The History Of Corruption And Cronyism That Created The Water Tax Crisis
The Water Tax debacle embodies everything that is wrong with the political and economic system in the Twenty-Six Counties. The piece below details the key events over the last twenty years that have led us to today's water crisis. It exposes how the Golden Circle of politicians and the owners of big business work together to line their own pockets at the expense of rest of the population.
THE 1990'S
In 1995 the Twenty-Six County Minister for Communications, Michael Lowry awarded a mobile phone licence to Denis O'Brien's Esat Digifone. The licence was the most valuable contract ever awarded by the state.
In 2000 Esat Telecom (formerly Esat Digifone) was sold to British Telecom for a staggering €2.4 billion. Much of the value of the company was built on the licence that was awarded by Lowry. Around this time O'Brien became tax resident in Portugal before moving to Malta. He has always denied that he is a tax exile, but he has avoided paying tens of millions of euros in tax in Ireland by being tax resident in Portugal and Malta.
Lowry was part of a Fine Gael / Labour cabinet that also included Enda Kenny, Michael Noonan, Brendan Howlin and Richard Bruton. These four men are ministers again today. Ivan Yates, now employed by Denis O'Brien's Newstalk, was also a member of this cabinet. In December 1996 Alan Dukes replaced Lowry as minister when it was revealed that Ben Dunne had paid for a massive extension to Lowry's home.
In December 1996 the Rainbow Coalition also announced the abolition of domestic water taxes, following a long-running campaign of community opposition.
ECONOMIC CRISIS
As the Celtic Tiger is exposed as an elaborate pyramid scheme the Government led by Brian Cowen nationalises Anglo Irish Bank in 2008/2009 and appoints the former Fine Gael minister Alan Dukes to the board. In 2010 Dukes assumes the role of Chairperson of the board. A year later Anglo is renamed the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation with Dukes remaining as Chairperson.
In November 2010 Cowen's government surrenders sovereignty of the state to the Troika. In line with neo-liberal economic theory the Troika demands the introduction of a new domestic Water Tax as part of the 'recovery plan' for the Twenty-Six Counties. This commodification of water services would pave the way for a future sell-off of water resources and water services.
In 2011, after many years of investigation, the Moriarty Tribunal establishes that Denis O'Brien made payments totaling over €600,000 to Lowry and concludes that the Minister 'secured the winning' of the 1995 mobile phone licence for O'Brien. After making a vast fortune off the back of the Lowry licence O'Brien has used the intervening years to build a global communications empire. By the time of the Moriarty Tribunal findings his portfolio already includes a number of Irish newspapers and radio stations. O'Brien's domination of the private media has increased further since 2011.
In 2012 Denis O'Brien buys Siteserve (including GMC Sierra) for €45m from IBRC (formerly Anglo Irish Bank) which writes off another €110m that the company owes IRBC. In other words the bank which is chaired by Alan Dukes writes off €110m of taxpayers money to make it a more attractive, and profitable, purchase for O'Brien.
In 2013 Denis O'Brien buys Topaz, which operates 330 petrol stations across the state, from the now liquidated IRBC. On this occasion IRBC writes off €150m of debt (that is money owed to the taxpayer) to sweeten the deal for O'Brien.
In 2013 Siteserv secures the contract to install water meters across Dublin, the Midlands and the North West. This contract is worth hundreds of millions of euro. This is in addition of contracts worth tens of millions that Siteserv already have with Bord Gáis.
In May 2014 Brian Cowen is appointed to the board of Topaz by O'Brien. In the same month Topaz wins a multi-million euro contract to supply the Gardaí, Prison Service and other state agencies with fuel.
November 2014 sees numerous Denis O'Brien controlled media outlets including the Irish Independent, Today FM and Newstalk launch sustained attacks on the anti-Water Tax movement in general and those who are opposing the installation of water meters in particular - water meters that are being installed by O'Brien's GMC Sierra.
December 10, 2014 sees EventServe (a subsidiary of SiteServe) awarded the Garda contract to provide crowd control barriers to blockade access to the roads leading to Leinster House during an anti-Water Tax demonstration which is attended by tens of thousands of citizens. The irony of O'Brien providing a physical barrier to prevent citizens from peacefully demonstrating outside their 'democratic parliament' is lost on nobody.
A ROTTEN STATE
Hard as it is to believe the elaborate web outlined above isn't even the full story. We've only listed the main points to try keep this article relatively short. Indeed an entire article could be written on any one of the sequence of events that have brought about the current crisis over the issue of water.
It's important to note that no court of law has ever found O'Brien or any of the senior politicians mentioned above guilty of bribery or corruption. Nor has any senior civil or public servant been found guilty of any such crime. But does that mean the no laws were broken? Or does it mean that the state is unwilling to pursue members of the Golden Circle? When Moriarty released his findings in 2011 he handed all the information that he had on a plate to the Gardaí and the Director of Public Prosecutions. But no charges or prosecutions followed.
Regardless of whether laws were broken or not O'Brien's route to becoming a billionaire exposes the rotten nature of the Twenty-Six County state, where the line between big politics and big business isn't just blurred - it's non-existent!
It is considered entirely normal for politicians and public / civil servants to move seamlessly from the public sector into the private sector and sometimes even back again. There are countless examples of the state awarding hugely valuable contracts to private companies that have links to former politicians and public / civil servants or their families.
Make no mistake about it, corruption (both legal and illegal) is rampant in the Twenty Six Counties, at all levels of state and business. The fact that this abuse of power has not yet been widely exposed doesn't mean that it doesn't exist. For many years the industrial-scale abuse of children by state and church went unreported, but that didn't mean it wasn't happening. And remember it's the exact same state and political class that we are talking about.
While all capitalist systems are inherently susceptible to corruption the situation in Ireland is particularly chronic. The long-existing class of gombeen politician and sleeveen middle-man are ideally suited to the de-regulated business world created by Thatcherism and neo-liberalism.
What we have now in Ireland is a hybrid form of Gombeen Capitalism that takes the worst of both the old and new worlds. The debacle around Irish Water is just the natural product of such an unholy marriage. And you can forget any possibility that the mainstream media, both state and private, is going to bite the hand that feeds.