Time to get white collar crooks

SINCE 1923, when she gained her independence, Old Mother Macree’s economic train has hit the buffers on a number of occasions and the seriousness of the crash depended on the type of cargo that she was carrying.

I am not conversant with the information relating to those crashes except that I can guess that they occurred before Old Mother Macree became a prisoner of the EU and she managed to dig her own way back to recovery. There is an old adage that “too many cooks spoil the broth” and this time we are in an almighty mess.

We can ignore the 1929 crash as she was only a few years in business and had little time to build a reserve fund. We could learn from past mistakes and how she coped with the crashes between 1929 and the present one. A good investigative journalist with access to the archives could ascertain what caused those crashes and their effect on the general economy.

There were no massive property booms in those times and we can with a certain degree of impunity point the finger at stupidity and greed as the cause of the present mess. The fallacy of being a very educated and intelligent nation has been torn to shreds. Unfortunately not all of us were stupid, there were some who were clever in a devious way and took advantage of the naivety of the rest of us.

The saga of the exploits of the “Golden Circle” who plundered the assets of Anglo Irish Bank is slowly unfolding under duress. Why are the laws of our land in relation to white collar crime so timid and tepid that the alleged culprits are still enjoying their freedom and able to endeavour to set up businesses in distant lands?

Our legal system’s efforts to bring alleged culprits to face trial is falling short and is following in the footsteps of our ecclesiastical hierarchy who proclaim that every accused cleric is innocent until proven guilty and use every trick in the book to delay or prevent him facing trial.

We need a swift but fair justice system and to stop sweeping crimes under the carpet.

Richard Prendergast

Rathcormac

Co Cork