In August 2007, then Minister for Finance Brian Cowen gave an address to the Humbert Summer School.  It’s worth reading it all (scroll down to comments) to see the hubris that characterised this vintage of Fianna Fail – at a time when the banking system was already fatally compromised.

Note this part:

They [the public] did so in spite of the unprecedented pressure which he [Bertie] had come through in the first weeks of the campaign. The public showed that they have an innate sense of fair play and perspective which is willing to hear all of the information before reaching a conclusion. It remains a fact that confidential material was selectively leaked by a person or persons unknown with the sole intent of causing Bertie Ahern significant electoral damage. Only material which might cause damage was leaked, while other material was withheld.

No person should have to go through what Bertie Ahern endured in those weeks and we can learn a lot from the public’s balanced and reflective response. After ten years, the public were not going to be rushed into making a judgement on the Taoiseach. They know him pretty well by now and they understand that he is not motivated by personal gain. They have seen the progress made under his leadership. He has never been a specialist in the soundbite approach to politics, but he has more than made up for this in the substance of his achievements.

Thus Cowen presents not just a judgement on the Mahon leaks around this time — with sources that only the Irish Times could reveal — but also a claim that he and the electorate at large had come to the conclusion that there were no flawed pedigree issues with Bertie. Indeed, Cowen’s reputation was enhanced at the time by the perception that he had taken the FF election campaign by the scruff of the neck from a Mahon-distracted Bertie and led the party to a historic victory. Which part of that legacy will Micheál Martin be disowning?

Insofar as the budget goes, this is actually fair enough: you cast your vote, your representatives emerge and your government is formed to govern until the next election. In between, to try to govern by some imagined public consensus, to steer a course by the uncertain stars of opinion poll and Twitter trend, is a receipe for populism and executive paralysis. Our TDs, for well-canvassed psephological reasons, have always inclined to the view that opinions are for voters to express - via Joe Duffy, the Irish Daily Mail and misspelled constituents’ letters - and for parliamentarians to run with. But the baying of the mob is not a sound basis for good governance.

Irish public figures could have benefitted over the years from listening more closely to one of their illustrious forebears, Edmund Burke, whose Speech to the Electors of Bristol remains the classic statement of the MP’s right and duty to be guided by his own, informed opinion, even if this conflicts with the express wishes of his electorate. A little more aloof paternalism might have brought a crop of TDs more willing to challenge the doomed consensus that helped inflate the bubble.

But this can only go so far, and the Irish Times (naturally) would take judicious flouting of the popular will beyond the Pale. Stephen Collins, discussing the ramifications of a eurozone exit, makes the following extraordinary statement:

“Over the next few months, if all goes well, there will be agreement at EU level to a series of binding budgetary disciplines. This will probably require treaty change and, even though that may result in a bitter referendum, it is very much in Ireland’s interest that it happens. In the long run, such a development will ensure the Irish people will be saved from a repeat of the economic indiscipline and political incompetence that characterised the Bertie Ahern years.”

Now, the government led by Bertie Ahern may well have been indisiplined and incompetent. But the implication of this passage is that submitting our financial affairs to the scrutiny and (possible) veto of the EU is the best – perhaps only - way to avoid a repeat meltdown ”in the long run”. The future financial policy of any Irish government is presented as a ticking timebomb.

This presupposes a complete inability of Irish people to run their own country properly. In effect, Collins would have us transfer significant new powers – amounting perhaps to a complete and permanent surrender of economic sovereignty – to the EU, not because this serves the greater good, but because, left to ourselves, we’ll only bugger it up.

It’s a sinister implication, anti-democratic and cynical. A country cannot realistically be governed by popular will alone, but nor can it be legitimately governed by giving up on representative democracy and handing the hard decisions over to centralised European control. 

Even if we shrug aside these fundamental objections, it’s hard to say whether or not we would be better off in or out of a new, financially integrated eurozone. Certainly, as Collins notes, attempting to pay off our load of euro-demoninated debt in some devalued punt nua would be extremely costly, and therefore exiting the euro would have to happen simultaneously with another radical move: default on sovereign debt, à la Argentina in 2002.

As I noted at the outset, these arguments are complex, and if such are the stark choices that are going to emerge out of this week’s discussions, politics isn’t going to get any simpler for a while yet. I would simply hope that our decisions flow freely, not from fear of our own inherent incompetence.

Has the Irish Presidential election been decided by a lie and the media’s unquestioning belief of it? Why did the Sunday Independent wait until after the election – when the media darling was safely ensconced in the Aras – before revealing what they knew?

What the Sunday Independent now calls SF’s “dirty tricks campaign” may yet end up backfiring on the party in the courts. Under “The Prevention of Electoral Abuses Act, 1923″:

Every person who, before or during any election and for the purpose of affecting the return of any candidate at that election, makes or publishes any false statement of fact in relation to the personal character or conduct of such candidate, and the directors of any body or association corporate which before or during any election and for the purpose aforesaid makes or publishes any such false statement as aforesaid, shall be guilty of an illegal practice.”

SINN Fein Presidential candidate Martin McGuinness is the main suspect in the brutal murder of two policemen, the Herald can reveal.

Sergeant Peter Gilgunn (26) and Constable David Montgomery (20), were gunned down in an IRA ambush as they travelled in an RUC patrol car in Derry.

They were the first police officers to lose their lives in a terrorist incident in the city for 50 years.

The ambush 40 years ago came just three days before Bloody Sunday sent shockwaves right across the Province.
….

The claims further calls SF’s credibility into question hours before the polls open in the Presidential Election. The revelation comes after McGuiness altered his account of Sean Gallagher’s alleged contacts with businessman and former convicted fuel-smuggler and former tax-evader Hugh Morgan.

Sinn Fein’s allegations linking Gallagher to a cheque for €5,000 for FF have been undermined following the revelations that the accuser has convictions for cross-border fuel-smuggling and tax-evasion and leased his General Election HQ to Gerry Adams. On Tonight with Vincent Brown it was reported that SF has now revealed his identity as Hugh Morgan. In February 2011, the Irish Mail on Sunday reported that Morgan plead guilty to fuel smuggling and tax-evasion in 1998, receiving an 18-month suspended sentence, and being required to pay €500,000 in excise duties and €25,000 in Prosecution costs.

SINN Féin president Gerry Adams is renting his election campaign HQ from the family firm of a convicted crossborder fuel smuggler, the Irish Mail on Sunday can reveal.
Festooned with posters of the Dáil hopeful, and flying the tricolour from the second storey, the office – above Gormley’s Pub in Park Street, Dundalk – is in a building belonging to Morgan Fuels Ireland Limited, owned by Hugh Morgan.

Newry businessman Morgan pleaded guilty to fuel smuggling and tax evasion at Belfast Crown Court in June 1998. He received a suspended 18-month jail sentence. He paid £500,000 in excise duties and VAT and was ordered to pay £25,000 prosecution costs.

But when Mr Adams was asked about Mr Morgan’s criminal convictions, he laughed them off, saying: ‘You’re great, great craic.’ He then claimed he didn’t know who Sinn Féin was renting the office space from and said he didn’t know Mr Morgan personally.

He said the lease was ‘a totally bona fide legal contract between Sinn Féin and the owner of the building… sin é, that’s it’.

When asked if Mr Morgan was any relation to departing Louth TD Arthur Morgan, Mr Adams said: ‘I wouldn’t say so,’ and joked: ‘But there’s Morgan’s rum now. It’s spice rum – especially, it’s very nice with Coca-Cola and a twist of lemon.’ Speaking during a canvass in mid-Louth, he then turned to his three aides and asked them: ‘Is Morgan’s Fuel any connection to wee Arthur?’

The revelations threaten to backfire on the McGuinness campaign just as false allegations against Mary Harney in relation to the Flood Tribunal did on Magill Magazine in 2002.

Anyway things were looking OK when the delegation got a meeting with the Bahrain Minister for Health. However today’s Irish Times report on their return home refers obliquely to “the breaking up by pro-government medics of a press briefing they attended in Bahrain.”

The Bahrain News Agency website has today an equally oblique reference to the event –

Bahrain Journalists Association (BJA) strongly condemned the verbal and physical attack on doctors by journalist Rim Khalifa.

This attack is in breach of the precepts of journalism, it stressed in a statement today adding that a letter of complaint by President of Bahrain Medical Society (BMS) Dr. Nabil Al Ansari, in which he claimed that he was verbally assaulted by Rim Khalifa during a press conference held by the Irish delegation at Ramada Palace Hotel, was considered seriously.

The journalist has also attacked verbally and physically Dr. Hind Fayez and Dr. Hanen Harith.

This immoral behaviour can never be accepted under any pretext and does contravene ethical and democratic journalism which respects all opinions, BJA asserted.

A little digging around determines that Rim (Reem) Khalifa is the wife of an opposition leader and she apparently had led the resistance when the government loyalists showed up (with cameras) to disrupt the news conference.

[picture: Averil Power meets the pro-government visitors to the news conference; photo REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed]

Although the Irish delegation of course had little control over what government goons might get up to during their visit, hasn’t it now created a 2nd round effect not just for the imprisoned doctors but also for Ms Khalifa? Maybe the best solution is for the Irish government to take on the cause more formally, but the semi-official approach was open to risk from the start.

UPDATE 17 JULY: There is now an extensive statement from the Bahrain Medical Society which ups the temperature in the accusations made against the Irish delegation and Reem Khalifa. The fact that the delegation was travelling without the formal backing of the Irish government or RSCI is seen as an issue:

The association cast doubts about the true agenda of the Irish delegation which expressed its intention to investigate incidents in Bahrain and come out with recommendations – although their visit did not exceed 48 hours.

The association defended its right to meet the Irish delegation and expose its own narrative of incidents in Bahrain, pointing out that the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland – Medical University of Bahrain had distanced itself from the visit.

The Bahrain Medical Society slammed the haughty attitude of the Irish delegation, whose members announced openly their firm intention to step up the pressure on Bahrain until detained doctors are released – Thus flouting basic diplomatic, legal and human norms. The association released details of journalist Reem Khalifa’s aggression on several Bahraini doctors, accusing them of being traitors and mercenaries. She went even further describing them as being “spinsters looking for men” and “cheap women” – all that happened I presence of Bahrain TV camera. The journalist hysterically assaulted Dr Hend Al-Fayez and aggressed Dr Nabeel Al-Ansari verbally. Her husband, former Al-Wasat editor-in-chief Dr Mansour Al-Jamri, did not ince his words used racist nd sectarian words in addressing doctors telling them, particularly: “I belong to this country. We are staying here. You will leave!”.

2nd UPDATE: Thanks to commenter Ateekster, I’m adding a Twitter hashtag for the visit. It might be best to wait for the delegation’s report before returning to the issue.

FINAL UPDATE: Irish Medical Times article about the visit and response from the Bahraini Minister for Social Development, who they met.

Calls by Wexford TD Mick Wallace (Independent) for the legalisation of adult prostitution predictably provoked the ire of Ruhama. The group is regularly feted in the media – perhaps because of a feminist-perspective that sees the trade as part of the subjugation of the the weak (supposedly women) to the strong dominant male. Labour Women Chair Katherine Dunne has called for the criminalisation of those who hire prostitutes, and the party has cited Ruhama reports to support her case:

Commenting on the Report published by Ruhama, an organisation working with prostitutes, Katherine Dunne, Labour Women Chair said: “We know that the Gardaí are discovering a record number of brothels and that vulnerable women are used in the sex trade. Are we finally ready to admit that we must talk about prostitution and decide how we can tackle this trade which is so harmful to women?

“It is not sufficient to address only the victims of prostitution. Measures must also focus on the responsibility of those who buy women in prostitution, and their strategic role in the chain of both prostitution and trafficking. Prostitution and trafficking are driven by wealth generated by the international trade in women for the sexual entertainment of men through the sexual abuse, degradation and acts of violence against women.

“Men who purchase sex from women and children are an important link in this exploitation chain. Their demand perpetuates this unacceptable situation and therefore has to be tackled.

Perhaps unfairly, she appears to equate adult prostitution and the overall “sex-industry” to child prostitution:

Prostitution and the sex industry promote the myth that male sexuality must be satisfied by a supply of women and children who can be bought. This demands the creation of a group of women who are legitimate targets for rape and sexual exploitation. Male abusers can act with impunity because they know that women in prostitution will not be believed or taken seriously by the criminal justice system. Many abusers deliberately target women’s vulnerabilities, such as a drug habit, in order to act as abusively as they wish.

She also makes the sweeping statement that all women involved in prostitution act under compulsion rather than choice:

“Perhaps the most powerful statement made about prostitution was made by those who were prostitutes themselves: “We, the survivors of prostitution and trafficking gathered at this press conference today, declare that prostitution is violence against women. Women in prostitution do not wake up one day and ‘choose’ to be prostitutes. It is chosen for us by poverty, past sexual abuse, the pimps who take advantage of our vulnerabilities, and the men who buy us for the sex of prostitution.” (Manifesto, Joint CATW-EWL Press Conference, 2005). We should let this statement guide our thinking and our actions.”

For an organisation concerned with the rights of women, it is ironic for Ruhama’s board of trustees to be stacked with representatives of religious orders for so long responsible for the oppression of women in the Magdalene Laundries:

Trustees
Sisters of Our Lady of Charity (O.L.C.)
Good Shepherd Sisters (R.G.S.)
Board of Directors
Chairperson: Mr. Diarmaid O Corrbui
Sr. Sheila Murphy, O.L.C.
Sr. Bernadette Mc Nally, R.G.S.
Dr. Mary Scully
Mr Colm O Dwyer
Ms. Jennie O Reilly
Sr. Frances Robinson, O.L.C
Mr. Peter O Neill (Secretary)
Ms. Valerie Judge
Ms. Rachel Milum

Taxpayer-funding for Ruhama since 2007 has included the following:

2007:

HSE – East Coast Area Health 146,873 143,858
HSE-South Inner City Local Drugs Task Force 57,484 2,282
HSE-South Inner City Local Drugs TF-Emerging Needs 30,721 30,721
Probation & Welfare Service 275,000 275,000
Commission for Support of Victims of Crime 70,000 50,000
Dept of Justice Equality & Law-Human Trafficking 45,980 -
Dept of Social & Family Affairs 2,800 4,601
Total Grants 628,858 556,462
Donations 65,888 145,676
Deposit Interest 3,905 1,363
698,651 703,501

However the debate has not all been one way. For the first time the voices of sex-workers opposed to criminalisation is starting to be heard, in spite of undemocratic and cynical attempts by Ruhama to silence them. The “Sex Workers Alliance Ireland” calls itself “is an alliance of individuals (sex workers, ex-sex workers and other concerned individuals) and organisations involved in health and social support services.” whose mission statement is “To promote the social inclusion, health, safety, civil rights and the right to self determination of female, male and transgender sex workers”. It has emerged that Ruhama has been using Pay Per Click advertising service Google Adwords to reduce the visibility of the “Turn of the Blue Light Campaign” website on the Google search-engine. The role of Ruhama-linked organisations like the Sisters of Charity in the management of the notorious Magdalene Launderies where girls were subjected to decades of terror at the hands of the Church was highlighted recently in a report on Ireland by the United Nations Committee on Torture. To this day the Sisters of Charity has refused to open its archives, making Ruhama’s credibility as a advocate for women’s rights a questionable one.

Estimates put the number of women and girls who passed through the laundries from 1922 to 1996 at 30,000 but the religious orders involved — the Sisters of Mercy, Good Shepherd Sisters, Sisters of Charity and Sisters of Our Lady of Charity — have refused to open their archives.

Originally set up to help prostitutes and women who had babies outside of marriage, the laundries became a dumping ground for unwed mothers and girls whose behaviour was considered promiscuous.

Once referred there, the women were virtually prisoners, had their babies taken away, were abused and forced to work without pay. Many became institutionalised and could never leave. Some remain with the religious orders to this day.

The Establishment’s much-vaunted “Swedish model” of criminalising of clients of prostitutes since 1999 had led – by 2009 – to Sweden having the highest rate of rape in Europe, according to a study by the EU-funded Daphne II Project. It is legitimate to argue if criminalisation of adult prostitution in any form can be to the benefit of women’s rights, if it exposes them to an increased risk of sexual-assault. The country has double the rate of rape of the UK, France and Germany. It that context, arguing that criminalisation of prostitution protects the rights of women represents evolution of irony into farce.

Researchers behind the EU study, which will be presented on Tuesday, conclude that rape appears to be a more common occurrence in Sweden than in continental European countries.

In Sweden, 46 incidents of rape are reported per 100,000 residents.

This figure is double as many as in the UK which reports 23 cases, and four times that of the other Nordic countries, Germany and France. The figure is up to 20 times the figure for certain countries in southern and eastern Europe.

The study, which is financed by the Brussels-based EU fund Daphne II, compared how the respective judicial systems managed rape cases across eleven EU countries. Sweden is shown in an unfavourable light, according to the study.

In the opinion of this writer, there is much to be said for the legalisation and regulation of adult prostitution on both sides of the “transaction” has much to be said for it, on economic, health, and humanitarian grounds. The central arguments for legalisation are as follows:

- Legalisation and registration of brothels takes sex-workers off the streets and out of the arms of the pimp. Inspection of brothels will reduce the incidence of STDs presently resulting from the trade. No longer criminalised, prostitutes will freely report abusive employers to the authorities. Abusive brothel-keepers can be prosecuted and sex-workers will no longer have less fear of reporting them. Licensing of brothels will provide the context whereby those engaged in coercive practices can be closed down, which in itself will incentivise respect for the employment and human rights of sex-workers.

- Legalisation of adult prostitution will reduce incidence of rape in Ireland. This contention is supported by Sweden having the highest incidence of rape in the European Union according to the EU-funded report of the Daphne II group. So the European Union itself is beginning to question criminalisation. The legalisation and taxation of the trade in Germany.

- Prohibition diverts increasingly scarce taxpayer’s money away from more deserving causes, such as schools, hospitals, and the training of Gardai. Is it appropriate that Templemore is forbidden from training a additional Gardai until 2013, so that the State can police the consensual activities of adult Irish citizens?

- Prohibiton is illiberal, and the role of the religious orders in Ruhama underlines that true self-described “Liberals” in the Irish Left such as Labour Women who support it and constantly cite its reports have had the proverbial wool pulled over their eyes. Furthermore, true liberals support the right of all adult citizens to a sex live, regardless of their age, appearance or disability. True liberals support equality. The reality is that some citizens have no option but to pay for sex because of the hand nature has dealt them. In an age where oppression of minorities with inborn characterists such as race, gender, disability and sexual-orientation has become increasingly unacceptable to society, it would be contradictory for a liberal to oppose legalisation of adult prostitution. It is legitimate to ask whether an element of the anti-prostitution lobby is motivated by prejudice against the ugly or the disabled who often have to resort to the services of sex-workers because of societal prejudices.

- Taxation of prostitution would provide considerable revenues to the State. A single brothel in Nevada reportedly has an income of €100,000 per annum – underlining the enormous untapped potential for increasing revenues at a time when the country’s economic policy has effectively been handed to the IMF. In 2006 Der Spiegel highlighted that in Cologne it was “filling Cologne’s coffers” to the tune of hundreds of thousands of euro.

- Legalisation will reduce incidents of rape. In Sweden, 46 incidents of rape are reported per 100,000 residents. This figure is double as many as in the UK which reports 23 cases, and four times that of the other Nordic countries, Germany and France. The figure is up to 20 times the figure for certain countries in southern and eastern Europe.

I rest my case.

A number of fundamental structural reforms, including the transition to a VAT-like consumption tax and reform of the highly inequitable and costly system of subsidies, are needed to improve the efficiency of public spending and help reduce the fiscal deficit in the medium term. We share the government’s view that immediate implementation of such reforms is not feasible in the context of this arrangement as additional preparatory work is needed to ensure that an effective safety net is in place to protect the low income households. The government intends to prepare a road map to facilitate implementation of these reforms in the future.

Is it possible that if the people of Ireland, Greece and Portugal seemed angrier, the countries could have gotten to kick to touch on “fundamental structural reforms” as conditions of their IMF loans?

Mr. Eamon Coughlan
Director, Crumlin Children’s Medical & Research Foundation

Mr Jim Darcy
Teacher & Member of Louth County Council

Ms Aideen Hayden
Solicitor & Chairperson of Threshold

Ms Lorraine Higgins
Barrister

Mr Fiach MacConghail
Director of Abbey Theatre

Dr Martin McAleese
Dental Surgeon

Ms Mary Moran
Teacher

Ms Mary Ann O’Brien
Business Woman and Co Founder of Jack & Jill Foundation

Ms Marie Louise O’Donnell
Educationalist

Ms Jillian van Turnhout
Childrens Rights Alliance

Ms Katherine Zappone
Member of the Irish Human Rights Commission