Scandal 'exposes a cynical and abusive class system'

national | miscellaneous | news report Sunday July 14, 2002 08:18 by Mcmean

The Ansbacher Report confirms what the ordinary working people of Ireland have known for most of their lives - ours is a society of unequals. An inequality that is institutionalised and leveraged by the powerful for their own political advantage and monetary gains. An inequality that is sustained and nurtured by the political system, which regulates for it.

>>>>>> There is one set of
rules for the rich and the self-appointed great and another set
of rules for the rest of us.

Simply, the Ansbacher Report uncovers the dirty little world of
privilege and power that money can buy. A world of exceptions to
the common good. A parallel universe for members only.

The Report makes transparent what most ordinary people have
always suspected. It exposes the hypocritical double standard
that permeates all sectors of this society down to the very core
of the political system.

Despite protestations that the Report contains no accuser, no
accused, and no one found guilty, Ansbacher defines a cynical and
abusive class system that is guilty as charged in the court of
public opinion. A shadowy system of secrets, lies, and spoils
built off the backs of working people and sustained by a colonial
culture of deference for the so-called 'good and great' of the
land.

We didn't need Ansbacher to tell us that this state has always
had two banking systems. One for the rich and one for everyone
else. The rich regularly take advantage of low interest loans and
high deposits while the poor and working people are afforded no
similar access to capital. It is high interest loans and low
interest dividends for small earners and savers.
Institutionalised inequality with incalculable economic
consequences.

INDICTMENT ON ALL SUCCESSIVE GOVERNMENTS

The revelation that an illegal banking system flourished for the
last three decades right under the nose of the Central Bank and
other government regulators speaks directly to the sleazy fault
line that runs through this state. It is an indictment on all
successive governments over the past thirty years.

The Central Bank is the government's premier banking authority
and regulator. It is culpable and accountable for the litany of
regulatory violations documented in the Report. It is ultimately
accountable to the people for the wholesale loss of taxpayers'
money and the blatant exploitation of the public trust. The
Central Bank facilitated the Ansbacher run on the taxpayer's
money by turning a blind eye to the highly irregular and illegal
banking practices of the scam.

I am curious to know how the Central Bank reconciled that one of
its Directors, Mr O'Reilly-Hyland, was an Ansbacher client? At
best, a conflict of interest given the on-going investigations at
the time. But potentially much more insidious than that.

Despite 'something not tasting right' to investigators, the
Central Bank did not pursue investigatory insights as the matter
was deemed to be a bit too delicate. Rather, the regulators took
Des Traynor's word that all was on the up and up with his banking
practices. I wonder how often that same leniency has been
extended to an ordinary person who may have overdrawn their bank
account? Clearly the Central Bank was compromised in its ability
to perform its duties.

ECONOMIC CLIMATE 70S AND 80S

Meanwhile as the powerful and mighty milked the system for
millions and millions of pounds, ordinary people suffered the
burden of excessive tax rates and didn't have a Des Traynor to
oblige them with a secret banking system as an alternative. They
just paid their taxes. And, when people protested in 1979 taking
to the streets to voice their objections to a system of
repressive taxation that reduced their pay to a pittance, the
elite golden circle closed ranks and told them to go home and
stop whinging.

Let's remember what things were like here in the seventies and
eighties - in the days before the much-acclaimed Celtic Tiger.
The economy was highly vulnerable. Unemployment was rampant.
Services required and demanded could not be supplied. Inflation
was spiralling. The national debt rocketed. Infrastructure was
dated and sub-standard. The new landlords of the society - the
banks - were repossessing houses as families faltered in their
mortgage payments. Young couples could not make ends meet, never
mind afford a home as mortgage rates escalated on the back of
rising taxes. People were forced to leave the country in droves
for distant shores in hope of making a living wage. The social
fabric was damaged as families had members displaced all over the
world. Fathers going to London and sending back wage packets.
Young people couldn't get out of the place fast enough. The brain
drain was staggering. Rural villages became ghost towns. Areas
couldn't field GAA teams.

Against this backdrop, tax rates soared. There was no other way
to service the debt and fund the economy. And it was the ordinary
people who paid the tax bills while the Ansbacher thieves took
their money out of the reach of revenue collectors - even out of
the country - significantly reducing the money available to
government to fund economic essentials.

The knock on effect to the economy of the massive loss of tax
revenue - millions and millions of pounds - in this time period
is immeasurable. We will never know the full extent of the loss
in actual money or the cost of all the opportunities that were
not realised. How do you calculate or model the cost of the years
and years of forced emigration from this island?

And how do you explain that when every single pound of tax
collected could have made a difference and at a time when the
economy was at its worst, the so-called 'good and great' of this
state took their money and robbed their fellow citizens of the
collective benefits of tax revenue? Why? Simply because they
could. There was a no one to stop them. They weren't afraid of
getting caught. This was business as usual.

In fact, 'they' included a former Taoiseach - and a Director of
the Central Bank along with a high-powered group of selfish
elites who were not concerned about social consequences, law
enforcement, or harm to others.

What made them believe they would get away with it? Simply a
culture with a colonial hangover that has one set of rules for
the rich and another for the rest of us.

THIS IS CRIMINAL

The flagrant theft to tax revenue, and by extension taxpayer
money, over the past thirty years under the eye of multiple
governments and government regulators is a crime against our
society and our economy as a whole. No one is more harmed than
the tax compliant Irish worker. They are the victims of this
crime.

Words like fraud, intent, corruption, conspiracy, irregularity,
tax avoidance, tax evasion, only add insult to injury by using
language to mask the depravity of what was done. Caution from the
Director of Corporate Enforcement that no implication of tax
evasion or avoidance, and definitely no criminality, can be
deduced or ascribed to the 179 clients named in the Report add
little value in the search for justice and restitution.

Posturing aside, the criminal scheme documented in the Report is
called theft - larceny of grand proportions. The type of crime
that would land an ordinary person a very long jail sentence and
a very substantial fine. But this is white-collar crime we are
told. And again, a different set of rules seems to apply. A
different type of enforcement. And possibly a different set of
penalties. Maybe none at all.

The implication being that white-collar crime as opposed to
blue-collar crime is crime of a different sort. A lesser type of
crime in the hierarchy of offences? A more understandable
criminality because it has been committed by the professional
versus the working class?

Just more of the same old and very tired story. Exactly the type
of thinking and class based distinction that furthers the
inequality in this society. There is no context in which to
justify what has gone on here. On that I am certain we can all
agree.

ENDING THE SLEAZE

Today we are called into a special session to debate Ansbacher.
Actually, there is no debate among reasonable people. Each and
every one of us here appreciates fully the enormity of the
violation of public trust documented by the Report.

The time has come to end, once and for all, the inequality, which
anchors this state and the sleazy culture it promotes. Tribunal
after tribunal has exposed the corruption and greed that runs
unrestrained in this society. And we all know there is more to
come. For openers, there are thirty cases outside the Ansbacher
scheme presently under investigation.

When totalled the price tag for all of this investigation and the
Tribunals - with still more to come - is astronomical.

The Minister for Justice has informed the public that he will be
asking the High Court to order the E3.2 million cost of the
Ansbacher investigation to be borne by the parties named.
However, it would appear that the costs could only be levied
against corporation, not individuals. To date, E17.97 million has
been collected from 55 individuals as part of an agreed deal to
halt accruing interest charges. There is speculation that civil
fines and penalties for Ansbacher clients in different categories
may be a small as 1900 Euro. Revenue investigators are quoted as
saying, "the majority are not cooperating - they are not giving
us what we are looking for." The Taoiseach has called for
prosecutions on the back of the Report.

Yet, we are told that mounting criminal prosecutions will be
difficult given standards and admissibility of evidence.
Apparently, some deals have already been done in exchange for
settlement of outstanding tax liability. Whether the individuals
named in Ansbacher are ever sanctioned with anything more than a
fleeting sense of shame is the real question for debate.

ANSBACHER IS ONLY A SYMPTOM

However, the Ansbacher scheme is only a symptom of what is wrong
in Ireland today. Lies built upon lies and an untruthful past for
a manifesto is the legacy of the last three decades of
governance. As we have seen documented, many a wealthy pocket has
been richly lined by this culture of greed and corruption. The
rhetoric and pretence of equality needs to end. The empty
promises of social justice from government have been exposed.
There is no acceptable level of inequality.

There is no room in our future for what has passed as acceptable
for some in the past. Government needs to be held accountable for
more than the intent embodied in tribunals and investigations and
reports. Government needs to enforce the laws systematically and
equally without regard to artificial class distinctions or
positional hierarchies. Government needs to recover the trust and
confidence of all the people. And needs to do so with rigor.

In this regard, action speaks louder than words. The totality of
the cost of the Ansbacher greed has impaired this economy and our
people in obvious and sinister ways. The lost tax harvest, the
magnitude of which may never be known and the lost opportunity
costs combine to paint a picture of the irreparable harm done.

The lack of confidence in government to act as a guardian of the
public good. The insidious message of who matters and who doesn't
in our society. Troubling moral lessons to our children of a
two-tiered code of behaviour.

And just imagine for a minute what we might have been today if
the stolen resources and time and energy went into society and
were used effectively to improve infrastructure for all. Services
that are so necessary for people in need - for all the people. An
improved sense of comfort and well being for everyone, not
exclusive to the rich and the powerful. This is the equality
people want. This is the equality people deserve. People want a
level playing field. And they should not have to bargain for it.
It is theirs by right.

AN IRELAND OF EQUALS

I am certain that all of us would like to return to our
constituencies after this session and be able to tell people that
the era of greed is behind us. That justice will be done. That
government facilitation of corporate and wealthy interests has
ended.

However, decades of systemic fraud and institutionalised
inequality will not be eradicated overnight. Nor will it be
eradicated with good intentions and words. We must take back our
destiny, with full accountability and authority, and never again
allow power to accrue to the so-called "good and great". Their
record speaks for itself. The challenge ahead is to
institutionalise the common motivation in our society to create
an Ireland of equals.