Mahon tribunal findings into political corruption.

[muppet]

No-one is disputing that the guarantee was ballsed up but people have sympathy for Lenihan for many reasons. Bertie Ahern still maintains he did nothing wrong and that the collapse of Lehmans was the reason. Bertie is a proven liar and hypocrite who dealt with opposition in a ruthless fashion and painted dissenters as lunatics. His famous "suicide" comment shows the depths of ignorance and arrogance of the man.

On today of all days I find any defence of Ahern repugnant in the extreme. Lenihan made an extremely bad decision in good faith, abandoned by his party and conned by bankers that Joe Public now has to pay to save. Ahern used some kind of voodoo economics to reward his buddies in certain industries and the unions. To say there was no opposition to his "policies" is untrue but any that was there was dealt with in mafia style. If we hadn't a gaping hole in the public finances we wouldn't need to borrow and could have told the banks and bond markets to kiss our asses.

Good post Seanie.

[Main Street]

Did the Mahon report make any comment on Albert's unscheduled stopover in the Bahamas on route to the USA for St Patricks Day. Incidentally, on the day before Albert departed Ireland,  he entertained the developer O'Callaghan where an alleged £150,000 was handed over.

[muppet]

We now know that CJH, Ray Burke, Pádraig Flynn and Bertie have at best failed to tell the truth regarding how they got their money, and at worst some of them have been proven to be corrupt.

This time it was a tribunal into planning. Given that we have had a disastrous property boom and crash I think the €300m might be small change compared to a world where we just continued to ignore the corruption.

Think of the Corrib Gas field and who the major players were in deciding to give away our gas and oil for free, and think how much that might have cost us.

[Muck Savage]

Sure it's only confirming what we all knew or suspected all along  - that the FF/Builder/Developer mafia  milked us for decades until the banks finally gave them so much rope they hung us and themselves. 

Add the legal system as well to that list of people that Milked us, this thing has been going on for 15 years and only confirms what we all knew with not one person being held accountable....... The country is bankrupt but these suits will still get their 7 figure fees paid by the taxpayer.

[bcarrier]

a waste of 300 million

[mylestheslasher]

Its not just FF members that were corrupt. Plenty of others in there including FG councilors. Why do you think the current government is so inactive in taking a hard line? Because most of them have skeletons in the cupboard, honour amongt thieves.

[bcarrier]

Bertie           200,000 euro ( possible not proven)
Tribunal 300,000,000 euro  (proven)

Lunacy.

[Declan]

So the bold Bertie keeps on denying - Sorry but the game is up. Proven liar and wait till you see the scurrying from FF to distance themselves. Also the fact that the cabinet tried to scupper the tribunal shows exactly what they think of democracy.
Listening to Owen O'Callaghan on the news now simply rejecting it is gas - These guys have no shame.
Muppet - Sindo were the main cheerleaders and already have had a puff piece out in sympathy with him - Scandalous stuff.
Seanie - Good post but I think your being too kind to Lenihan - but that's for another thread.
The Gardai were onside as well - all the signs of a banana republic.

I know Dunphy gets his fair share of criticism but fair play to him for telling it as it is

[Dougal Maguire]

Must be some revenue implications as well?

Bertie has already had to sort out the Revenue, having admitted to receiving the loot.

Haughey didn't fcuk the country up for generations either, for all his mistakes he got the economy sorted eventually.

Haughey set the tone for all this. I do not believe that Lemass or Lynch were corrupt. CJH ruined the country in the early 80s and then partly redeemed himself at the end of the 80s. The economy today will be sorted eventually too, the main problem now is the poor international environment.

While not in any way wanting to stick up for CJH, I think it was the FF budget in 1977 implementing Jack Lynch's give away manifesto that set the scene for the ruination in the 1980s

[seafoid]

It found that his evidence was untrue.
It also found that his government impeded the tribunal and actively tried to close it down.

This is interesting. I wonder is it a trap a lá Michelle Smith. The investigators don't fully reveal their hand, the individual is enthused by the lack of evidence and sues, only for the truth to come out in a court somewhere.

As for proof of FF being corrupt everyone knew this, but we now have a shit-load of proof. But what people don't get is that there is an element of their support who vote for them precisely because they are corrupt. I accept there are many decent supporters and many who vote simply because their family voted long before Haughey changed everything, but I believe there are some who only get involved because it is the party that, more than any other, lets you look after yourself.

They were shite even before Haughey,De Valera's FF along with the Church ran a country that was disgrace regarding the abuse of the nations women and children.A lot of people in the south need to wake up and smell the coffee,and stop reading and believing the Indo etc:

Yawn.

Ostrich

De Valera was out of power by 1959. Long before I was born. 

It is hard to smell coffee that is long drank.

There was very little coffee drunk in Ireland in the 50s.

E 300m for a tribunal is a sick joke. Legal parasites. Most of them they wouldn't earn a quarter of what they get in Ireland overseas. Same with the medical consultants. Rent seekers and gougers.

What use was the legal profession when the tiger bubble collapsed?
And how many special needs assistants would 300 million buy ?   

[muppet]

€300m is crazy money. But it is truly farcical that somehow the excess cost of the Tribunal is somehow a stick with which to beat Bertie's opponents. It was Bertie who set it up. It just demonstrates that he didn't give a fiddlers about spending other people's money.

The alternative of no investigation and Bertie still in power with Pee Flynn and Ray Burke is absolutely abhorrent.

[Fear ón Srath Bán]

Ahern has issued a typical, contemptuously dismissive rejection of the tribunal's findings this evening , full of the old bare-faced bullshit and bravado, rather pathetic really.

[glens abu]

Why has it not been mentioned that Enda shared a platform this week in USA with Denis O'Brien?

[muppet]

Why has it not been mentioned that Enda shared a platform this week in USA with Denis O'Brien?

It was, you just saw Dara Calleary using it to pathetically try to deflect attention away from the proof of corruption against some of his FF colleagues and hide behind some whataboutery. I can see why you were attracted to it.

Rabbitte shut him up nicely.

[glens abu]

Why has it not been mentioned that Enda shared a platform this week in USA with Denis O'Brien?

It was, you just saw Dara Calleary using it to pathetically try to deflect attention away from the proof of corruption against some of his FF colleagues and hide behind some whataboutery. I can see why you were attracted to it.

Rabbitte shut him up nicely.

Yeah thats were I heard it but surprised it wasnt mentioned on this thread before now.Thought Rabbitte dodged the question when asked did he think it appropriate for Enda to be with him.