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30 — village july 2009
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34 — village july 2009
Fianna Fáil in Europe
five years, the party’s efferves-
cent wonderboy Brian Crowley has led a group-
ing of MEPs known as the Union for a Europe
of the Nations. That less than catchy moniker
could not conceal how several of the group’s
member parties belong to the far-right. Ita-
ly’s Lega Nord (Northern League) advocates
that boats carrying African migrants should
be shot out of the water and that Roma gyp-
sies should be forced out of their camps. The
slightly more moderate Alleanza Nazionale
(National Alliance - also Italian) believes that
ethnic minorities in Europe should be stripped
of their rights unless they pledge an oath of
loyalty. And the Danish People’s Party regards
all Muslims as extremists: its chief ideologue
has claimed that the Koran is comparable to
Mein Kampf.
As the only way that Fianna Fáil could find
more odious bedfellows would be to strike a
pact with the British National Party and Jean-
Marie Le Pen’s National Front, its recent deci-
sion to abandon its fascist friends is certain-
ly a positive step. What’s far less positive,
though, is that its new political home in Brus-
sels – the Liberal group – is slavishly devoted
to free market economics. The policies it fa-
vours help widen inequalities and thus exac-
erbate the social problems that xenophobes
are adept at exploiting.
This embrace of the Liberals was an-
nounced by Brian Cowen during the Fianna
Fáil ard eis in February but only comes into
effect now that the European election is over.
The scant coverage in both the mainstream
media and the blogosphere following the move
focused on allegations that the Liberals are in
favour of abortion and euthanasia and on ru-
mours that Crowley was uneasy with a deal
that Cowen orchestrated against his wishes
(Crowley has been uncharacteristically reti-
cent about the matter and did not respond to
my requests for comment).
The narrow understanding of what consti-
tutes ethical issues in most of the Irish press
has meant that the bigger picture of how the
Liberals subscribe to a worldview that is deep-
ly unethical has been overlooked.
Before the European election in June, the
Liberals published a manifesto stating that
healthcare and other essential services includ-
ing public transport should be opened up to
greater competition than they are at the mo-
ment. According to Graham Watson, the vel-
vet-tongued Scotsman who heads the Liberal
group, “the best way to improve services for
all is to make sure that the supply of treatment
-
Fianna Fáil MEPs have long been in bed with unsavoury rightists,
knowing no-one at home is paying attention.
d a v i d c r o n i n
infographic showing connections between
FF and various right wing parties... who
could do me a rough sketch of this and I’ll
make something that looks cool
35
is of the best possible quality, and the best way
to achieve this goal is to ensure that there is a
healthy competition among suppliers, so that
patients and authorities are free to choose the
best offer among several”.
If those words sound eerily familiar to you,
it’s probably because they are almost identical
to the argument trotted out by Mary Harney
to advance her malign programme of creat-
ing a two-tier health system. Indeed, it is no
coincidence that the Progressive Democrats
remain listed as the Irish affiliates of the Eu-
ropean Liberals on their website, even though
the PDs are being wound up.
In the coming months, the Liberals will
be devoting much attention to a proposal
known as the patients’ rights directive. In an
Orwellian abuse of language, champions of
this law convey the impression that they are
keen to uphold the rights of all patients, when
in reality they are only serving the interests
of the better-off.
Under this law, patients would be able to
seek reimbursement from the social security
systems of their home countries for medical
treatment carried out in another EU member
state. So, rather than defending the princi-
ple that healthcare should be universal, the
Liberals have been seeking that access to the
best treatment should be restricted to those
for whom money is no object.
Arguably more worrying, the directive
recommends that medical care should be
governed by the provisions in the EU’s trea-
ties relating to economic services, rather than
distinct provisions on public health. If MEPs
endorse this idea (supported by officials work-
ing for Ireland’s EU commissioner Charlie Mc-
Creevy), they could pave the way for a raft of
new measures designed to expose healthcare
to the vicious vagaries of the free market.
“The whole Liberal approach is based on
individual rights, whereas healthcare by defi-
nition is based on collective rights,” said Bri-
an Synnott from the European Federation of
Public Service Unions, which represents three
million medical workers. “The Liberals have
never said how you can keep the system equal.
If you have to pay for travel and accommoda-
tion and then wait for reimbursement, you are
excluding people who don’t have funds avail-
able”.
Synnott added that the experience of den-
tal care in central and eastern Europe could
foreshadow a broader problem. In both Hun-
gary and the Czech Republic, there has been a
strong tendency of dentists in the east of those
countries to move westwards to cater for pa-
tients travelling from Germany and Austria.
“The result has been a huge decrease in dental
services in the east and an increase in cost in
the west,” he said. “It’s bad enough that this is
already happening in dental care. If it expands
to core services, it would be even worse”.
Luiza Bara from the European Public
Health Alliance points out that while she sup-
ports the principle of allowing citizens access
to medical treatment abroad, the patients’
rights directive will only benefit “a minute
proportion of the population”.
“We must make sure that we do not lose
sight of the genuine goal of improving access
and quality of healthcare in an equitable and
sustainable way”, she said.
Expected to have about seats (the fi-
nal number will depend on negotiations that
are still continuing), the Liberals are talking
themselves up as the kingmaker in the new
-member Parliament. Although they will
be smaller than the centre-right European
People’s Party and the Social Democrats (for-
merly known as Socialists), they will benefit
from the fact that neither of those two groups
commands a majority. And so the positions
they take could be of critical importance in
shaping EU legislation.
Alexander Lambsdorff, a German Liber-
al MEP, has given a strong indication that his
group will use the leverage it enjoys to steer
Europe in a right-wing direction. In an opinion
piece for the International Herald Tribune, he
declared himself satisfied with the June elec-
tion. “In a time of economic crisis, parties
committed to letting markets work scored a
resounding victory,” he wrote. “Parties prom-
ising a European welfare state lost heavily.”
Fintan Farrell from the European Anti-
Poverty Network is perturbed by signals that
the key EU institutions may be willing to treat
services that should be run with public inter-
ests in mind as no different to those such as
tourism or catering that are run with the in-
tention of making a profit. “You can’t apply the
exact same rules to essential services as you
would apply to services
that can be subject more
easily to market forces”,
he said.
To their shame, most
Liberal MEPs appear like-
ly to support José-Manu-
el Barroso in his bid to
secure a second term as
president of the Europe-
an Commission. Since his
original appointment in
, Barroso has con-
tinually proven more
amenable to the case put
forward by corporate lob-
byists than to defenders
of the public. This has
been particularly evident in how the Com-
mission has vigorously promoted the phar-
maceutical industry in its relations with devel-
oping countries. A free trade agreement that
EU officials – led by Irishman David O’Sullivan
– want India to sign in the near future, for ex-
ample, would require the New Delhi govern-
ment to introduce stringent intellectual prop-
erty regulations that would jeopardise India’s
status as a leading manufacturer of cheap ge-
neric medicines. The net effect of this scandal-
ous policy would be that more people suffer-
ing from AIDS and other major diseases will
die, as medicines become costlier in order to
swell the bank accounts of chief executives in
Europe.
The Liberals’ efforts to make good-quality
healthcare the preserve of the wealthy form
part of a wider international agenda. John
Pilger, the investigative journalist, has de-
scribed this pernicious phenomenon as “lib-
eral democracy’s shift towards a corporate
dictatorship”. It is shocking that Fianna Fáil
is eager to facilitate this agenda but not the
least bit surprising.
“in a time of economic crisis,
parties committed to letting
markets work scored a
resounding victory”
36 — village july 200936 — village july 2009
Schama: gilded historian
3737
the most exciting prize in the
world to be a local councillor but that did
not deter many familiar, even celebrity fac-
es, from entering the fray to become local au-
thority councillors in the upcoming elections
on June th. Also in the race are a few sitting
councillors who have been damaged by the
widespread coverage of dodgy planning and
zoning decisions across the country since the
last poll in . Being accused at the Flood/
Mahon tribunal by disgraced lobbyist Frank
Dunlop of accepting bribes, has not embar-
rassed south Dublin Councillor Tony Fox (IND)
from standing in the Dundrum ward of Dun-
laoghaire/Rathdown again, although the rev-
elation did conincide with Fox being taken off
the Fianna Fáil party ticket. Fox denies Dun-
lop’s claim as “fantasy”.
Athlone’s John Butler is another councillor
who had contact with Dunlop when the lobby-
ist sought his support for Owen O’Callaghan’s
Golden Island retail centre in the midlands
town in . The unflattering Butler has
come up with the novel idea of not putting up
any posters for his campaign on the grounds
that they only litter the town. In east Galway
Michael ‘the Stroke’ Fahey has not let his con-
viction for abusing council funds get in the
way of his ambitions, while in the west of the
county councillor Josie Conneely has made
himself unpopular with locals after lands
around his hotel the Rock Glen in Clifden,
were re-zoned by his colleagues against the
advice of the county manager.
Across the country the scions of sitting
and former TD’s have dipped their toes in the
political waters in the hope of continuing their
family dynasties. Ivor Callely’s son, Ronan, is
something of a poster boy in the Clontarf area,
while Andrew McGuinness, son of John, has
been spotted with his campaign van parked in
a disabled parking space in Kilkenny. Across
the border in Tipperary, Michael Lowry’s son,
Micheál, is heading a list of no less than nine
Lowry candidates in the county, while in Cork
Noel O’Flynn’s son, Gary, is hoping to retain
his seat on Cork city council.
Hoping to benefit from their fraternal
association with big names are Fianna Fáil
candidates Jim O’Callaghan (brother of TV
star Miriam) and Garrett Tubridy (brother
of Ryan) who can be seen wandering around
Rathmines. Poor frère Tubridy cannot have
been pleased with a blogger to Politics.ie who
said his wife thought the candidate looked
about and had an IQ to match.
Perhaps the most unfortunate candidate
is Drogheda based independent, James Carey,
who had his canvassing interrupted when he
was arrested and charged with recklessly dis-
charging a firearm in when he shot the
wife of a Garda in the backside in Gormans-
town with a pellet gun as a seventeen year old.
He is due to appear in court on polling day
over charges which he claims are, you guessed
it, “politically motivated”.
Bill Carey is hoping to retain his seat on
Meath County Council although he might get
the bum’s rush if he ventures near Longwood
where he is unpopular over his support for a
new road unwanted by local residents, but
which would open up lands for housing owned
by local developers. Carey is no relation of
the gun toting Drogheda man but he is the fa-
ther of Irish Times columnist Sarah Carey who
only a few weeks ago wrote of her disappoint-
ment that auctioneers like her old man would
not have any role with the proposed National
Asset Management Agency in valuing lands
controlled by the banks.
Other candidates who have had brush-
es with the law in the distant past include
Frank McBrearty junior who is standing for
Labour in Donegal, and Mannix Flynn, an in-
dependent in the south inner city of Dublin.
McBrearty was wrongly accused by corrupt
gardai in Donegal of involvement with the
death of cattle dealer Richie Barron in ,
while successful actor Mannix was once ar-
rested in connection with a fire that engulfed
a large hardware store in the city, Dockerells,
when he was a boy. He had suffered horren-
dously at the hands of brutalising clerics in
industrial school Leitir Frac.
There are hundreds of pretty faces among
the thousands of candidates hoping to get on
the first rung of the political ladder and a cou-
ple of lookalikes: Brian Greene of the Socialist
Party standing in Howth is a dead ringer for
Dougal of Father Ted fame and Richard Boyd
Barrett in Dun Laoghaire is unmistakably his
mother’s son, the actress Sinead Cusack.
In Marino first time candidate Helen Mc-
Cormack of Sinn Fein is hoping to put her
years of experience trying to keep the health
service afloat to good use, and to test the du-
rability of Finian McGrath’s local organisa-
tion in the process. John Wolfe is running in
'
Dennis O'Brien // Sinn Féin // Planning // Philanthrocapitalism // Bullying //
Journalism // Brendan Halligan // Poor Bertie // The Batman
b y f r a n k c o n n o l l y
PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES
38 — village july 2009
Fingal for the Seniors’ Solidarity Party and is
targeting the ‘grey vote’ which makes up an
influential % of the electorate, and is huge-
ly exercised over the withdrawal of medical
cards among other issues.
There is a plethora of independents in the
race including a number in a crowded Galway
city field. Here A J Cahill,
Danny Callinan (former
SF), and Catherine Con-
nolly (former Labour),
are aiming to capitalise
on anti-government sen-
timent.
With the polls indicat-
ing a strong swing from
Fianna Fáil it is all to play
for in the coming weeks
as the thousands of can-
didates crowd the coun-
try’s highways and by-
ways - as well as the lamp
posts - looking for votes.
Truly it is an election race for the good, the
bad, and the ugly.
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“So returning to the Mansion
House to wave the green flag,
albeit for just one evening,
was for Sinn Féin a symbolic
revisiting of the republican
roots”
O'Brien & Moriarty
39
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