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'Official Ireland has destroyed the lives of every person who's come forward' - Banking whistleblower testifies to Oireachtas

Banking whistleblower Jonathan Sugarman is before the Oireachtas Finance Committee today.

TheJournal.ie / YouTube

BANKING WHISTLEBLOWER JONATHAN Sugarman says that his life was “ruined” after alerting officials to liquidity breaches at UniCredit.

Sugarman became the risk manager at the Italian bank’s Dublin office in 2007, but resigned within months due to liquidity breaches.

He has since claimed that he repeatedly alerted authorities that Ireland was facing a liquidity crisis, a claim that was ignored. He maintains that had he been listened to, the bank guarantee and bailout could have been avoided.

Speaking today at the Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Sugarman said that his life has been ruined by his whistleblowing.

My life has been utterly destroyed simply because I did the right thing.
I have been unemployable for the last ten years,” he said, but noted that no regulator had ever been prosecuted for the failings that led to the multi-billion euro bailout.

PastedImage-13215 Jonathan Sugarman Screengrab Screengrab

Sugarman, citing the Grace, Mary Boyle and Garda whistleblower cases, said that “official Ireland” had taken steps to discredit them.

Official Ireland has absolutely and completely destroyed the lives of every single whistleblower who has come forward, from whatever walk of life they’ve come.
Those with their hands on the levers of power are immune, while those who do the right thing have their lives ruined.

He said that he had ”food to eat and a roof above my head” only because of the kindness of people across the world. He said he had not been able to work for over a decade because of the damage to his reputation.

Sugarman went on to say that he had turned himself in to Rathmines Garda Station in 2009 and met with the Central Bank, but no minutes were kept. He says minutes from that meeting appeared in a newspaper weeks later but they “bore no reflection to reality”.

Asked was he surprised by the Central Bank’s response to his reporting he had broken the law, Sugarman laughed and said:

“Astonished.”

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84 Comments
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    Mute David Dineen
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    Apr 13th 2017, 12:16 PM

    This is no surprise,there is two Ireland’s,the one presented to the world and the Ireland run by cronism.

    880
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    Mute Taco Burrito
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    Apr 13th 2017, 1:15 PM

    @David Dineen: Those crooks have the government on their knees

    229
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    Mute Bobby Phelan
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    Apr 13th 2017, 1:40 PM

    Ff fg are sick and twisted partys that have destroyed the lives of tens of thousands of people with their crack pot economics ff fg the guards the whole lot of them are corrupt beyond measure.Johnathon sugarman,Mccabe,Grace,Mary boyle,all the children that suffered under the church all this happened under ff fg labour watch time to stop voting with our pockets and vote these parasitic partys out.Lets not forget all this couldn’t of happened without the help of our mainstream media covering and deflecting for all their abuse of power.So many lives destroyed so many lives ripped apart.Vote them out and jail them now and never foget ff fg labour sold us out to the banks.

    156
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    Mute Paul Fahey
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    Apr 13th 2017, 1:52 PM

    @Bobby Phelan: who would you have us vote for? I am interested in your political party that has not been corrupted, has not ruined thousands of lives or been involved in the sexual abuse of children and it’s cover up, please tell who is this political party, because I would like to vote for them.

    29
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    Mute Christy Nolan
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    Apr 13th 2017, 1:58 PM

    @David Dineen:
    The woman on the bus this morning suggested that I read “The Batton of Corruption”.
    Can’t find it. Any suggestions

    Thanks in advance.

    12
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    Mute xor
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    Apr 13th 2017, 2:49 PM

    @Seán Lynch: With so much corruption within gardai and government, do you really think the ballot boxes are safe? Look at some of the guys who scraped in the last time after recounts!

    53
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    Mute John Cassidy
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    Apr 13th 2017, 2:56 PM

    @Paul Fahey: Social Democrats fit the bill Paul.

    39
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    Mute Chemical Brothers
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    Apr 13th 2017, 3:08 PM

    @Bobby Phelan: It is of course convenient & populist to blame elected representatives but the reality is that the vast majority of whistle-blowing accusations stem from the actions of unaccountable civil & public servants.

    18
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    Mute Cram Wood
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    Apr 13th 2017, 4:18 PM

    @Taco Burrito: The government are the crooks ffs.

    19
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    Mute Paul Fahey
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    Apr 13th 2017, 4:53 PM

    @John Cassidy: at this stage I would agree with you. I like some if the things they are doing, ending baptism barrier for example, but ultimately they seem to be chasing a true republic, which we currently are not.

    7
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    Mute Dave Doyle
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    Apr 13th 2017, 6:27 PM

    @Chemical Brothers: What’s “populist” ?

    7
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    Mute Abcd
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    Apr 14th 2017, 2:59 AM

    @Bobby Phelan: We must not forget the PDs & Greens.Mary Harney thinks she is worth her multiple EARLY pensions & is very arrogant about her greedy self set pensions.Don’t forget her other gombeen PD minister sidekicks who drove their pet Boston over Berlin bubble capitalism agenda.We must not let the PDS away from the public’s memory as they arguably got their way over FF yet are easily forgotten now in place of FF. FF caused the bubble to overheat & ultimately burst by allowing PD’s get their way big time even tough their was no more than 4-6 PDs in the Dail from 2002-2008 & FF outnumbered them coalition by 74+TDS.Why was the least popular party in terms of TD numbers allowed to push it’s right wing bubble capitalism on the public & the Greens got 2 foist the UNJUST pre 08 car tax system

    11
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    Mute LITTLEONE
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    Apr 13th 2017, 12:17 PM

    Ireland where whistleblowers are destroyed and corruption and cronyism are rewarded.

    705
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    Mute LITTLEONE
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    Apr 13th 2017, 12:19 PM

    He is not wrong. Shamefully they actually pat each other on the back while covering up.
    Sugarman, citing the Grace, Mary Boyle and Garda whistleblower cases, said that “official Ireland” had taken steps to discredit them.
    Official Ireland has absolutely and completely destroyed the lives of every single whistleblower who has come forward, from whatever walk of life they’ve come.
    Those with their hands on the levers of power are immune, while those who do the right thing have their lives ruined.

    427
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    Mute Gavin Redmond
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    Apr 13th 2017, 12:21 PM

    And the DPP sit back and let it happen. When do we wake up.

    434
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    Mute Maurice Frazer
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    Apr 13th 2017, 12:38 PM

    @Gavin Redmond: the DPP is a add

    78
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    Mute Con Murphy
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    Apr 13th 2017, 6:57 PM

    @Gavin Redmond:
    Gavin the DPP is their chief legal tool. Why would they do anything?

    40
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    Mute Just Me
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    Apr 13th 2017, 12:57 PM

    The man is absolutely correct. How many years of inactivity on the findings of the Morirarrity tribunal in which Lowry as a minister in a FG government was adjudged to have taken a bribe from Dennis O’ Brien for the awarding of the mobile phone license. Likewise Bertie of FF getting 1 million of a dig out, not to mention the winnings from a horse he can’t remember.Official Ireland is a club that knows how to look after their own.

    315
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    Mute Ben Coughlan
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    Apr 13th 2017, 12:42 PM

    He should be running the central bank.

    289
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    Mute Adrian
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    Apr 13th 2017, 12:17 PM

    Official ireland has destroyed the lives of lots of people around the country. Kenny, noonan, martin and their parties are a disgrace.

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    Mute James Doyle
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    Apr 13th 2017, 10:01 PM

    @Adrian: And the so called sophisticated Irish electorate keep them in power. When will they ever learn.

    38
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    Mute gregory
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    Apr 13th 2017, 12:42 PM

    Jonathon is a great man, conscientious, does the right thing and got absolutely vilified by the “establishment”. This article says it all, a damning article for the banks, and their regulator in Ireland

    http://www.irishtimes.com/business/financial-services/former-unicredit-ireland-executive-lost-everything-after-blowing-whistle-1.2891269

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    Mute throw9away
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    Apr 13th 2017, 12:39 PM

    Whistleblowers should automatically get placed in a regulator role

    248
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    Mute Kevin Slater
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    Apr 13th 2017, 1:03 PM

    A decent man hung out to dry in public by the establishment. Truly the time has come to take to the streets and take back our country

    253
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    Mute B9xiRspG
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    Apr 13th 2017, 12:24 PM

    Well what did we expect, EU and other bodies have been warning of corruption in Ireland for years yet what do we do – we vote the same corrupt parties back into power time after time.

    https://www.google.ie/search?q=eu+concerns+about+corruption+in+ireland&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&gws_rd=cr&ei=XV_vWLX7DYOYmQG7kqywBQ

    259
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    Mute Paul Lane
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    Apr 13th 2017, 4:25 PM

    @B9xiRspG: Rural catholic Ireland continues to vote for FF and FG despite their anti rural Ireland policies. Rural Ireland needs to reflect on who they vote for and if they continue to vote for FF/FG then they deserve everything they get.

    63
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    Mute Dave O'Hanlon
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    Apr 13th 2017, 4:55 PM

    @Paul Lane: Despite the increasing gap between Dublin and the rest of Ireland under fine Gael there was never any question that enda wouldn’t comfortably top his mayo constituency. It is baffling really

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    Mute LITTLEONE
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    Apr 13th 2017, 5:05 PM

    @Paul Lane: how many fg and ff are from cities , towns. Not just rural Ireland. Jesus you would think that they cities font vote in big numbers for the fg TDs and ff. Ridiculous always saying rural Ireland is at fault…
    Take at look at TDs and where they are from .. Dublin alone has quite a lot of fg and ff TDs.

    13
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    Mute John Scott
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    Apr 13th 2017, 5:10 PM

    @B9xiRspG: Jim I voted for Steven Donnelly the last time what does he do ump into bed with Fina Fail so what hope do you have. Not a word from him since not even answer to his email which he always did before he joined in with the gangsters .

    28
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    Mute @mdmak33
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    Apr 13th 2017, 12:49 PM

    Fraud was reported and gov,Gda,ignored it,to protect themselves and the elite.

    201
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    Mute Stephen Browner
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    Apr 13th 2017, 12:36 PM

    This honest intelligent man being asked ‘questions’ by a bunch of illiterate pigs. One of them even said ‘I don’t know anything about banking’.

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    Mute Dave Thomas
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    Apr 13th 2017, 1:09 PM

    @Stephen Browner: that’s the problem. We elect people with zero ability other than to lie.

    210
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    Mute Naoise Kelly
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    Apr 13th 2017, 3:06 PM

    @Dave Thomas: Bollocks. There more than capable when it comes to filling their pockets

    72
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    Mute Christy Nolan
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    Apr 13th 2017, 12:43 PM

    The Donegal garda whistleblower Jackson story seems to be hush hush by Pravda.
    They are upset he went to SF with his story and not to sarge Reynolds.
    The Journal seems to be the only media outlet allowed to print it.

    142
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    Mute Just Me
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    Apr 13th 2017, 1:01 PM

    @Christy Nolan: I would have thought Reynolds would have been promoted to Superintendent by now considering all the help and spiel he gives the gardai

    58
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    Mute Gerard Deegan
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    Apr 17th 2017, 2:27 PM

    @Just Me: He has gone very quiet lately, specially that he was the tool the establishment were using.

    1
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    Mute Gerry Daly
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    Apr 13th 2017, 1:07 PM

    Why are people surprised? The establishment’s only concern is to protect itself. Anyone who dares challenge the status quo is going to be targeted. How many more examples are needed?

    138
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    Mute John O'Driscoll
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    Apr 13th 2017, 12:50 PM

    This is Ireland. Everything is rotten here and those who kick against the goads are destroyed. That is how it always has been that is how it always will be there is a fundamental dishonesty in the Irish worldview going back centuries to when a proud and noble people had to turn peasant just to survive.

    166
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    Mute Kevin Slater
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    Apr 13th 2017, 1:04 PM

    Failed state

    123
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    Mute Chemical Brothers
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    Apr 13th 2017, 1:26 PM

    In Irish Air Corps whistle-blower case there are at least 17 adults dead through direct workplace toxic chemical overexposure while 5 children of personnel are dead from childhood cancers and birth defects, more children have been born with special needs.

    Did Defence Minister Paul Kehoe appoint a chemical or medical expert to investigate protected disclosures so survivors could be assisted?

    No he appointed a retired barrister from the Attorney Generals office (with no investigating powers) to cover the states arse first.

    http://www.accas.info

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    Mute Peter Higgins
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    Apr 13th 2017, 1:05 PM

    It’s true. We keep on electing the same rotten FG/FF/LAB parties into power and only realise about half way through their stint at the wheel the extent of the corruption we’ve endorsed.

    It’s time to give others a chance to prove themselves in Government. They would have to be better…

    116
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    Mute Gerard Heery
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    Apr 13th 2017, 1:39 PM

    Fair playing surgarmann spelling out as is.

    103
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    Mute Darach Malone
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    Apr 13th 2017, 1:11 PM

    Bloody foreigners coming in here, talking the truth, trying to warn us and help us out. Who do they think they are!

    146
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    Mute Willy Malone
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    Apr 13th 2017, 12:40 PM

    Anyone who stands in the way of elitism in this corrupted little country is threatened or ruined …
    Near 100 years of two cheeks if same bum ruling..
    Times up FF FG , We want corruption out…

    202
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    Mute Kerry Wynne
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    Apr 13th 2017, 2:17 PM

    Watched most of it. Rose Conway Walsh kicked off the questions and she did ok. Didn’t have the presence or the knowledge of Pearse Doherty (who was at Brexit briefing). This was followed by string of Fine Gael TD’s & Senators, one of whom stated he didn’t have much knowledge of banking! What in the hell is he doing on that Committee?

    Their agenda seemed to be to try and discredit Jonathan Sugarman but all they did was to show themselves up. Their lack of knowledge of the laws around banking were exposed, indeed their lack of knowledge of anything to do with banking was exposed for all to see. Jonathan Sugarman showed remarkable patience and restraint in explaining the law and the sequence of events, more than once, as they seemed unable to get a grasp of what happened, why it happened as it did etc

    There are 7 TD’s on the committee and only 3 turned up (including chair), 2 Fine Gael. Very disappointing as some balance in the questioning would have been welcomed

    95
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    Mute David Grey
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    Apr 13th 2017, 1:42 PM

    In Ireland if you are a whistleblower you get punished while the guilty get pay rises and promotion!
    The problem is that so many at the top are rotten that they simply circle the wagons and protect one another – in most areas of employment! !

    We need a whistleblowers charter which compels open public scrutiny and disclosure and protection for whistleblowers along with compensation for whistleblowers that suffer & legal action against those that punish staff for being honest and conscientious! !

    This problem is far, far greater than most realise and when whistleblowers are seen suffering dreadful abuse it puts others off being truthful and instead not rocking the boat for fear of repercussions! !

    98
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    Mute FlopFlipU
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    Apr 13th 2017, 1:34 PM

    There is something rotten in the state that is Ireland

    106
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    Mute fockoffski
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    Apr 13th 2017, 1:41 PM

    @FlopFlipU: it’s not just Ireland but Supreme Europe too, the untouchables run the biggest economic bloc, we are just a drop in the ocean in comparison

    69
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    Mute xor
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    Apr 13th 2017, 3:08 PM

    Kudos to you Mr. Jonathan Sugarman.

    53
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    Mute Mary Murphy
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    Apr 13th 2017, 1:39 PM

    Why do the government bother with the Dail Prayer. They have no fear from on high or the honest hardworking person who elected them in good faith to mind the public interest. As for Barry Cowen he’s nothing but a lying turd. We can call the charges whatever we like but it’s not going to bother him on public wages for the rest of his crooked life. Sick of them all. It took them long enough to bring Jonathan in to ask questions of him and him only telling the truth

    67
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    Mute Chemical Brothers
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    Apr 13th 2017, 1:55 PM

    A Protected Disclosure was made about questionable aircraft maintenance procedures at the Irish Air Corps.

    Inspectors were appointed by the Irish Aviation Authority to investigate. Investigators never spoke to whistle-blower but subsequently found no problems and a “genuine” error where misleading info was given to the Minister.

    The Irish Aviation Authority sponsored a €10,000 barbecue a few months later at the Air Corps HQ at Baldonnel.

    40
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    Mute leartius
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    Apr 13th 2017, 2:38 PM

    Where are the advertising standards authority when it comes to allowing banks drown us daily in advertising about how banks cherish there customers. They are worst than betting websites advertising loans without having to acknowledge how they turned an entire generations into debt slaves on assets that they knew were overpriced. A huge red banner should be standard across all advertising from banks who have ripped off there customers. AIB, bank of Ireland, ulster bank, PTSB and the rest should have to account for how they drove people to suicide only to then come after grieving family’s. Financial mis-selling of products is a crime but those involved will never face justice because the scales of justice as tipped in the bankers favour.

    45
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    Mute Micheal S. O' Ceilleachair
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    Apr 13th 2017, 4:29 PM

    The obvious thing here is that the government and the banks colluded to saddle the nation with an enormous debt. This whistleblower should be employed by the Central Bank to help root out the continuous corruption in the system. He could be the country’s best asset because he is simply honest. Let’s see if the Government will do this!!!

    41
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    Mute Dave Doyle
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    Apr 13th 2017, 6:43 PM

    @Micheal S. O’ Ceilleachair: Your assertion that the bank collapse was a deliberate act, and that the government colluded with it is correct. The Central Bank also colluded.
    The result of this was the biggest transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich.
    Austerity all but stripped ordinary people to the bone. Homelessness, eviction courts, vulture funds,suicides, food banks, soup kitchens, unemployment, wages/salaries cut by 40%, workers rights destroyed by zero hours contracts.
    All the result of a planned bank collapse.

    34
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    Mute The Unknown Souldier
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    Apr 13th 2017, 2:08 PM

    So more proof of how corrupt our representatives have been over many years, more evidence of how they betrayed the electorate and more reason to dispel the notion that they’ll ever change. So is it Fine Gael or Fianna Fail we’re voting for next?

    41
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    Mute Kevin Slater
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    Apr 13th 2017, 3:26 PM

    Really need to consider direct rule for Westminster. Churchill was correct, the Irish are incapable of governing themselves

    39
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    Mute Tom Goss
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    Apr 13th 2017, 5:01 PM

    I’ve just skimmed these comments and the FG party workers are keeping a very low profile for once. Interesting…

    32
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    Mute Maggie May
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    Apr 13th 2017, 4:42 PM

    Its hard to be very angry and constructive at the same time. All I’ll say is there should be purpose built jails for the bankers and the likes of Ahern, Kenny, Coveney with no lock on the door. I’m working my socks off paying tax so Irish Water bosses can have top of the range health care and gym memberships, not to mention the rest of the right wing wasters, including the Labour Party, in Leinster House.

    35
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    Mute Abcd
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    Apr 14th 2017, 3:03 AM

    @Maggie May: Don’t forget the private health insurance for Irish Water executives. Don’t forget the Garda Templemore slush funds. The awful list goes on

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    Mute Abcd
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    Apr 14th 2017, 3:04 AM

    Health insurance for their spouses too

    7
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    Mute Louise Bayliss
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    Apr 13th 2017, 6:09 PM

    This man has lost his career, yet those responsible have walked away unscathed. I commend Jonathan, but unfortunately that alone won’t make things right for him. I sincerely hope justice is served.

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    Mute David Walls
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    Apr 13th 2017, 12:18 PM
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    Mute Honest John
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    Apr 13th 2017, 4:15 PM

    Have we not had enough of this corruption? People of Ireland we need change for the sake of our children.

    35
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    Mute Liam O'Connell
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    Apr 13th 2017, 2:22 PM

    One further sad thing is that this whole issue has been brought up in Europe months ago and it made no impact what so ever. Disgraceful treatment of a genuine man. From the central bank , the financial regulator and down to anyone who was responsible for all the reckless lending and underhand dealings – how many will be brought to task over it all ? We’re too soft on these fools who’ve done so much damage. But, it’s the way it’s been since the dawn, and unless we get credible politicians with ability, brains and balls , we will continue to be dealt this crap infinitely.

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    Mute Aidan Reilly
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    Apr 13th 2017, 3:07 PM

    On a recent tour of Dublin with the children the tour guide pointed out how the statue of Justice at Dublin castle has her back to the people or maybe it hasn’t maybe it faces the only people whom deserve Justice

    25
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    Mute Jonathan Yeo
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    Apr 13th 2017, 1:48 PM

    And destroyed the lives of whom came to live here
    Disgraceful

    31
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    Mute Paul Mc
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    Apr 13th 2017, 3:18 PM

    Mr Sweetman is like a breath of fresh air compared to those stinking politicians and bankers who sold out the country for a bag of beans.

    39
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    Mute Dave Doyle
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    Apr 13th 2017, 6:50 PM

    You heard how Kenny actually feels about ordinary people in his answers in the Dail on the water commission report. He despises them. Thinks they are all wasters, spongers who want to pay for nothing and deserve no more that to be under the heel of government. He particularly has a hatred of Urban dwellers.
    Why would anyone imagine he would care about a bank collapse and who’s responsible. He knew who would be forced to pay the bill. And he simply doesn’t care.

    24
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    Mute Donal Carey
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    Apr 13th 2017, 6:45 PM

    The saddest thing about this is that people will go out and vote for these two parties FIANNA FAIL AND FINER GAEL who have torn this country apart and protected the rich and robbed the not so rich. When will we learn

    22
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    Mute Kerry Blake
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    Apr 13th 2017, 7:20 PM

    @Donal Carey: Sadly Donal what you posted is so true……

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    Mute Randal McNally
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    Apr 13th 2017, 3:54 PM

    What else do you expect from unaccountable senior civil servants and incompetent corrupt politicians who give into the Banking lobbies all the time ?!

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    Mute Dave O'Hanlon
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    Apr 13th 2017, 6:35 PM

    It doesnt matter how right whistleblowers are they are still seen as troublemakers by employers with a black & white view, an employers an employer to them. Its been revealed before that workers who make stands against bullying get demonised by employers and HR departments. I think if there is knowledge of defamatory exchanges between employers,HR reps etc it needs to be revealed or reported. Quietly ruining peoples lives is sick.

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    Mute Philip Hennessy
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    Apr 13th 2017, 9:34 PM

    Disgusted at RTE news this evening not even mentioning this scandal. Sheer Civil Service cover up and hushing.

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    Mute Stephen Browner
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    Apr 13th 2017, 2:40 PM

    Also this beauty from last year. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuAQO-jkjwM

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    Mute Gerard Heery
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    Apr 13th 2017, 9:15 PM

    Jonathan surgarman for toisaseach a man of statue not like the Cronnee’s in power a man to trust ,go for government on next election.

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    Mute Fiona Fitzgerald
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    Apr 13th 2017, 10:19 PM

    Minister for Finance? I’d vote for him. It might restore some integrity to our economy.

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    Mute John McKiernan
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    Apr 14th 2017, 5:55 PM

    Okay, let’s trying posting this a second time, with more diplomatic, less openly litigious language and see if it passes journal.ie’s censors:

    Blaming politicians isn’t enough: Irish people need to live in reality and to be critical, something not encouraged by our points-led “education” system. We also need to encourage what the Romans called “civitas”, civic-mindedness, which is perhaps lacking after centuries of colonial subjugation left some of us with the sentiment that the law is something imposed by outsiders rather than something determined for the benefit of the community by the community. By “Official Ireland”, I’d propose the following as the determining power brokers: the Fine Gael and Fianna Fail parties, senior civil servants, the major domestic banks, property developers, the Catholic Church, the State Broadcaster and the privately owned newspaper media, who all have overlapping interests and who lend their ears to more easily to foreign power interests than they should, including the major corporations, who though critical to Ireland’s economy, should nevertheless be accountable to the state and ultimately to the public. Examples of Irish people’s apparent powerless in the face of official impunity are manifold and what Sugarman identifies as “Official Ireland” is in my opinon complicit in the lack of accountability. For example 800 dead children were found in a septic tank a while back – put there under the auspices of the state by officially “religious” people who were alive within living memory and the families of the victims apparently can’t be compensated, despite the organisation that employed the people responsible for the neglect still being the largest landowner in the state. 1 in 6 Irish adults (nearly 1 in 5, in fact) live somewhere else because – despite being one of the best-educated populaces in Europe – the country can’t generate opportunities for them. The party that effectively relinquished our economic sovereignty by leaving our budgets under the review of foreign leaders in 2010 and gave 68 billion of taxpayer money – your money, readers – to bail out bankers and developers, leaving every man, woman and child in the country instantly 10,000 euro in the red in a blink, is again ahead in the polls, despite having two former leaders (Ahern and Haughey) who were, shall we say, perhaps less than au fait with the facts at critical moments than they might have been: both were opaque about party donations and about the sources of their personal wealth, one was less than transparent about his qualifications (an accountant’s assistant and graduate of DIT who claimed he qualified at the LSE) and despite being a former Minister for Finance didn’t even have a personal bank account. Which is unusual. They also had an energy minister (Ray Burke), later found unsuitable for political office by public tribunal, who sold the rights to the Irish people’s collective wealth – in the form of one of large offshore natural gas deposits – to foreign corporations (okay, understandable) with negligible benefit to the Irish exchequer (what?). The party in power, on the other hand, are led by a primary school teacher (with one, maybe two, year’s experience in that profession, no less) who, with the acquiescence of his uncritical fellow Mayo voters, inherited his seat from his dad like some feudal lord of the manor. Maybe this is a crazy idea, but don’t we we deserve an executive leader who gained his place solely by merit, rather than a mix of merit and surname? The current Minister of Finance, meanwhile, having gained power promising to burn the bondholders, crumbled in the face of threats from Jean-Claude Trichet to “set off an economic bomb” in Dublin, quickly forgetting 800 years of Irish resistance and survival in the face of foreign bullying at the snap of a finger. Look at Iceland, by comparison: only 25,000 but backbones apparently made from volcanic rock. Meanwhile, members of the Gardai have been found guilty by public tribunal of intimidating and framing innocent citizens, in rural Ireland, not to mention giving free passes to politicians who repeatedly break traffic violations and have been jailing protesters who campaign against water taxes never before needed in one of the rainiest countries in the northern hemisphere. Women can die in hospital beds on the off chance that their unborn children might survive problematic pregnancies because of outdated abortion laws – I speak here as someone whose private beliefs would be broadly “pro-life” and who identifies as a Catholic – and yet everybody still pretends to be devoutly Catholic, even when they wouldn’t know a cathechism from a copy of Hello! Magazine – to get their children into schools still owned en masse by a Church that has long overstepped their bounds as spiritual counsel to the people and allowed the small minority of members of religious orders who turned out not only to be ungodly but to be outright perverted and sadistic bulletproof status enough to use the children of the working classes and umarried mothers as psychological scapegoats, whipping boys, near-chattel labour providers and sexual prey, all under the auspices of “education” and “reform”. Then there is the matter of the press, mostly seemingly either in the gentle grasp of certain home-grown telecommunications magnates (names “redacted”) scurrilously associated with the present ruling party by overly-curious journalists, of course, or by a certain Mr. Murdoch, whose surname is Scottish rather than Irish, but seems to be some kind of Anglo-American Australian and the fact that the only large-scale “leftist” resistance to official discourses is a Labour party who seem to be happy to draw support from teachers, civil servants and nurses only, and be a 10% party forever, and the other lot, Sinn Féin, who no matter your stand on the Northern question, and the rights and wrongs of the troubles, I might propose as the political blood relations of people who, from high-minded anti-Imperial ideals prosecuted a resistance campaign that devolved into uncontrolled – perhaps uncontrollable – and dubious sectarian and factional chaos and ultimately failed to bring about, and even, perhaps, postponed the possibility of reconciliation with our Northern loyalist cousins or the possibility of Irish unity. Irish people need to earn from one of their exiled sons – John Lydon – who told us “anger is an energy” and stop anaesthecising themselves with alcohol, “it’ll be grand” faux-positivity and “great little country, friendliest people in the world” mutual backslapping and to hold themselves and each other to higher standards. We’re a highly talented people with an egalitarian Republican ideal as our founding philosophy, who speak the global language and are part of the biggest trading block in the world, well placed in a temperate country free of climactic extremes and problems of disease or of agricultural land, water and space shortages. We should be even wealthier than we are and the masters of our own destiny instead of exporters of people and northern Europe’s economic basket case and wealth generator for bankers and developers. We need a clean slate: Irish citizens and Irish residents should form new political parties and let the current ones wither. Rant over. Obama out.

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    Mute Yiu Fai Lau
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    Apr 14th 2017, 12:24 AM

    whistleblowers or insiders should become part of the advisory panel automatically, as they are the ones who know the system like the back of their hand, know where the cracksare, or which party are defaulting on their responsibilities for both public and private companies.

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    Mute Ían Ó Ceallaigh
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    Apr 15th 2017, 12:37 AM

    The hero we need but very much not the one we deserve

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    Mute cora322
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    Apr 16th 2017, 8:44 AM

    Why is no ‘one’ person ever responsible for anything in Ireland! Neary should be in jail!! replace him with Johnathan. Pity he resigned as we would have much more evidence if he remained on the inside.

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    Mute Jim Tarleton
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    Apr 15th 2017, 1:00 PM

    We get what we vote into power, they have control of power
    for 4yrs 364 days 23 hrs , 59 mins and 45 secs. The 15 secs
    we have is the scariest time for them. The next time you vote
    think about it.
    To quote Alan shatter , many politicians have a very casual
    acquantice with the truith. They are a class of their own and you
    have only 15 secs to change it

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    Mute Seamus O Neill
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    Apr 13th 2017, 11:35 PM

    We have the most corrupt institutions of state in Europe and the weakest minister for justice since the foundation of the state. Self interest is the key word. Honesty and bravery are non existent. We need people power and honest democtacy

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