Haughey Survives Another Onslaught
The Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Charles Haughey survived a leadership crisis following a number of scandals which have beset the Irish political and business world in recent weeks. The scandals arose from alleged abuses of privilege by close associates and supporters of Mr. Haughey.
Polls conducted by Irish newspaper groups showed that public support for the Taoiseach had plummeted from 54 percent to 41 percent in six months. Satisfaction with the government had also sunk to 35 percent from 53 percent in April.
Several key businessmen who personally support Charles Haughey are under scrutiny, notably Larry Goodman and Dermot Desmond. A High Court tribunal is now investigating alleged collaboration between the Department of Agriculture and Larry Goodman, chief of the Goodman Group, the largest meat processing firm in the country. Goodman, a heavy contributor to Mr. Haughey’s Fianna Fáil party coffers, appears to have been rewarded for his support by being given export credit insurance by the government to cover his company’s world-wide dealings.
However when the Persian Gulf war brought the Goodman Group to ground over unpaid Iraqi debts of around $300 million, the government was left to honor its insurance coverage. The High Court will examine if and how the Department of Agriculture was caught in a conflict of interest with the Goodman Group.
Meanwhile, problems arose at Greencore, formerly the Irish Sugar Company. It was revealed that company chief executive, Chris Comerford, made a profit of over £2 million from transactions between the sugar company and another company of which he was a major shareholder.
Comerford duly resigned, although his golden handshake (worth about $1.8 million) was then frozen pending an official investigation. The investigation will examine how the government failed to detect or take action on such a conflict of interest in a semi-state body.
Greencore chairman, Bernie Cahill, now faces calls for his resignation. Cahill is an associate of Charles Haughey. The largest shareholder in Greencore, now a private concern, is Albert Reynolds, the Minister for Finance, who has a 45 percent stake in the company.
However the single greatest casualty in the past month is Dermot Desmond, a long-time supporter of the Fianna Fáil leader and one of the most influential figures in the Dublin stock market.
Desmond, a young and highly successful entrepreneur at 41, has many interests linked with government bodies. Allegedly in return for his support for Haughey, Desmond’s National City Brokers (NCB) won eight bids for lucrative government consulting contracts.
In one of these contracts – a study into the Irish helicopter business – it was revealed that NCB leaked a confidential report to Haughey’s son, Ciaran, who owns one of the two competing helicopter companies. Aer Lingus, the national airline, owns the second helicopter company.
Bernie Cahill, chairman of Greencore, is also chairman of Aer Lingus.
Furthermore, NCB was implicated in a questionable property sale to Bórd Tele-com, the semi-state telecommunications company. Telecom bought the property in Dublin at vastly inflated prices, for a profit of some $3 million to NCB.
Following the litany of scandals, Desmond resigned his chairmanships of NCB, the Irish Future & Options Exchange and Aer Rianta.
Cahill is under tremendous pressure to step down from Aer Lingus and Greencore. Other executive resignations have occurred in several government bodies.
Politically, the consequence of these scandals is yet to be felt. At one stage, four Fianna Fáil backbenchers expressed no confidence in their party leader, Mr. Haughey. Bookies were giving odds of 3/1 against Mr. Haughey lasting until Christmas. However, the Taoiseach has successfully quelled criticism within his own party and until now, has prevailed over any effort to unseat him.
New Rock Venue
A NEW venue for rock music will be built in Dublin by the end of the year. The $2 million project will be in Temple Bar, by the River Liffey in the city center. Named The Rock Garden, after the famed London venue, the new arena will feature concert space and a restaurant. “We spent a year researching every capital city in Europe but Dublin was easily the most vibrant and exciting,” said Arthur Wix, founder of The Rock Garden’s London-based management.
Doyle Makes Booker Shortlist
It’s been a fabulous year for Roddy Doyle, the teacher-author whose first novel, The Commitments, inspired Alan Parker’s highly successful movie. The Dubliner was nominated for the Booker Prize with his third novel, The Van, the final part of the trilogy about the Rabbitte family in Barrytown.
Also nominated for a Booker was Cork-born author William Trevor for his new two-part work, Reading Turgenev.
Meanwhile The Commitments’ movie has just opened to rapturous welcome in its home town. Gabriel Byrne joined a glittering crowd to attend the movie’s European premiere in Dublin. Local reaction has been so positive that Twentieth Century Fox (Ireland) expect it could be the biggest box-office smash ever to hit the country. The movie has passed the $10 million mark at the box-office in the U.S.
Massive Response to Morrison Program
Thousands of Irish applicants flooded to Merrifield, Virginia, for the Columbus Day weekend, in the hope of winning one of the highly sought Morrison Visas, a Green Card which gives legal status to the undocumented.
Under the program, named after its sponsor, former Congressman Bruce Morrison (D-Conn.), the program sets aside a total of 40,000 visas each year for the next three years for a number of selected nationalities, mostly from Western Europe. Of that total, at least 16,000 visas will be awarded annually to natives of the Republic of Ireland.
Pending a Congressional vote, Northern Ireland is not included as part of the 16,000 allotment. Those born in Northern Ireland were left to apply for the remaining 24,000 visas on offer for the other eligible countries.
Based on a first-come, first-served postal basis, applicants were encouraged to send in as many applications as they could manage. Many visa hopefuls felt they would improve their chances of selection by personally mailing their applications in Merrifield, about 15 miles outside Washington, D.C.
As a result, thousands of Irish joined large numbers of Poles, British, French, German and South Americans in a huge, sometimes hectic, mail-drop. However, from indications at our sister publication, ‘The Irish Voice,’ which voluntarily delivered about 100,000 visa applications, the demand for legal status is so great that even the hard-won Morrison program will not be enough.
In Ireland, applicants were frustrated by a two-day postal strike, the week prior to mailing time.
When the strike was suspended so that Morrison applications could be mailed, thousands of people descended on the General Post Office in Dublin to try their luck.
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