November 21st 2015

Enda Kenny keeps telling us that this is the greatest little country in the world in which to do business. This is because of the inherent decency of the people in positions of power and influence and how they exert that influence for the common good. I’ve been reading about some of these ‘dacent’ men and true.

Two years ago I recall winter news stories about the hardship endured by farmers and their stock in artic weather conditions after a wash out summer when the crops and fodder failed to a large extent. Television pictures of cattle and farmhouses cut off by floodwaters never experienced in decades. Fellow farmers from Northern Ireland and England sent emergency supplies of hay and silage to help out their stricken fellow men of the land. The Irish Farmers Association through its various spokesmen put on the predictable poor mouth and wailed loudly at the plight of its members that were being abandoned by the Government. It has emerged this week that the general secretary of the Poor Mouths Association was at that time being paid more than €500,000 per annum. You’d do a lot of whinging for that little number.

A pen pusher for a farming organisation was earning more than Barrack Obama and David Cameron put together! Unbelievable. When the President of the same IFA was queried about this laneway robbery he responded that he had only found out about this situation in the last two days and was forced to issue a retraction of a previous statement when he said that rumours about the general secretary’s pay was “unsubstantiated and should be ignored”.  The president said he was surprised to hear about the secretary’s salary and somewhat disappointed that he wasn’t previously aware of the situation. Of course he was disappointed. He himself, a full time rancher, is only getting €150,000 plus expenses for his voluntary, largely honourary position.  He must have been asleep at those audit committee meetings of which he is the boss. The poor, poor farmer how are ya.

Former chief economist of the same organisation Con Lucey has since been re-recruited to conduct a review and report to the council on the implementation of the recommendations that he made in August 2014 around the issue of remuneration at the IFA.

The first thing he’ll do is give himself a raise. Details of the general secretary’s golden handshake and pension cannot be revealed because they are financially sensitive. These fellows would consign Ronald Biggs to the status of a common pickpocket.

Now it’s hard to find fault with a man who looks after his mother! This week was revealed the story of a good natured man who bent over backwards to make manifest his concern for the welfare of his mom. A truly touching story.

We have in Ireland an outfit called the Arts Council. The Arts Council is a taxpayer funded organisation which supports artists in all art forms to further their careers. Paul Flynn, a dacent man was aware of the functions of this organisation and decided to convince his mother to apply for a grant as she was a grand singer in the traditional style. Patricia reluctantly agreed saying she was only middlin’ at the singing. She submitted her application after reading up on the purpose of the award for singers. The award applied under the following criteria.

‘The purpose of the award is to support professional artists to develop their art practice. It provides artists with the time and resources to think, research, reflect and critically engage with their art’.

Mrs. Flynn said she couldn’t apply because she wasn’t a professional and mightn’t qualify. Her dacent son told her she had nothing to lose and should chance it anyway. She acquiesced. Paul had a look over her application and carried out a few alterations to make his mother’s submission more impressive for the evaluation team.

According to the Art Council’s application guidelines the maximum grant was €15,000 but Paul advised his mother to apply for €16,500 as this error would make her application more believable. As to the professional bit Paul advised his mother to confirm that the grant was needed to compile a list of songs from south Armagh which might otherwise be lost. Why South Armagh? At any rate Patricia Flynn’s application is submitted to the artistic assessment board of the Arts Council along with all the rest. But skullduggery was at play.

Someone in the artistic assessment modified her application without her knowledge or consent. At any rate Patricia got lucky and the full amount applied for was authorized. Her son’s great idea had borne fruit and he wrote to his mom to inform her of her success.

The fact that Paul Flynn was ‘Head of Team’ of the artistic assessment board and that he personally holds the position of the Council’s Head of Traditional Arts is neither here nor there. Paul Flynn authorised the payment to his dear mother and passed it to the finance team for payment to the woman who bore him. There is not much point in being in a position of influence if you can’t help out your sainted mother.

As Pat Shortt might say “Jaysus lads, ya can’t do dat”.