Lenihan urged to tackle ‘bank bandits’

FINANCE Minister Brian Lenihan was called upon last night to “stop hiding behind the lawyers” and bring to account those responsible for the banking crisis.

Labour deputy leader Joan Burton said public patience was wearing thin with the Government’s failure to deal with “bank bandits”.

Ms Burton said it was more than a year since the Government announced a guarantee scheme to rescue the banks and more than nine months since evidence emerged of serious irregularities at Anglo Irish Bank.

“It seems that at a very minimum there were breaches of company law, and there may well also have been criminal offences committed, yet not a single one of those involved has been brought to account,” she said. “In other countries bank bandits go to jail. In this country they continue to enjoy perks and privileges. Minister Lenihan needs to stop hiding behind the lawyers and honour the commitments made last year that those responsible for the banking debacle are brought to account.”

Her comments came amid reports that former head of Anglo Irish Sean Fitzpatrick is failing to pay interest on €106m of loans he owes to the bank.

The Department of Finance yesterday insisted that the terms of these loans could not be changed without Mr Lenihan’s permission and that the minister intended to pursue every cent of the money owed.

Fine Gael TD Leo Varadkar called on Mr Lenihan to spell out exactly how he would pursue the debts.

“This is yet another example of how the taxpayer is still being screwed over by bank executives while the Fianna Fáil Government flounders,” Mr Varadkar said. “Brian Lenihan had claimed he would pursue ‘every cent’ owed by Mr Fitzpatrick to Anglo Irish, but we haven’t seen any results to date. We also don’t have clear details of what these loans were secured against. This is taxpayers’ money. It’s time for Brian Lenihan to clearly spell out how he plans to recover these outstanding loans.”

In its statement, the Department of Finance said: “The minister has made clear that Anglo Irish Bank as a nationalised bank will pursue all of its loans that are in arrears fully. This will be done through the courts if necessary.”

“To date, the Garda investigation has collected several hundred statements on the issues in Anglo Irish Bank.”