This short book on corruption in Irish politics questions the view that political sleaze arrived in the Irish Republic at around the same time as sex - the 1960s.
It looks at some of the theory on corruption, lists the Irish scandals, looks at the causes and consequences of corruption generally, and considers possible anti-corruption strategies. The authors, two academics from University College, Cork, point out that in early 20th century Ireland nepotism, jobbery and graft were rife at local administration level and that a sustained assault on the problem was required after the establishment of the Dublin government.
Eamon de Valera is another pre-1960s blot who comes up for mention, because of the way the Irish Press group was passed on to his family rather than the party he founded and which the newspaper group was created to support. The Haughey family is not the first Irish family to have benefitted hugely from having had a patriarch who was a leader of Fianna Fail.
Furthermore, the authors state, it "now seems unlikely that corruption was not present" during the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. They base their view on the simple fact that economic protectionism would have created an opportunity for corruption. They maintain that persons making decisions about which industries to protect could have been offered gifts from persons wishing to protect their businesses from international competition, and probably were. The authors admit there is no hard evidence , but remind us that such circumstances led to corruption in other jurisdictions.
They point out that leadership is a key issue when considering the causes of corruption, as are opportunity and incentive. (With so much money now sloshing around the economy, and decisions being made by politicians and senior public officials having more impact than ever before, is corruption more prevalent or less prevalent now than it was in the 1980s and 1990s? In time, perhaps, we shall find out.)
Strategies to counter corruption suggested by the authors include: the banning of lobbying by politicians; a "cooling off" period for former senior civil servants, before they can take on parallel occupations in the private sector; and the creation of a State anti-corruption agency. They say that the international experience of banning private funding of politics is not encouraging.
Under the heading "populist strategies", they consider the benefits - or otherwise - of "frying a few big fish". Star prosecutions, they say, might "distract attention from the underlying causes of corruption". However, the point is, surely, that big fish should fry if they break the law, precisely because it is the law and should be applied equally to rich and poor.
Surprisingly, given the fact that in its review of recent scandals the book lists case after case where disclosure came first by way of the media, nothing is said about the need to change the libel laws.
That said, this is a useful and timely overview of corruption in Irish political life. It brings to 17 the number of titles in the Undercurrents series, edited by Carol Coulter.
Colm Keena has covered the McCracken and Moriarty tribunals for The Irish Times. His book on Charles Haughey is due out later this year.
