Sleaze claims have to be investigated - A litany of accusation for Nama

PROPERTY developer Johnny Ronan was right to apologise yesterday for his injudicious use of the phrase Arbeit Macht Frei (work will set you free) in his statement to the Oireachtas Banking Inquiry. 

There can hardly be a context for using that infamous phrase, one exclusively associated with one of the greatest crimes in human history, outside the tragic story of of the great, barbaric savagery inflicted on the people of Europe in the last world war. Its association with an ideology so repugnant, so amoral, makes it redundant in another context.

Former justice minister Alan Shatter was right to ask that it be removed from the public record as it had been used so very unwisely and with such offence, even if unintended, to those who had lost relatives in the Holocaust. However, Mr Ronan’s misuse of the phrase — regretted he assures us and he must be given the benefit of the doubt — raises many issues for Nama and the Government in regard to how the agency has conducted its landmine-strewn business.