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The fracking issue has united farmers, businesses, craft producers and ordinary citizens across the countryside over the last few months.
Here’s an interesting article from the associate editor and chief economics commentator at the Financial Times, Martin Wolf.
The following story appeared in The Irish Mail on Sunday – 29 January 2012 and was written by Ken Foxe
The Oireachtas has introduced a new expenses claim system which will make it impossible to uncover the bogus expense claims similar to the Ivor Callely’s forged mobile phone invoices.
The rules have been changed so that TDS and Senators will not have to supple receipts – even for supposedly ‘vouched’ expenses. They will simply claim for amounts they say they have sent, with the Oireachtas trusting them to give accurate figures. The only method of policing the claims is a system of random audits, under which one in ten politicians will be asked to provide the receipts to back up their claims. That means that for 90% ( Of 226 TDs and Senators, 10% means an audit of only 22) of politicians, no receipts need handing over – meaning the invoices cannot be checked to ensure they are genuine.
However TDs are expected to hold onto the receipts for five years BUT unless they are audited there is no means by which a member of the media or public can ever get their hands on them – even by using Freedom of Information legislation.
Expenses campaigner and chartered accountant, Enid O’Dowd said that even if invoices are genuine there can be abuses. “There are no rules insisting on value for money or that the work does no go to family or friends for these expenses. Because we can’t get the invoices under FoI, we can’t check for this, and the auditors won’t – it’s not within their remit.
Ms O’Down warned that the new policy was further erosion of our ability to check how politicians are spending our money.
She said, “Only a minority of the expenses paid to our politicians can be subject to audit as most payments are fixed allowances paid automatically with no necessity to ever show anything like the amount paid was actually incurred.
“This audit only relates to the 10% of TDs and Senators who who opt for the higher allowance - why not look at those who opt for the lower allowance of €15,000 per annum. I call this the ‘no questions asked’ allowance.
“The fact that over half of our politicians have opted for the lower ‘no questions asked’ allowance tells me that they have very few legitimate parliamentary expenses and that the allowance is a form of untaxed salary for them.”
Mazar’s carried out the first independent audit and noted that the audit raised a series of issues about the Oireachtas expenses regime and its loose rules.
It said there were no firm rules and what could and could not be claimed in key areas. Items purchased included bank interest and fees, the purchase of computer equipment, and sundry items like newspapers, biscuits, tea and coffee.
It said clarity was necessary on the purchase of items such as laptops and printers, and particularly whether they should be returned to the Oireachtas should the politician lose their seat.
Meanwhile former Fianna Fáil Minister Ned O’Keefe also submitted forged invoices yet the Clerk of the Dáil is insisting that the expenses were legitimate yet the Gardaí believe he has questions to answer.
Arrests coincide with payment of Anglo Irish payments to bondholders
On the three occasions that the Irish Government made controversial payments of billions of Irish taxpayers money to international unsecured unguaranteed bondholders for Anglo Irish Bank debt (€29 billion in total bailout and now owned by the State) , this is also what happened either on the eve or the same day:
Merkozy, Fiscal Compact and possible withdrawal from the Euro
Merkozy's fiscal compact
The December EU summit has raised more questions than answers: will the new financial firewall be enough to steady international global markets? Will the new fiscal union rules work and what will it involve? Does a referendum hold any relevance for Irish voters following the Nice and Lisbon outcomes and anyway, with enhanced cooperation, does it matter anymore? Can Ireland withstand increased austerity measures and would we be better off going it alone?
The Merkozy European duopoly has unleashed a wave of criticism toward Cameron’s veto of a new 27 country EU treaty and because of this, we now have a proposal for a fiscal compact and an inter-governmental treaty – claiming, as it legally has to, that it is nothing but a simple fine-tuning of powers already granted under the Maastricht Treaty.
While Britain’s veto effectively means it cannot be labelled a EU treaty, the Lisbon Treaty ensures that, under enhanced cooperation, countries can adopt the new rules without waiting for other countries to sign up.
Either way, Merkozy have taken EU leadership into their own hands or rather Germany has, with France sticking close to its better-off partner. On reflection, in Ireland, hard questions must be asked of Lisbon Treaty ‘Yes’ campaigners who claimed the new treaty would deliver better governance and effective management of business with the appointment of a President of the EU and a Foeign Affairs Minister. Recent events have condemned Rompuy to being nothing but a titular head while Catherine Ashton has been invisible.
Critics of Lisbon predicted that there would be a shift in power from the Commission (the traditional defender of small states) to the Council of Ministers and by consequence, domination by the larger countries. Enter France, Germany and Merkozy.
What does a real fiscal union look like in federal states?
Federal fiscal union requires centralised powers of tax collection and public spending. These powers provide the main mechanisms by which fiscal transfers can be made to the more depressed regions of the state. The amount of tax collected varies between regions, but expenditure on schools, hospitals and public services remains uniform or even weighted towards poorer areas, so taxpayers in richer regions subsidise poorer ones. Monetary union cannot work effectively without these transfers.
But within the EU, with no fiscal or monetary transfers to compensate, peripheral nations are being forced into repeated rounds of self-defeating austerity in order to survive and pay their debts. Even the default mechanism of currency devaluation is denied them. There was nothing in the December summit initiative to relieve these pressures.
The new fiscal model
For Germany, European solidarity means everyone playing by strict economic and fiscal rules and hence, the new fiscal compact designed to hardwire austerity into European law.
Central to the treaty will be the requirement, to be enshrined in national law, to maintain a budget surplus or, at worst, an annual structural deficit of 0.5% of GDP. To put that in context, the Stability and Growth Pact which we’re already committed to, sets an annual deficit ceiling of 3% of GDP. That is 6 times the level that will be allowable under the new compact (the SGPlimits also include debt repayments) and the penalties for non-compliance with the new limits will be far more stringent.
This looks like a recipe for permanent austerity ensuring that those on the periphery are condemned to prolonged economic depression. Just look at the facts: under the old S&G pact between 1990 – 2008, before the crisis hit, Ireland was able to satisfy the 0.5% structural deficit only once in ten years,, the same as Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands. Austria, France, Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain never once met the target. There is absolutely no chance that Ireland (or Italy, Greece or Portugal or Spain) will regain competitiveness against an even more competitive and strong Germany in the near future, if ever.
Fiscal compact and degree of intrusion
What is clear is that a common currency cannot operate without a common fiscal policy, and importantly, the means to ensure compliance.
What is alarming is the degree of intrusion envisaged, not only for our national budgets, but for economic policy generally and these include:
In effect, national budgets will have to be approved in advance by the EU. The priority will be competitiveness, with a consequential lowering of labour and social protection costs which will inevitably lead to greater inequality between states and populations.
Irish referendum
Talk of a referendum in Ireland is a ‘red herring’. This deal was agreed by 26 countries following Cameron’s veto and ensures that the 11 weak states will be governed by the six strong ones, led by Germany, operating through Brussels. However there is one clear caveat, the financial firewall with funding coming from the IMF and not the ECB is fundamentally weak and may have to be revisited in January.
Referendum or no referendum –Ireland is in a weak position with few or no marbles to trade. But this is the final crossroads and probably the most crucial decision an Irish electorate will ever have to decide upon, should a referendum take place. And it should.
Already the campaign has begun and been framed as a vote for or against the Euro.
As for the sovereignity argument, it has long since gone in the face of international financial institutions , the rating agencies, currency speculators and global capitalism.
The political strategy will be based on winning a concession on Ireland’s corporation tax and a re-calibration or elimination of the €31 billion debt promissory note (borrowed to sort out Anglo Irish and Irish Nationwide). The most likely outcome is a war reparations style deal where interest is lowered and the loan term vastly expanded. This would release Ireland from the current debt straightjacket and bridge the gap between our debt re-structuring and the new European Stability Fund.
Irish economic strategy
Few are convinced that the December summit has provided the solution to Europe’s financial crisis. If all countries introduce austerity programmes they’ll likely drag each other down.
Ireland’s own plan for recovery consists of driving down domestic demand while boosting exports. This will only work if the European and global economy picks up. Economic forecasters are predicting a mini-recession acrossEuropein the first quarter of 2012.
The three key questions which Ireland must ask itself following the December summit ‘financial firewall’ and ‘fiscal compact’ initiative are:
Ireland now reduced to austerity and Local Authority status
Full fiscal union, as defined by France and Germany, marks the end of any safeguards through veto or through non-approval that Irelandhad trusted and relied upon as the EU evolved over the years.
In EU terms, full fiscal union finally consigns Ireland’s national parliament and political leaders to a Local Authority status of governance with responsibility for policing, education, health, housing and transport.
While the bailout troika of the EU/ECB/IMF oversees Government policy under its Memo of Understanding remit, surely a deeper investigation of how Ireland has mis-managed its affairs would undercover a culture of cronyism and corruption; localism; patronage; a sense of entitlement and an inability to learn from mistakes or the mistakes of others.
Budget scrutiny – is it a price worth paying?
- to reform the political system;
- to reform the political expenses system;
- to reform the senior civil servants and senior politicians pay-offs and pensions;
- to adhere to its own salary caps for political advisers
- to present and handle Budget cuts with fairness, clarity, creativity and sensitivity?
Is a ‘Managed Withdrawal’ feasible and what would it involve?
The negative consequences would inevitably lead to a rise in unemployment and inflation and currency-wise, who would we track? Devaluation would provide a boost for exports, and possibly tourism.
There are serious concerns that leaving an international currency in the middle of the worst recession in the country’s history when the economic is so weak, would be disastrous and could amount to a giant leap in the dark.
However, bereft of any effective leadership on the financial crisis at EU level over the last three years, the EU’s economic orthodoxy and the burden of debt is sinking Ireland and others in a ‘one size fits all’ emasculating and rigid approach.
A number of questions arise out of RTE’s Frontline Presidential coverage:
- Why was an unofficial tweet not properly checked for authenticity?
- Who took the editorial decision to announce the tweet as an official source?
- Why was Martin McGuinness allowed to interrogate Gallagher?
-When RTE realised their mistake, why was a public apology not read out on the airwaves declaring its mistake?
Presidential candidate Sean Gallagher has played down his role as a staunch, loyal and highly active member of Fianna Fáil.
He claimed that his membership of Fianna Fáil was ‘sporadic’. It was anything but. In fact, to all intents and purposes he may still be a Fianna Fail member. He claims he left Fianna Fáil in 2009 but in this video clip he is seen addressing an Ogra FF summer school in August 2010.
Right up to January 2011 when the party was in freefall and, despite wave after wave of crisis within the Government and the party, this man stood loyally on the decks of the Fianna Fáil Titanic right up to January 5 last, even as FF Minister after Minister resigned or announced they were retiring on massive pensions.
His resignation letter to FF General Secretary Sean Dorgan was not a resignation as a member of Fianna Fáil, but merely as a constituency delegate to the National Executive.
In fact, it has served his purposes to remain a member in order to gain the support of his many Fianna Fail colleagues and friends on county councils across the country to ensure he secured a nomination.
H e claims that the President should be ‘above politics’ yet he does not mind not being above Fianna Fáil politics. This is what he said about some of the decisions that Brian Cowen made: “I guess what Brian Cowen was doing and his Cabinet were doing was based on what was in front of them, they were making the best decisions they felt at the time…….”
Interestingly, neither he, nor his campaign team nor Fianna Fail headquarters can confirm when he officially left the party. This might suggest that he has never actually left.
When asked to explain his strong FF associations, associations he has continually played down, he rebuffs them by saying that ‘people are tired of negative campaigning’. Yet, the electorate are entitled to know the truth about his political associations and his staunch support for a party and Government that brought the country to its knees.
It was also telling that, when asked in the Late Late Show Presidential debate to name any piece of significant legislation introduced over the last seven years, he could think of none.
How could it be possible that a Presidential candidate could fail to notice the massive impact that the bank guarantee, the bank bailouts and NAMA have had on ordinary citizens, communities and businesses the length and breadth of the country? It just does not wash.
And, without wishing to totally castigate FF, he could have easily cited the excellent anti-smoking legislation introduced by current FF leader and former Minister for Health, Michael Martin, in 2004. But he could not think of any.
This man needs to come clean and step up to the plate.
Friendship Village, Hanoi, Vietnam
The Friendship Village is set on a five acre site approximately 20 kilometres from Hanoi city centre where it houses over a hundred children suffering from Agent Orange dioxin and 40 war veterans.
The Village was founded in 1992 and is the brainchild of the late George Mizo, a former US soldier who served in Vietnam, a hawk turned dove and prominent member of Veterans for Peace, an organisation made up of former male and female soldiers. Mizo’s main aim was to help repair the damage done to the Vietnamese people and to Vietnam-US relations following the war. George died in 2002 but his German wife took up the cause and continues to fundraise on behalf of the Village.
I am here to meet with the director, Dang Vu Dung and carry out a tour of the teaching and training facilities.
Director Dang Vu Dung explains, “We have 102 children residing here. The age range is between 6 and 20 years. The vetting system for entry is that they must be the offspring of former Vietnamese soldiers and they must be affected by Agent Orange in some form. Having said that, the children we enrol here, while suffering a disablement of one form or another as a result of dioxin, are those that, with the right training and rehabilitation, can re-enter society with a skillset to help them survive.
The younger children attend school here like any normal child except that here we employ special needs teachers. The older children receive training in IT/computer skills, weaving and sewing to make clothes, souvenir making (note: the souvenirs are used as a fundraising tool to generate extra income) and tend the organic vegetable and fruit garden.
We appoint one mother (supervisor) for every 20 victims and they supervise, guide and encourage an ‘esprit de corps’ among the children with a goal of making them as self sufficient as possible. We also encourage sports, for example, badminton and football. Another important aspect is outreaching into the local community and we encourage direct contact and communication to ensure the children’s time here is as normal and productive for them as possible. All our dioxin children spend a maximum of three years here before returning to their families and villages.
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Our income support is split 50/50 – 50% comes from Government funding and the other 50% from fundraising mainly carried out by the Union of Veterans which includes mainly former French, German, Japanese, US and English soldiers. The veteran’s fundraising efforts, their enthusiasm and vision for what we are trying to achieve here is the essence of what the Friendship Village is all about – turning the negative legacy of war into a positive one where children are given a second chance and the ability to live some from of normal life. This was George Mizo’s vision.
There are also 40 veterans resident at the Village at any given time.
Hanoi – First impressions
Travelling from Hanoi airport into the city what becomes immediately apparent is that the city is surrounded by agricultural lands, mainly geared toward rice production. I pass vast swathes of rice fields with farmers in conical hats, along with buffalo, tending the fields.
The French influence is everywhere – the houses are narrow but tall with verandahs, green wooden window shutters and balustrades.
I am staying at the Hanoi Legend hotel in the heart of the Old Quarter – a quaint warren of tiny streets full of hotels, restaurants, tourist offices and hordes of street vendors selling everything from food to trinkets to old Viet Cong army caps with their Vietnamese red star emblem.
The tourist offices are everywhere selling trips up into the northern mountains, out to the karst rocks of beautiful Halong Bay where, for a $100 or so you can book a two day trip touring the islands, swimming, eating and spending the night on board in splendidly furnished wood panelled bedrooms. You can also book an overnight train south along the coast to the old imperial capital of the Nguyen dynasty at Hue.
In the Old Quarter, there are motorbike taxis, car taxis and cyclos everywhere all looking for your business – “You wan moto bike, you wan taxi”
A crowd drinking Bia Hoi on a street corner
There are food stalls where you can snatch a quick Beef Pho for 50 cents, order your own sit down BBQ for a little more or simply sit on a street corner bar on foot high tiny plastic stools sipping Bia Hoi, the local draught brew which sells at a mere 15 cents a glass.
Vegetable seller along a Hanoi street
Why do they let cars up these tiny streets?
And if you want you can go upmarket to a Grafton Street-style area that sells all the top international brands. There you’ll also find five star hotels, excellent restaurants in an area resplendent with attractively dressed men and women driving Porsches and four wheel drives accentuating the obvious gap between rich and poor in this new open market-led economy.
Those motorbikes again!
Wow, I travelled three thousand kilometres and this is what I'm confronted with - where's that Louis Walsh fella?!
What differentiates Hanoi from HCM city, among others, is its lake system, in particular nearby Hoan Kiem lake, which, as a centre-piece, tends to have an overall calming affect on this teeming city.
This second instalment of my trip will concentrate on environmental issues, meeting up with environmental and forestry expert Dr Phung Tuu Boi at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, then a 20 kilometre trip out of the city to visit the Friendship Village, ending with a meeting at the Catholic Relief Services Agency office in the suburbs of the city.
A Night Off in Ho Chi Minh City
“The youth of a nation are the trustees of posterity” – Benjamin Disraeli
Wandering from the hotel one evening after a meal of BBQed buttered scallops, fresh crab and salad washed down with a cold Saigon Red beer, all for a mere three euros, I headed up Bui Vien Street (the trendy backpacker tourist area just a few minutes from the hotel) for a stroll, passing a crowded pavement bar.
The street bar was full of young Vietnamese in their late 20’s/early 30s. They immediately beckoned me over and insisted I join them. They were in party mood, in great form and enjoying a few drinks.
They were friendly, welcoming, well educated, spoke perfect English, were interested and interesting and full of chat and bonhomie. These young people represent the new Vietnam, a country with a successful market-led economy, for example, in 2010, Vietnam’s nominal GDP reached $104.6 billion, with nominal GDP per capita of $1218. They have a population of seventy seven million, 80% of which still live in the countryside. Most Vietnamese businesses are SMEs.
This crowd were having a blast the same way that any group of young Irish or Europeans would do. Positive in outlook, a good sense of humour and with expectations for a good life – this is the new Vietnam – tech savvy, educated, open to new ideas, gregarious, Generation Y, the iPhone generation?
Mr Ha
I got talking to Mr Ha, who runs his own gentlemen’s outfitters, the life and soul of the gang. Gay, he cracked jokes, clinked glasses for toasting but was well read, well spoken and interested in why I was visiting. I talked with Jen (28) who is fluent in English and Japanese, who is now considering a career in the hospitality industry and was eager for my advice based on her skill set. There was Tuan with a career in IT, Mi Lan in the fashion industry and Jill from Cambodia, into catering. The group eventually enlarged to include Indian, Catalan, American and German.
These guys gave me a night to remember full of insight and laughs.
Jen, fluent in English and Japanese hoping for a career in the hospitality sector
Jill from Cambodia
I’ve encountered a friendly and vibrant city and people, experienced some revealing moments, ate some great food and now leave for Hanoi just when I felt I was getting an angle on this fascinating city and its people. I leave with a heavy heart (and my $12 Sopranos full series DVD box set).
Footnote:
I stayed in the Saigon Mini Hotel 1 – a group of five small boutique style hotels. My double room cost around $20 a night – clean linen, comfortable bed, WiFi in the room - but the real gem here was the young friendly staff of Ha, Miss Vicky and Christy – they couldn’t do enough for me and made the visit special.
Also Tuan Anh, my Ministry of Foreign Affairs translator who went to tremendous efforts to ensure my trip was a pleasant and successful one. And it was.
Tuan Anh - Vietnam Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Goodnight Saigon!
The Tu Du Hospital is the biggest maternity hospital in South Vietnam and the Peace Village, a two floor ward at the back of the hospital was set up and supervised by Dr Phuong, who started her career as an intern at the hospital. She is retired now at seventy two but still holds incredible influence and has been a passionate and tireless campaigner for Agent Orange children.
I’m picked up at the hotel by Tuan Anh, my translator, our driver and the assistant Press Secretary of Vava in an old brown Opel saloon that has definitely seen better days.
A drive through the usual chaotic HCM city traffic gets us there for 9.00 am and I’m greeted with a smile by Dr Phuong on the steps of the hospital.
Meeting with Dr Phuong at the Peace Village ward at Tu Du Hospital, Ho Chi Minh City
I’ve met people like Dr Phuong before – the characteristics are always similar – incredible strength of purpose and a passion and belief that emanates. She is the opposite of strident, overpowering. She is softly spoken, firm, eloquent, but oozes humanity with a gentle smile.
She apologises for missing yesterday’s meeting and we conduct an interview which is in stark contrast to yesterday’s one at VAVA. She thinks carefully before answering my questions, speaking good English and only occasionally leaning over to Tuan Anh for clarification on technical points. And then she smiles, nods, pauses to reflect and replies rapidly but concisely.
Here are some of the points she made:
I am then given a tour of the wards. This was the aspect of the trip I was most dreading. But its fine, I am fine.
We shake hands and I wish her good luck – she smiles but she’s got another appointment and must head ………and it’s time for us to drive out into the countryside of Cu Chi in our old brown Opel saloon to visit the families.
It’s a 4.00 am wake-up call in Bangkok for the 7.00 am flight to Ho Chi Minh City. I’ve booked the same taxi driver who got me to and from the Vietnamese Embassy. He’s one of the good ones and to avoid the madness of the BKK traffic he skipped through the university and hospital grounds to get me there on time, so I book him for the airport trip..
It’s a 5.00 am pick-up and I’m standing in the dark outside the hotel listening to cocks crowing and observing the ‘last men standing’ at the all night bar along the alleyway. It’s pungent, warm, very warm, humid and the food stalls are already being set up for breakfast. Sooprah, the taxi driver is late. I’m beginning to get edgy when eventually his car arrives around the corner. He makes up for it by hurtling down the highway to the airport.
Arrive into the spankingly new Ton Nhat airport (this is where the first shipment of Agent Orange was unloaded in August 1961 when the Americans started ‘tests’)
Heading into HCM city centre
A half hour taxi ride into the city and the motorbikes are swarming like mosquitoes – it’s unbelievable. Ho Chi Minh City wows the senses, Not since Phnom Penh have I seen anything like this, The motorbikes are everywhere – thousands and thousands of them – horns beeping, weaving, swerving, riding up on pavements, going the wrong way (but then there is no wrong way!) and the air is pungent with food being cooked on sidewalks….and as Phil Lynott observed – “it’s so goddammed hot!”
I’m staying at a small boutique hotel called the Saigon Mini Hotel 1, its in a quiet alleyway away from the noise just next door to Bui Vien – think Temple Bar, think Covent Garden – no don’t – its so much funkier – full of art houses, restaurants, bars and alive with young Vietnamese and a rainbow of nationalities.
I check in, shower and get a call to say my translator from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has arrived in the lobby. He is Tuan Anh (pronounced Too’in Ang). He’s well dressed, smart, perfect English and only 28.
Tuan Anh, the Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs translator
We have an hour long briefing and then its over to meet Major General Tran Ngoc Tho, Vice Chair of the Victims of Agent Orange Association (VAVA). The meeting with VAVA will be informational but the person I really want to meet, Dr Phuong, a tireless campaigner on behalf of Agent Orange victims, has promised to meet me at the offices as well.
Then tomorrow morning it’s a visit the Peace Village Agent Orange ward which spans two floors at the back of the Tu Du Hospital, southern Vietnam’s main maternity hospital. This will be followed by a two hour car ride out into the country, up to the Cu Chi tunnels area, north of the city to visit three families.
We take a taxi to the VAVA offices to interview Tran Ngoc Tho. Ngoc Tho appears to be an old style apparachik dressed head to foot in grey. We pose for photographs with the official VAVA photographer and Ngoc Tho is joined by two colleagues. The meeting, which lasts over one and a half hours, does not go particularly well. Each question put through Tuan Anh receives a wordy and long reply but with seemingly little substance. As the interview wears on, apart from some of the obvious facts and figures that are in the public domain and I already know, it appears that I am not getting straight answers to questions.
I change tack and I am now trying to ascertain the level of increased cooperation between the US and Vietnam through funding and resources for clean up in the dioxin hot spots. I feel I am being stonewalled but then realize that it is not just me who feels this. I notice his colleagues grimacing and moving uncomfortably as he talks. He finally produces some interesting figures that the US Government eventually released to the Vietnamese Government outlining the provinces, the populations and the quantity of chemical sprayed during the ten year period.
Eventually I get a breakthrough when he tells me that there has been a giant leap forward in the US funding for clean up.
Nontheless, I am just slightly disappointed on two fronts – its taken me nearly two hours to get information and a call has just come through to say that Dr. Phuong cannot make the meeting.
We shake hands, take some more photographs and head back to the hotel. Tuan Anh knows it has not been a great but there is good news – Dr. Phuong has just called him on the mobile to say she can meet at 9.00 amtomorrow morning at the Tu Du hospital.
Today has been an early start and a long day.
Tomorrow I visit the hospital, interview Dr. Phuong, meet some of the children and then head up the country to to visit three of the families.
VAVA have agreed to supply a car and driver and I agree to provide monies to buy foodstuffs for the three families.
