A nod is as good as a wink to cornered banker or blind regulator

SKETCH:NUDGE, NUDGE.

Wink, wink.

Say no more. Say. No. More.

And that’s where the Government stands on the Anglo Irish Bank issue at the moment.

Oh, it was real men of the world stuff in the Dáil yesterday, when Brian Cowen and Eamon Gilmore indulged in strange exchanges about the circumstances surrounding a €7 billion transaction between Anglo and Irish Life & Permanent (IL&P).

The Taoiseach couldn’t say too much due to legal constraints. However, he urged caution on the Labour leader if he intended to rely on a “third-hand memo” to bolster his gut feeling that a political hand was behind the controversial cash transfer.

A memo, retrospectively written about events of crucial importance to various interested parties, might be open to certain interpretations.

“If I am making myself clear,” said Biffo, darkly.

(Right enough, there isn't much you can teach Fianna Fáil about the concept of mature recollection.) Eamon was exercised by a report in the Sunday Tribune, which indicated that the Department of Finance – and by extension, the Minister – had conveyed the impression to Anglo that a huge financial injection from IL&P would be just the thing to help them sort out their dire balance book.

Furthermore, according to documents seen by the newspaper, the financial director of Anglo told the Financial Regulator at a meeting last September that the troubled bank was “managing its balance sheet.”

Deputy Gilmore translated. “In other words, cooking the books.” He was fascinated that the then financial regulator, Patrick Neary, who has since gone into a very well-rewarded retirement, allegedly responded “Fair play to you, Willie.” Had the Taoiseach checked out these reports to find out if they are true?

Brian Cowen stood by his officials. The Department of Finance wouldn’t have any role in approving the sort of transactions mentioned in the report. Anyway, he continued, the document upon which the newspaper relied appeared to be “a third-hand account of a meeting” that he knows nothing about.

Hello out there? Are you still awake? Moving on.

Some people, said Biffo, might be interested in “the seeking of retrospective approval” on certain matters. He noted the document originated from Anglo.

Rest assured, stressed the Taoiseach, the transactions in question “were not given the imprimatur of the Department of Finance in any shape or form”. But here’s the rub – at least where Eamon Gilmore is concerned. An imprimatur is one thing, but an approving signal is another.

As he sees it, a nod is as good as a wink to a cornered banker, a wink is as good as a nod from a blind regulator, and a helpful nudge in a certain direction might take the heat off some worried politicians.

If we got his drift.

Eamon had no desire to be “adversarial” in this. He echoed the sentiments expressed earlier by Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny who had stressed he wasn’t trying to be “confrontational” when asking about why the Garda Fraud Squad had materialised yesterday morning in Anglo.

Clearly, the Opposition has taken heed of the growing criticism of their aggressive approach to the Government’s attempts to deal with the evolving economic crisis. Both leaders were at pains not to appear too negative. They went very quiet in Fine Gael when the Taoiseach, with justification, said that Enda Kenny had made serious allegations about the Government’s motives last week, but had failed to stand them up.

But back to Eamon Gilmore. Man of the world. The issue he was trying to probe was “not whether the Department of Finance gave approval to the arrangement with Irish Life & Permanent”, because he accepts that it didn’t. That isn’t the way these things work.

No. He was more interested in “whether they gave the nod” to it.

They rolled their eyes on the Government benches.

“This is not light regulation” continued Eamon. “This is blind eye regulation.”

As for the Taoiseach, he stuck to his line that there was no official “imprimatur” given at his end. He wasn’t going to get into the territory of “retrospective approval”.

Meanwhile, as the Dáil continued to get bogged down in the banks, the wider implications of the country’s economic shambles remained the focus of ordinary people outside the House. But it seems the Government is unable to multi-task. By all means, keep the heat up on the bankers, but isn’t there more urgent work for them to be getting on with now? No amount of nodding and winking will plug the growing black hole in the national piggy bank.