Daniel Sullivan - he’s a little political

Does Ivor Callely own any property at all?

// July 14th, 2010 // No Comments » // Uncategorized

Yesterday Sen Callely said in respect of the property in West Cork that he was claiming allowances and mileage from that “I have a right to reside in west Cork but it’s not in my ownership.” This was in response to questioning from Sen. Joe O’Toole who asked if he owned the property in west Cork. So he has the right to live there but he does not own it. Ivor Callely has also repeatedly alluded to personal family conditions that make his being totally transparent about his living situation more difficult.

So it is beginning to look like Ivor, at some point in the recent past, might have been too clever by half and that all “his” property is not in his name at all but rather it is in his wife’s or other family members names and that this might be the cause of some difficulty for him in establishing what is and is not his principal residence. Cos he might well own nothing and have no rental agreement with anyone and thus not be able to prove that he in fact lives or has a principal residence anywhere. Just why, you might ask, would someone transfer ownership of their assets to others? Well, one situation in which it would make sense was if you were a public representative and wanted to avoid declaring these interests in the declaration of members interests. Did Ivor Callely do this? I don’t know and I’m not going to say he did this.

It is also worth noting that “Mr Callely told the committee the house in west Cork had been for sale since “04/05-ish”. He said he had never denied it was for sale and insisted he would not benefit, in terms of capital gains tax liability, if it was sold.” So he won’t benefit from it at all, again seeming to mean he does not own it or have a financial interest in it. But this begs the questions did he ever own it and if he did when and why did he transfer the ownership.

Now let’s review someone else whose family situation meant they couldn’t be 100% clear with the public about their finances, former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern. Bertie had a legal separation agreement with his wife and the terms and details of this could not be made public. This meant we, the taxpayers and as voters his employers,  couldn’t find out exactly what he owned and when he got it or what he transferred to her and his children once the separation was agreed. All very inconvenient the Taoiseach told us as it might he couldn’t be completely transparent with us the voters though he really really wanted to be.

One other thing which is probably entirely unrelated, as we were assured that the former Taoiseach was a God fearing man and didn’t hold with this sort of thing, is the provisions of divorce law in Ireland. These say you might, in order to file for divorce, need to show that you had been legally separated from your spouse for or living apart for a number of years before a divorce might be granted. I’m not sure if this legal agreement needs to actually be publicly available or acknowledged once it is drawn up all proper and legal like and is agreeable to both parties. So such an agreement might exist and we the public would be none the wiser.

One can imagine the situation and in truth rather untenable legal position that a person might hypothetically find themselves in if say they had transferred all their property to their spouse for some reason or other and were years later to find themselves because of changed personal circumstances agreeing a separation agreement with their spouse. After all, once their spouse’s name was on the property they couldn’t legally argue that it was meant to be still their property really. It’s like something out of a badly plotted rom-com.

But back to Ivor, and away from these hypothetical and entirely unconnected people, he continues to defend himself before the Seanad committee who are it seems are bullying him, just like some other people were bullying Sen. Mullen last week. To add insult to injury it turns out the state is fronting Ivor €50 to turn up to an investigation into his circumstances. You couldn’t make this stuff up.

Is Michael McDowell considering a run for the Seanad?

// March 24th, 2010 // 1 Comment » // Seanad, declan ganley, seanad eireann

Reading his interview with the Sindo a few weeks back many would have wondered at his reversal of his long held position over the role and need for the Seanad, then Jason ponders if he could have a future role in Irish politics as a kinder gentler Michael. Though it was queried who could he run for and  where might he run. After all unlike Nixon he couldn’t run for an equivalent lower office such as governor of California because we don’t have them. Mayor of Dublin is likely to be too administrative for someone of the policy inclination of Michael McDowell.

From those seeds I began to wonder if this means that he could consider a run via the university panels for the Seanad. As someone who ran (and might do so again) the biggest single problem is name recognition, even above that of cost. Michael McDowell starts with that as a given. He might be seen by some as a divisive figure and not likely to be that transfer friendly but if he polled reasonably over 12% he would be well placed to get a seat based on previous elections and where else would you get elected in a 3 seater with that.

In other Seanad related matters in recent weeks, we’ve been Feargal Quinn up his profile with an interview in the Sunday Times along with his TV show on rescuing/revamping small retailers. I wonder if he has sensed something in the wind too.

An open letter on Seanad Reform

// October 21st, 2009 // 8 Comments » // Seanad, enda kenny, fine gael, seanad eireann, seanad reform

The proposal that Fine Gael policy should be to abolish the Seanad after the next election as announced by the party leader Enda Kenny leaves me in two minds. As a means to put down a marker to the government and the Seanad more generally that reform of politics must happen now or else, it is without equal. This reform can start this side of Christmas by extending the franchise beyond TCD and the NUI by legislation, and with notice of a referendum on wider reform to be put before the people by the time of the next summer recess. The choice is now very stark: reform or die.

I am quite sure that this idea will have widespread popular support amongst the public. Yet the mere popularity of an idea is no reflection on its merit. Though I understand and indeed share in the view that the charade of reform has gone on too long, I also believe that a genuine case can be made for the need for bicameral system given the enormously local focus that the current electoral system forces upon TDs. That is the work that TDs do and must do in order to be elected, and a reduction from 166 to 124 in the number elected in this way will not shift the burden sufficiently to allow major change to occur.

We should be in no doubt; the general public are debating ideas considerably more unthinkable than the mere abolition of the Seanad. If such debate continues to occur in places ignored or unheard by party politics then it will be to the detriment of us all. For the moment I would ask that the policy should be one of reform now or die, rather than die now. For that reason, I would ask that the policy to be adopted be with the proviso that it would be reviewed should substantive political reform be implemented prior to the next general election. We should say that we are planning to act but if the government were to implement, not simply announce or propose or set up a commission or look for another report, but actually implement reforms that will match the parameters of cost reduction, increased powers of scrutiny and compellability for committees as outlined over the last few days then we would be prepared to give it the chance to work. This has the advantage of throwing the focus back onto the lack of action by all the government parties and also sets an immediate clock ticking on the issue with concrete milestones that all the issue to be revisited to our advantage. If there is no move on the university seats by Christmas say then it becomes topical again, if there is no bill and referendum by the summer recess then the same. We can keep the pressure on the government at each step. Let us accept that the Seanad is now drinking in the last chance saloon but we should not be so rude as to eject it before it has finished its drink and had the chance to demonstrate, really demonstrate that it can change.

Yet as someone who stood independently for the Seanad in 2007 in large part on the issue of reform, I am minded that party members of all major Irish political parties have no substantive input into the formulation of party policy. Ard Fheiseanna of all hues have long passed into the realm of mere staged managed speaking and photo opportunities for election candidates. A process colluded in by the media who hype up the merest prospect of any real debate as a sign of in-fighting and division instead of the sign of vibrancy it really is. While a leader should and must have the right to initiate policy ‘on the hoof’ in reaction to events, no events have occurred in the last week requiring such a policy shift.

Now more than ever, we need politics to be a genuine battleground of ideas, new and, if long neglected, old. These ideas must be examined, debated, tested and contested at every step. Political parties exist because they are a means to reflect and express the collective views of their members, from the person at the branch level to the highest of our public representatives. After all, it is those members who have to argue the case for those views to the wider citizenry in the hard slog of canvassing, leafleting, and ultimately by standing as candidates for election. That is why it is necessary for there to exist some real means for their views to be heard in advance of most policy decisions. Party members, even elected representatives, should not be placed in a position of having to ‘like it or lump it’ when it comes to the adoption of policy. At the very least, the views of members should have the chance to be heard on policy.

I will say this, the fact that Fine Gael are the ones who stand to gain most in the next Seanad elections means the party can’t be accused as the government will be of changing the rules because they are going to lose out in the next elections.

From my warm, clammy, live hands!

// August 17th, 2009 // 1 Comment » // Uncategorized

So with all the focus in on-line commentary on the effect of the new blasphemy laws, a provision of the Criminal Justice (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2009 managed to slip by most of us. That being the portion that deals with samurai swords, though they are not named specifically in the act and I guess this means such orders could include other weapons - ray guns and diamond tipped pencil sharpeners for instances.

Now, while I’ve never been seen, in public at least, naked with my swords nor have I been temped to run down the street with my steely weapons unsheathed I do as it happens possess a pair of samurai swords. And I’ve no intention of giving them up. Actually according to the Act I won’t be required to but if I’m in the humour for mock outrage then I’m not going to let the facts get in the way of things which is kind of how we’ve ended up here. How many people have suffered injuries as a result of being hit with glasses in pubs? Are we going to ban them? (Glasses I mean not pubs, I’m not going to completely lose the ran of myself.) Of course not.

Yet according to the minister for Justice, Dermot Ahern, “It is proposed to increase the maximum prison sentence for possessing a knife in a public place from one year to five years under section 39 and to extend the power of search without warrant in circumstances where a member of the Garda Síochána has reasonable grounds to suspect a person is carrying any article for unlawful purposes under section 41. We also intend to create a new firearms and offensive weapons order to deal with the issue of samurai swords.”

So there we are then, a ban will sort it all out. Just like the ban we currently have on handguns (outside of gun clubs) and the way we sorted out the north by banning machine guns.

Interestingly as we’re on the general subject of bills that pass us by in the night we managed to have a bill on the stockpiling of depleted uranium, it was entitled “an Act to give effect to the prohibition of the use, stockpiling, production and transfer of weapons of depleted uranium” which as you all know was a massive problem there for a while. Parts of Longford were almost overrun with people stock piling depleted uranium while the people of Leitrim were crying out for people to stockpiling their spare depleted uranium there if only it would create some much needed employment.

You could hardly cross a county boundary within seen a sign for “depleted uranium stockpiled here” or “Muckross welcomes your depleted uranium”. Truly it was a massive and imminent problem so we had a bill on it. And I guess a debate too and perhaps some voting. Meanwhile, and i will admit nowhere nearly as important or pressing as the depleted uranium storage problem the wait for voting reform in the Seanad passed another deadline and the 30 yeatr plus wait for someone, anyone to slip a draft bill onto the order books goes on.

Seanad Reform - 30 years of hurt*

// July 6th, 2009 // 2 Comments » // Uncategorized

The Seanad is in many ways the software testing and verification function of the legislature while the Dail is the software development side of the operation (though most of the coders in the Dail get their work from 3rd party vendors and check it into source control as their own work).

Anyway as is my wony I’ve had another go at kicking over the traces on the matter of getting some sort of progress on Seanad Reform. I suspect that John Gormley isn’t necessary enthused about this (seriously how could it compare to saving the world) but his intentions are decent enough.

As you have have seen, or not as the weekend weather had its nice points, I’ve called out (or claimed as some folks might term it) the Leader of the Seanad as to why he’s blocking even the most minimal reform of the Seanad by means of old fashioned procedural stalling and foot dragging.

I would view a letter to the Irish Times as being the political equivalent of standing outside his house, bare chested roaring “Com’on den”. Will Donie respond, one wonders or will he try to make it to the summer recess and an escape to the wild pastures of the midlands?

*yeah right enough it’s a bit over the top to call it hurt. It is darned annoying though.