It’s a multi-billion euro business with properties and offices throughout the world. The company’s services are used by a huge percentage of the global population and many proudly display – and even promote – its logo. This secretive, privately held organisation has been in business for eons. It has a strong brand and a much-loved image.

Yes, the Catholic Church is perhaps the world’s biggest business. It has a corporate logo, brand values, a service offering, customer promises and a skilled workforce.

The Logo. The crucifix is one of the planet’s most instantly recognisable symbols. The brand doesn’t need product placement opportunities since its logo continues to adorn the neck – and bodies – of some of the world’s biggest celebrities. Mel Gibson, Madonna, David Beckham and many others are closely associated with the logo.

The Brand. The Catholic brand is known for goodness, purity and the highest moral and ethical standards. Jesus Christ founded the company with his entrepreneurial colleagues a couple thousand years ago. Their brand messages and marketing materials – the Bible  – have stood the test of time and gained them many loyal followers.

The Promise. Strict terms and conditions apply to the Church’s spiritual services. Catholics who live a good life by adhering to the rules of the religion – don’t kill, lie, steal, commit adultery or want other people’s stuff but do obey your parents, honour God and make your sacraments – are promised an express trip to heaven when they die. There will be no stopover in Purgatory or extended layover in Hell for loyal customers.

On arrival, clients will be greeted at the Pearly Gates by their guide, St. Peter, and granted entrance to a place of eternal happiness. Newcomers will be serenaded by angels of the heavenly choir and surrounded by all that is good and right. They will meet the people who have died before them and, most importantly, they will have an audience with the Almighty.

The Offering. Before customers can enter heaven they must study and pledge loyalty to the religion through the sacraments. In return, they become part of an international community that strives to do unto others as they would do unto you. The club is highly regarded for its work among the poor and for providing education in many needy nations. Members pay to assist with these good works and to help with spiritual and material needs within their own local communities.

The Reality. Like many large companies that have fallen into disrepute, the brand’s promises are very different from the customers’ experience. As we learned from the Ryan report, also known as the Report of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse, the business has been badly broken for a long time. The brand has betrayed its customers and shareholders.

The Catholic Church has been a market leader, and even an innovator, when it comes to the wide-scale abuse of children for business purposes.Our church developed and perfected many modern business and political techniques.

Children’s sweatshops. Children were captive workers who paid for the orders’ holiday homes and lavish meals with blood, sweat and tears plus a good lashing of rape, degradation and dehumanisation.

Creative accounting. Funds given by the government to feed, clothe and house orphans and industrial school detainees were not entirely used for this purpose, a percentage was funnelled into many of the religious orders’ more mainstream schools.

Innovative imprisonment. Children were held against their will on questionable charges such as “wandering”. Thankfully they were not asked to wear orange jumpsuits, just rags.

Generational mind control. Many of our industrial schools, orphanages and mother and baby homes were run under brutal totalitarian regimes. Romania’s orphanages, created by the notorious Nicolae Ceausescu, bear a striking resemblance to the Irish system. Pierre Poupard, the head of Unicef in Romania, told the BBC that the orphans were a “lost generation” – closeted away from society, often malnourished and subjected to physical and even sexual abuse.

Would Jesus Christ be happy to wear the church’s logo now?

The shareholders of this failed corporation – its parishioners – should call an annual general meeting and demand that the executives explain themselves and atone for their actions in words, deeds and cash.

Margaret E. Ward is a journalist and managing director Clear Ink.

The reason you should take note is that the number of advertisements are dwindling. When this happens, it has the potential to weaken our democracy and to further diminish our standing in the international business community. This is not as far-fetched as it might sound.

Media outlets traditionally obtain the bulk of their income from advertising. The retail price, subscription or licence fee only goes a small way to covering expenses. When a sharp decline in advertising occurs, as it has over the past couple of years, media companies need to cut costs and, ultimately, staffing levels.

Many Irish newspapers and radio stations have announced voluntary redundancies for journalists and, in the last week, a dozen or so staff members from TV3 were laid off. Big deal, right? Lots of people are losing their jobs.In a healthy democracy, journalists should act as a check and balance on the legislative, executive and judiciary branches of government. In addition to reporting the events of the day, they have a duty to investigate potential wrongdoing by those in power – in business, government and society.

Good investigative journalists are moral watchdogs with a sensitive nose for corruption, graft, cronyism, abuse of influence and power and much more.

Even so, investigations take time and lots of money. Traditionally, newspapers broke many of the big stories and radio and TV stations followed up on them. Recently – as newspapers’ advertising revenue dried up – the appetite for expensive investigative series (and potential legal actions) has diminished.

Over the past few years, television programmes like Prime Time and special RTÉ news reports by Charlie Bird and George Lee have filled some of the void. These TV investigations are no longer a certainty now that the editorial independence of the national broadcaster has been called in to question.

RTÉ’s strange apology for running a news item on the satirical painting of King Brian (sorry, the Taoiseach) in the National Gallery raises a very big issue. If RTÉ caved in on a simple thing like a painting then what other news items, or investigations, will they axe?

Print, broadcast and online media face several other problems when trying to meet their watchdog brief. Redundancies and layoffs mean many of their senior staff will leave – taking their long memories and years of experience with them.

Journalism is now a freelance world. Staff journalists are the exception rather than the rule at many newspapers and radio stations. This is the biggest threat of all to an independent, effective media. The rise in freelance journalism directly impacts on investigative reports. The Huffington Post, America’s famous blog turned internet newspaper, is so concerned about it that it launched an investigative report fund on Monday. The €1.75 million initiative, designed to fund freelance and staff journalists’ investigative reports, is asking for ideas and CVs.

Founder Arianna Huffington said layoffs at newspapers were hurting investigative journalism at a time the nation’s institutions need to be watched closely.

The same applies in Ireland. Print freelancers can only make a living if they crank out a high volume of well written articles. The rate for freelance work has not improved much in the last 10 years, so it’s really a numbers game. If you were a freelance journalist, would you take the risk of investigating and reporting a scandal?

Staff positions for talented freelance journalists are as rare as hen’s teeth so freelancers would be fools not to ask themselves a few questions: will I be paid for all the time I spend on this investigation? What happens if the scandal leads to a lawsuit in which I am named? Will this potential outcome impact on my ability to earn a living as a journalist?

Freelancers have less protection from legal action, or loss of income, than staffers if they publish a story that someone finds unfavourable.

Ireland’s international reputation is in tatters thanks to strange goings on in business, government and regulatory circles. Now, more than ever, we need a strong investigative media committed to shining a light in all those dark places. Who dares to fund it?

Ireland needs a drastic shift in cultural attitudes – away from entitlement and towards personal responsibility. The arrogant aristocracy has made taxpayers as cheap as chips.

This article was originally published in The Irish Times, Business this week, Platform column on:
March 6, 2009

The cost of “keeping up with the Fitzpatricks”

Two years ago, I wrote that the nation was like a kid who had just received pocket money for the first time: “Imagine four million children with sweaty coins in their hands waiting for the newsagents to open and you’ll get the picture.”

Spending was a thrill but now, like a youngster who has blown it all on sweets, the public and private sector are dealing with the tummy ache and asking: “Why did I do it? I should have known better!”

The easy-credit culture benefited not only those creating wealth in the private sector – entrepreneurs, small-business owners, property developers and multinationals – but the public sector as well. The number of people employed in Government swelled and those at the top, our elected Government representatives, felt they also needed to be richly rewarded for serving the people.

Arrogant aristocracy

Government generosity to itself – with our money – has created an arrogant aristocracy. Some long-serving TDs have probably forgotten how to drive, use public transport, carry cash or arrange meetings. No wonder the current Government reeks of a “let them eat cake” sense of entitlement. We have allowed it.

They live very different lives from the rest of us. We already know that our Taoiseach and many top ministers receive salaries that are higher – and completely disproportionate when judged on population size – than most of their European and American counterparts. Pensions and perks, including government cars and mileage allowances for private cars, are also overly generous. It’s a nice number in hard times.

No matter what happens, these senior civil servants will be largely unaffected by the recession. Even if they lose their seats, they’ll keep their full pensions – unlike some of the workers at Waterford Crystal.

Chances are, our elected officials’ children will not be forced to emigrate in as large numbers as their contemporaries. In fact, junior Minister for Finance Martin Mansergh told BBC television (and me) last week that his daughter was going to Australia for the experience. She was not being forced to emigrate. Lucky woman!

Fianna Fáil’s attitude and communications strategy of “radio silence” have done little to help the populace understand the seriousness of the issues we face – or to prepare for the hard cuts that are to come. We are fighting for our economic survival and dismissing media commentators who ask hard questions for the benefit of the public as “populists” does not engender confidence. After all, populists are the opposite of elitists.

Taxpayers – cheap as chips

Thanks to our light-touch regulation, the spending habits of some of our native financiers were more elaborate than the Government’s.

We still don’t know why Seán Quinn quietly bought up a 25 per cent contract for difference (CFD) or placed a high-risk bet on the direction of the share price in Anglo Irish Bank. Was he in a power play for control of Anglo from Seán Fitzpatrick & Co, was he trying to help the bank or was he just a rich man gambling big money to become even wealthier? Either way, it now seems that the chips Quinn and Fitzpatrick were playing with had “taxpayer” written on them. We’re all footing the bill for their miscalculations.

Over the years, I have talked about “keeping up with the Fitzpatricks” when discussing reckless spending – this has now acquired a strange new meaning.

Cultural shift

Politicians and bankers are not the only ones infected with a sense of entitlement. Even ordinary people feel they are owed something. We all know that child benefit and medical cards for the over-70s should be means tested. But how many of us refuse the payment on the basis that, although it’s nice to get when the kids are small, we don’t really need the money?

Ireland needs a drastic shift in cultural attitudes – away from entitlement and towards responsibility. The only thing citizens are owed is a Government that leads well, helps the most vulnerable in society and uses tax revenues efficiently. Sadly, we can’t say that any of those things have been achieved by the current administration.

The Government is spending our money and we have a responsibility to ensure they use it transparently and wisely. We should introduce a “Government-waste whistleblowers” campaign or organisation. Anyone who sees waste by a Government department or body – and we already know there is lots of it – can report it without fear of repercussions. It’s time to target the wasters, wherever they are, and usher in an era of personal responsibility.

True leaders know they must make real changes within themselves, and their organisations, before they can ask others to sacrifice.

Margaret E. Ward is a journalist, small-business owner and blogger www.margaretward.ie

Our lovely interviewer Noel said we’d just have a nice discussion but
it quickly turned into a row. I suggested that the government’s
inaction was a dangerous decision and that it had far reaching
consequences. “Nero fiddled while Rome burned and so is this
government. ” Paraphrasing it I basically said this was
an emergency and that we were at war for our economic survial. It was
time for unity. The time for party politics is over. We all need to
come together, start talking to the social partners and make cuts
across the board. Why isn’t the Financial Regulator organisation in the dustbin? All senior bank management still not gone?

People are frightened – they’re losing their jobs, emigrating, huge
numbers of small businesses are failing with banks refusing to make
loans…They need some hope.” I asked him loads of questions and asked
him what they were doing about it. Why weren’t they asking for help
from the extraordinarily intelligent experts we have in this country?  Why weren’t they communicating a plan to the people?

He was furious and completely disagreed that people were losing their
jobs in large numbers and emigrating to find work. Some of this was cut from the programme including his statement that  ”My daughter is
going to Australia for the experience” She was not forced to emigrate.
(One of the lucky few, I imagine who can afford that kind of trip!)

I then pointed out that it was ridiculous that according to
Wednesday’s papers a bank (that we have now recapitalised) refused to
give a €3,000 loan to a business – with a substantial amount of cash
behind it – to save a dozen or more jobs. He implied that many of the
small businesses going out of business are not worth saving. (Wow!!!!!
The lifeblood of this country is not worth saving?). Check out the stats on insolvencyjournal.ie. Things are getting much,much worse but it’s not being reported.

Apparently, I was also a “populist” and he could not believe that the
Irish Times employed someone with views like mine! When did populism – listening to the people – become a dirty word in Fianna Fail?

I do not think Mr Mansergh – who is a highly intelligent person with
an excellent track record on the North – likes to be questioned about
anything. In my experience, he is an elitist who lives in a rarefied
world. He does not think citizens should have a voice or that
journalists have a right to ask hard questions and expect answers. He
also way out of his depth in finance and seems to have little
understanding of the economic issues we now face. Does this frighten
you? It sure as hell frightens me.. who is running the country?

At the end of the interview, he stormed off the set knocking over his
water saying he could not believe I worked for the Irish Times. For
more fun from this week’s experience see the post Students’ advice for the
government.

If you are not extremely angry about what is going on then you should be. Ireland will be bankrupt in about 12 months. We are burning through about €1 billion or so a week. Internationally, Ireland Inc. is viewed as corrupt country where cronyism is rife and that’s accurate. Are you happy with that reputation? I’m not. It’s embarrassing. We ALL have to inform ourselves about the FACTS and then take action – quickly.

Brian Cowen "What should I do?"

Lectured some university students today in News Reporting and asked them to talk directly to the government – using Post-It notes. After class, I was going on BBC2 NI’s show Hearts and Minds as a guest along with Martin Mansergh. I told them I would give them to him after the show. It didn’t happen – he stormed out claiming I was a populist and he couldn’t believe someone with views like mine worked for the Irish Times! Basically, I asked him some hard questions, challenged his views and he did not like it. I guess he is not used to people standing up to him. See it at 7.30pm on Thursday.

Anyway, thanks to the students for the inspirational comments. Here is a small selection of “citizen journalism” and what they said in response to “What should the government do?”:

“Go four weeks without your pay or your ministerial cars, feed your family off the dole and then come back and realise that unless you cop on everyone in this nation, which is supposedly in your charge, will face that fate or worse unless you cop on.”
“Focus spending on education to guarantee the future stability of the country”
“Start actually doing politics, which is acting for the people, for the country which you are a part of. You are gambling with our future.”
“Get ideas from appropriate experts weighed up and acted upon ASAP.”
“Close down Anglo Irish Bank. Waste of money.”
“…Stop worrying about your jon and take some risks to get our economy back on track..”
“Join the commonwealth again…”
“If your economy is going to survive every single person who allowed this catastrophe to happen must be replaced immediately.  That includes your entire cabinet”

Directors’ loans

1. How much did Seanie & co borrow? Who authorised it?

2. What did they use it for?

a.      Did they buy shares, debt or CFDs?

b.     Did they use money to manipulate the share price in some way?

c.     What were the terms of the loan? Was it secured?

d.     Did they deceive shareholders and potential investors?

e.      Was it fraud/ deception?

f.       Who knew? (Govt, regulator, board, big banker friends, stockbrokers, ISE)

Golden circle’s 10% deal
3. Who came up with the 10% deal? Who approached the Golden Circle?

a.      What professionals were involved in advising on the deal? (Ernst & Young, MOP)
b. How much did they earn?
c. Why did regulator take Anglo’s legal advice and not seek their own?

4. Who are they? If they are named will we given proof that they are really the ones involved?

a. What was in it for them?

b. What were the terms of the deal/ promises made?

c. Who knew about it?

e. Why hasn’t all the info been made public?

g.     Why wasn’t Anglo allowed to go bust?

h.     How instrumental were CFDs in bringing Anglo down? Irish developers? Irish property market?

Other banks
5. How many other financial institutions were involved in concealing Anglo’s activities? (Nationwide, IL&P, etc.)

a. Was the regulator involved? Did he know and look away?

National debt
6. How much money do we have? What do we owe? When will we run out of money?
7. How long will it take to pay off bank debts?

8. Are all the banks insolvent?
9. Is the government insolvent?

10. How many generations will it take to clear the debt?

11. Why is everyone afraid to tell the full truth?
12. Why did journalists ask the hard questions until the Opposition started to respond last week?
13. Is Europe tying the government’s hands?

14. Is there a conspiracy of silence designed to “protect” Ireland’s reputation (ha, ha!) among international investors?

15. Are we completely screwed?