Irish corruption tribunal: we were wronged and will have to pay

The Moriarty Tribunal report into corruption in Irish political life was published today. The Tribunal has spent 14 years to get today's publication day, 14 years and somewhere between €100-150m (that's $140-210m). And for all that money the Irish taxpayer got ...

Nothing. There will be no prosecutions because the report "has no legal standing." We got nothing, but a lot of lawyers made a ton of money from the Tribunal. At least it went to a good cause, right?

The Moriarty Tribunal was established to investigate the financial affairs of two elected officials - former Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Charles Haughey and TD (MP) Michael Lowry - and the links these men had to prominent businessmen and the influence these links had on government decisions.

The report is damning, but it wasn't worth it.

Today Haughey {photo} is dead. He got a big state funeral when he died. His family still lives well. Lowry is still a TD. He has been re-elected a few times since the first inkling of scandal touched him. A few businessmen may come out smelling a little less than rosy, but then again what tough-nosed businessman doesn't smell a little less than rosy?

One of those businessmen is Denis O'Brien, who the report found had help from Michael Lowry winning a mobile phone license for his company ESAT. O'Brien, through ESAT, made a fortune out of that decision and Lowry, in turn, was handsomely rewarded.

Ben Dunne of Dunnes Stores also features in the report. You might remember Dunne as the guy who was talked down off a Miami hotel ledge back in 1992, when he was high on cocaine and "in the company of a woman not his wife."

For that incident he was forced out of Dunnes Stores by his sister. He went into the property business and, the report claims, sought out the help of Lowry in an arbitration hearing on rent paid by a tenant of one of Dunne's buildings. In his defense, Dunne says he was "unbalanced and unwell" in the 1990s and using "mind altering substances" which affected his memory and behavior.

So a few smudges on reputations, but that's all.

However, there will be serious repercussions because there is at least one business that was shafted during the mobile phone licensing process and five will get you ten that they are are going to be suing the state for hundreds of millions of euros.

The Irish taxpayer is going to have to foot those bills. The voters were wronged and the taxpayers must pay. What a system!