THE LABOUR Party will review the entire Nama project when it gets into government and institute a comprehensive inquiry into the banking crisis, party leader Eamon Gilmore announced last night.
Speaking at the opening of the party’s national conference in Galway, he said the party had made the right judgment calls at every stage of the banking crisis.
“We were the only party – the only party – to vote against the blanket guarantee for the banks. It was criticised at the time, but we have been proven correct, because it is that decision, that fateful decision, that has had the taxpayer on the back foot ever since. Issuing that guarantee and including Anglo in it has led to one policy disaster after another.”
He also said that the party was the first to call for temporary nationalisation of the banks, which was not a popular stance, but the only way to minimise the cost of the banking crisis to the taxpayer.
“Again, we have been proven correct. Now the banks are being nationalised by default, but in a way that is slower, more expensive and more damaging to the economy.
“We argued that the Nama business plan was a fantasy. Brian Lenihan has now effectively admitted that we were right, when he had finally had to admit that the bad loans he is buying are worth far less than he originally said,” added Mr Gilmore.
He said what had happened was a gross betrayal of the Irish people by a party, so arrogant and intoxicated with greed that it had put special interests before the interests of the nation.
“And they have refused to allow the proper inquiry into the banking crisis that Labour has demanded, and that we have proposed in the Dáil. They refuse point blank to have their own actions subjected to scrutiny.
“Let me be quite clear about this. Labour in government will insist that there is a full and comprehensive inquiry into the causes of the banking disaster, including the events of September 2008 and the decision to give a blanket guarantee to all the banks, including Anglo.”
Mr Gilmore also insisted that Nama was a hugely expensive, wasteful and bureaucratic adventure, which was becoming “a fee-fest” for some of the very people who were involved in creating this mess in the first place and was likely to contribute to ongoing paralysis in the economy.
“When Labour gets into government, we will review the entire Nama project . . . There will be no sweetheart deals. There will be no safe haven for developers.”
Referring to the British general election campaign, Mr Gilmore said it was significant that British broadcasters had insisted on the inclusion of the leader of the Liberal Democrats in the televised debates.
“I now want to put Irish broadcasters and Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael on notice that we will be seeking a similar three-way leaders’ debate for our own general election,” he said.
Meanwhile, former Independent TD Dr Jerry Cowley has joined the Labour Party and is expected to contest the next election as the party’s candidate in the constituency.
Dr Cowley was elected as an Independent TD in 2002, but lost his seat in the 2007 general election after taking a prominent role in the campaign against the Shell gas project in Co Mayo.
Dr Cowley said it was a significant step for him personally and a step that he hoped would contribute to the expansion and development of the Labour Party in the west of Ireland.
“I am proud of what I managed to achieve for the people of Mayo as a TD between 2002 and 2007, but the experience also conveyed to me the limits of what an Independent could do.”