled by foreign interests, predominantly American and British. And those who control the plants, shops, hotels and restaurants are the ones who set the prices. There is no price control in Ireland, and hardly any consumer affairs agency worth the name.

So we pay through the nose, and anyone sentimental or stupid enough to come here as a tourist has to do the same. In fact, some cruel Irish fleece foreigners even more than the locals, on the basis that they don't know the ropes and have no choice but to accept what they are given and charged in a foreign place.

Last year I had to stay for some days in Dublin. When I was looking for suitable accommodation, I was truly shocked by the arrogance and greed most of our capital's hotels displayed. Not only were most of the rooms over-priced, the hotels were actually charging a further increased price for the same rooms on Fridays and Saturdays.

I have been to many countries and many hotels over the span of my life, but never experienced such blatant greed as in Dublin. Anywhere else one gets a fixed price when booking a hotel for a week. Seven days are seven days in any place and country. Only in Dublin could one not book a week in a hotel, because the Fridays and Saturdays were charged separately at a much higher price.

I did eventually find a suitable hotel for a - relatively - acceptable price. It is a family-owned business that also offers an excellent breakfast buffet (included in the room price) and the free use of a fitness centre attached to the hotel. (In all the large hotels which belong to big hotel chains there was nothing extra on offer and all one could get was rip-off and exploitation.) But I did swear to stay away from Dublin in future as much as possible and never to recommend it to my friends.

This year, as we are in economic depression and financial crisis, the Dublin hotels are falling over themselves with special offers. There are radio ads almost every day, with prices as low as € 39 for a room in a top hotel in Dublin. But don't be fooled or trapped by such obvious bait. They still find ways to make people pay more than they should and charge all sorts of things extra that one would have included in the basic price in any decent country.

As it is, I have the misfortune to live here, and thus I have little choice but pay the prices we are charged. But if I were a tourist, Ireland would be the last country on this planet (or perhaps the second-last after the USA) where I would go on holiday.
If you have any common sense and want to avoid being robbed and ripped-off by a greedy hotel and tourist industry, then stay away from Ireland!

The Emerald Islander

The Aer Corps - Fianna Fáil's Air Taxi Service

Yesterday we learned that a large side door had fallen off a new Aer Corps helicopter (above) in mid-flight over Co. Kerry. (see yesterday's entry below)
On its own this would be a rather minor news item, of real interest only to military experts and aircraft enthusiasts. But there is a lot more to this incident than the eye meets at first glance.

Although the official investigation by Aer Corps experts is still under way and I would not want to jump to conclusions from a distance, an incident like this can have in principal three possible reasons:

1. It could be a construction fault;
2. It could be caused by wear and tear or metal fatigue;
3. It could be the result of shoddy maintenance.

The first option could be blamed on the helicopter's Italian manufacturer, Augusta-Westland. It would be the least embarrassing for Ireland, and faults can happen anywhere, even though they should not.
Option two is the least likely. The AW 139 is a new helicopter and regarded as reliable and solid .
The third possibility looks like the most plausible to me. During my own long service in the Navy I had plenty of experience with helicopters, including as a crew member of one for some time. It is very easy to overlook a small maintenance detail, especially during the routine conditions any military organisation developes in peace time.

But the real scandal is not the falling off of a helicopter door, as inconvenient and embarrassing it might be for the Aer Corps. No, the outrage is the use of this helicopter - and others operated by the Irish Aer Corps - for unnecessary ministerial journeys.

It has emerged that the AW 139, a modern medium-sized aircraft that can transport 15 people at one time, was used yesterday as the private air taxi for Martin Cullen (right), Ireland's Minister for the Arts, Sport & Tourism. It collected the Fianna Fáil TD in the morning in Waterford, his home city and constituency, and flew him and one assistant to Killarney, Co. Kerry. There the minister gave a short speech to the about 250 members of the Irish Hotels' Federation, which were holding their annual conference in the Malton Hotel.

There was nothing urgent in the minister's address, and nothing new either. What he said to the hoteliers was just what they expected to hear: Tourist numbers are down significantly (they fell by 3% last year, and the predictions for 2009 are much worse), prices for hotel accomodation - and everything else in Ireland - are way too high, and we all will have to suffer, pull together and do our bit to get out of recession.

What was so important in this speech, and in the minister's visit to the conference in Killarney, that it justified the use of an AW 139 helicopter, at a cost - for Ireland's taxpayers - of € 8130?
Like every Irish minister Martin Cullen has a large Mercedes government car, with a Garda as permanent chauffeur. As his address to the hoteliers began at 2.15 pm, there was plenty of time to drive from Waterford to Killarney. Cullen had no appointments in Waterford on Monday, so if he had left in the morning, he would have arrived in Killarney well in time for lunch. This would have cost a fraction of the helicopter ride.
And while the minister was in the air, his chauffeur drove the empty black Mercedes to Dublin, with orders to meet his boss in the afternoon after the helicopter had brought him to the capital.

After giving his speech, Martin Cullen - apparently in a hurry - left the Malton Hotel in Killarney and boarded the AW 139 waiting for him outside. (During the minister's address the helicopter was spotted by local people flying circles over the nearby National Park. Was that waste of fuel necessary as well?) Once again there were only two passengers - Cullen and his assistant - in the 15-seater aircraft.
Shortly after take-off the left side door suddenly detached itself and crashed into the National Park from a height of 150 metres. (It has meanwhile been located and removed by Aer Corps personnel.) As reported yesterday already, the helicopter then made an emergency landing at the Killarney Golf & Fishing Club.

Martin Cullen emerged "visibly shaken", but determined to be flown to Dublin. He was brought by car to Co. Kerry's regional airport at nearby Farranfore, where another Aer Corps AW 139 picked him up later and flew him and his assistant to the capital.
This second helicopter had been over Co. Cork, as part of a combined exercise involving the Aer Corps and the Naval Service. It was ordered to abandon its operation and became the second air taxi for Martin Cullen in one day, which raised the costs for the minister's travel from Waterford to Dublin via Killarney to a staggering € 16,260!!!

The fact that a third AW 139 was used to fly the Aer Corps' investigation team from Baldonnel to Killarney added a further € 8130 to the expenses, though the minister can of course not be held responsible for that, or the incident itself.
However, his inflated ego and sense of self-importance, which made him travel in an Aer Corps helicopter rather than in his ministerial car, has cost the Irish taxpayers dearly. Three of the Aer Corps' six AW 139 had to be used, which is one third of Ireland's entire military helicopter fleet. The cost of the whole affair, including the aftermath, investigation and recovery of the fallen-off door, will be in the area of € 35,000, not counting the costs for repairing the damaged AW 139. How such a sum could ever be justified for a minor domestic appearance and short speech by one of the lesser cabinet ministers is beyond my capacity of understanding.

But it is not even the worst misuse of Aer Corps aircraft by an Irish government minister. A few years ago (the then Tánaiste) Mary Harney (left) - now the widely hated Minister for Health - used the main government jet to fly from Dublin to Sligo, for the sole purpose of being present at the opening of a personal friend's new off-licence (shop for alcoholic drinks).
Such was the political culture in our 'Celtic Tiger' banana republic...

This afternoon a caller to the Live Line programme (with Joe Duffy) on RTÉ Radio 1 pointed out that Martin Cullen could have easily taken a regular Ryan Air flight from Kerry to Dublin.
But Ireland's most popular tourist airline seemed to be not good enough for the cabinet minister with responsibility for the country's Tourism.

Slice by slice and day by day the true dimensions of our scandalous banana republic become ever more visible, even though - to quote a song popular in the 1930s - "No, we grow no bananas". In a state of unprecedented arrogance and ignorance our incompetent government ministers - and in particular those belonging to Fianna Fáil - behave almost like French aristocrats before 1789 or medieval princes with feudal powers. They have forgotten that they were elected by the Irish people, in order to represent them. Instead they live in a world of their own, on a little golden planet that only exists in their imagination. Unfortunately they make the rest of us, all those who live in the real world, pay for their extravagant lifestyle of luxury and pretence.

In two weeks' time - on St. Patrick's Day - it will even be worse, as almost every Irish minister will use the occasion to fly off - always first class - to faraway places at taxpayers' expense. The Taoiseach will fly to Washington, to present a bowl of shamrock to President Barack Obama, if he likes it or not.
This 'tradition', only invented in the late 20th century, reminds me of medieval vassals, who had once a year to pay tribute to their overlord and humour him with presents.
We must be the only nation in the world where the whole government leaves the country on the National Day!

There is nothing wrong with presenting foreign leaders with a special gift of Irish shamrock on the 17th of March. But such friendly gestures fall into the portfolio of ambassadors. And we have plenty of them abroad. What is the point in having them, if they are not even entrusted with the handing over of a bunch of shamrock...?

I am begining to wonder if yesterday's falling-off of the helicopter's door was a kind of omen, a special sign for the situation we are in. It is somehow telling that by now even Irish aircraft are losing parts in mid-air, after the wheels fell off our banks first, and then off our entire economy.

The fighters of 1916, whose blood was the final price for our eventual independence, must be rotating in their graves when they see Fianna Fáil turning our Aer Corps into the party's private air transport service. On Liveline today one of the many angry callers suggested that we need a real revolution in Ireland, and that some heads need to roll...
It would not surprise me if views like his are gaining more momentum, thanks to self-serving arrogant wasters like Martin Cullen. His ilk has sparked revolutions before...

The Emerald Islander

The Failure of Fáilte Ireland

Elements among the Irish population are obviously of the opinion that as long as they can follow and understand certain things - regardless how unusual, complicated or weird they might be - everyone else will be able to do so, too.

This opinion is especially prevalent in the offices of various organisations in Dublin, and rarely do they make an effort to see things from anywhere further away than Dun Laoghaire (a nearby suburb on the Irish Sea).

Such attitude leads - to give just one prominent example - to the fact that Ireland's national tourism development authority, whose purpose is to attract new and more foreign visitors to the country, is named Fáilte Ireland. The word fáilte is Irish (Gaelic) and means 'welcome'. But how many foreigners, who of course do not speak any Irish, know this?

Despite being the republic's first official language and as such compulsory for the pupils in every school, Irish is even in Ireland used only by a tiny minority of people, most of which live in very remote parts on the west coast. Apart from a handful of specialist academics, no-one outside the island even knows of Irish and assumes that the national language is English. Which, in fact, is the case.

So when foreigners, most of whom do speak English, see the name Fáilte Ireland, they try to understand it through English. The nearest word they will come-up with in English is 'fail', and at that stage they usually give up on the matter.

In my humble opinion it is an absolutely daft idea to use a language no-one abroad understands or speaks to promote a nation's tourism. And the results, especially from last year and this year, speak for themselves. There is a drastic drop in tourist numbers in Ireland. As today is August 31st - traditionally seen as 'the last day of summer' - it is appropriate to draw a little balance.

The reasons for the drop in tourists are manifold, and not entirely linked to the enigmatic name of the agency. It is quite obvious that the extremely low value of the US Dollar has a major effect. In the past it was quite affordable - and at times even cheap - for Americans to come for a holiday in Ireland.
Not anymore. With the US Dollar at the lowest exchange rate to our Euro any European holiday is now an expensive luxury for US citizens.

The fact that Ireland is also one of the most expensive countries in Europe, with extra rip-off for tourists who don't know any better and have not much of a choice once they are here, Ireland's tourism industry has entered a state of self-destruction. According to statistics a third of all hotel beds in the country were permanently empty, even during the main season. But nevertheless it did not occur to our hoteliers that by reducing their prices they might actually get more people in and make more money. Logic, as it happens, is not one of the strongest traits of the Irish...

While the US Dollar is extremely low, Britain's Pound Sterling has also fallen quite significantly in relation to the Euro. This reduces the influx of tourists from the UK, who were traditionally still the main group of visitors to Ireland.

Combine that with bad service in the hospitality industry, extremely high prices for - at best - mediocre accommodation and often quite simple food (unless one goes to one of the hyper-posh food temples in Dublin where they charge easily a week's wages for one fancy meal) and you will have the reasons why less and less people coming to visit Ireland. The bad weather, which gave us totally washed-out summers for two years in a row now, does not help either, of course.

Fáilte Ireland, despite expensive analysis of the situation, has not developed new ideas. They still concentrate their main efforts on the UK and - most of all - the American market. Little to no ideas have been put into place to attract new visitors from the European continent or even from further afield, such as the now increasingly wealthy countries of Asia.

So perhaps the national tourism development authority carries her name rightfully. But I would suggest to make a small adjustment to the spelling and call it Fail thee, Ireland.

Or, perhaps Brian Lenihan, our new Minister for Finance, who is at present desperately seeking ways of saving government money in order to survive the recession we are in, could go a step further. He might as well close down the national tourism development authority, as it does nothing the name suggests, except fail. Nor deserves it any further public money just to produce ever more failure.

All hotels and tourist attractions have their own advertisement, promotional material and - by now - their own websites anyway. So what is the point in having a public body doing exactly the same, except that they are not really doing anything but sending out material with a misleading name on it to countries who don't understand it. Be sensible, Brian, and save us a lot of money!

The Emerald Islander


P.S. Looking at it from a purely linguistic point of view, the name does not even make sense as a statement. What it says is "Welcome Ireland", which would make sense if one would greet the Irish nation arriving somewhere abroad. (With concessions one could also use it to welcome the Irish national team of any sport - including our Olympic team - at any place, including in this case in Ireland.)
"Welcome Ireland" does not address any foreigners. If we would want to do that, it would need to be "Welcome to Ireland". I do wonder how many owners of empty brains in Fáilte Ireland take home a full pay cheque every week, the money for which comes out of taxpayers' pockets...

Reflections on the Weekend...

Having been away once more and thus unable to post entries on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, let me reflect briefly on the events that caught my attention and need a few words of comment.

Unbelievable Rise of Gas Prices

After the Electrical Supply Board (ESB), Ireland's largest supplier of electricity, announced a rise of consumer prices by 17.5% for August (see my entry from July 22nd), households and small businesses are now also facing a 20% increase in gas prices this autumn.
The 'Energy Regulator' has given the country's largest gas company Bord Gáis permission to increase their prices by one fifth from September 1st. Together with the rise of electricity prices this is an unbelievable act of daylight robbery, committed against a large number of Irish people and sanctioned quite happily by the government agency that is supposed to control the industry.

The Commission for Energy Regulation, as it is officially called, has also warned that a further increase of energy prices will be needed in January 2009, due to the sharp rise in gas prices on international markets over the past year. The regulator says that Ireland imports 90% of its gas from the UK, where the wholesale price has almost doubled in the past twelve months. The two price rises are apparently "an attempt to cushion the immediate consequences for customers".

How cynical is such a statement, at a time when prices for almost everything are spinning out of control and large companies squeeze consumers more and more, while incomes for ordinary working people are not rising in equal measure and many people are losing their jobs due to the onset of recession in Ireland.

The Society of St. Vincent de Paul says it is "very concerned at the price increase, which will impact hardest on the most vulnerable". As usual the poorest are ripped off by large and weathy companies, whose profits have risen steadily and are passed on to their shareholders, many of which are not Irish.
The society expressed the hope that Bord Gáis will not include the Standing Charge in their price increase. It also called on the Minister for Social and Family Affairs, Mary Hanafin, to tackle the issue of fuel poverty among those depending on social welfare payments.

Meanwhile Age Action has called on the government and the energy providers to "take steps to ensure that vulnerable older people are protected from rising fuel costs".
"This increase along with the recent increases in the cost of oil and electricity leaves many older people praying for a mild winter. They know if the winter is hash they will suffer", said Eamon Timmins of Age Action.

As things stand now, it is time for the government to consider active price controls for energy as well as the most basic and common food items. Otherwise we are running the risk to create in a very short time a large class of poverty-stricken people who are no longer able to afford the most basic items needed to survive and live a decent life. Apart from immense hardship this would cause for many, it would also inevitably lead to a rise in crime and disorder and all gains we have made during the 'Celtic Tiger' boom could disappear into thin air in a very short time.

The annual Climbing of Croagh Patrick

Yesterday, on Reek Sunday - the last Sunday in July - more than 25,000 Catholic pilgrims assembled in County Mayo for the annual mass climbing of Croagh Patrick, Ireland's 'holy mountain', which is situated 8 km from Westport.
Despite the drastic decline of the Catholic Church in Ireland, this traditional spectacle, which has its origins in the dark ages, still attracts large numbers of believers, and a good number of them climb the 764 metre high rocky mountain barefoot "to atone for their sins".

Under the leadership of the Catholic Archbishop of Tuam, Michael Neary, eleven Masses were celebrated on the mountain during the day, and hundreds of members of ambulance corps and mountain rescue teams were in attendance to look after people who suffered from exhaustion or injured themselves on the climb.
Thanks to their efforts there have not been any deaths for some years during the event, but in the past numerous people died during the irresponsible religious mass hysteria.

Irishman sentenced in Greece for starting a Brush Fire

Meanwhile a court on the Greek island of Crete has sentenced a 20-year-old Irishman to a suspended sentence of three months in prison for starting a fire by negligence.

The unnamed Irish tourist burned 500 square miles of brush and olive trees in Hersonissos, in the east of the island, on Friday by setting dry brush alight, the local fire department said. He was arrested by firemen soon afterwards.

Hundreds of fires have broken out in Greece this summer, many of them due to negligence and assisted by dry weather conditions. And often tourists, who don't know the country and have no understanding of the local conditions who are responsible.

Last year devastating forest fires left 77 people dead and burned 270,000 hectares of forest and agricultural land in Greece.

The Emerald Islander