Jackboot Capitialism

Former taoishigh Bertie Ahern and Brian Cowen will face the banking enquiry next month as they attempt to explain their involvement in the financial crisis. Picture: Denis Minihane

JACKBOOT capitalism and the keystone cops who pretend to police it have once more been to the fore.

From the disgusting, and disgustingly legal, mistreatment of Clerys workers to the lack of adequate mental health services, via a flashback at the crash that drained the funding for such vulnerable people, it’s been a grim week.

A smartly dressed, middle-aged man tried to take his life on the railings of Leinster House on Monday.

A TD, two journalists, a passerby, and guards rushed to save him.

We do not know why the man, who said he was an abuse victim that nobody cared about, attempted to take his own life and it would be wrong to speculate on that, or on whether he was receiving the care he needed, or not.

But the sad fact is that far too many people with mental health problems, of all ages, are not getting the help they need and deserve.

The Leinster House authorities immediately offered the TD involved in the incident, Finian McGrath, counselling after such a traumatic experience, which he declined.

It was proper and thoughtful of them to do so, but it is also darkly ironic as Mr McGrath would be the first to note, that a TD who witnessed such an event is offered help so fast, when people in danger of taking their own lives are abandoned on waiting lists due to lack of resources.

And why do we have so few resources? Because of the boom stoked-up in order to buy votes, the crash that our political elite did not see coming, and their dumb decision to unleash the bank bailout, thus ensuring the cost of it would be never-ending.

Former finance department secretary general Kevin Cardiff was up before the Oireachtas probe into the economic collapse this week, and while he did at least give a lot more detail, it was often the same, lame, story of tossing the blame grenade around.

We eagerly await next month when the main political players from the crash will finally have to account for their central roles in the crisis when Bertie Ahern and Brian Cowen appear before the committee.

Like most of the witnesses they will not just be laden-down with their failure to foresee, or adequately deal with the financial collapse, they will alsohave to carry the heavy weight of the massive pensions they take from us for running (down) the country.

Ahern and Cowen enjoy the most generous pensions of any politicians, taking home a magnificent €1,554 per week each from the taxpayer, and I am sure we would all agree it is very well deserved.

At least the pension allows Mr Ahern the chance to get by without having to rely on those fortunate wins on the horses that he maintained partially explained the money sloshing around in his 20-plus bank accounts while finance minister in the early 1990s.

But, unfortunately for him and his already ragged reputation, the Mahon Tribunal did not believe his evidence and effectively branded him a liar.

So, will Bertie’s self-serving bleatings to the banking inquiry be of any more value? Probably not, but it will be very interesting to see if Ahern and Cowen turn on each other as they blame-shift between themselves.

Always keen to avoid talking about being the only former taoiseach in the history of the State to be found an unbelievable witness by a tribunal, Mr Ahern did pop up on TV this week in the most graceless manner to take pot shots at the late Brian Lenihan.

Slipping the knife in, Ahern said Mr Lenihan was: “Difficult, to be honest. I’ve seen it over the years — the more intellectual they are, the more work they don’t want to do.

“You have to do both, you have to be able to put in the graft, keep lunches to a minimum, keep tea to a minimum and keep finishing time late.”

And, presumably, keep room in your pockets for the odd “dig-out” or two, eh Bertie? Given that Ahern clearly has no qualms about speaking ill of the dead, goodness knows what he intends to say about the living. Something that will not be lost on a very combative Mr Cowen.

Stunning state pensions for Ahern and Cowen, but just statutory redundancy for the Clerys workers turfed out of the building like trash in a feat of financial twisting that was perfectly legal, but morally appalling.

Everyone in the Government seemed to agree that the workers had been treated like dirt, but nobody seemed to want to do anything to clean up the mess.

Joan Burton thought those involved had behaved in a “despicable” way, while the Taoiseach was much less indignant, stating that the workers had been treated “insensitively” before he mused that company law is very complex when urged to ensure this could not happen again.

It seems to have escaped Mr Kenny’s mind that we actually elect leaders to lead and deal with situations which are often complex but, instead, Mr Kenny did what he always does in a tight spot and ordered a report into the possibility of, maybe, doing something in the future.

It sums up this Government’s record really — plenty of reports, very little action.

But wait, we are finally getting the universal health care they promised us, except, of course, we are not.

Short-term political gain won out of long term principle with the push to have something to show in the chaotic health sector by giving free GP care to children under the age of six.

So, as the general election looms, we will see healthy children from wealthy families getting free care, while older, sick children from struggling families will not.

It would have been far better to use the money to raise the medical card threshold and target need not age — but then that would not have been such a good middle class election bribe.

It was a similar picture on the housing front where Environment Minister Alan Kelly wrote to Dublin councils telling them not to introduce building standards that could delay the flow of new housing stock.

Despite the scandal of Priory Hall, it seems we have learned nothing and the needs of developers are once again to be put before the needs of the people who will live in the flats and houses that must be thrown-up with minimum standards so the builders can make more money on the deal.

From unbelievable Bertie to the current cut and paste Coalition, short term political gain leaves a long shadow of misery over this country.

Shaun Connolly