Ratings agencies ‘put people in post-modern prison’

President Michael D Higgins has accused international ratings agencies of putting Irish people in a “post-modern prison”.

Referring to the money agencies being a “panopticon — a prison designed so all inmates can be observed from a central point — President Higgins warned ratings agencies were undermining democracy.

“The disproportionate influence of rating agencies — our post-modern panopticon — in informing European policy responses to the crisis is undermining the role of citizens in governing our democracies,” the President told UCD’s European Institute.