93% believe that no banker will be jailed over crisis
A staggering 93% of farmers said they had no faith in the justice system’s ability to jail anyone over the crisis.
The view was more or less equally shared by men and women, with older farmers more pessimistic than their younger counterparts.
For example, while 99% of all farmers over the age of 65 felt that nobody would be jailed over the crisis, this figure fell to 86% for farmers under the age of 35.
The view was most strongly held by Sinn Féin and independent voters, all of whom felt nobody would be jailed.
They were followed by Fianna Fáil voters at 95%, Fine Gael voters at 91%, and Labour voters at 89%.
Earlier this month, it was revealed that the DPP had granted former Anglo Irish Bank senior executive Matt Moran immunity from prosecution arising out of any criminal investigations into the bank.
Mr Moran was the chief financial officer at the failed bank.
The immunity agreement was reportedly granted around two years ago, before charges were brought against three former workers at Anglo Irish Bank.
The trial of Anglo’s former chairman Seán FitzPatrick, finance director Willie McAteer, and senior executive Pat Whelan is scheduled to begin in January.
The overwhelmingly negative view of the State’s ability or willingness to ensure that people are held to account for the banking crisis largely mirrors the vote of no confidence given by farmers to politicians.
Along with having little faith in the justice system on the issue of the banking collapse, 97% of farmers stated that politicians were overpaid and ineffective. Some 88% strongly agreed with this view.
Just 2% of farmers surveyed said they slightly disagreed with this view, while not one single farmer strongly disagreed in any of the eight farming regions surveyed.
