Irish Times columnist, presenter of TV3′s Midweek, Moriarty Tribunal witness and Denis O’Brien chum Sarah Carey went on Prime Time last night.
Her task was twofold: Put a gloss on the findings of the Moriarty Report that related to Denis and herself.
And could she do this without appearing smug and shifty?
It was a big ask.
Miriam O’Callaghan: “What’s your reaction…?”
Sarah Carey: “Well, Miriam, apart from working for Denis O’Brien I was a witness at the tribunal. I had run-ins with them. I leaked some information about a donation Denis O’Brien made to the Progressive Democrats, and I denied that to the tribunal. And as one of my friends said to me today: ‘Sarah, you’re emotionally involved in this’.
“So I understand that people will naturally and, you know, logically discount my opinion on it. But if I thought for a second, you know – and I just want to assure you on this – that there was anything about that licence that was unsound, I wouldn’t be here tonight to defend it, and I wouldn’t flinch from condemning anyone who was a party to that. ”
O’Callaghan: “So why would Moriarty say this?”
Carey: “So I heard all these phrases today, like, you’d a ‘venal’ abuse of power, and ‘overreaching’, you know all this really inflammatory language, so when I went to the report and got to the sections where the actual substantive issue of what this so-called venal abuse of power was, I actually couldn’t find anything that changed my mind about the point that I have been making all the time.”
O’Callaghan: “Before I get onto what he said about you, Sarah, what you say is you reject what Justice Moriarty found?”
Carey: “What I say is that, based on the sworn evidence at the tribunal of the 17 civil servants, of the senior counsel Richard Nesbitt, of the independent consultant Michael Andersen, of the staff from the Attorney General’s office, who swore that there had been no interference, I believe that evidence to be credible -- and this is the important bit -- in order for Michael Moriarty to have drawn the conclusions that he has drawn, he has had to completely discount that evidence.”
O’Callaghan: “And the 900,000 sterling to Michael Lowry?”
Carey: “Yeah but when you go through all of those, it’s kind of flimsy, and, and I would say this: as bad as the money trail looks, you have to go back then to the fundamental question, was there a benefit -- ”
O’Callaghan: “OK I just want, I just want to put something because you brought it up yourself, obviously, that you were in the tribunal, but just to say what he said about you. In relation to the leaked confidential information relating to the political donations. When you were asked about this, he says, at the tribunal, you first lied and denied it although you did later admit to it. The report describes what you did as irresponsible and not remotely justified by the explanation you provided.”
Carey: “Em, yeah, I mean there was a lot of leaking going on and, ah, I naively and stupidly got involved in that. But I don’t think that changes the fundamental issue which is that those civil servants swore under oath Michael Lowry had not interfered in the process, that Esat Digifone was the fair winner, and nothing that anyone draws about the conclusion can change that sworn evidence.”
O’Callaghan: “One last question about yourself: the report also found that you used your Fine Gael connections to put you at the centre of a number of substantial donations of cash from Denis O’Brien to Fine Gael, and in particular it quotes one letter from you to Phil Hogan, and I’m just, it’s, very briefly because I think it says a lot about connections. It goes: ‘Dear Phil, please find enclosed a draft for the golf on the 16th’ – this is to be a Fine Gael fundraiser – ‘I understand Denis O’Brien has requested that there are no references to be made to his contribution at the event. Best of luck on the day’. Doesn’t that just say to people watching Sarah Carey, powerful people buying influence?”
Carey: [laughs] “OK. Look. We’re talking about a golf fundraiser and there was a donation of a few thousand pounds to it. These kind of things were run of the mill for all political parties and Denis O’Brien was making donations to all political parties -- Fianna Fáil, the PDs, Fine Gael, everybody. You know. It’s really peripheral to the main issue.”
Read the Irish Times oh-so-responsible coverage of Sarah’s boo-boo here.
Video via it’s On The Tube
“Ah sure, we were all crooked but so what, eh?” Dirty bitch. Why can’t we have death squads here? I’d jump at the opportunity.
History’s greatest monster.
Sarah clearly understands that this is all just a big joke. Sure wasn’t everyone at it? Well, everyone with the money to buy a politician anyway.
The same old faces keep appearing on our tv screens despite being dicredited in so many ways over the last few years, i’m thinking economists who were working for banks & said we’d get a ‘soft landing’ & the like… & now someone who was ‘economical’ with the truth at a tribunal gets her own tv show, is it not time that the powers that be in broadcasting start looking for other options for opinions?
What got my goat, was that in her defense of O’Brien she said there was no finding of corruption against him, therefore he’s done nothing wrong!! For a woman who worked for O’Brien, was involved in giving evidence to the Tribunal, leaking information from it, and then lying about it, I sure she’s aware that any finding of corruption is outside it’s terms of reference.
the jails are full of “innocent” people convicted drug dealers, murderers, etc so maybe we should get rid of the judges,the courts and the whole law process and let these people do what they want. Maybe that would satisfy the gangsters involved in white collar crime also
In summary “Yeah yeah, I lied to the tribunal…but the findings are nonsense as the Judge is disregarding some of the testimony!”
And that’s the end of that. The more things change, the more they stay the same. Carey’s performance is reminiscent of P Flynn’s ‘try it some time’ on the Late Late. But she’ll be fine, as will the named protagonists. With all the hoohaa they made yesterday, they’ve ensured that any possibility of any charges brought by DPP cannot get a fair hearing, jury selection would be a nightmare, etc etc etc. The little people can all go back to paying their taxes, with Declan Ganley now looking to sue the state as a member of the consortium who failed in their bid.
Makes you glad to be alive doesn’t it?
She gets her own tv show and a column in the IT and she’s a lying, propagandist for FG and her ex boss…. there’s obviouly something I’m not doing right in my life..mmm…
So, it now seems she didn’t regret the leak because it was “in the publics interest” whereas she told Phil Hogan not to disclose the identity of the corporate donor. As if *that* wasn’t in the public interest.
This is all just sickening. We find malfeasance under every stone. Dermot Ahern took his bloated pension and rode off into the sunset. The only thing he ever did was introduce a “blasphemy” law. The same is true for the rest of them. Denis O’Brien high-tailed it to Portugal to avoid CGT and claims to have done nothing wrong. Denis now “lives” in Malta, where they don’t tax you on foreign earnings. Ben Dunne funded politicians to a huge extent and yet he claims to be above corruption. I guess he just liked having them around?
Let’s not forget their recent document telling the government how to govern those of us who live in the jurisdiction and stupidly still pay taxes. Is it any wonder we don’t have an entrepreneurial culture when the winner of the E&Y Entrepreneur of the Year turns out to have been bribing politicians to achieve his ill-gotten gains.
The IT should now do the principled thing and fire Sarah Carey.
Who will believe any this person Sarah Carey writes now? or did Denis O’Brien put in a word for her to get a job in The Irish Times? I still believe that she should be sacked from the Irish Times.
Updated from yesterday, jezz she is diamond material
http://soundmigration.wordpress.com/2011/03/23/sarah-carey-the-face-of-organised-unashamed-elite/
Her performance on RTE, coupled with her mea culpa today (yes…she lied… we knew that), confirms that she’s the IT’s equivalent of Amanda Brunker (without the brains). Time to fire her guys – if you’ve the guts
“me thinks the lady protests to much” When you get so used to backhanders it becomes normal. At least Gadaffi thinks he was doing the right thing. She would be the first person to condem cj and the likes but when she does the same thing it’s fine.