No ‘Madoff moment’ for us

YOUR columnist Ivan Yates gets directly to the heart of the matter — ‘Lack of accountability is the real scandal in Anglo Irish fiasco’ (November 5).

Spin has pointed opinion in every direction but that of the elephant in the room: how is it that the bankers who brought this country to its knees and for whose recklessness (I choose this word carefully) the public are being made to pay are still walking around unchallenged by the law, unquestioned, worried more about their golf handicap than legal retribution?

I have seen lack of accountability in every walk of Irish public life, from the arts to local government to national government and one cannot be surprised to see it in banking.

But that does not mean it is acceptable. Nor should we satisfy ourselves that the Government will strive, in our interests, to put these people under judicial scrutiny in a courtroom.

There will be no “Madoff moment” for the Irish people. One can be almost certain that the people who wrecked this country will be given charge of it in some other capacity once the smoke clears.

There is a very strong notion abroad that they are being protected by all manner of Jesuitical legal and political argument. There is none of them too big to fail.

Perhaps a march should be organised solely to point up the failure of government to bring these people to book?

We should make sure that, in all our demonstrations, protests and campaigns, we keep to the fore the kinds of things Ivan Yates so clearly points out.

Forget the spin, the figures, the prognoses — few things would hearten the morale of the Irish people at this point like seeing some of those who should be made to pay being made to pay.

Congratulations to Ivan Yates.

Fred Johnston

Carn Árd

Circular Road

Galway