Republican News · Thursday 11 April 2002

Golden circle of corruption

BY ROBBIE MacGABHANN

What will we remember about Molloy, his error this week or the fact that he leaves office as Minister for Housing with a record number of people on housing waiting lists and homeless on our streets?

This week, a government minister resigned and two "powerful" people tried to mount a secret court action to prevent their names being published in the High Court inquiry into the 120 Irish citizens who had tax avoiding offshore bank accounts in the Cayman islands. Could we agree with a report published last week by the Rowntree Trust that "corruption is a central theme of Irish political life"?

As Progressive Democrat minister Bobby Molloy fell on his sword to spare both himself and his party any further embarrassment after the incredible revelations that he had attempted to contact a Central Criminal Court judge during a rape case, other questions remained unanswered.

Why did Molloy, a seasoned politician, involve himself and his office in such a dubious course of action where he could be accused of trying to influence a judge? Had he ever contacted a judge before? How many other TDs and ministers have used their offices in this way before?

The Molloy debacle has strong echoes of the O'Flaherty/Kelly case, where the family of Philip Sheedy was able to use their judicial contacts to effectively free him. Sheedy had been convicted of causing death by dangerous driving.

Molloy's actions reinforce the findings of Brian Harvey's report into corruption commissioned by the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust. Harvey found that we now have one of the most corrupt states in Europe. The 26 Counties has become one of the most wealthy and most unequal EU states.

There was a lack of a fully independent police complaints procedure, poor safeguards for people in detention and most critically, difficulty for poor people in getting speedy access to justice.

This aspect of the report hopefully won't be lost on the two Ansbacher names seeking to protect their identity from the public. Their High Court case is due to begin next Monday. What do they think of the finding that "Ireland's standards of human and civil rights are below internationally acceptable levels"?

Legal aid won't be necessary for any of the Ansbacher names, who obviously have plenty of funds available to use the courts to protect them. Somehow, the finding in the Rowntree report that the 26 Counties has the second fastest growing prison population in Europe wont scare them either. Liam Lawlor stands as the only member of the political establishment to have served a jail term and the special treatment allowed to him made his detention farcical.

Whatever about the claim that Bobby Molloy had one moment of error in his 36-year Leinster House Career, it does not change the fact that he has become yet another TD found to have come up short when it comes to the demands of public office. He joins Ray Burke, Denis Foley, Beverly Cooper Flynn, Charles Haughey, Liam Lawlor and Michael Lowry.

What perhaps is most damning about not just Bobby Molloy's case, or the Ansbacher report or the inability of the state to tackle the corruption highlighted in the Rowntree report is the other findings in Harvey's report on social and economic inequalities. These findings were backed up in a second report published this week by the Conference of Religious in Ireland (CORI). CORI concluded that government economic policy was causing division through low investment in infrastructure and social services, while taxes were being cut to the point where they were the lowest per capita in Europe.

CORI believes that "fairness does not emerge spontaneously or automatically... It has to be worked for and developed in concrete policy initiatives rooted in a strategy that acknowledges that fairness is a desired outcome".

This is the most damming failure that can be credited to not just Bobby Molloy but to all those parties who been in government through the last ten years. Their lip service to tackling corruption, while inexcusable, is overshadowed by years of legislation that denied the benefits of prosperity to those most in need.

What will we remember about Molloy, his error this week or the fact that he leaves office as Minister for Housing with a record number of people on housing waiting lists and homeless on our streets?