Renua vows law reform to jail ‘reckless’ bankers

One of the newly-established opposition parties has vowed to jail “reckless” bank directors for up to 10 years, pay whistle-blowers a percentage of any money retrieved and create a special corporate criminal court to tackle white-collar crime policies — if elected to government.

Renua Ireland said it will introduce the raft of potential legal changes if it forms any part of a future coalition, arguing that current laws are failing to do enough to ward off the risk of further Celtic Tiger-style era financial scandals.

Speaking at the launch of the white collar crimes’ policies at Leinster House, in a week which has seen growing public frustration that the bank inquiry is struggling to uncover what caused the crash, party leader Lucinda Creighton said such proposed measures are needed to get tough on the financial sector.

The former Fine Gael TD claimed, despite the “democratic revolution” of the 2011 general election, any changes in tackling corporate crime have been “cosmetic” — meaning drastic additions to the law are now needed to ensure those who are guilty are brought to justice.

Under a 10-point plan outlined yesterday, the former Government TD said her party will introduce laws based on UK and Australian legislation to jail managers and directors of financial institutions for up to 10 years if the firms are involved in “reckless” or illegal lending.

She said the use of ignorance of the day-to-day running of firms will no longer be allowed to be used as a defence, while the “white-collar culture of mitigation” if someone is of “previous good character” will be “erased” as most people in these positions will be able to put forward clean CVs and track records.

Ms Creighton said she will also push for a new corporate criminal court similar to the civil criminal court to be established if her party is elected to government, but did not put any figure on how much such a system change would cost.

Controversially, her party’s plans also include the possibility of paying whistle-blowers a percentage of any money retrieved or saved as a result of the information they have provided — a move that has proven successful in the US, but is fraught with legal claims it could create biased sources.

Speaking at the launch of the policy plan yesterday, Ms Creighton said the moves are needed because any confidence in the transparency of the financial sector has been “eroded” as a result of the crash:

“All of these changes combined will have a dramatic effect in terms of accountability, in terms of responsibility, and ensuring that we change and fundamentally reform the corporate reform in this country.

“Those who behave in a reckless fashion or fraudulently will face the full rigour of the law, something that we can safely say has not happened since the collapse of our banking system in the past.”

Meanwhile, the banking inquiry remains in discussions over whether to allow ex-Anglo chief executive David Drumm to give evidence by video-link from the US. There are fears, allowing him to do so could prejudice legal proceedings.

Concern also continues over whether the inquiry will be able to uncover what caused the crash.