FF happy to blame bankers and builders

OF course it suits the Fianna Fáil agenda to encourage the rush to blame the bankers and builders for the mess Ireland is now in. Anything to shift the blame from where it really lies.

The only reason bankers and builders got away with what they did was because the laws and regulations which would have kept them in check and held them to account are so watered down they are in effect meaningless.

The only way that happened was because FF politicians watered down those regulations. Of course they had no choice but to agree to the demands of the bankers and builders given how those same politicians’ honesty was already compromised from having accepted the “digout”.

It was either agree to the demands or be exposed as a fraud. For FF politicians it’s always easier to say yes thanto do the right thing.

This is the 30th anniversary of FF electing Charles Haughey as its leader. The consequences of that choice have ultimately led the country to the sorry state it now finds itself in. That choice created a generation of politicians which includes Bertie Ahern and every single one of the present FF parliamentary party, of whom it is impossible to believe any has the intellectual ability, or even the moral depth, to provide the solutions Ireland now needs to clear up this mess.

It’s ironic, if not slightly tragic, that if Fine Gael were in government there would be no question of anyone asking FF to commit political hara-kiri and agree to a Tallaght Strategy. Because FF would never put the national interest above its party interest.

Wouldn’t it be easier if FF were honest in the first place rather than trying to lay a guilt trip on FG for not sacrificing itself to keep FF in power — again?

Those who have voted for FF need to grow up and face responsibility for what their vote has done. They need to make the mental link between voting for that party and the corruption which has taken root in all areas of life from corporate Ireland to the weakening of political impartiality in the civil service.

If there is any silver lining to this mess it might be that, after 80 years, the back of FF is broken on this sea of its own corruption.

A few years of recession might just be a price worth paying to come out the other side with an honest political system not compromised to any vested interest and which can use the wealth created by Irish people for the benefit of all Irish people and not just the golden circle who bankroll FF politicians.

Desmond FitzGerald

Grosvenor Court

Wharf Lane

Canary Wharf

London