Banking Inquiry hears of ‘group think’ attitude to boom

Irish politics must undergo urgent reform to address a culture of “secrecy”, unfair weighting of rules in favour of government, and “cronyism” links to private interest groups if a repeat of the economic crash is to be avoided.

Two leading political science academics made the claims during the latest meeting of the Oireachtas banking inquiry yesterday, insisting the weakness of the government contributed to the 2008 crash.

UCD academics Professor Niamh Hardiman and Professor David Farrell said the reality is a “group think” attitude to the boom allowed “cronyism or even crony capitalism” links between some politicians, lobbyists for sectors and private companies to go unchecked.

Prof Hardiman said as a result, the small number of dissenting voices were “criticised or marginalised”, while the wider problem was not highlighted properly because existing rules left the Oireachtas with a “weak capacity to subject the executive [government] to scrutiny”.

Prof Farrell said even if the problems were noticed in time, the Oireachtas “lacked the political will to use what powers it did have” due to what were colloquially referred to as “cultural shortcomings”.

He said politicians “took their eyes off the ball” during the boom years, and that despite reform promises, the issue is “no different today”.

While the expert said a secretly-elected ceann comhairle and greater transparency on budgetary matters are needed, it would be a mistake to think “one or two magic bullets” will fix the system.

The cross-party group’s meetings will continue with a discussion with academic and author Elaine Byrne this morning.