Damage by bankers 'comparable only to Cromwell'
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Monday March 02 2009
The damage done to the country by bankers was comparable only to Cromwell, Transport Minister Noel Dempsey has said.
The minister also attacked Fine Gael for its "smear" that Fianna Fail cabinet ministers encouraged wrongdoing in the banks.
Introducing Taoiseach Brian Cowen to the Fianna Fail Ard Fheis, Mr Dempsey said it was one of the most important nights in Fianna Fail's history because of the human impact of the collapse of the global economy.
Repeating his view that the banks' bad practice was "economic treason", Mr Dempsey said Ireland has been swamped by a global disaster and this was greatly complicated, on the home front, by economic treason.
"In common with people the length and breadth of this country, I welcome the garda action earlier this week. I welcome action against people who have used the Irish economy as their own personal piggy bank," he said.
The minister said the problem was one of reckless endangerment of a nation.
"That's not an exaggeration. That's not over the top. The fact is that a small number of sophisticated money manipulators endangered the economic survival of our people. There's no parallel in history for the damage they have done to this nation -- except perhaps Cromwell.
Gain
"And even Cromwell was motivated by reasons other than personal gain," he added.
Mr Dempsey said Fianna Fail was the party of Government and had been in power for the majority of the past quarter century, and was not "guilty by association" with bankers.
"Knowing someone does not mean you share their vices or their practices. Knowing a banker or a developer does not mean you tolerate bad practice.
"I don't know about you, but I've had it up to here with cheapshot assumptions about members of this party," he said.
Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny had questioned recently if a cabinet minister had knowledge of the actions of the Anglo Irish Bank 'golden circle', which borrowed €451m to buy shares in the bank.
In comments clearly directed at Mr Kenny, the minister said he categorically refuted the "unsupported rumours that Fianna Fail approved of bank directors giving themselves huge loans or breaking any rules".
"The smear that, if we had known, we'd have approved of such practices, is precisely that -- a smear," he added.
- Fionnan Sheahan
