A Dublin Chamber of Commerce study in 2005 found that Irish business was losing €2 billion every year directly through economic crime. Ireland is also believed to be costing the economy indirectly. According to other studies, an improvement in business trust as seen in a one point drop in the corruption league table is equivalent to the loss of €1 billion to the Irish economy every year. The combined economic cost of corruption is equivalent to the loss of 75,000 Irish jobs annually.

The Government has recently moved to treble the value of gifts and loans that politicians can keep without disclosing them. In addition, delays in introducing safeguards for whistleblowers and high fees for public information mean that Ireland is expected to sit in the third-tier of honest democracies for the time being, and a long time to come.

A 2007 report by the economic think tank the OECD was heavily critical of the Irish government's and businesses efforts to combat bribery. The Government in all of that most recent history is Fianna Fail.

Though corruption has always been rife and growing within Fianna Fail for decades, it was Eamon De Valera who told a senior minister in 1970 that Charles Haughey would ruin the party. One man alone would not do it for it made no difference two decades plus later. By then corruption was the norm within the party

In December 2006, the Moriarty Tribunal found that former Taoiseach Charles Haughey took payments of €11.56 million, or €45 million in today's money, between 1979 and 1996, and granted favours in return.

Ray Burke was jailed for tax offences and feted in prison

Frank Dunlop, Government press secretary, was jailed for bribing politicians among others

Beverly Cooper Flynn had advised people to illegally evade taxes while working as a financial advisor for a bank

Michael Collins had an offshore bank account to evade taxes


Liam Lawlor was jailed for refusing to cooperate with a tribunal investigating corruption and was feted in prison

Dennis Foley had an offshore bank account to evade taxes

Michael Collins had an offshore bank account to evade taxes

Ivor Callely had to resign his seat because of bribery charges

Bertie Ahern popularity actually increased when he was found to be wanting and contradictory in his evidence about alleged bribes given and received. He resigned under pressure with more questions than answers following his wake

Padraig Flynn, father of Beverly, resigned his position as European Commissioner due to allegations of malpractice by the European Parliament

 In September 2007, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, while being questioned at the Mahon Tribunal, said that he must have given £30,000 to somebody else (to make a transaction that the bank had no record for), but he didn't know who he gave the money to.

In June 2007, Fianna Fail changed the law to create three new Junior Ministers with salaries of €150,000 a year. They had previously done this in 1977 and 1980. When Fine Gael did the same in 1995, Fianna Fail called it an abuse of the taxpayer and an act of hypocrisy, and Bertie Ahern vowed to abolish the new posts.

Bertie Ahern in September 2006, accepted that he had appointed people who gave him money to State boards, but he insisted that he did not appoint them because they gave him money. He said he had appointed them because they were his friends.

 Bertie Ahern, In September 2006, said that he had accepted £39,000 from friends, including the brilliantly-named Paddy the Plasterer, in 1993 and 1994. He said it was loans, and that he had tried to pay them back but they had all refused.

A Fianna Fail Government Press Secretary PJ Mara, had failed to co-operate with the Flood Tribunal, by failing to provide details of an overseas account. In the 1980s, in a Hot Press interview, Mara said that his greatest ambition was 'never to be found out'

In December 2001, Fianna Fail TD Ned O'Keefe resigned as a Junior Minister. He had voted on a bill about feeding bonemeal to animals, forgetting to inform the Dail that his family was involved in manufacturing the substance

In May 2002, former Fianna Fail Government press Secretary Frank Dunlop said that he paid at least £160,000 to 25 councillors in relation to the redrafting of the Dublin County Council development plan from 1991 to 1993"¦"¦"¦"¦"¦"¦"¦.

In 2007"¦"¦"¦"¦"¦"¦"¦"¦"¦"¦"¦.

On and on it goes but why bore you to tears. The Country is now run by a prime minister of the same party as all of the above. He got his position by default because the last one, Bertie Ahern, resigned because he still has still those questions to answer. Without mandate, this one has saddled the Irish taxpayer with billions of euro in loans to bail out his friends, the building developers and the banks. This man also believes that the child abuse scandals of the clergy in Ireland are church matters, and best left to them to deal with for he has enough problems running the country. His name is Brian Cowen

Him, his party, and the lack of transparency and accountability are the problem

 

Barry Clifford

 
' Nothing is local that is not global'