Corporate enforcement office ‘made mess’ of Fitzpatrick case

Minister for Housing Simon Coveney has said the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement (ODCE) “made a mess” of the case involving former Anglo Irish Bank chairman Sean Fitzpatrick.

Following the dismissal of court charges against Mr Fitzpatrick this week, Mr Coveney said mistakes were made.

“What seems to have happened here is that the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement seems to have made a mess of this. That’s certainly what the judge has outlined and the office has accepted that.

“The ODCE has changed and improved since those mistakes were made, but certainly the trial seems to have fallen apart on the basis of a series of mistakes that were made that probably should not have been made.”

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Speaking in Wicklow, Mr Coveney said he had been dealing as a politician with the consequences of Ireland’s “broken” banking system, and “a result like this will frustrate an awful lot of people”.

Mr Coveney’s opponent in the race to succeed Enda Kenny as Fine Gael leader, Leo Varadkar, said he shared public concern about how the investigation was handled.

White collar crime

Speaking in Dublin, Mr Varadkar said legislation surrounding so-called white collar crime was not “robust enough”, and the workings of the ODCE needed to be examined.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Charlie Flanagan said he was very concerned at the manner in which the case ended. “It was a trial that took place against the background of real public concern. It cost the State considerably in terms of time, energy, money and further resources. This conclusion in the courts should not be the end of the matter.”

Mr Flanagan said he wanted to see a report on what had happened from the ODCE.

Labour Party leader Brendan Howlin said he was never asked for more money for the ODCE during his period as minister for public expenditure in the last government. “No request came upon my desk for resources that weren’t provided.”

He said the Irish people believed that for some levels of corporate crime “there is no accountability in this State. That cannot be the case.”

More money

Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams told the Dáil that in 2015 the then minister for jobs Richard Bruton had been asked to provide more money for the agency, but declined.

Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin said the collapse of the trial represented a damning indictment of the ODCE. “It also reflects poorly on the gardaí and on the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions .’’