Economy in crisis - Bankers are now just a sad sideshow

YESTERDAY’S fraud squad raid on Anglo Irish Bank offices in Dublin would have been greeted with a muted cheer, the kind that greets a losing team’s consolation try in the dying minutes of a 32-8 defeat at Lansdowne Road.

But for all that, it would have been a cheer that echoed right across the country if not through allsections of society.

At this stage, it might be a case of shutting the casino door long after the gamblers have bolted but it is nonetheless a hugely important development.

Even at this belated stage, we must dare to hope that the raid, carried out by the Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation working with the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement (ODCE), is more about substance than symbolism.

However, this morning we will happily settle for symbolism as it might — it just might — be the initial step towards making the first, faltering move towards rebuilding Ireland’s international reputation as a place where some sort of law and morality prevail in business matters.

The substance will certainly have to come later though and if Anglo Irish executives’ imperial arrogance influenced their culture of record keeping then it is just possible that the paper trail is sufficiently incautious to lead to a conclusion that would be greeted with a cheer that would drown out the celebrations following a Grand Slam winning try.

This is a high-risk game though. Imagine if, in time, prosecutions, much less convictions, are impossible. At that point it will be very difficult to fend off accusations of untouchable golden circles. In a divided and angry country those accusations are the last thing we need.

These events must nevertheless be kept in perspective.

No matter how cheering the prospect of dodgy bankers in the dock might seem they are but a passing, sad sideshow to our real and escalating problems.

Still our government prevaricates as its income collapses and they respond by borrowing e55 million a day. Still our union leaders argue over what is only the first of a bitter series of income cuts. Our deluded and badly led public service workers still imagine themselves targeted while private sector workers wonder if they will have a job to go to next week.

The bankers’ greed and amorality may lead them to a place never anticipated in an MBA career path but we should not be surprised if, in the fullness of time, our Government’s snail’s pace decision-making and pathetic inability to act as elected leaders has a far greater and longer lasting impact on this society than even the bankers’ greed and disregard for the rest of us.