President blasts ‘irresponsible’ bankers over crisis

PRESIDENT Mary McAleese has lambasted irresponsible and ethically lax bankers and business people for causing the country economic and psychological devastation.

In a strongly worded rebuke, Mrs McAleese also said people were right to be angry and it was understandable that they no longer trusted financial institutions.

However, she said it was essential that the public regain trust or else risk stifling the entrepreneurship and economic development needed to get the country back on track.

Mrs McAleese was speaking at the European Insurance Forum in Dublin yesterday when she addressed the recent failures in banking and business.

“The vicious cycle of irresponsible risk-taking in the world of banking and entrepreneurship, underpinned as it has been by a breakdown not simply in economics but in ethics, has had devastating economic and psychological consequences locally and globally.

“People are rightly indignant at how vulnerable they have been made by individuals and institutions that showed a phenomenal lack of sensitivity to the broad based social impact of their follies. Now people are spending averse and lacking in trust in the judgment of others whose credibility they once regarded highly.

“These are perfectly understandable responses yet along with wiser judgment, higher ethics, stronger controls and much more intuitive economic weather vanes we need to be careful that an overly cautious approach does not strangle the sustainable and sensible economic development we need to get back on the path to growth and jobs,” she said.

The president said the insurance industry, and the “comfort blanket” it offered, was vital to countering uncertainty.

She told delegates: “You supply some of the ballast that allows us to manage risk confidently and intelligently so that everyday life and commerce can function effectively, so that we can plan again and act again...”

Mrs McAleese praised the success of the industry in Ireland, in particular the international insurance and reinsurance sector, but she said there was no room for complacency.

“Our job now is to retain Ireland’s reputation as an attractive place for such companies to operate – in particular through a robust and credible regulatory regime, a regime that is proportionate and appropriate, balancing the imperatives of effective, thoughtful protection for clients and consumers and the broader economy, with an operational framework conducive to doing business.”

She was speaking before yesterday’s High Court decision to appoint two joint provisional administrators to Quinn Insurance.