01.22.04
Supportive comments
Supportive comments
JO’S writes “You’re far too genteel about the Mad Mullah. “Fascist pig” is mild stuff.
Check out this as a standard of invective to emulate.
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Why are tribunals expensive?
Why are tribunals expensive?
I arrived at Dublin Castle and entered the Coach House. A dignified if somewhat intimate location for the enquiry. Attending the Tribunal are:
Chairman (judge) Moriarty
2 x SC for the Tribunal John Coughlan and Jerry Healy
5 (approx) underlings, stenographers etc
2 x SC for Denis O’Brien – Ian McGonigle and Gerry Kelly
What looked like 2 x SC for the Dept of Communications
2 x SC and 1 x Junior for Telenor
1 x Junior for Michael Lowry
1 x solicitor and 1 x junior for me
2 other reps for Persona, a losing consortium. Not sure if they were legal or not.
Various other people unidentifiable.
At 2.5k per SC that’s a lot of money in one room. What’s the alternative? Some will argue that the witnesses should not have legal representation in line with other models like the Hutton enquiry in England. BUT, the tribunal is enquiring into matters which will affect people’s reputation. For example:
- Allegations are made to which the witnesses cannot respond for months, in some cases years.
- The Tribunal behaves more like a prosecutor than an enquirer so normal business dealings are presented as underhand.
This means that witnesses are having perfectly innocent actions from years ago presented as being part of a corrupt conspiracy and because this all takes place in public the general public can and do make adverse judgements. Do you know anyone who thinks that the mobile licence was correctly awarded to Digifone? The actual report which may exonerate those people (primarily the civil servants) will not appear for years.
- The eventual reports might be worded in a vague manner and not clearly state that the character of the witnesses is intact.
It is this time lag which is crucial. While the enquiry takes place everyone assumes that, for example in the Moriarty case, that Digifone did not deserve the licence and Denis O’Brien and Fine Gael were up to no good. So while the Hutton Enquiry is rightly referenced as an excellent model, its report will be with parliament on the 28th of January. That enquiry was established, conducted and will report in a very short space of time thus giving all parties a fair hearing. Others may argue that the financial dealings involved in Moriarty make it impossible to conduct matters more efficiently but the Public Accounts Committee hearing into the DIRT showed that complex matters can be investigated quickly. In addition, the ‘money trail’ is always conducted in private – it is the public sittings which are most expensive and the most damaging to people’s reputation.
I met the Tribunal privately nearly 2 years ago I think. I made a statement. I think one of the reasons I had to give evidence publicly was so that the other parties involved (e.g. telenor etc) could cross-examine me. (which they did). There are so many vested interests that it is hard to see how to protect them all. But the result is the same: a huge transfer of wealth from the state to the legal profession.
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01.21.04
Support for PDs
Support for PDs
So Michael, if you are reading my blog, shouldn’t my support for your stance on Prison Officers count for something?
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Met diversion
Met diversion
A little amusement in the midst of all this angst. P O’Neill has a posting on the Mets/Met Office dispute – Americans trying to rule the world again. His title ‘losing its identity’ reminded me of some lines he penned in relation to BBC Radio 4′s Shipping Forecast when 2 years ago they were required to ditch the sea area Finnisterre in favour of Fitzroy. Reasons detailed here. In the style of EJ Thribb’s epics he wrote:
So farewell then
Finnisterre
Fabled shipping forecast sea area
Now losing its
identity
Appreciating this requires an affection for both Thribb and the shipping forecast. I think its great.
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Moriarty – or McCarthyism?
Moriarty – or McCarthyism?
The evil day has passed. Went up; did my swear to tell the truth bit and went through my evidence. Will comment more on that tomorrow. BUT was slightly freaked out when the Chairman, in the process of reprimanding me for leaking information, made reference to my media activities AND my website! So are they reading my blog? Did they do a Google search? Did they read the reference to the ‘expensive witch-hunt’? Will they make judgements against me e.g. deny me costs because of my public criticisms of their enquiry? Am I now supposed to engage in self-censorship in order to prevent incurring their wrath? Moriarty made it quite clear that the PDs were really pissed off that I had put it in the public domain that Denis was giving money to them at the same time that he was giving FG money. Does Michael McDowell now despise me and will he use his influence and power and demand that an example is made of me in the Tribunal? Perhaps calling him a fascist (pig) in this blog will be used against me legally. So Tribunal members or PDs, if you’re reading this, make yourselves known! If you are noting my entries is it fair that they are taken into account when deciding whether or not I get costs? Just remember : I had no bloody stock options!
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01.20.04
More Moriarty
More Moriarty – The Allegations
Allegation No. 1
When the tender document was originally released the licence was being effectively auctioned. The bidder was to name the fee that they were prepared to pay for the licence. One week before the bids were due in, the Dept. changed the document to put a cap on the licence fee.
The Conspiracy
Denis O’Brien’s cash strapped Esat couldn’t afford to pay the estimated 55m it would take to buy the licence. (Some would have you believe it would take 100m). Michael Lowry therefore forced the bid team to cap the licence fee at 15m so Denis could afford it.
The Truth
A few months previously Italy had conducted their second GSM licence competition. The bidders took part in the effective auction. DGIV, the European Commission’s section on competition, ruled that it was unfair that the second licence holder should have to pay a huge fee for a licence which the incumbent i.e. the state phone company, got for nothing. They ruled that whatever the second licencee paid; the first licence holder should also pay.
Cue nightmare scenario for Eircell. If the winner of the GSM competition paid 50m+ then Eircell would have to cough up the same. The civil servants realised that
a) the state would end up earning nothing from the competition since they also owned Eircell at the time
b) their mates in Eircell formerly Dept Post & Telegraph would have a harder time competing in the market without much needed dosh.
Soooo they capped the licence fee and Eircell paid the 15m also.
Has this been explained anywhere in the Irish media. No. Why not? How about a conspiracy theory on that?
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01.19.04
Moriarty Tribunal
Moriarty Tribunal – Part 1.
So I’m up on Wednesday. Here’s the deal with Moriarty.
They are supposed to be enquiring if
a) Michael Lowry received any payments, corrupt or otherwise from Denis O’Brien
and b) if in return for said payments he interfered with, to DOB’s advantage, the competition for the second GSM licence which was won by Esat Digifone.
To date, after several years of enquiry they have discovered that Esat made donations to FG in the form of lunches and golf sponsorships. A table at a fundraising lunch costed 1000 punts. The money at each lunch goes into the local constituency fund. 10 Esat executives would go sit at a table and listen to a John Bruton speech and eat some roast beef. Everyone saw us there. The money was declared in Esat’s accounts as payments to FG and published by FG as money received. Michael Lowry wasn’t at most of the lunches. In fact, I think he was at one. Esat also sponsored a golf tournament and made a donation to a by-election fund. They also made similar donations to Fianna Fail and the PD’s. How are these payments even remotely classified as worthy of investigation when they go the political party, not the individual? When other bidders also made similar donations? When everything is declared publicly? I’ve had to attend for a private session, submit a statement and spend loads of time telling them what they already know and what isn’t remotely illegal, never mind unethical at a huge cost to the state. The senior counsel involved gets 2.5k per day that the Tribunal sits. Wonder if that has anything to do with this pointless investigation? That and the egos involved. How they love to conduct their expensive witch hunt. If there are any dodgy payments, they have lots of powers, as do the Rev and CAB to discover these, without having to drag me into it.
Still, I’m getting the hair done tomorrow and had a facial today. They can play out their courtroom drama and I will at least look good.
Will continue to address specific issues over the next few days.
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Bailey loses libel case
Bailey loses libel case
Well, quelle surprise! That fool Ian Bailey lost his libel case. This was the idiot who told several people he murdered Sophie Toscan de Plantier, threatened witnesses who saw him near the scene of the murder, admitted he was violent towards his partner and then sued the papers for printing these facts! He was awarded 8k because 2 papers said he was also violent towards his wife but will have to pay about 300k in costs. And now everyone in Ireland who hadn’t heard of him before, knows for sure that he did murder the French lady. He deserves everything he gets on grounds of stupidity alone.
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01.15.04
Electronic Voting
Electronic Voting
From today’s IT “Suppose, come election time, the Government was to employ a private company to bundle up all our paper votes, haul them off to an unknown location for counting in secret before emerging with just the final, unverifiable result. Would you be happy?, asks Kathy Sheridan.
I should think not. You might even see it as a war-like attack on our democracy. Well, the big news is that we are within six months of acquiescing to something not far off that.
The only difference is that the votes will no longer be paper and the secret counts will take place within computers. The computers will obey coded instructions, devised by fallible humans from a private company, specifically for the Republic (so therefore not tried and tested elsewhere). Yet their source codes will not be open to independent, specialist scrutiny because of commercial copyright. Furthermore, the count results produced by them will not be open to independent verification because, astonishingly, no such means of verification is built into the system.”
I’m appalled by this whole electronic voting system. I’m a veteran of counts and the only reason people have faith in elections here is because members of the political parties can stand and watch votes being poured out of specific ballots boxes and watch the votes being counted. You can’t get more a verifiable system than that. No one believes in anything any more and I don’t think they are going to trust this system. OK, so once in a while there will be a long count, but with our current system everyone is happy at the end. With this one, if you lose a seat by a few votes will you?
Furthermore, the system of paper counting allows everyone to see lots of information beyond the result: the spread of votes in particular areas and the transfer patterns. This is information which is really useful for political practioners.
And as for voting remotely – the next stage …what a nightmare. Just make personation and fraud much easier. People died and are dying for the right to vote. The least a citizen can do is show up at the polling booth.
Actually, the least a citizen can do is vote and nearly 50% don’t bother. Make it a criminal offence I say.
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01.12.04
More LOTR gripes
More LOTR gripes
Paddy writes to add to the list of unnecessary irritations in RotK. “Didn’t you find that bit in the coronation where Aragorn starts singing a song from Enya’s greatest hits is a bit alarming?”
Hear hear.
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