Irish must arrest and prosecute the corrupt bankers and others

Justice must be seen to be done over financial crisis

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Tim Pat Coogan

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Alas these were not the kind of successes which appealed to an electorate, what impacted on the public were cuts like the docking of a shilling a week off the blind pension. If one were to add to today’s economy, factors such as the church led opposition to the proposed abortion referendum and the militant resistance of the Garda to cuts in their emoluments then, one could be back in the period of the 1930s before DeValera won his first election and a spell in power which was to last for an unbroken 16 years.

The government has had a notable triumph in its securing of a deal over the Promissory Notes issue to pay Anglo Irish Bank bondholders, but like the triumphs of Enda Kenny’s predecessor, W.T. Cosgrave, such triumphs have difficulty in eliciting a resonance from the man in the street.  

The Government needs to drop the excuse that the vacancies for forensic accountants and for lawyers which are crippling the fraud squad’s efforts to combat white collar crime cannot be filled because of the embargo on public service recruitment and fill these vital posts.

It really is a crime that the white collar criminals who created the need for the embargo should be walking free smirking all the way to the banks which the tax payer is forced to subsidise as they cash in their monstrously unjust and plain monstrous pay offs and pensions.  

It would be an excellent political balancing act if the Government were to make up for the fraud squad expenditures by fulfilling their election promises to cut down on the army of county councillors (some 1600 in all) who supply what is laughing known as ‘local government’ at the taxpayer’s expense.

Further meritorious balancing would be achieved by honouring pre-election promises by abolishing the Seanad which is nothing more than a talking shop wherein are provided jobs for the boys and by cutting down the number of T.D.s in the Dáil.  

There are currently 166 of these, we could well do with a hundred but the Government is planning to cut only 8, thereby (understandably) furthering the perception that cuts are for the public not the politicians.
 

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