The United Nations reckons the Irish harp is so much a part of our heritage it should be protected.
Shows how much the UN knows about this country because if there is a musical instrument that truly represents Irish society, it’s the fiddle.
Even those who are tone deaf know how to fiddle and while they might not have a note in their heads, they have plenty of them in their pockets and wallets.
It’s true, the harp is among 15 elements inscribed by Unesco’s Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage.
While it is a lovely instrument, it’s rather elitist whereas the fiddle is more representative of the society we live in.
But the end result is the public having to live in the rip-off Republic.
You see it every day and, although not necessarily illegal, it’s people fiddling with numbers.
We constantly hear a different tune and this week it’s like a battle of the bands between the insurance industry and the FAI.
The big insurance companies claim they are making so little profit they have to keep putting their premiums up.
These corporations are in a unique position as, by law, drivers must have their vehicles covered.
Lenders also insist homeowners have an insurance policy on their property.
But earlier this week a Central Bank report blew the whistle on the spurious claims made by insurers for their premiums being so high.
And it showed the profits made are much higher in Ireland than in the UK.
An even bigger scandal is the €7million bailout provided to childcare providers to help them pay their insurance premiums which have tripled in the last few years.
The useless Children’s Minister is giving a payment averaging €1,500 to creches so they can hand on the cheque. In essence, they are lining the pockets of the insurers with €7million of public cash.
“We are now using taxpayer money to subsidise a highly profitable insurance company,’’ said Fianna Fail TD Robert Troy and he’s dead right.
He added, “The dogs in the street know what’s going on with insurance” – which may be the case but it appears the canine that matters, the insurance watchdog or regulator, appears to be asleep on the job.
The insurance companies have the public and the Government over a barrel and what they are doing is a form of legal extortion by actions that threaten to close down most of the childminding facilities in the country.
If there is a sour note coming out of the insurance industry it’s a similar tune out at Abbotstown where the flutes who ran Irish soccer into the ground believe they too are entitled to taxpayers’ cash.
Imagine they demanded €18million from the Sports Minister after handing €462,000 to former chief executive John Delaney, who pocketed €3million in wages and benefits over a three-year period before he left.
That sum would have saved Limerick FC from extinction but they decided to give it to the disgraced boss instead.
Imagine a tiny soccer body running up debts of €62million. It will be up to the Garda and the corporate watchdog – both currently conducting inquiries – to decide what kind of financial orchestrations brought this debt about.
But the sheer arrogance of this stinking organisation is breathtaking.
They want €18million but have twice refused to appear before the Oireachtas Sports Committee.
They are being allowed to hold the public and the Government to ransom as they know if they go under, so too does the League of Ireland and the international teams.
Yet perhaps the best bit of figure-fiddling was done by none other than Tory Boy himself.
In response to a question from Labour leader Brendan Howlin as to why there was such a gap between rich and poor in the country, the Tory Taoiseach explained it was because so many workers get so much money.
This apparently distorts the figures and brings up the average. Methinks Leo is doing a bit of distortion himself.
An analysis by the OECD last August found Ireland has the third highest proportion of workers on low pay out of 36 mostly-European members.
The study showed almost one in every four workers is on low pay.
Big salaries? You couldn’t make it up – but Tory Boy could.
