Auditors criticised over scandals since Beef tribunal

THE ANGLO Irish Bank controversy is a successor to the Ansbacher controversy over offshore accounts, the Dáil heard.

There was further criticism of auditors, who have been “pivotally involved” in every scandal since the Beef tribunal, and the importance of Anglo Irish Bank as a financial institution was also questioned.

Labour finance spokeswoman Joan Burton told the Dáil during the debate on the Bill to nationalise the bank that “once upon a time, not very long ago, in this country we had a man called ‘Ansbacher man’. ‘Ansbacher man’ seems to have had a son called ‘Anglo man’ and the principal and first son of ‘Anglo man’ is Mr Seánie FitzPatrick .

“It is interesting that the former taoiseach never talked about Mr FitzPatrick, but he used that personal name that we read in the writings of people like Padraig Pearse – not just Seán but ‘Seánie’.”

She added: “It indicates the closeness and togetherness of the family, the family of party, of business, of country. Those who are not in the family may be critical, but we need to keep our mouths shut tight because we might damage this national family of Seánie and his friends”.

She said while the Dáil was debating a Bill to nationalise Anglo Irish Bank “the Minister is missing the main point”. The big issue “is the protection, sustainability and regulation of our two large banks”.

She believed the other two banks covered by the Credit Institutions Act “over and above Anglo Irish Bank and Irish Nationwide Building Society” also had a sustainable future.

Ms Burton said Anglo Irish grew as an aberration alongside a property bubble. The four or five attempts by Government to deal with the economic challenges had failed. She did not think the Taoiseach was responsible for them all, but he and Fianna Fáil “carry a unique responsibility for the property bubble that they blew out of all proportion long after” it was “too far, too fast, too much”.

She also questioned the ability of departmental officials to properly advise the Minister. They had “many fine qualities and are probably reasonably good administrators. However, are they good at the business of managing a banking crisis and being the Minister’s main advisers?”

Former Labour leader Pat Rabbitte questioned the “systemic importance” of Anglo Irish Bank, which was “one branch with three or four offices”.

The Minister had previously shied away from nationalisation as “an awful risk with no return” but had now taken the step, and in his “honeyed way he has conveyed that the €1.5 billion which was intended to be used to recapitalise Anglo Irish Bank is now being saved, and that we are very fortunate”.

He said the question of how much nationalisation was going to cost taxpayers was a reasonable one. There had been no answer.

Mr Rabbitte said “there hasn’t been a scandal in this country since Goodman in which auditors haven’t been pivotally involved”.

He had been involved in the Dirt inquiry into non-resident bank accounts, and each of the big five audit firms “allowed what happened in the Dirt scandal to happen”.