Our corrupt culture delivered ‘socialism for the rich

THE news that the Cork-Swansea ferry may be back this summer is certainly a boost for Cork and Kerry, and great credit is due to all those who have campaigned so hard to restore this vital service to our region.

In the light of events like our banking crisis, however, it might be a bit like being thrown a rubber ring in a tsunami. This is a crisis ‘made in Ireland’, created by the corrupt culture endemic in our financial system and encouraged by successive Fianna Fáil governments out of their love affair with greedy property developers.

That is why our ‘world class’ bankers can get away with almost single-handedly destroying our ‘world class’ economy without ever being noticed by our ‘world class’ auditors and the financial regulator.

Never in our history has there been a greater need for a State bank to act as a reliable and committed guarantor of a sustainable and viable indigenous economy. We need a bank that can be a supplier of venture capital for Irish-owned firms, run funding for environment-related business, alternative energy, retro-fitting and building insulation technologies. We need a bank that offers funds to business start-ups and to families looking for low-cost housing loans.

What we don’t need is a bank that only funds hotels in Mayfair, condos in Ballsbridge or golf courses in Portugal, but cannot take a risk on the Irish economy.

Unfortunately, the recently-announced nationalisation of Anglo Irish Bank does not represent nationalisation in the public interest, but rather a bailout for the former patrons of the now-defunct Fianna Fáil Galway races tent.

With this new bill, the Irish taxpayer is now set to take on a €73 billion loan book, on top of the €10bn botched recapitalisation plan and the €440bn guarantee scheme, without being given any information as to what it is all about. We do know however that our taxes are being used to buy a hopeless and poisoned banking institution. Anglo Irish Bank is Ireland’s Enron but, unlike the US, there will be no criminal investigation and nobody will be brought to justice. The revelations about the hidden deeds of Seán FitzPatrick and others have exposed the sharp practices within Irish banking.

It is beyond belief that any man could behave as Mr FitzPatrick did and still remain at liberty.

When Government ministers are questioned about their handling of the banking crisis, they accuse people of putting the national interest at risk, but it is they who are playing fast and loose with the very foundations of our democratic State. The public have a right to question ‘socialism for the rich’ where profit is privatised and debt is nationalised, and they have a right also to know if the Government is going to bankrupt the State.

Sam Simpson

Little Glebe

Durrus

Co Cork