The basis of our political system in Ireland is non-accountability. Not officially of course. But everyone in politics, State employment, white-collar private business and various other groups know that, basically, they can get away with all sorts of seriously dodgy dealings and nobody’s going to say boo to them. Or at the very worst, someone saying boo to them is the full extent of the reprimand they’re going to get.
The banking collapse is the most obvious example of Ireland’s aversion to accountability. Instead of identifying those behind it and giving the citizens of Ireland some sense of justice, the powers that be merely shook their heads sadly and sent the bankers off to play a game of golf.
But the scene had long been set for the bankers to get a ‘Do not go to jail’ card – because the greatest practitioners of evading accountability are the sleeveens in government themselves. Power in Leinster House has become incredibly centralised and hierarchal, thanks to the whip system, which forces every TD to toe the line or else they’ll find their arses kicked out of the party.
This means that the gougers in cabinet can essentially do anything they want, whether it benefits the country, or merely benefits themselves or one of their buddies, and nobody can do a feckin’ thing about it. And if someone decides to ask them why, say, a particular constituency has been favoured with a new swimming pool, or a particular crony has been appointed to a board, they just reply with a pile of oul’ bull that doesn’t in any way explain their behaviour – and that’s the end of that.
This has always been the way in Ireland and, naturally, there has been a trickle-down effect. If there’s no accountability in government, why should civil or public servants be any different?
It doesn’t matter how you screw up, whether it’s wasting a couple of mill on some idiotic project or fiddling your phone expenses for ten years, you know nobody’s ever going to kick your arse, and you’re certainly never going to lose your job.
The non-accountability bug has long since spread to those not in, but closest to government – the guys with all the money. If you’re a person on minimum wage who forgets to pay his/her TV licence, you’ve a much greater chance of ending up in jail than a geebag in a nice suit who hides millions in an offshore account to evade tax.
The only nod to accountability in Ireland is the Public Accounts Committee, which can summon various wasters, cute hoors, gougers and gobdaws to answer for their behaviour. The problem is that even if they’re shown to be as bent as a €7 note, the worst that’s going to happen to them is that they’ll be a bit embarrassed in public. And, since most of these yahoos have a neck like a jockey’s bollocks, a bit of embarrassment isn’t going to turn them off their Dom Perignon.
Until the day that Ireland has real accountability with real consequences – i.e. you get the boot with no cushy settlement, you lose your pension, you go to jail, you lose your seat in the Dáil – then the bastards are going to keep screwing the country, and let the rest of us suffer the consequences. Don’t hold your breath.
