Six degrees of separation Irish style sees corruption rampant
THE notion of six degrees of separation has always resonated clearly in Ireland. The idea that all people are six, or fewer, social connections away from each other leaped out from the front page of the Irish Independent to me on Monday as a report highlighted how some solicitors ask GPs to omit clients’ history of claims.
The report shone a light on how some lawyers and GPs are fuelling the compensation culture, with medical reports being amended at the request of solicitors of claimants for personal injury claims. There is also a suggestion that doctors actively encourage patients to bring claims and recommend solicitor friends.
Just how small our country is cannot be overstated. Go to the airport and you’ll bump into someone from your town or village. Go on a holiday abroad and there Mary will be a few deck chairs down. Our proximity through a combination of friends, relatives, life experiences, college etc to one another is extraordinary and we shouldn’t be surprised when we see professionals working within similar circles scratching each others’ backs.
Of course most GPs and solicitors are law abiding but human nature being what it is, there are exceptions and the thought of medical reports being amended by GPs for personal injury claims is disturbing to say the least. This can extend to doctors recommending friends as solicitors, orthopaedic surgeons, chiropractors etc and warrants a Law Society investigation.
The wink, wink, nudge, nudge, culture of loose language and morals is nothing new to the world, but seems to be on the rise, which can possibly be linked with the growth in our economy.
The story got me thinking about the FAI mess which former boss John Delaney seems to have fuelled with his lavish lifestyle.
Over the weekend some shocking figures emerged within the once beautiful game. The FAI owes €62.3m, around half of it related to the Lansdowne Road mortgage.
Approximately €20m is attributable to accruals and deferred income.
Such was the desperation to ease cashflow that under the Delaney regime, sponsorship deals were front-loaded.
For example, around €7m was paid in advance on the latest deal by Aviva for the stadium naming rights.
The FAI have started repaying the debt in €100,000-per-month instalments but Revenue and Sports Direct are owed substantial sums. Moves are in train to consolidate the overall debt into a new structure that will trigger repayments for at least another four years to reach break-even status.
The Waterford man was allowed to run up FAI debts at parties he hosted to in fancy hotels, and live the life of a rock star, while soccer teams languished and FAI staff now face job losses. Here is a man who once answered an Oireachtas committee member’s question about cuts to employees’ pay and pensions with the contemptible line that working at the FAI was a privilege and not about the money.
He is loved by some clubs for the work he did at grassroots level, but one must question if his eye was always on his pocket rather than the ball and if the FAI can recover from the own goal of letting him manage the country’s football organisation.