Big Jim stirs a hornet's nest with legal reform

It’s tough when the blank screen stares defiantly back at you and challenges you to defile the page, but deadlines must be met. Even now it remains difficult not to dwell almost entirely on that wonderful Mayo win in Croke Park and the scenes of joyous green and red emotion that followed. Then the homecoming with 50,000 ecstatic supporters in Hastings Insurance MacHale Park, including children held high on the shoulders of proud parents in awe of their heroes, full of wonder and not yet fully able to appreciate the significance of the occasion. Then the special visits to Captain Jack’s town of Ballyhaunis who came into his own on final day both on the field and in his acceptance speech. Could this be the beginning of another political career?

Then across the Moy at Foxford (where the curse never originated!) to James Stephens Park Ballina, home of Courell and Carney of ’36 fame, and on across the Deel to the home of Jordan and Kobe. Then on to Belmullet, crossing the Owenmore at Bellacorick, where the stack once stood and now the wind drives energy across Ireland. Willie Joe, the Bullet from Belmullet is now displaced in Erris lore by the Rocket that is Man of the Match Ryan O’Donoghue. Interestingly, ROD beat off the challenge of three or four Mayo players to earn the nomination. David Clifford could have been considered for the Man of the First Quarter accolade but was there any other Kerry player vying for Man of the Match?

Then to Ballaghaderreen, home to Andy and No 6 David MacBrien, disputed by the Rossies, but always Mayo, despite the Brit gerrymander ceding Ballagh to Roscommon way back years ago. 

The fitness of the team was never in doubt. They excelled during a week of unrivalled celebration in Charlestown, Claremorris, Breaffy, Ballintubber (home of the O’Connors Cillian and Diarmuid), Ballinrobe, The Neale, Kilmaine (Hugh O’Loughlin country), Garrymore, Ballindine, Hollymount, Balla and finishing at Kilmeena, home of two-pointer player par excellence Jack Carney.

By then it was time to call a halt and allow minds to wander to the upcoming club championships.

And so to matters more mundane and of considerably less importance. I’ll start with Jack Chambers because he is the son of a true Mayo Gael and grandson of a Newport man, also named Jack. Jack, I’m sorry to say, did not take the good advice offered to him here in the wake of the Jim Gavin fiasco to put a bit of distance between himself and our esteemed Taoiseach who is on the way out as Fianna Fáil leader.

He is now fast on his way to replacing Richie Ruin as the Minister for Hardship. As Minister with responsibility for Public Expenditure (together with Infrastructure, Public Services, Reform and Digitisation -now there’s a mouthful) Jack has the job of cutting back on spending by all other Ministers around the Cabinet table. Good luck with that. Imagine telling the Minister for Social Protection, Dara Calleary, who is enjoying spreading money around Mayo as if it was confetti, that he has to be sensible.

Dara’s job is to look after the vulnerable in society. His duty is to his people, to his constituents, to those on the margins of society, to the pensioners who built up the country, who carried the can for the banks and the builders and the building societies. He, most especially, is not responsible to the modern day bankers and CEOs on €400,000 a year nor to those who blithely advise tightening belts while taking two or three holidays a year in the Caribbean.

The country, we are told, is awash with money. Every month we hear that income is running ahead of expenditure to the tune of a billion (yes a billion!) a month, but with that good news comes the warning that the good times will not last. The multinationals might pack up and go we are told. And we are told this when Intel is investing €5 billion in Leixlip.

And all the while Jack is urging caution his Minister for Finance, Simple Simon Harris is undercutting Jack and promising tax cuts in his upcoming budget. Who are we, the long suffering simple folks, to believe?

Now, let there be no doubt the taxpayer is due a break but experience shows that Ministers for Finance past and recent tend to give with one hand and take with the other. Everything given is generally surrounded with so much fudge that it is impossible for the average person to figure out whether they have gained or lost. The proof is in the pudding, or in this case, the pay packet and as a taxpayer of sixty years standing, I can say with a degree of certainty that no Minister for Finance and no budget ever put money in my pocket.

The Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration, Jim O’Callaghan has gone on a bit of a splurge cutting back on what he sees as unfair pricing among solicitors. I don’t think it has anything to do with Jack Chambers' appeal for Departments to cut out excess baggage. It has more to do with necessary reforms to cut out alleged sharp practice by solicitors, especially those on the free legal aid panel.

I have recently begun to develop a little regard for Big Jim. I spotted him joining the hoi polio on the way into Croke Park. Now normally I would expect Jim to join the throng accessing Croke Park via the premium entrance. But no. He operated just like any normal supporter (he did have a ticket) and joined the throng. I feared he might knock his head on the beam under the stand but he managed to avoid injury by simply stooping a little. A knock on the head could have implications for a man trying to whip solicitors into line.

You need to have all your wits about you when you take on the legal profession. Now Big Jim would know this, being a legal eagle himself. So, while he may have stirred up a hornets’ nest, any improvements he can bring about are to be commended. The solicitors have withdrawn their services in the best traditions of trade unions who they generally despise and disown and have caused much disruption to the practice of law in the country. Judges, who have no problem dealing with recalcitrant citizens who appear before them (a la Enoch Burke) don’t seem to know how to handle law-abiding citizens such as solicitors.

Is there a danger that some judge, fed up with this upheaval in the court system, might hold a solicitor in contempt of court? Now there’s a thought worth considering.

Senior Moment 

A senior moment is like waiting for a bus and then missing all three of them. (from The Long and the Short Of It)