FT: Lenihan worst finance minister in Europe

BRIAN LENIHAN was yesterday named the worst finance minister in Europe in an annual ranking by an influential financial paper.

The accolade, bestowed on the 51-year-old by the Financial Times European Finance Minister Rankings 2010, came as recognition of Mr Lenihan’s record-breaking economic “achievements”, which include being in charge of the biggest budget deficit in EU history and delivering the most costly per capita bank bailout ever.

It is the second year in a row the Financial Times has placed Mr Lenihan bottom of the 19 European finance ministers studied. The paper said Mr Lenihan who, prior to being appointed Minister for Finance by Brian Cowen in 2008 had no experience in economic affairs, was overcome by the scale of Ireland’s crisis and failed to rescue the banks, despite the massive taxpayer bailout.

A panel of renowned economic judges consider ministers individually on political ability, economic performance and credibility in the international markets, and give an overall score.

Mr Lenihan was ranked second worst on both economic performance and credibility. He fared only slightly better on political ability, as third worst, but his overall score put him at the bottom of the table.

One of the judges, Jacques Delpla, a member of the Conseil d’Analyse Economique in Paris, said Mr Lenihan had not thought through the €440 billion plus bank guarantee scheme.

“In my view, the worst minister is Ireland’s Brian Lenihan,” he said. “He took the decision to guarantee his country’s banks in September 2010 without thinking through the consequences.

“The effects of that decision on the country’s finances have become evident this year.”

Germany’s Wolfgang Schaeuble topped the poll, with Poland’s Jacek Rostowski in second place ahead of last year’s winner, France’s Christine Lagarde.

Britain’s newcomer George Osborne ranked sixth, scoring highly for his political skill in “pushing through a bold fiscal austerity plan”.

George Papaconstantinou of Greece came in eighth after being deemed to have shown panache in his handling of his country’s crisis.

The “award” will be a personal blow to Mr Lenihan who in has made much of “international support” for his economic decision the Financial Times judges deemed “disastrous” to Ireland.