Out in the cold

THE first act of a new government must be to pass a bill excluding from current and future public office all those who were members of the FF-PD cabinet in the 2003-2007 period.

Before he became governor of the Central Bank, Prof Patrick Honohan, said the “Irish banking system had been, in effect, on a life support system since September 2008. Complacency resulted in the banks fuelling the late stage of an obvious construction bubble with massive foreign borrowing, leaving them exposed to solvency and liquidity risks which in past times would have been inconceivable. At the end of 2003, net indebtedness of Irish banks to the rest of the world was just 10% of GDP. By early 2008 that had jumped to over 60%”.

The bill should also provide for similar exclusion of all those directors of the Central Bank and Financial Services Authority of Ireland over the same period. If this is not done the problem is sure to recur.

Paddy Healy

Griffith Court

Fairview

Dublin 3