In what must rank as one of the most lucrative gravy trains in Irish history, Bertie Ahern has told the Dail that the total cost of the tribunals has now reached €192 million.

€139 million alone has been spent on legal fees with barristers and senior councils becoming millionaires overnight. The Morairty tribunal, looking into bribes paid to politicians, has cost over €18 million since 1997 and is set to cost another €10 million this year. And what have we to show for it?

Only Lawlor and Burke have seen jail time. However, as Joe Higgins has consistently pointed out in the Dail, every dog in the street knew that Fianna Fail and Fine Gael politicians were up to their necks in corruption during the late 80s early 90s. Now it seems the barristers are frequent visitors to the Fianna Fail tent at the Galway races.

Poor, poor Intel

In a prime example of multinational greed Intel, the giant US computer chip manufacturer, is reviewing its future plans for further investment at its Leixlip plant in Kildare. The decision came as a reaction to the government withdrawing a €170 million grant. On Wednesday 2 March, the government announced that it would not be giving the grant as a result of opposition from the European Commission.

However what seems to have been missed by everyone is the vast profit Intel makes. Last year they returned a profit of approximately $8 billion. Why should the government give a handout to a company that makes such vast profits? You only have to look at the enormous lack of basic infrastructure in the north Kildare area, whether it's the severe lack of schools or the daily traffic nightmare faced by thousands of workers, to see were the money would be better spent.

Desperate Air

The desperation of Ryanair's chief executive Michael O'Leary to get support for his campaign for a privately run second terminal at Dublin Airport was shown in early March. An advert on the Ryanair website offered to bribe up to 100,000 people with free flights (to airports in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the night) if they wrote to the government supporting O'Leary's campaign!

Three reports published recently show high levels of poverty in the state even in the aftermath of the Celtic Tiger boom.

A UNICEF report on child poverty showed the Republic of Ireland with the fifth highest child poverty rates in the 26-member OECD. Child poverty in this state stands at 15.7% topped only by New Zealand (16.3%), Italy (16.6%), the US (21.9%) and Mexico (27.7%). A household was defined as living in poverty if its income was below 50% of the national median income.

Meanwhile the Social Inclusion Unit of Dublin City Council produced a report entitled Inclusion is Everybody's Business which showed that the proportion of the capital's population living in conditions of the highest level of relative deprivation have increased by 2.4% in the period 1991-2002.

Referring to a phenomenon it described as "inter-generational deprivation" the report identified 15 areas of Dublin where unemployment was 25% or higher and poverty was "endemic". The report highlighted high levels of relative deprivation in Finglas, Cabra, Ballymun and Priorswood.

Cork City Council's Social Inclusion Unit produced an annual report that included a "Poverty Profile" of the city based on statistics from the 2002 CSO census. More than 8,000 households in Cork city had no central heating at the time of the census and more than one-third had no car. There were 13 polling districts in the city where more than 50% of the population aged 15+ had left school aged 16 or under and whole areas of the Northside where 1% or less of the population had a university degree. Moreover, Cork city contained 11 of the state's 88 unemployment blackspots and all of them were on the city's Northside.

Despite the official status of the reports, two of them criticised government policy for contributing to this situation. The Dublin City Council Social Inclusion Report stated that "recent changes in the eligibility criteria for the rent allowance will increase hardship". While the UNICEF report pointedly noted that Ireland had reduced its share of social spending (the proportion of GDP devoted to government's social transfers) by 5% in the period 1990-2000.

However, the reality is that these reports and statistics represent an absolutely crushing indictment of Ireland's political establishment. Fianna Fail, the PDs, Fine Gael and Labour have all been in office in the last 15 years and the country is still scarred by shocking poverty despite the experience of the biggest economic boom in the history of the state.

Not only do these reports and statistics represent an indictment of the political establishment, they also stand in savage condemnation of the social system defended and represented by them - capitalism. If this is the best capitalism can do, then there is no stronger argument for the building of a genuine socialist alternative and for the socialist transformation of society.