Buck needs to stop at the top, not the taxpayer

There is an old adage that says that “all political careers end in failure”.

The truth of that adage must be in what you consider failure. Take Brian Cowen, our erstwhile former taoiseach and indeed take his predecessor, Bertie Ahern. Bertie jumped before he was pushed. Unfortunately for Brian, he was well and truly pushed.

Yes, they both made an absolute mess of the economy, one worse than the other. They were majorly responsible for the severity of the recession and the impact on this economy, even if not for the recession itself which, given the excesses of the financial services sector worldwide, nobody could have stopped.

So yes, we can agree that they ultimately failed as politicians. However, if we measure the implications of that failure on themselves, they did not fail. They and many others like them are on massive pensions, which in their case come from the much depleted public purse.

Indeed, Bertie is also reputed to be making as much again on the speakingcircuit, although what he is speaking knowledgeably about that might be in demand is hard to fathom.

Unfortunately though, their failures did not just end there. Soft-touch regulation and the general lack of enforcement of regulation on the financial services sector resulted in the virtual collapse of our economy and it could also be argued that it triggered the collapse of entities such as the Quinn Group. For the rest of us, there were also many further financial implications, including the decimation of our pensions.

A 2% levy on home, motor and commercial insurance was imposed by government to cover the failure of the Quinn Group. It has been estimated that the cost of this failure alone will last for at least 20 years.

Now it appears that Government is considering another levy of 1% on our insurance policies to cover those who have suffered flood damage but who cannot get flood insurance. Enda Kenny has refused to rule it out on the basis that the insurance companies are not cooperating. The mind boggles.

How or why did people build houses in areas prone to flooding? After all, in most areas locals can tell you which areas flood and which do not. Those houses required planning. Planning permission is granted by another arm of the state, county councils. So why should I or you or indeed any of us have to pay ad finitum for the sins of others?

Government anticipated that insurance companies might need a bailout at when it set up the Insurance Compensation Fund way back in 1964. A levy was introduced in 1973 to save PMPA insurance company from total collapse.

An additional levy was subsequently imposed because of the failure of Allied Irish Bank’s insurance arm, the Insurance Corporation of Ireland, which collapsed around this time 29 years ago. If this levy is now introduced, the levy element of your insurance will stand at 6%, and given the rising cost of insurance, that is no small amount.

The easy answer when something goes wrong is to gouge the taxpayer, or in this case, those paying for motoring or home insurance. The industry is wealthy but no real demands are made on it.

On previous occasions when levies were imposed on policyholders, at least we had the knowledge that companies were paying tax of 30% and sometimes more on profits. Now following EU intervention they only pay 12.5%. It is time these guys and the bankers started paying their way.

Politicians in power are never responsible for their mistakes. We the citizens must pick up the tab. As long as there is no realfinancial cost to failing as a member of the government, politicians will continue to take unnecessary risks that suit their own agendas but which cost us a fine penny. It’s really time that the buck did stop at the top.