Editorial: Anglo tapes scandal – buck stops with Taoiseach

For all the outrage expressed by the present government at the content of the Anglo tapes, they have done precious little to bring the bankers to account.

THE Anglo Irish Bank tapes reveal bankers on obscene salaries and bonuses, sniggering about actions that ultimately bankrupted the state. They have appalled people across this country. This demands an immediate and appropriate response from the Fine Gael/Labour Government.

It’s clear from the Anglo tapes that David Drumm and others in Anglo were meeting senior ministers. Fianna Fáil leader Mícheál Martin and others in his frontbench who were Cabinet ministers at the time could clear this up quickly enough by telling us what they know now.

Despite the objections of Sinn Fein, these banking elites were rewarded by the Government. Twenty-two of the top 50 executives were left in place. Some of them were given €175,000-a-year jobs. David Drumm, who featured in the tapes, was given a bonus of nearly €700,000 only three months later.

While the Fianna Fáil-led government of the day allowed this to happen, Fine Gael and the Labour Party continued to protect these bankers and their high-paid jobs.

For all the outrage expressed by the present government at the content of the Anglo tapes, they have done precious little to bring the bankers to account.

Those responsible for the financial scandal and everything that has resulted in the collapse of the economy — huge unemployment, unprecedented emigration and thousands of families struggling to survive — must be held to account for their actions.

Five years on from this shameful episode, not one banker has seen the inside of a prison cell. Yet ordinary citizens know that if they don’t pay their TV licence or don’t pay a fine they face prosecution.

The Irish people are now demanding action like never before. The buck stops with the Taoiseach.