Greedy shareholders will NEVER give back our cash
THERE is no end, no floor, no lowest point to the pathetic political incompetence of leading members of this woefully deficient Government. As the Covid plague struck early last year it was decided – quite rightly – that State support needed to be provided to workers and employers impacted directly by Government decisions to introduce the most draconian restrictions on business, as well as many other personal freedoms.
Now, we all know the notorious and historic inadequacy of that bureaucratic behemoth, loftily referred to as the ‘permanent government’. That crowd is employed to keep the elected government-ofthe-day between the ditches, make sure they don’t do too much harm while they’re around and then house-train the next lot when their turn comes.
So, theoretically at least, the ‘permanent government’ would have been expected to say this and that about any proposed financial package of supports designed to offset the economic effects of Covid lockdowns. This should have included holding up a red flag on the standout issue of paying hard-earned taxpayers’ money to companies which then go on to pay dividends to greedy shareholders.
THAT, clearly, was never what such money was intended for, but this little detail was omitted from legislation setting up the payments package, something the incredibly politically naive Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe confirmed just before Christmas.
He insisted the package had proven an extraordinary success by keeping businesses going and workers on the payroll – and failed to acknowledge that employers’ enthusiasm for the scheme was hardly surprising, seeing as how they were free to take our money while turning in profits and then dish out part or all of that excess cash to shareholders in dividends. Happy days, but for them only.
Such brazen political disregard for any sufficient concept of frugality when it comes to managing public money is, even by Irish standards, stunning.
And then we had the twittering nonsense from Tánaiste Leo Varadkar, who said companies that recorded ‘substantial profits’ (whatever they are!), or are in a position to pay ‘substantial dividends’ (ditto) should pay back the money we were forced to pay them under the employment wage subsidy scheme. The man must be rehearsing for some restricted, socially distanced, politically correct stand-up routine.
Can you imagine consciencestricken shareholders all over the country rushing to instruct their brokers? ‘George, pay that money back to the small people of Ireland, and quickly, like a good chap. Not cricket old boy to hang onto that moolah, not cricket.’
Pull the other one Leo.
Obviously, no civil servant or senior politician ever considered properly the possibility that the directors of some companies would take our cash, transfer it promptly to that side of the ledger marked ‘profit’ and then divvy it up between the people who own the enterprises. Nobody anticipated that scorpions would act like – well – scorpions.
So, there was no clawback provision in the legislation, no review mechanism in the event of benefitting companies being more than flush at the end of their accounting year. As far as our political elites were concerned, our money was gone and sure, what about it? No point in being too picky.
Meanwhile, children afflicted by scoliosis have endured lives of unending misery as their spines twisted and turned, and the Department of Health shrugged its shoulders and said cashflow was a bit of a problem. Our grossly underfunded mental health services struggle to cope and many people seeking access to care go under by the day, with shortage of money the problem.
We were told almost 13 years ago to increase the number of ICU beds to 500. Nothing was done. A question of money.
When Covid hit we had just over 250 such beds and are now supposed to be grateful that today we have 301 for patients including all those seriously ill with the virus and many others needing intensive care as a result of other illnesses or following dangerous surgical interventions such as transplants.
IT APPEARS there’s no extra money available for giving a hand up to regular people in serious trouble, but it’s a very different story when it comes to lashing out our money to businesses. Even when that money is diverted directly into dividends, Paschal and Leo sit on their political hands, with foolish, incompetent grins on their faces and blatherings out of them which alternate between asinine pleadings for the money to be returned and how nothing can now be done to get the money back.
And then people wonder how Mary Lou’s Sinn Féin has surged to 35% in the opinion polls, only five percentage points behind the combined support for Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil, on 20% each.
Tick tock. Time is running out…
IT’S NOW beyond doubt that the crisis created by Covid in our hospitals and ICUs is due in large measure to those who remain unvaccinated.
More than half of all patients admitted to ICUs in Ireland, between July and November, had not received the jab. Further, about 60% of young people under the age of 24 who were hospitalised with Covid had not been vaccinated.
In London the figures are even more stark, with doctors reporting that nearly all Covid patients in ICUs are unvaccinated. And Cambridge’s Royal Papworth Hospital is reporting that more than 80% of ICU patients haven’t been jabbed.
Some people are unable to receive the vaccine for very good reasons. The rest have no excuses.