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THE CHAIRMAN OF the Dáil’s powerful Public Accounts Committee has said that he wants a “broad, comprehensive” inquiry into the banking crisis and believes his committee is best-placed to do it.
Fianna Fáil TD John McGuinness also suggested that there are some bankers and civil servants who do not want an inquiry into the events surrounding the bank guarantee of September 2008 which saddled the Irish taxpayer with €64 billion in banking debt.
“You’d be naive not to believe that there are people that would like to have no inquiry at all whether they be bankers or indeed in the civil service,” McGuinness told RTÉ’s The Week in Politics.
He was speaking in response to a story on the frontpage of the Sunday Independent today in which he is quoted alleging that “powerful people” are seeking to undermine a prospective probe into the banking crisis.
The government has been seeking to bring forward legislation to strengthen the Oireachtas’ ability to carry out inquiries into matters of public interest in the wake of the rejection of a referendum that would have allowed such inquiries to make findings of fact against individuals.
The legislation would likely settle an ongoing dispute over whether McGuinness’ PAC or the Oireachtas Finance Committee, chaired by Labour TD Ciaran Lynch, should investigate the banking collapse.
McGuinness said today that the debate over whether his committee or Lynch’s should hold an inquiry is a “phony argument” and said that the government’s legislation would “simply push the problem down the road” delaying any inquiry.
On the same programme, the Minister for Social Protection Joan Burton said that the legislation was “technically very demanding” and said the delays in bringing it forward were a result of ensuring that any person called to an inquiry would not seek to delay proceedings by going to court.
She insisted that it was “highly desirable” that the Oireachtas be in a position to investigate the banking collapse.
McGuinness said “the time has come when we need to know what happened on the night” of the bank guarantee in September 2008 and said his committee had completed the groundwork for such an inquiry.
Burton added that looking at the night of the guarantee itself would not be sufficient and indicated that politicians would need to examine the years leading up to the collapse of the country’s banking system.
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Allow immunity for whistle blowers. Or allow them anonymity. There are a lot of people sitting on information which would be vital for any enquiry but are being suppressed by some of the powers to be. The truth needs to come out.
Immunity would create a situation where those culpable would get off Scott free. Anonymity would be more appropriate in this case I think.
I’d hate to see a tribunal type situation where we spend hundreds of millions getting answers we already suspect to be true for nothing to be done and no justice served. I don’t know about you but I want justice for this. Those responsible have raped and plundered this country. And just like rape it will take at least generation to get over it.
Which crimes do you think were committed ? I’ve been asking for nearly five years – not one answer yet.
Treason. The authorities knew the risks they were taking were reckless. But still they took them. Why not if your pension is secure?
They didn’t know, actually, but even if they had, there is no offence known to Irish law in such recklessness. It certainly would not be treason. (Maybe we should make it so, but that would be for the future).
McGuinness should look at his own party who are putting immense pressure on their members and supporters who have positions of influence to block an effective inquiry.
Putting a FF TD in charge of the Public Accounts committee was an act of reckless stupidity and negligence. His party have the most to loose from an effective inquiry. FF’ers know that many of their party will end up in jail if the truth comes out.
@Fergus
Gross dereliction of duty……at the very least a sack able offence! It should start with the regulator……and go from there.
I agree that the sack is appropriate. But are you forgetting that the Regulator is gone, as are 84 out of the 86 top bankers in 2008 ?
That not enough for you ? Fine, but I doubt that there is a crime that you can find (you’re more than welcome to prove me wrong if you can). All that’s left is what Karl Deeter and I (with support from some others) have proposed in our Open Letter.
This civil servant would gladly welcome an inquiry!
Daisy,
I see you’re in the forestry dept. You’re not selling our forests, are you?
No disrespect Daisy, but you probably ain’t at the top of the pile
Time for the judges to be given black wigs and for carpenters to build gallows in City squares.
Not one banker or civil servant ever apologized.
I have no sympathy for them.
Which crimes ?
Corruption and fraud (illegal) hand in hand with negligence and lack of accountability (not illegal, but highly immoral).
Banks advising young people to source ‘gifts’ from parents.
Information on mortgage applications exaggerated to meet quotas.
Etc, etc
Lots of people say this. It’s not good enough.
To establish criminal offences, you have to provide evidence that on such-and-such a date, Mr X corruptly did Y or Ms A induced Mr B to enter into a disadvantageous transaction by deceit or other fraudulent means.
People have not done that. One must ask why not, but whatever the reason it is a fact.
Does it follow that there was *no* fraud or corruption ? No, there is always some going on in business life everywhere.
But to glibly assume & declare that it was rife, and to further glibly presume not only that but that it is the reason that our banks collapsed is to substitute delusion for thought.
If I am wrong, show me the evidence. Five years is a long time to wait.
Because their guilty back stabbing traitors!
I don’t want it either. It’d end up costing €100 million.
We all know what happened, we don’t need an over costly explainer.
troll much?
It looks like that we will have to rely on the findings of the Quinn family and other privateers to expose the truth.
Loud and angry is the new Vincent Dolan !
Inquiry is well overdue people should be held accountable for there actions
Lawyers lining up to run to the High/Supreme Courts to bounce any inquiry into legal limbo for years .
Lots of people making serious allegations about wrongdoing . Why not invite all those claiming knowledge of corruption etc to document their claims and pass them on to a trusted third party in a very public manner eg at a gathering in the city centre and make plenty of copies.
If there is a difficulty around this then it begs the question as to the accuracy of the allegations.
Any overt /covert threat to any whistleblower should be spread on social media and announced at another public gathering .
The normal channels for getting justice just ain’t working or are being corrupted. So it’s time to go outside these and in a lawful way to ‘out’ the wrongdoers.
The banks have been committing fraud, (a criminal jailable offence) and deceiving the public for a long time. They give loans but banks never have sufficient funds to pay loans and deposits-it’s a scam. This should be an independent inquiry held by credible people and people have to go to jail for this. Iran sentenced 4 bankers to death last year for fraud.
If you have evidence of fraud, I will help you privately prosecute those responsible. I have been offering to do so for nearly five years now, but have had not even one taker. I don’t believe that there was a significant amount of fraud, but if you do, you’ve left it very late to say so.
shut up will you fergus the reason nothing is being done is that the laws protect the decisions of bankers backed by politicians selling to developers who were bribing council officials to rezone land, because if the truth came out the whole lot would be in trouble and since politicians help change laws they are unlikely to change one that will spoil the party and since bankers have so much on them that is unlikely to happen you sound like those redneck republicans in the usa who will tell you they don’t want to help the spongers who have lost their jobs and ignoring the fact that most industries now have their manufacturing plants in China so they and their shareholders are happy (minority) and the rest of America end up unemployed through no fault of their own(majority)evidence of fraud!!no offence in irish law !!so they wear bullet proof nappies so they dont get shot in the ass ,your arguments are about as useful as tits on a bull,you sound like a fat smug ff’er stop telling us that there is nothing we can do we know that they are protected by law doesnt make it right do something about it yourself you smug idiot instead of spouting your stupid useless rhetoric
“Shut up”, he explained
John Mc Guinness’s PAC is the vehicle to investigate the banking crisis. The culprits are 1) Political Leaders 2) Senior Civil Servants 3) Bankers. All three are overpaid and effectively have jobs for life when fat pensions are taken account of.
The must be a) Transparency b) Accountability c) Punishment of a level that acts as a future deterrent. Neither a) b) or c) has happened with regard to the 2nd mobile phone licence and that’s nearly 20 years ago. We need to get real with White Collar Crime and “Legal Corruption”.
There can never be transparency in this country when the PAC is chaired by or composed of politicians …of any colour!
Who’d be better ?
FF McGuinness to be in charge of investigating the corrupt relationship between his party and his parties key donors and how they conspired to break the country to protect each other.
Anglo Irish bank was FF’s private credit union.
So basically he wants to “inquire” into tthe matter himself, cover it up and bury it so deep that it never sees the light of day again!
Ff trying with more bullshit to try to win the people over again. It was those buffoons (to keep the language polite) that allowed it all to happen in the first place. Who are they really trying to fool? ?
They are going to let McGuinness run with the inquiry in public but will fight it tooth and nail in private. People will be warned about being remembered when FF are back in power and punished accordingly.
Some will receive more direct approaches to shut up talking about the party, its members and their dealings with corrupt developers. A few shots over the car in Offally being a case in point here.
Someone call the guards, we’ve been robbed!!
well im shocked…
Criminality is not the issue.
We need to know about the how, when, what, why and who of this debacle and how can something like this be prevented from happening.
Ireland’s banking collapse was special in scale and quality. It was not due to sub prime mortgages, CDOs, failure to price derivative risk.
Why did this unhealthy alliance of the CBI, the Banks, the politicians and the developers arise? Who benefited? Why did the CBI not bark?
There was nothing strange or complex or unfathomable about the Banking crisis. It was a case of massive over lending and it created an asset bubble of an extreme scale.
I’ve read Nyberg, Regling-Watson and Honohan but I still can’t figure out why what happened, happened, why it was let happen, despite all the prior warnings, and who tamed the CBI. I want to know more about the IBF’s role.
Like most Irish people, I am paying a massive amount for this debacle which has caused irremediable damage to this nation. I want to know exactly why and trying to distract by challenging what crime was committed is typical obfuscation.
Well said.
Actually, I think that the reports ending in Nyberg do contain the answer, unsatisfying though it is.
Hhhmmmmm one wonders why ?
Not so sure I’d want an inquiry either.
Bankers / politicians saying that they dont want one reminds me of when, as kids on the street caught by the “enemy” gang the smart among us would plead not to be given a particular “punishment” that we actually least feared.
An inquiry never locked anyone up before and makes it less likely that proper legal proceedings will follow – except for those dumb enough not to co-operate and go along with the lesser of two evils.
If I’m ever guilty of a crime, I’ll pay people to shout for an inquiry.
Burn them
derpa derp derp
Quick look over there!!!
There’s a strike at BE!!!
..now we can go back to forgetting these bankers & Senior Civil Gits brought this country to its knees!
I’d like an inquiry into Fianna Fáil -
Fap nation
Of course, if you want to actually *do* something useful about this, you could add your name to the Open Letter published by Karl Deeter and me http://bit.ly/10IdNbN. Elsewhere on the same website, there is plenty of other good stuff concerning this general topic and much else.
But I would say that
So a FF man will head the enquiry! Lol Wtf
“SOME” !!! Surely not ! You must meant to have written “NONE” !!
Cannot imagine why… aren’t all civil servants above board and totally clean?
Off course they don,t want an inquiry , same reason the republicans and cia in america don,t want an inquiry into 9/11,.
.
In it up to their necks thats why.
John McGuinness forgot to mention the past and present TD’s who don’t want an open and frank banking inquiry.
Why would that be?
Anything to do with he himself being a TD, and knowing it will never happen?
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