Irish Political Review, May 2009
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Obama And Ataturk Lord Bew & 1916 Banks & Social Dividend Dr. Pat Walsh Manus O'Riordan Jack O'Connor Labour Comment page 20 page 19 back page IRISH POLITICAL REVIEW May 2009 Vol.24, No.5 ISSN 0790-7672 and Northern Star incorporating Workers' Weekly Vol.23 No.5 ISSN 954-5891 Supplementary Budget Home And Away Facing The Twenty years ago the Irish State appeared on the verge of bankruptcy. Escape seemed Emergency impossible. And then there was the Celtic Tiger—conjured out of thin air by the magic of money under the system of globalist capitalism. The Irish Political Review does not agree with all aspects of the supplementary . The conjurer, of course, was Charles Haughey. Haughey put on a great show in a Europe which had still not submitted to British budget. And, on some of the aspects that pressure for deregulation. The Europe of Kohl and Mitterand was a very different thing it does agree with, it thinks that Lenihan from the Europe of Merkel and Sarkozy and Berlusconi. Merkel was a Christian did not go far enough. But nevertheless, it Democrat in the Communist GDR [German Democratic Republic]. When released into is of the opinion that that the broad thrust the Federal Republic she had no bearings in it and the two forms of substantial of the budget was correct. capitalism—the corporatist European and the laissez-fair Ameranglian, had no tangible As a nation we have been living beyond meaning for her. The British complaint that the socially-engaged capitalism of Europe our means. This is reflected in the was virtually socialist got through to her and she did her best to dismantle and de- deterioration in the public finances and regulate a society which was wedded to the old forms. (The British Minister for Free the deficit in the balance of payments. Capitalism In Europe at one point was Kim Howells who, not long before, had been in The cost of servicing the National Debt the business of overthrowing capitalism as a revolutionary socialist aligned with Arthur has more than doubled from 5% of tax Scargill, the miners' leader.) revenues to 11%. Tax revenues have Sarkozy is a fashion statement. Berlusconi is a skilful trickster, operating amidst the reduced from €47 billion in 2007 to a ruins of Italian Christian Democracy with only the exhausted remnants of a failed predicted €34 billion in 2009 as a result of Socialist Party as Opposition, in a society which in the past has shown it can run its the collapse in the property market. affairs rather well without much in the way of Government. This could not be ignored by any continued on page 2 responsible government, whether of Republican or Socialist hue. The solution is very clear: we must consume less and produce more. A small open economy cannot stimulate production by increasing consumption. Such a policy would exacerbate the crisis by increasing imports. For better or worse the Irish economy has floated its boat on the unpredictable seas of the world economy. When conditions are favourable Ireland benefits disproportionately, but when the seas are rough the light, nimble craft will ship water. The Fianna Fail-led Government has done the only sensible thing that can be done. It has steadied the ship of state and placed it in a position to take advantage of any upturn in the world economy. That is the most that can be done. WHO PAYS? But who is going to bear the burden of the necessary drop in consumption? The answer is all of us, but in particular high income earners. Accordingly, the Govern- ment has decided to double the rates of the Pat Murphy: Income Levy and to reduce the entry See points for each rate. The new rates will be Obituaries, 2%, 4% and 6%. The new entry points page 13 continued on page 5 in vast quantities began to pour in through C O N T E N T S the Financial Services Centre on the Docks Page in the 1990s, as it has done for centuries into England through the City of London— Home And Away. Editorial 1 and at the expense of the City of London. Facing The Emergency. Editorial on the Irish Supplementary Budget 1 And, under Haughey's influence, corporatist arrangements of the Christian Readers' Letters: Commonwealth. Seán McGouran 3 Democratic kind began to function in Ireland. And it is beside the point to A World Full Of Blind Spots. Jack Lane 8 discuss whether Haughey was either a Christian or a Democrat, or a sceptic and Ireland's Comparatively Healthy Debt/GDP Ratio. Manus O'Riordan 8 an oligarch. He set up the Partnership system, and it worked better than might Shorts from the Long Fellow (The Inevitability Of Socialism; The Financial Crisis; have been expected. The Irish Crisis; Economists' Intervention; Government Performance; NAMA; * Stabilisation Fund; Budget Deficit; A New Nation?; British Commonwealth 10 Some years ago the Northern Bank in Belfast was robbed of about £26 millions. Beware Falling Objects. Feargus O Raghallaigh 11 It was authoritatively stated that the Provos did it. Bertie Ahern said it as Taoiseach. Sheila Kelly. Obituary 12 John Bowman, as Chairman of Questions & Answers, poured scorn on the possibility Pat Murphy Tributes. Tony Monks, Malachi Lawless 1, 13 that they might not have done it. The white van in which the money was taken Biteback: Corporate Crime Measures. Tom Sheridan 17 from the Bank was caught on camera, and was followed on a series of cameras—the Does It Stack Up? Michael Stack (Accountants and Bank-Bailouts) 18 North is covered with them—until it Still Birth. Wilson John Haire (Poems) 18 disappeared somehow. A bank clerk was prosecuted but, in the Lord Bew On 1916 Insurrectionists And Democrats. Manus O'Riordan 19 absence of evidence, the case failed. (Such things still happen in the North.) Obama And Ataturk. Pat Walsh 20 Only one identifiable bit of the stolen money was ever found. The fact that it was found in a Social Club of the Royal Labour Comment, edited by Pat Maloney: Ulster Constabulary was immediately SIPTU Demands "Social Dividend" understood by all right-thinking people to From Banks Bail Out be proof positive that the RUC had NOT Jack O'Connor done the robbery. General President, SIPTU Some weeks ago a Corkman was tried on a charge of receiving some of the stolen money, knowing it to be the proceeds of the Bank Robbery. Judging by newspaper When Europe still had a purpose, it was The English Constitutional ideologue, reports (which were grossly inadequate), convinced by Haughey, when he was Bagehot, said that grand display was a no evidence was presented that the man President of the EU, that Ireland had moved necessary function of state. In very olden had received any of the money taken in the out of Britain's shadow and now counted times—before the 1980s—the Church robbery. He was convicted. (Those things for something in international affairs in its provided impressive displays for the State. are better managed down South.) own right. And Ireland was rewarded for But, since those times, the major impres- The man in question ran a money- the appearance of substance conferred on sive display in secularised Ireland was lending, or mortgage, business in the form it by Haughey with massive subsidies—8 that put on by Haughey. of cash transactions. He did not do this billions, small time now, but vast in those But Government must also be represent- secretly. His disagreement with the bank- olden times of the 1990s. ative of powers in the economy and must ing system was on public record. In the And then Haughey performed the great be able to direct them. And never before days of the Celtic Tiger, property transact- money trick on the Docks. He had been or since have powers in the economy been ions mushroomed. Large numbers of one of the new native business class that so well directed by government as in people who had emigrated to England began to emerge in the 1950s and to erode Haughey's time. immigrated back. Properties had to be the Ascendancy stratum of inherited Garret FitzGerald made a living by bought and sold and money had to be wealth—accumulated under Penal Law writing on the economy in the Irish Times changed. And then people who did well monopoly—that had survived in critical for many years, but his economic acumen out of the Financial Services Centre boom areas until then. (That can be the only as applied to business would have left him began buying second houses in Europe. rational basis for the obsessive hatred of penniless, but for the extraordinary And productive enterprises which had been him by the Irish Times.) kindness of his creditors. He fared no small scale in 1990 expanded and acquired The very modern ideal of having a better as Taoiseach. international ramifications. Government and a Legislature which is Very soon half a million became the disconnected from vested interests in the Haughey used the powers of govern- price of a normal house. economy and in society did not exist then. ment, and his connections with the new A money-lender doing cash transactions If it had, the Celtic Tiger would probably class (his coterie, if you prefer) of wealthy not have been born. The outer world was would need to have millions in hand. We then very effectively represented in the businessmen, of which he was an original were told in sensational newspaper reports Dail, and the possibilities of the current member, to perform the money miracle.