Fourthwrite .......................Issue No. 11

Ansbacher or  McCreevy... the rich still get richer

by Margaret McKearney

In New York, millionaires who believe "only little people pay taxes" are sent to prison, Germany has jailed the father of Stephi Graff. A warning shot has just been fired across the bough of Boris Becker's increasingly fragile ship. Britain risked the anger of millions when they jailed the people’s champion Lester Piggott for tax fraud. Ireland however has yet to reprimand, never mind jail, members of the Golden Circle when they are caught with their fingers in the nations till. Whilst nearly 200 prominent business people and companies have been named in the report to date no attempt has been made to prosecute anybody involved in the Ansbacher scandal. Of course, this should not surprise anybody who takes an active interest in the running of this country where it seems you only pay for your crimes if you cannot afford an expensive lawyer.

The culture of tax-evasion is well embedded in Irish society and for generations it has been tacitly tolerated or ignored by successive governments. Twenty five years ago when the average man or woman scraping a livelihood was subjected to a punitive level of PAYE, the Ansbacher fraud was at its height, and a substantial part of Ireland suffered from a diminished quality of life. Whatever the other economic influences, tax evasion by the wealthy elite certainly contributed to the state’s inability to supply adequate housing, medical care, education and employment opportunities to its citizens. Furthermore, not one of the pillars of the establishment cried halt to this manipulation and exploitation of the section of the population extraneous to the gilded circle. Not only did these pillars not cry halt, they completely turned a blind eye, preferring instead to castigate and hold up for society's odium the social welfare cheat who had no expensive barrister or public relations expert to explain and minimise his/her crime.

But that was the bad old day's trumpet the media. That could not happen now and certainly not with all the watchdogs we have in government. In the sweetest of Public Relation's spins Mary Harney has masterfully conned the nation into thinking that she is Bertie Ahern’s conscience.

The nation's love affair with Bertie Ahern is still running and an indulgent public allows him the reins of state, confident that Mary will tweak the bit if he goes a tad too far. However this ignores the obvious fact that it was only when this breakaway group of right wing Fianna Failers, led now by the redoubtable Ms Harney, searched around to find new clothes, that the idea of legalising tax-evasion really came into its own. What need then to evade tax, when at the behest of Mary Harney, taxes were reduced to such a laughable level that it would cost much more to devise an elaborate scheme with which to evade them? In a master stroke that ensured that from now on the gilded ones would not have to suffer the  discomfort of having their names in the newspapers, Mary Harney reduced corporation tax to a level that this country can not sustain. However, today just as in the seventies, the people are still paying the price while private and corporate wealth benefit from what is in effect  legitimised tax evasion.

It is an undeniable fact that the economy is slowing down. To even the most optimistic, a glance through the daily newspapers prevents belief in the continuing economic boom. But we have had eight good years and it should be possible to weather what we are told, will be a temporary  recession. However the crises in the health   system, the educational system, the housing market all indicate the precarious nature of this states finances. A woman from County Monaghan died in an ambulance on her way to Dundalk, a journey of over 45 minutes. Monaghan Hospital, less than 10 minutes away was not open for ambulance calls. Beaumont Hospital is facing a 14 million Euro funding shortfall this year. The Department of Education is testing the waters regarding the re-introduction of third level fees. The housing situation is critical with record number of homeless. Even among the more affluent, a substantial number of young persons are forced to move, often many miles away from their families and communities to mortgage their life in order to get a foothold on the great 'Property God'.

Finance Minister, Mc Creevy is now so desperate to fill the coffers of state that informed opinion claim that the next few months will witness an auction of the family silver. Bord na Mona and VHI top the list of state assets likely to be sold off to avoid huge state deficits in the next budget. Given this current state of affairs and given the boom of the past eight years why have we so quickly ran out of cash. It is vital that the question be asked. I paid my taxes and so did all the rest of the little people that I know so just what did you do with our  PAYE?" Apparently given the condition of the public services, the answer is very little.

Who or what was the state's wealth squandered on, and more importantly who allowed it to be so wasted? In a nutshell the perpetrators of this are not only the present government but also the negotiators of the Programme for Prosperity & Fairness. Most culpable of all are  the Union bosses. They represented the scarcest commodity in the Celtic Tiger as labour was for the first time firmly in the driving seat. Unfortunately  labour leaders failed miserably to capitalise on this. Where are the state-supported crèche facilities? Where are the index linked national pension plans? Where is the commitment to reducing long term unemployment and not merely re-directing it to Community Employment schemes. Where is the introduction of a realistic minimum wage and indeed many other policies that should be on the labour agenda. All of this and still no proper state-wide infrastructure where for example, the trains run on time, or  public servants take pride in performing a public service. Unions have missed an opportunity. They have allowed themselves to be bought of by ‘the seat on the Board’ without any voting rights or any hope of what should be their concerns, ever arriving on the agenda.

Yet hardships are not shared evenly. Health services are only a worry for 3% of the affluent south Dublin residents. Third level institutions are still the bastion of the privileged. The Diocese of Ferns could find 250,000 Euro for a retirement bungalow for Brendan Comiskey and recently a luxury cruiser lay docked  in Dublin, offering to sell cabins for between two and a half to five million Euro. Clearly the recession is only affecting those who benefited in a peripheral manner like those who left the unemployment register or lower paid sectors. These people now lack public services as support and protection is now being cut back. Working people fail to access hospital beds if they can’t afford expensive health insurance and cannot find adequate housing if they don’t have very well paying jobs.Regardless of the economic  boom that was the past eight years, the Old Order is retained. The rich are still rich, and the Poor, well it seems we  will always be about. By protecting the rich and ensuring that  they now have no need to fear the indignity of tribunals, Mary Harney and her Fianna Fail pals have preserved the unequal division of this society. By swapping expense account lunches and illusions of consultations, for tangible meaningful gains for their constituency, the big unions have also preserved the unequal division of wealth in Ireland.

Between them they have conspired to misuse the fruits of the recent past. Ultimately, there is no point putting old wine in new bottles.  Nor should we replace old rogues with new ones. We need a new system of dividing wealth and a new government to supervise the doing of it.