|
|
 |
You are > Home > Has nobody the sense to axe Anglo?
|
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Has nobody the sense to axe Anglo?
By James Laffey
WHILE Fine Gael strives to put some ideological distance between itself and Fianna Fáil, its former party leaders continue to act as very effective cheerleaders for an utterly discredited Government.
First we had Garret Fitzgerald in the months before Christmas arguing against a General Election on the grounds that it would destablise the country (can we possibly become more destablisised?) and now we have Alan Dukes becoming an apologist for AngloIrish Bank.
Dukes will soon take up a new position as chairman of the board of Anglo-Irish, a bank that exists in name only. He was interviewed on RTÉ last week and it has to be said that senior Government ministers could not have performed more admirably in defending a banking strategy that is unravelling at a faster rate than the depreciation of the assets it is attempting to protect.
Most sane economic observers, including many who predicted the demise of the Celtic Tiger, have called for the winding up of Anglo Irish Bank on the grounds it is a zombie financial institution that is swallowing up vast swathes of taxpayers’ money. Alan Dukes has a different opinion. Well, of course he does, he is the chairman of this wretched enterprise!
Mr Dukes believes it is essential we keep Anglo-Irish alive because it will provide competition in the banking sector in the years to come.
The import of his argument is that Anglo provided competition at some stage in the past, although there is ample evidence to suggest otherwise.
Anglo was never a bank for the ordinary citizen; it was a bank for the high-flyers who gambled away the nation’s future in the most profligate manner imaginable.
Indeed, much of the economic woes of our other banks can be traced back to Anglo, whose record profits and soaring share prices forced sober institutions like AIB and Bank of Ireland to reconsider their more conservative lending policies.
Therefore, the notion that Anglo will suddenly become the workingman’s bank is as nonsensical as it is disingenuous. Anglo is certainly not a real bank now but it is debatable if it ever was a real bank. It could be argued that Anglo was little more than a plaything for Seanie Fitzpatrick and his buddies.
The problem now is that Anglo has become an albatross around the necks of future Irish generations. Mr Dukes believes it would cost €20 billion to wind up the bank so, therefore, it makes more sense to keep it alive on the premise that at some point in the future it will become a viable entity. He has even suggested it might be floated on the stock market and that the State may ultimately make a profit on its original investment. He says all these things with a straight face, which just goes to prove that politicians have an acute sense of irony.
I believe Anglo should be closed down if only to draw a line under an appalling period in Irish history. The name of the bank will forever be associated with the profligacy of the Celtic Tiger era and the nod-and-wink culture that has ultimately brought Ireland to the precipice of economic insolvency. Anglo-Irish Bank is a microcosm of the political and financial corruption that has been endemic in Irish society for several decades and the quicker we see the back of it the better for everyone. €20 billion is actually a small price to pay for bringing the guillotine down on this shameful financial institution.
Main News Page |
Previous Page
|
|
|
|
Facebook
