Former finance ministers were ‘intoxicated joyriders’

THREE former Fianna Fáil finance ministers were yesterday branded “intoxicated joyriders” for their role in incentivising speculative building and borrowing.

Speaking at the annual Michael Collins commemoration at Béal na mBláth in west Cork, founding president of the University of Limerick Dr Ed Walsh said Bertie Ahern, Charlie McCreevy and Brian Cowen had permitted uncontrolled expansion of the public sector, doubling the cost to the taxpayer.

“For electoral gain, they dislocated central government by attempting to dispatch parts of it to favoured regional constituencies,” Dr Walsh said.

“They eroded the tax base, appointed people of doubtful competence to public bodies, and ceded control in key areas to social partnership, resulting in public sector wages rising to the highest levels in the EU.

“They pursued votes and won an election by increasing social welfare payments to levels three times greater than those in Northern Ireland; making Irish jobseeker’s allowance greater than the average industrial wage in most of the EU accession states,” he told the crowd at Béal na mBláth.

Dr Walsh also criticised the role of the euro in Ireland’s economic woes: “Ireland entered and lost control of the two vital monetary instruments: setting interest rates and setting currency exchange rates.”

Dr Walsh said Michael Collins, were he around today, would put the fear of God into those who abuse their secure positions and fail to put Ireland first at this time of crisis.