Introduction
Open Letter from nine Irish academics
- Overview
- A big constitutional mistake
– Part 1
European Community
- Irish Foreign Policy
- Irish Military Neutrality – Part 2
Cultural Tourism
– Rise of the Celtic Tiger
- Hindsight on Cultural Tourism policies
– Part 3 Consumers: Not Citizens
- Written into the constitution of the Euro-zone
- Lisbon Treaty 'Guarantees'
– Part 4 How the Banks captured Ireland too
- Stephen Donnelly, TD, Four conversations ...
- German perspectives
- Brexit
– Part 5 Caught in the middle - Collapse of the Celtic Tiger
- Killing the Celtic Tiger
- Land Value Taxation in Ireland
-
The Fair Tax: Supported by History,
Agreed by Economists, Feared by the 1%
– Part 6 Why would Ireland give away its natural resources?
- Three urgent issues
Early Bronze Age members of the Tuatha dé Danann - the "Children of Danu" - dwelling at Brú na Bóinne (Newgrange), on the banks of the River Boyne, with the chief Druid, The Dagda "God of Order"- magic and mysticism, his daughter Brigid, the "Exalted One" - the water goddess, with dominion over both rivers and wells, is celebrated for many attributes: goddess of poetry, healing, fertility, passion and fire, life and death, and invention,
on the 1st and 2nd of February,
the beginning of northern hemisphere spring:
IMBOLC, in Gaelic = "womb of time" -
the crossroads of the seasons = rebirth.
In December 2012, nine Irish academicswrote the following open letter to the Editor, Irish Independent newspaper – concise AND comprehensive enough to make sense to those unfamiliar with the The Law of Rent theorem (Economic Rent, Land or Site Value Tax).
Why site value tax is best option Open Letter to the Editor Independent.ie
December 2, 2012
Madam – We the undersigned support the introduction of a property tax based on the unimproved value of all residential sites, and all zoned land, ie the value that has not been created by the landowner. A tax on the unimproved portion of property value is a Site Value Tax (SVT).
SVT is the most equitable, efficient and effective property tax option for the Government. Unlike a conventional property tax that taxes the 'improved' portion of the property, ie the buildings and thus penalises construction, SVT is non- distortionary, creates no economic drag and has minimal adverse effects.
By capturing unearned value at an early stage of the property development process, SVT discourages empty buildings, land speculation, hoarding and over-zoning and diverts capital and available credit into productive investment and sustainable jobs. In the long term, an SVT will moderate violent fluctuations in the property market and general economy.
SVT provides a stable base to fund vital infrastructure and services and offers a transparent link between the private benefits of public investment and the source of the investment.
SVT will reduce the property tax burden on homeowners by one-third by spreading the burden on to development land-owning individuals, firms and banks which were largely responsible for the current crisis.
– Peter Antonioni, Fellow, University College London;
– Bill Black, Associate Professor of Economics and Law, University of Kansas;
– Dr Micheal Collins, NERI (Nevin Economic Research Institute);
– Karl Deeter QFA, (LIAM) dip;
– Dr Constantin Gurdgiev, Adjunct Professor, Trinity College;
– Dr Stephen Kinsella, University of Limerick;
– Professor Brian Lucey, Trinity College;
– Dr. Ronan Lyons, Balliol College, Oxford;
– Dr Terrence McDonough, Economics, NUI Galway.
2022 Another mistake - Taxing 'houses' instead of land value:
The Irish Times view on property tax: the tax-averse left Dublin City Council is wrong not to increase the levy
Irish Times, September 22, 2022
Since the local property tax was introduced in 2013, councillors have had the power to raise or lower the rate by 15 per cent. >>>more
“This land is the most temperate of all lands. The exhausting heat of the tropic of Cancer does not drive one to the shade. The cold of the tropic of Capricorn does not invite one urgently to the fireplaces. . . . The island is in little need of the services of doctors. You find very few ill people apart from those who are about to die. Between continuous health and final death, there is scarcely any mean.” – Richard Stanihurst (1547-1618), from De Rebus in Hibernia Gestis (Antwerp 1584)
Consequences of the 2008 Global Financial Crisis (GFC) The mighty cry now ringing across Ireland recognises a direct connection between the first human right - the right to life, and the right to land, which is seldom raised, especially by lawyers and accountants: Human gullibility, lust for wealth, property and status is still to blame for Ireland's continuing struggle, especially following the 2008 Global Financial Crisis (GFC). Reports on the consequences of mortgage debt are tragic: "Since March 2012, proceedings have been issued in thousands of cases, but only a little over 8,000 properties have actually been taken into possession. Why?" – (Jack Morgan-Jones, The Irish Times, February 2019), and especially painful is the level of suffering reported across the public health sector. The youth of Ireland are once again emigrating in search of work, as reported by Sinead Fahey, The Irish Times, December 2018.
Nobody was paying attention when the 2007/8 Global Financial Crisis (GFC) 'drowned' the "Celtic Tiger" in what was referred to in accountancy circles as the “Double Irish” tax scheme- "the largest tax avoidance tool in history" - 'offshoring' profits via Ireland to Bermuda (bypassing Tir Na Nog):
In October 2014, the EU forced Ireland to close the scheme, from January 2015 (as reported in and Financial Times, 2014) and TheJournal.ie, 2018)
Ireland is a culturally sophisticated society, with a population among the most highly educated in the world, and yet the legacy of land speculation has reduced Ireland to 3rd world bankruptcy status because the government bankrupted itself: Anglo Irish Bank 'bail-out' became 'the genesis' of what went wrong in the Irish property market when their high-risk investment development model made such huge profits that other Irish banks followed their example.
Dr. Lyons' 2012 proposal was relatively straightforward, Site-value tax easier to implement and better for economy, The Irish Times, April 26, 2012, "use the best information we have currently (1.3 million sales and lettings ads posted on daft.ie between 2006 and 2011), and the best methods available for establishing the components of house prices to implement the best known form of taxation (Site Value Tax) on an interim basis, in an area where Ireland desperately needs new revenues: residential property. And when better information becomes available – in particular, the Revenue Commissioners register of transactions – then that can be used for a full Site Value Tax."- Ronan Lyons, 2012 (See more of Dr Lyon's Smart Taxes reports here)
"I am particularly interested in long-run housing markets, in order to better understand current housing experiences such as rapidly increasing housing costs in many high-income cities, and in Ireland’s path to economic development, from the 16th century through to today" - Dr. Ronan Lyons, Economist, Trinity College Dublin.
Australian economist Phillip J. Anderson, author of “The Secret Life of Real Estate and Banking” (2009), said, "The current financial crisis proves the neo-classical economy is working – not failing. … The present crash is NOT a market failure: it is actually proof that the monopoly capitalist system is working, and working well.”
When the GFC hit Ireland, Stephen Donnelly, TD, was a member of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform. His expert forensic examination of the banking crisis on several fronts was an eye-opener (see details under Part 4).
Ireland: Serfs not citizens
Chapter 8, 'Who owns the world?' By Kevin Cahill
Synopsis by Mairéid Sullivan
2009
The following two-part article is an edited extract of Chapter 8 “Ireland: Serfs not citizens” from the book ‘Who owns the world’ by Kevin Cahill.
Featured article from Issue 8, June 2009 and Issue 9, September 2009, for Tinteán, the quarterly journal of the Australian Irish Heritage Network Quia Emptores Act, 1290 AD
...The law that denied land ownership to the Irish, the Quia Emptores Act of 1290 AD, is still on the Irish statute book. It is this basic feudal law, restated, which placed the actual ownership of all physical land in the hands of the Crown. Subsequently this law was placed in the hands of the Irish Free State, thus making all ‘land owners’ in Ireland tenants of the State, having to pay rent in contradiction of their alleged status as ‘freeholders’. The underlying principle in Quia Emptores also underlaid the Acts of Settlement which evicted the native Irish ‘landowners’ and substituted English and Scottish settler landowners in the 17th and 18th Century. The basic argument in law was that the Irish ‘landowners’ were mere tenants of the Crown, and the Crown could dismiss and evict its tenants, legally, as indeed it could, under Quia Emptores and associated laws. .... To be a citizen is to have the innate right to obtain and own land. There is a direct connection between the first human right, the right to life, and the right to land, which is seldom raised, especially by lawyers. >>> continue
Who Owns the World (UK 2006–US 2009) by Kevin Cahill, is the first survey of landownership in each of the world’s 197 states or countries and 66 major territories. Kevin Cahill explains, 'The purpose of all the feudal land laws, derived from the fundamental principle of the feudal system, …was to prevent the population owning land.'>>> continue
Today, in the face of new challenges that overhang Europe, I deem it important to start by reaffirming my country’s solid commitment to multilateralism, and to the goals and principles that have guided the Council of Europe’s endeavours throughout the 65 years of its existence. Indeed, ever since its foundation, and with a renewed sense of purpose during the decade that made history after the end of the cold war, the Council of Europe has provided an essential catalyst. First, it highlights the fundamental principles of pluralist democracy, respect for human rights and the rule of law. Secondly, it has worked on the setting of standards in the area of human rights through the European Convention on Human Rights and other legal mechanisms, and thirdly, it has confirmed the common goal of a freer, more tolerant and just society in Europe. That is an overall framework for which we must consciously and proactively care, and we must nurture it as an indispensable component of the architecture of stability, peace and trust that we have been building on this continent over the decades. It is a legacy of profound ethical significance that is admired and emulated across the globe, and we must be mindful not to let it unravel – rather, we must extend and straighten it.
Before I come to those destructive currents, which in my view threaten to unravel our European systems of cohesion and co-operation, I acknowledge more specifically the Council of Europe’s immense contribution to the vindication of human rights in the fullness and indivisibility of their breadth. . . . >>>more
President Higgins visit to Australia, 2017 Keynote address: President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins The Melbourne University, October 2017 See Lecture transcript HERE
On the third day of his week-long tour of Australia, 9th of October 2017, speaking at the unveiling of a famine memorial, in Perth, Western Australia, President Michael D. Higgins compared today's refugees with those who left Ireland during the Famine - a direct comparison between those fleeing conflict in the Middle East and Africa at present with the estimated 1.5 million Irish who were forced to leave their homelands between 1845 and 1852. “Can we, of Irish extraction, borrow from our own history when faced, as we are today, with the largest number of displaced people on the planet since the Second World War?” he said. >>>more
I was fortunate to have attended President Higgin's lecture at Melbourne University, before a full house. Without a doubt, this was the most remarkable keynote lecture I have ever witnessed. The entire academic staff on stage appeared agog - taken by surprise! Enlivened! It will take some time for students and teachers alike to come to terms with the many threads Michael Higgins interwove in his overview of the history of economic thought - centuries of political machinations leading to the unique ‘clarity of vision’ behind the formulation of Classical Political Economic theorem, and how that 'holistic' approach continues to be suppressed by 'privatising' interests.President Higgins must have known that few present would understand what he was saying, but he said it anyway because these key historical 'moments' of clarity in economic thinking are calling out for inclusion in public discussion. He spoke of those Irish, here, there and everywhere else, who were caught up in the selfish-speculative trap that has led to the system-breakdown we are faced with today.It won't be long before students will begin examining the gravitas of his perspective.– Maireid Sullivan, Oct. 2017
Irish Foreign Policy
Trinity College Dublin Emeritus Professor of Political Science, Patrick Keatinge completed his PhD thesis in 1968 on “The Formulation of Irish Foreign Policy” and thus became Ireland's leading expert on international relations. In the Preface to “Irish Foreign Policy" 2012 (pdf), Tonra et al. state:
“While several excellent research monographs have been published, to date we have lacked a text that has introduced the subject and brought the student through the historical context, the policy-making machinery and the thematic priorities of present-day Irish foreign policy. . .
It remains a testament to the quality of Patrick’s contribution to the study of Irish foreign policy that his path-breaking early works: The formulation of Irish foreign policy (1973) and A place among the nations: Issues of Irish foreign policy (1978) remain eagerly sought after by graduate students and are among the most frequently thumbed volumes on Irish foreign policy within Irish university libraries." – Tonra et al. XVII.
Professor Keatinge shared valuable hindsight in the Forward.
Excerpt, p. VII-XVI:
SOURCES FOR THE STUDY OF IRISH FOREIGN POLICY
In the mid-1960s, so far as hard information about Irish foreign policy was concerned, it was all too often a question of skating on very thin ice. The historical base was rudimentary; there was no national archive of primary source material to consult, Foreword ix irish foreign policy:Layout 1 07/03/2012 10:23 Page ix and there was little published material. Professor Nicholas Mansergh, when writing on Ireland’s foreign relations in the context of the history of the British Commonwealth, was the exception that proved the rule. Also, at University College Dublin, Professor T. Desmond Williams had, since the 1950s, provided controversial glimpses into the realpolitik of wartime Irish diplomacy. Observation of the present or very recent past was hardly more rewarding. The academic analysis of Irish politics was in its infancy; at Trinity College Dublin Professor Basil Chubb’s pioneering text, The Government and Politics of Ireland was not published until 1970. The media generally lacked the resources to cover international relations in depth; television was still a novelty, and the print media had not got around to appointing foreign correspondents. Above all, a culture of administrative secrecy prevailed in the civil service, and in the then Department of External Affairs in particular. The secrecy was broken only very occasionally. Former diplomat Conor Cruise O’Brien devoted a handful of pages to his former colleagues in Iveagh House and the working of the Department of External Affairs in his 1962 account of the Congo crisis To Katanga and Back. There were few official documents in the public domain, and the overall impression was of a strong, silent Foreign Minister looming, if often in absentia in New York at the United Nations, over a largely apathetic parliament.
The situation improved gradually through the 1970s. In 1979 an annual journal, Irish Studies in International Affairs, was established by the Royal Irish Academy’s National Committee for International Affairs.
In an insightful review of Irish Foreign Policy 1919-1966: From Independence to Internationalism, (edited by Michael Kennedy, Joseph Morrison Skelly, Four Courts Press, 2000), the celebrated Irish historian and former Reader in Commonwealth and American History at the University of Edinburgh, Dr Owen Dudley Edwards presented his astute observations on political aggrandisement
Excerpt: The results may be seen in the Irish diplomatic performance in the EC, or in the transformation of Margaret Thatcher within a year from the screeching chauvinist 'OUT ... OUT ... OUT' to the signatory of Irish Agreement. Her fate was that of so many arrogant establishmentarians whether in British or other governments: the more vehement, the more vulnerable. The Anglo-Irish Agreement may have been a very bad thing: in the opinion of the present writer, it was. But it is impossible to withhold admiration for the skill with which the Mephistophelean Irish coldly marked and profited by every hostage to fortune their chosen Faustina delivered. And the making of that crack corps is the largely hidden music to which this book forms a libretto. >>>more
Abstract
New Hibernia Review 6.4 (2002) 26-43
Irish nationalist identity is often times linked to such perennial icons as the Catholic church, the Gaelic language, and neutrality. Whether or not the church or the language continue today in any meaningful way as integral parts of some shared sense of Irish national consciousness is not the focus of this essay. Neutrality is, however, and the two questions to be examined here are, first, whether or not that concept has been, and remains, a fundamental tenet of Irish nationalist identity; and, second, what neutrality has come to mean in the contemporary context, with some of its attendant implications. Indeed, the topic of neutrality has never been one of enduring interest for many people in Ireland, except on those occasions when Irish sovereignty was at issue, or Irish security was seemingly threatened. Recently, however, following the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center in New York, some Irish voices called on the Dublin government to sustain Ireland's time-honored policy of noninvolvement and urged it not to allow American military planes refueling facilities at Irish airports if hostilities ensued abroad. In the weeks and months that followed, some radio and television talk shows, as well as newspaper opinion columns, echoed that sentiment and often alluded to the country's historic tradition of neutrality which had always enjoyed strong national support. Countless others, of course, including the Irish president, the taoiseach, and tens of thousands of Irish citizens, offered condolences to the people of the United States and saw no conflict with national policy in pledging assistance for the battle against terrorism. The contrast between these two responses simply underscores the fact that in Ireland there is often no clear consensus on what the nation's neutral posture ought to be, or on what neutrality actually means in the Irish context.
The historiography relating to Irish foreign policy, and especially to neutrality, has expanded dramatically over the past twenty years, attributable in part to the declassification of various foreign government documents and the release of an increasing number of private paper collections. Despite the availability of these archival materials, however, constitutional specialists, and others, sometimes find it easier to state what Ireland's policy of neutrality does not entail, rather than what it does. One is not surprised, therefore, to learn that there is even disagreement as to when the disposition toward neutrality first emerged in Ireland, and whether it was in fact neutrality, as the concept is generally understood, or something else entirely.
Some historians have noted that the propensity toward neutrality might be traced back to the isolationism reflected in both the Home Rule and separatist traditions. That contention appears to have some credence when one considers that Sir Roger Casement published a proposal in 1913 advocating the neutralization of an independent Ireland, or that James Connolly, in 1914, assumed the presidency of an organization called the Irish Neutrality League. It is, however, misleading, as John A. Murphy has argued, to attach the label of neutrality to this period of intense nationalist passion. Indeed, prior to World War I, Irish nationalists were motivated by anti-British sentiment and very few of them would have had any commitment to a specific concept of neutrality. It is equally fanciful to contend, as some have, that neutrality was first embraced during the Irish war for independence, or during the state's formative years in the 1920s.
While it is certainly true, as Patrick Keatinge has remarked, that the Anglo-Irish War and, earlier, Irish opposition to conscription in World War I, did contribute to an instinctive predilection for neutrality, the principal objective of Irish nationalists thereafter was not to become involved in any future British war on behalf of the Empire. Indeed, as early as his 1920 fundraising tour of America, Eamon de Valéra sought to assure the London Government that such abstention by an independent Ireland would never imperil British security. It was in the hope of demonstrating the sincerity of that pledge that he went on to propose a variation of the Monroe Doctrine under which Ireland's relationship to Britain would be analogous to that of Cuba...
…there is the interest group factor to consider. Their collective impact on political structures is clear but it is not clear how, if at all, they may have affected policy or policy makers beyond the effects of public opinion in general. Ireland’s direct involvement in the international use of force appears less and less guided by the objectives advocated by these groups despite their successes in relation to referenda, broadcasting time and the Referendum Act... Conclusion
It was remarked in the 1980s that no doctrine of Irish neutrality exists in the sense of a ‘clearly stated comprehensive set of guidelines, widely under stood and acted on throughout the political system (Keatinge 1984:6). The continued validity of this remark is clear. Irish neutrality escapes precise definition, and remains ‘an ill-defined but potent element of the state’s political culture, a symbol of its sovereignty, [and] part of the currency of party politics’ (Keatinge 1993:160).
However, there is a change as well as continuity. Policy responses to the changes in Ireland’s international environment have redefined the range of activities that Ireland as a neutral can undertake. While policy on the international use of force is formally made with neutrality as a touchstone, it is also the case that neutrality is regularly reformulated to facilitate favoured policy alternatives. Neutrality is malleable in the hands of governments (and oppositions). Public support for neutrality appears stable despite the lack of any clear understanding of what neutrality means or entails, and it responds rationally and with some degree of consistency to new information and changes. This may be a reflection of the political parties’ long-standing reluctance to engage intelligibly on this issue rather than a sign of enlightened public opinion. The outcome is a poorly thought-out policy, perfectly mirrored in largely uninformed public opinion. Under such circumstances, ‘the policeymakers’ problem becomes more one of dramatically transforming opinion in the direction they prefer’ (Russett 1990:106). But Irish parties lead from the front when it suits them, too. With regard to the international use of force, then, neutrality matters more in terms of its domestic significance than as a basis for principled judgements about Irish participation.
Excerpt: NATO fully respects Ireland’s longstanding policy of military neutrality, which allows for its armed forces to be used for peacekeeping and crisis management operations where there is a UN mandate, a government decision and parliamentary approval.
Relations with Ireland began in 1997, when Ireland deployed personnel in support of the NATO-led peacekeeping operation in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
In 1999, Ireland joined NATO’s Partnership for Peace (PfP) programme and the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council, a multilateral forum for dialogue which brings together all Allies and partner countries in the Euro-Atlantic area.
Cooperation between NATO and Ireland is governed by Ireland’s Individual Partnership and Cooperation Programme (IPCP),which is jointly agreed for a two-year period.
Ireland contributes actively to a variety of PfP activities in areas such as generic planning for peacekeeping and peace support, operational procedures, logistics and training. The Irish Defence Forces also operate a UN peacekeeping school, which offers courses that are open to Allies and partners. >>>more
Wikipedia
Excerpt: Ireland and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization have had a formal relationship since 1999, when Ireland joined as a member of the NATO Partnership for Peace (PfP) programme and signed up to NATO's Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council (EAPC). To date, Ireland has not sought to join as a full NATO member due to its traditional policy of military neutrality. – Wikipedia
Good Friday Agreement 20 years on:
interview with Bertie Ahern -
BBC Newsnight
YouTube: April 10, 2018
On the eve of the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, Evan Davis met up with former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern to discuss the past and future of the peace deal.
Rise of the Celtic Tiger
Over 15 years of hearings (1997 to 2012), The Tribunal of Inquiry
Into Certain Planning Matters & Payments aka Mahon Tribunal Report uncovered corruption affecting 'every level of Irish political life'.
The Final Report of the Tribunal is now available for download.
Please click here
SUMMARY
Most of the incoming data in recent months has been more negative than even the most pessimistic expectations. For example, on the international front the rate of job losses in the US has been extraordinary, with 3.3 million jobs being shed in the five months to the end of March 2009. The forecast from the OECD that Germany will contract by 5.3 per cent is in
sharp contrast to earlier expectations that Germany would escape the worst of the global recession. For Ireland, the rate of job losses in the first three months of this year exceeded all expectations, with 80,000 joining the Live Register between January and March.
The wave of poor outcomes and indicators have led us to cut our forecast for 2009, from - 4.6 per cent in our Winter Commentary to -9.2 per cent (on a GNP basis). For 2010, we expect to see a moderation in the pace of decline and for GNP to fall by 1.2 per cent. Our forecast for 2010 is based on the assumption of activity bottoming out in the latter part of that year.
The implications of the downturn for employment are highly negative. >>> more
Hindsight on Cultural Tourism policies Back to top
Selected reports
i.
2002: The Impact of Tourism on the Irish Economy The
Irish Tourist Industry report, 2002
Since the 1960s, the Irish tourism industry has grown very considerably in scale. Between 1965 and 2000, the number of overseas visitors to Ireland increased almost fivefold while foreign exchange earnings from tourism advanced by a factor of forty. Within this period, tourism growth has been concentrated in the years 1985-2000, a span which saw the number of overseas visitors climb from under two million to well over six million.
>>> more
“The successful development of Ireland’s economy, particularly since the mid 1990s has relied significantly on the growth of the higher value-added industries, including those based on world-class R&D and on the creation of Intellectual Property. An example of this – the success of the software industry in Ireland – is a role model we must seek to emulate by identifying and putting in place strategies to address new emerging high potential sectors. The Digital Content Industry is one such sector."
– Mary Harney TD, Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment from 1997 to 2006.
Excerpt from the introduction.
It is widely recognised that tourism has become an industry of major importance in the Republic of Ireland, with visitor numbers rising from 2.5 million in 1990 to over five million in 1996. European Union funds and public and private sector investments totalling 388.84 million ECU during the period 1989-1993, have helped to improve the roads, infrastructure and accommodation base, and have raised the number of visitor attractions (Hurley et al.,1994), whilst accessibility has been enhanced through the liberalisation of air travel in the late 1980s (Gillmor, 1994).
An important feature of recent Irish tourism development has been the explosion in cultural or heritage tourism (Duffy, 1994; Mullane, 1994; McManus, 1997). As Richards notes (1996), this is part of a broader European trend towards the conversion of former production spaces into spaces of consumption. Coalmines become museums, factories become visitor centres and, most relevant to the case of Ireland, countryside becomes leisure landscape (Cloke, 1993). Cultural tourism is no longer restricted to the mainly visual consumption of ‘high culture’ artefacts such as galleries, theatres and architecture, but has expanded to include simply “soaking up the atmosphere” of a place (Richards, 1996), sampling the local food (Ilbery and Kneafsey, 1998; Bessière, 1998), and participating in local events. In Ireland, cultural tourism has been particularly developed in the form of heritage attractions such as historic houses, interpretative centres, parks and monuments (O’Donnchadha and O’Connor, 1996).
Fintan O’Toole describes his recent critique of Ireland’s bust to boom to bust as ‘polemical’, a word derived from the Greek ‘polemikó’, meaning ‘warlike’. How apt. This sorry tale of stupidity and corruption should serve as an ideological call to arms.
. . . The revelations contained within each page makes one wonder to whom O’Toole’s book title refers - the Captain (Ahern) and his (Fianna Fáil) crew who recklessly steered the ship into a watery economic end, or the passenger population which failed to compel them to change course. >>> more
Submission, acquiescence, capitulation to globalization?
"Is the financial deprivation of entire nations engendering a new level of frustration and political unrest? . . . the blatant theft of national assets and impoverishment of the citizens of nations whose governments got caught up in the shady dealings of global bankers and their political cronies." - Ellen Brown, 2015
Written into the constitution of the Euro-zone: - Only banks should create credit and create it at interest;
- That government should not provide money to the economy;
- Governments should raise their money by selling off the public domain to private investors;
- That government should not provide social services;
- Should not provide infrastructure services;
- That all of these should be privatised and that means building into their price structure interest charges, exorbitant salaries, and economic rent for whatever the privatisers can charge."
IIEA-2009- Lisbon Treaty - The Irish Guarantees Explained (pdf) Lisbon: The Irish Guarantees Explained is an explanation of the agreement reached between the Heads of State or Government of the 27 EU Member States on 19 June 2009 in Brussels, informally called ‘the Guarantees’. They consist of both legally binding agreements and political commitments.
Following the Irish ‘No’ vote in the referendum of 12 June 2008 on the Lisbon Treaty, the Member States began talks to investigate whether it was possible to reach a compromise that would respect both the Irish vote and the choices of other Member States in ratifying the Treaty.
This document is an easy-to-understand explanation of what these guarantees are and what they mean, politically and legally.
Excerpt:
The Guarantees comprise three documents:
1. Decision of the Heads of State or Government of EU Member States acting in their capacity as sovereign states. The Decision is an international agreement, because the Member States have clearly stated their intention for the document to be binding upon them under international law, like a contract. For extra legal certainty, the provisions of this Decision will become a protocol to the EU treaties in the near future.
The Decision contains 3 sections on Irish issues:
• Section A is a clarification that specific articles in the Constitution of Ireland on the protection of the right to life, family and education will not be affected by the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU or the justice provisions in the Lisbon Treaty;
• Section B is confirmation that the Lisbon Treaty does nothing to change the powers of the Member States regarding taxation;
• Section C is a clarification that Ireland’s traditional policy of military neutrality will remain unchanged and unaffected by the Lisbon Treaty, and a reiteration of Irish sovereignty in relation to other areas of EU security and defence policy. The Decision will become legally binding at the same time as the Lisbon Treaty enters into force.
2. Solemn Declaration by the European Council on workers’ rights, social policy and other related issues;
3. National Declaration by Ireland on Irish security and defence policy. In addition to the text, an important agreement was reached among the Member States that if the Lisbon Treaty enters into force, the European Commission shall continue to include one national of each Member State. >>> more
Part 4 How the Banks captured Ireland too. Back to top
"I'm quoting here Michael Hudson. He says, 'If you don't tax that value that attaches to land, arising from the general wealth of the economy, the banks get it.'That is what happened. The banks got it. They turned it into a kind of money backed by debt, essentially phony money that wasn't backed by real productivity. That essentially led to the boom and that subsequently led to the bust . . . Bear in mind that our public finances were in surplus, before the bank crisis. . ."– Emer O'Siochru, July 2013
After years of austerity, the Irish people are left to wonder why they were forced to bail the banks out in the first place, and what has Ireland to show for it?
"In a now legendary all-night sitting on September 29th, 2008, the Irish government agreed to guarantee all bank debts. . . . 'most disastrous decision that was ever made by an Irish government'." - Christine Zaschke, July 2013
"...a banking crisis, into which tens of billions have now been poured with little or no benefit to either the banks or the real economy." – Stephen Kinsella, 2010
Three reports
"The solutions to all of this are available." Stephen Donnelly, TD, Wicklow and East Carlow, Ireland.
(More on Stephen Donnelly's YouTube Channel)
Stephen Donnelly studied engineering at UCD and MIT and in 2008 completed a Masters’ degree in Public Administration and International Development at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, ‘examining, in detail, the interaction between the IMF and small states’.
When the GFC hit Ireland, Stephen Donnelly, TD, was a member of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform and part of the Irish delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). His main focus has been on education and economic issues, such as the need to deleverage household debt, public sector and political reform, and Ireland’s Bailout Programme. In October 2012, he addressed Martin Schulz, President of the European Parliament:
"€67 million is being borrowed from the troika, virtually all of which is going into the banks and almost the same amount is being given by the banks to the senior bondholders in terms of forgone losses. This is what has happened: there has been a €67 billion circle of money from the troika through Ireland to the international banks and investors… I thank Mr. Schulz for his support and I hope he will be able to bring this simple message back: Ireland did not get a bailout and Ireland is not looking for aid or benevolence. We need our money back in order that we can contribute to the recovery of Europe."
–
Stephen Donnelly, TD, (2012)
i. MUST SEE: Four conversations with Bankers Stephen Donnelly TD, the Independent TD for Wicklow and East Carlow, questions the Governor of the Central Bank, Patrick Honohan, on the issue of the Promissory Notes, at the Finance Committee in March 2012.
IRELAND: Joint committee of Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform Chair: Patrick Hanrohan, questioned by Stephen Donnelly, TD
Matters relating to the ELA funding and the repayment of the IBTC promissory notes.
Q&A session provides interesting insight into Irish bank loan process
Stephen Donnelly, TD
"We, the people, or IBRC, owes you, the governor of the Central Bank, about 40 Billion Euro, and we, the people have promised to give IBRC about 30B of that 40B. To give them that 30B-ish, we have to borrow it from somebody, presumably at about 3.5% at a market rate. This is a bond, so we might get it at 1.5% instead of 3.5, therefore, the gain to the State is hypothetically a 2% points spread over about 30B, which would be worth about 600 Million a year.
"My first question, and I understand my numbers will be slightly out, but is that broadly the mechanism of what's happening here?"
Fianna Fáil’s recently appointed Brexit spokesman, Stephen Donnelly, explores the potential of barriers to Irish business and trade posed by Brexit and makes the case for a dedicated Minister for Brexit.
Excerpt:
When the UK voted Leave, many were shocked. How could a majority have just voted to do something almost certain to harm them? There are many reasons of course, including a sense that immigration has gone too far, that the EU has become an out-of-control super-bureaucracy, that globalisation isn’t working for the man and woman in the street. Politically, the last of these should cause most alarm. It’s the fire behind recent US elections and the rise of extreme candidates in Europe. In short, if the status quo isn’t working for you, why would you vote for it? So they didn’t and they voted for change. One aspect of that change will be new trade barriers between the UK and Ireland. >>> more
Excerpt
German newspaper ‘Süddeutsche Zeitung’ published an article about the ‘conning’ of Ireland – over several decades – by its political masters: Christian Zaschke,“I realised that the Irish rebel instinct isn’t as pronounced and that it is matched with a kind of lethargy, a certain fatalism as well as melancholy.”
Chancellor Merkel has “contempt” for Ireland’s bankers. But they are just one part of an elite that exploits the island shamelessly.
In a now legendary all-night sitting on September 29th, 2008, the Irish government agreed to guarantee all bank debts. O’Toole calls this the “most disastrous decision that was ever made by an Irish government”.
At least two generations of taxpayers will pay off these debts. O’Toole makes an excellent job of charting the Irish path to disaster in his book Ship of Fools, in which he calls the accounts of Anglo Irish Bank the “most inventive work of Irish fiction since Ulysses”.
The oil off the Irish coast could be the way out of this misery. The oil could be the hope. If the former energy minister Ray Burke hadn’t rewritten the relevant laws as though the oil industry itself held the pen. And if Bertie Ahern hadn’t made an already bad deal for the Irish people even worse.
Burke was energy minister in 1987, when it was decided to change the provisions for oil and grass drilling licence allocation. Until then the state owned 50 per cent of all oil and gas found in Irish waters. In addition, companies had to pay royalties of between 8 and 16 per cent as well as 50 per cent tax.
The new rule gave companies 100 per cent of their find and abolished licence fees. In 1992 Bertie Ahern, then finance minister and later prime minister from 1998 to 2008, cut the tax for oil companies to 25 per cent – a provision that remains to this day.>>> more
iv. House of Lords
EUROPEAN UNION COMMITTEE
Brexit: UK-Irish Relations Oral and written evidence [pdf]
7 September 2016 Bertie Ahern, Former Taoiseach of Ireland 1997-2008 and John Bruton, Former Taoiseach of Ireland 1994-97, and EU Ambassador to the USA, 2004-09 – Oral evidence (QQ 120-137)
Evidence Session No. 12
Heard in Public
Questions 120 – 137
Tuesday 25 October 2016
Members Present:
Lord Boswell of Aynho (The Chairman); Baroness Armstrong of Hill Top; Baroness Brown of Cambridge; Baroness Browning; Lord Green of Hurstpierpoint; Lord Jay of Ewelme; Earl of Kinnoull; Lord Liddle; Baroness Prashar; Lord Selkirk of Douglas; Baroness Suttie; Lord Teverson; Lord Trees; Baroness Verma; Lord Whitty; Baroness Wilcox
Witnesses
John Bruton, Former Taoiseach of Ireland, 1994-97 and EU Ambassador to the USA, 2004-09; Bertie Ahern, Former Taoiseach of Ireland, 1997-2008.
Excerpt
Chairman … I will invite you in that order to make any initial remarks that you care to, after which we have a list of questions that we would like to work through, although we want to make the session as interactive and informal as we reasonably can, for colleagues as well. Perhaps you would like to kick off, John Bruton.
John Bruton:
My Lords, first, I am very pleased to appear alongside Bertie Ahern. It is probably the first time in either of our careers that we have appeared on the same platform. To my mind, and I was a member of the Dáil at the time, the joint decision of the British and Irish people to join the European Union at the same time transformed the relationship between the two states in the sense that, prior to that, we were in a sort of bilateral unequal relationship, which had all the difficulties that go with any bilateral unequal relationship, whether in a family, between states or between businesses. By joining something that was bigger than either of us, we became equal members in some senses of the European Union. We also dispensed with some of the psychological difficulties that had prevented us from engaging. I have said this publicly a number of times, but the very first time from 1922 to 1973 that a British Prime Minister in office visited Ireland was the year after both of us joined the European Union, when Edward Heath came to Dublin. No previous British Prime Minister in office had met his Irish counterpart in Ireland up to that point. That symbolised the change in relationship and made possible all the things that transpired thereafter, with which both Bertie Ahern and I were involved. I say for myself that we are feeling a great sense of loss at this time, but we have to live with that loss and do the best that we can.
Bertie Ahern:
Lord Chairman, my Lords, it is a great honour to be here and I thank you for the invitation. It is also a great honour to be here with John Bruton. As he said, normally we share the same Parliament but on opposite sides of the Floor, so it is good to be here together to give a constructive line, I hope, on one issue. I have been lucky enough, like John, to enjoy a long political career of working in the European Union with successive British Governments of all sides. The great thing about that was that it helped to build relationships. As John said, those connections and relationships were not there previously. I got to know many Ministers in the years I was on the social affairs council, as Employment or Labour Minister in our system, on ECOFIN and then on the European Council. It was a real help for us to know one another and to change the relationships. I remember that the first Minister who came over to me was a Minister for Taxation, John Cope. He found it necessary to have about 200 security people to protect him. By the end of the period, there was hardly any security to protect anybody. That was how things evolved, and Europe was a huge part of that. I have spent a lot of my life, as John has, in negotiating things. The reality is that we are where we are. There is no point in arguing about things of the past. I gave up most of that in my lifetime; it is a futile exercise. We now have to try to establish what we can do. Like everything in life, nothing is insurmountable if you try hard enough—and it will take effort. I thank the Committee for involving itself in this Brexit UK-Irish relations inquiry. I think that your visit to Dublin and Belfast has been well received. It is considered important that you have given your time and effort to examining these issues and to giving people a voice to explore these issues. That will prove to be very helpful in the months ahead.
Part 5 Caught in the middle – Collapse of the Celtic Tiger
Back to top
Excerpt:
Ireland’s economy would gain significantly by shifting the public’s finances away from taxes on wages and onto the rents of land and natural resources. I pointed out that such a fiscal restructuring would alter the terms of trade in Ireland’s favour.
By cutting the costs of hiring people, the price of exported goods would be lowered without reducing people’s take-home pay. This would increase exports, and increase the attraction of investment in Ireland from both domestic and foreign sources, rendering the Republic an attractive place for corporations to locate their production facilities. >>> more
Excerpt: "Bear in mind that our public finances were in surplus, before the bank crisis, but after the crisis, not only did we have to pay back the troika, the receipts, since property had collapsed as well, so the government wasn't even bringing in as much tax income as they had before, and things were looking very bad. So why did it happen? ... The problem was, we are in Europe, with an open market, and we already had European banks competing with Irish banks. In fact, it was the European banks that were the first ones that brought in the 100% mortgages... You can't really easily regulate your banks in a small country where the money isn't your own money. You are using a third-party currency. They, banks in other countries, could operate in your country under their own rules. In some cases they operated under Irish rules. It was possible for them to operate in Ireland under regulatory rules of their base country. Yes, regulation was important, but it wasn't sufficient reason. If you look in other EU countries where they had broadly the same regulatory system, they didn't get the same kind of 'boom and bust'. So, what else did they have is the question. What was the real cause? I have to talk about home ownership incentives."
>>> more
In 1998, Emer Ó Siochrú co-founded Feasta.org, the Foundation for the Economics of Sustainability. She has taught architecture, managed a design gallery, redeveloped inner city property, worked in local community development, ran an architectural practice and served on public and voluntary sector boards. She currently directs EOS Future Design that creates real and virtual systems for sustainable living, and farms organically. Emer has written on monetary, taxation and planning reform. She directed the Smart Tax Network funded by the Irish Department of the Environment and edited “The Fair Tax” book in 2011.
Also of interest is her review of the Irish economy BEFORE the GFC: Land Value Tax: Unfinished business, November 2004 1. An Irish Taboo 2. Predistribution instead of Redistribution 3. Tax Shift 4. Connectivity and Land 5. The land struggle revisited
The tax regime in Ireland has been very favourable to property owners, but especially to developers who, with their banks, took maximum advantage. It fuelled the disastrous development-site debts of a handful of testosterone-charged developers and led directly to the Irish state’s guarantee of the collapsing banks.
Instead of targeting irresponsible developers, speculators and banks, the government is planning to bail them out again by excluding their land hoards and undeveloped sites from the new property tax. Ordinary home owners will pay at least 20% extra tax every year so that they can continue to pay nothing. Only a Site Value Tax can make them continue to pay their fair share.
This book explains how a second massive transfer of wealth from the 99% to the 1% can happen again due to the ignorance of politicians, the hubris of the Department of Finance, and the continuing backroom influence of the developers and bankers. The authors clearly explain the real advantages of a Site Value Tax over a conventional property tax and convincingly show how easy is it to assess and implement.
Leaked reports suggest the government believes that the Irish people would not understand a Site Value Tax but would understand, and presumably accept, a flawed property tax. Do the Irish people deserve this assessment of their intelligence by their leaders and, as a result, their continuing punishment?>>> more
Part 6 Why would Ireland give away its natural resources? Back to top
Three urgent issues – on the erosion of Ireland's sovereignty
i. My Oil & Gas - Ireland and Norway Perhaps the good people of Norway have something helpful to say...
A member of the infamously corrupt Haughey government, Justice Minister Ray Burke (jailed in 2004 on corruption charges, including tax avoidance and for receiving "corrupt and secret payments from businessmen" for which he was 'forgiven' in 2015), introduced changes to Irish resource laws in 1987, reducing the State’s share in offshore oil and gas from 50% to zero and abolishing royalties. Visit the Shell to Sea campaign:
ii. IRISH WATER Short and informative clip, on the problems surrounding privitisation of water in Ireland: The imposition of 'Irish Water' by the Irish government to ''broaden the tax base'' is being pushed by the EU. Through the creation of 'Irish Water' more tax money is pledged to pay off the bank debt.
Explainer: What the hell’s going on with Irish Water?
Let’s start big – what is Irish Water?>>> more
Fact Check: And… What’s the story legally? It’s complicated. So complicated that it requires another ‘explainer’… Fortunately, TheJournal.ie’s Dan MacGuill has already done the research, and you can read his exhaustive take on the situation here…
Irish government's license for kelp harvesting, quietly applied for in 2009, almost secretly issued in 2014, was discovered by the locals in Bantry, West Cork in 2017, who reported,
NO Public Consultation took place.
This licence was NOT Advertised Adequately.
This licence has been issued with NO requirement for an Environmental Impact Assessment [E.I.A.]
This is the largest industrial scale native Kelp Extraction Licence ever issued in Irish or British waters.
Locals angered by 'lack of consultation' by government over mass harvesting of seaweed
9 July 2017, The Journal.ie Tralee-based company BioAtlantis wants to harvest Bantry’s kelp for bioengineering purposes. It says it has complied with all State demands concerning the application for a licence.
Excerpts
A GROUP OF residents in Co Cork is protesting the government’s decision to grant a licence for the mass mechanical harvesting of kelp seaweed in the local bay to a Kerry company.
... The Bantry residents, meanwhile, also say that BioAtlantis’ plans will irreparably damage the local sea environment – both in the case of the kelp itself and also the local marine life which they say is dependent upon the seaweed’s presence. BioAtlantis denies this.
The group has complained that the licence, which was granted in 2014 by the then-Minister for the Environment Phil Hogan, and first applied for in 2009 to the Department of Agriculture, was given without an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) being carried out.
The Department of Housing, which currently has responsibility for foreshore (ie the area between the high and low water marks of a seashore) activities says that under European law, no such assessment was required, nor was it deemed necessary by the government of the time.
Harvesting of sections of the region’s kelp forest is expected to commence in the near future.
“We had no idea any licence had been granted until February when it showed up on RTÉ,” local woman (and group member) Deirdre Fitzgerald told TheJournal.ie (the programme in question was an edition of Eco Eye on the State broadcaster).
Fitzgerald claims that a “litany of questionable things” regarding the granting of the licence are behind the residents’ protest ...
A thorough scientific report, well mapped.
Springer:
Micheal Mac Monagall Acadian Seaplants & Liam Morrison
National University of Ireland, Galway, (2020), The seaweed resources of Ireland: a twenty-first century perspective, Journal of Applied Phycology (2020) 32:1287-1300
DOI:10.1007/s10811-020-02067-7
Abstract
The harvesting of wild seaweeds continues to play an important cultural and socioeconomic role for many coastal communities on Ireland’s Atlantic seaboard. Although Irish waters contain a diverse and substantial benthic seaweed flora, only a few species are exploited commercially. Historically in Ireland, seaweed was commercially used as a raw material in the production of high-volume, low-value commodities such as animal feed and raw material for alginate production. Recently, with increasing acceptance of seaweed as a sea vegetable and its ever-increasing role as a raw material in the cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries, there has been a renewed vigour in the Irish seaweed industry particularly with new entrants into the human nutrition and cosmetic markets producing high-quality, high-value products. Although many of Ireland’s native seaweed species can be sustainably exploited if well managed, the fucoid Ascophyllum nodosum maintained its prominent role in the Irish seaweed industry. The traditional harvesting of A. nodosum in Ireland continues, although the recent introduction of new harvesting techniques, along with the expected expansion of the Irish seaweed cultivation sector, undoubtedly marks a shift in the Irish seaweed seascape. We focus here on the seaweed resources in Irish waters and how the industry has changed in the last 20 years.
(Excerpt) Introduction
The classic folkloric account of the shores of Connemara, Cladaigh Chonamara, Séamas Mac Con Iomaire (1938), originally published in Irish, attempted to “bury the myth that the people of Ireland were a race of thalassophobes incapable of observing their natural surroundings” by describing the diverse marine flora and fauna and the coastal traditions of the west of Ireland. The collection and harvesting of seaweed is an historic practice that remains an important activity both culturally and socioeconomically particularly along Ireland’s western seaboard. The practice of collecting seaweed or agbaint feamainne provides a supplementary income to harvesters (Macken-Walsh 2009; Morrissey and O’Donoghue 2012), and it has supported a native industry for almost 300 years in Ireland (Hession et al. 1998).
The seaweed biodiversity in Irish waters is considerable, with only 76 fewer recorded species of seaweed than Britain, with a comparatively much smaller coastline (Guiry 2012). A systematic catalogue of the Irish seaweed species referred tas the Rhodophyta, Chlorophyta, and Ochrophyta was produced by Guiry (2012), who recorded some 570 species of benthic seaweed native to Irish waters, of which 161 were Phaeophyceae, 303 Rhodophyceae and 93 Chlorophyceae together with 13 species of Vaucheria (Xanthophyceae). A healthy 7.5% of the world’s known seaweeds have been reported from Irish waters (Guiry 2012). Ireland’s Atlantic coast has the most diversity of Irish seaweed species (Morrissey et al. 2001), and the lowest biodiversity is found on shores bordering the Irish Sea due to a range of physical, geomorphological, and anthropic factors resulting in unsuitable conditions for the establishment of large seaweed assemblages (Rae et al.2013). Ireland’s shores, except for a few restricted areas in the vicinity of the few large cities, are still relatively pristine (Morrison et al. 2008) ...
"We have pledged ourselves to the dead generations who have preserved intact for us this glorious heritage that we, too, will strive to be faithful to the end, and pass on this tradition unblemished."
– Daniel O’Connell (1775-1847), speaking to more than a million people converged on The Hill of Tara on 22 May 1845. He is remembered as "The Emancipator" - the founder of a non-violent form of Irish nationalism.
– Michael Davitt (1846-1906), Father of the Irish National Land League
and Member of Parliament (MP), Michael Davitt was an advocate for Land Tax:
"I would abolish land monopoly by simply taxing all land, exclusive of improvements, up to its full value... In other words, I would recognize private property in the results of labour, and not in land."
– Oscar Wilde (1854-1900), born in Dublin, son of the Marquess of Queensberry, is renowned for his fearless wit: a multi-lingual Oxford graduate following “the aesthetic movements” supporting Irish Nationalism and defending Charles Stewart Parnell.
– William Butler Yeats (1865-1939), born in Dublin, is celebrated for his ‘modernist’ open-ended interpretations of complex symbolism in Irish mythology, and, especially appreciated for an optimistic reminder that “Celtic Twilight” traditionally refers to the beginning of a new day.
– Joyce Joyce (1882-1941), born in Dublin, is revered for his relentlessly humanistic 'interior monologues' - delivered from self-exile in intellectually liberated Paris: Yes, Yes, Yes! Joyces' vision of love is indestructible: We are either in love or out of love, and love never dies - yet, love must be hidden or "forbidden" and, so, Ulysses (1922) was banned and burned.
Many 'hidden' women:
In September 2000, Marie McGonagle, former Head of the School of Law at NUI Galway and co-author of Media Law in Ireland (2018), provided a detailed overview of Irish censorship history. Archived HERE
The Irish Women’s Writing (1880-1920) Network provides extensive references, and "facilitates international and interdisciplinary connections and exchanges between researchers recovering and studying the lives and work of Irish women writers, artists, historians, scientists and more."
“Just as many of the works of Irish women writers have been hidden, so have, or indeed, still are, the primary sources that would foster greater understanding of the women and their work.” – Kathleen Williams, John J. Burns Library, Boston College
"purposely eclectic"
Mary S. Pierse edited Irish Feminisms, 1810-1930(Routledge, 2010):
Five volumes featuring 180 documents. "The scale of editorial endeavour here, was clearly immense… (including political manifestoes, crusading journalism, new educational agendas, as well as poetic and fictional reimaginings of personal and social responsibility) appears even more compelling."
– Reviewed by Margaret Kelleher, author of The Feminization of Famine, (1997), an investigation of writings by women on the Great Irish Famine.
“Women are systematically seen as less authoritative, ...
And their influence is systematically lower.
And they’re speaking less.
And when they’re speaking up, they’re not being listened to as much, and they are being interrupted more.” – Brittany Karford Rogers, BYU Magazine, Spring 2020 Issue
