Fingleton reassured state everything was fine during his watch

IN A less civilised country, Michael Fingleton might be “doing time”, but in lawful Ireland — where rights seem paramount compared to responsibilities — the former boss of the now defunct Irish Nationwide Building Society gets to watch time instead on a €11,000 time-piece presented to him as a going away present in 2009 by his fellow directors.

The watch — details of which were revealed this week as the state admitted it has failed to get it back — is only a very small part of it. Fingleton continues to live off the proceeds of an enormous €27 million pension pot provided by his old employer and, despite repeated requests, he has never returned a €1m bonus for his “efforts” in the last year of his disastrous stewardship of the society, and paid in 2009, even though the financial institution he gambled with has gone bust and has had to be closed. In a court statement earlier this year, he estimated his 2010 income at around €400,000 (although he appears to be struggling to meet some debts: his pension fund may have been badly invested in bank shares and property and be worth just a fraction of what they were, and he has other property investments that have led to legal dispute).

Let’s remind ourselves of what Fingleton has cost all of us — and let’s do it often. The September 2008 government decided to include INBS under the bank guarantee of that month when it should have been allowed to fail: most of its depositors had small amounts invested, usually of about €20,000 in size, in an attempt to qualify for free shares should the society be sold. They would have been covered comfortably by the existing state guarantee on deposits of up to €100,000, had the society been allowed to fail. Instead, the state has had to provide €5.4 billion in cash to cover the losses Fingleton incurred because of his stupid lending. It may be a fraction of what Anglo and AIB has cost us but it is remarkable and back-breaking nonetheless.