Madam, – We have recently seen the biggest transfer of wealth in the history of this State from the least well off in this society to the richest.
The people who will have to pay for the mistakes of the bankers, politicians and developers are the unemployed, social welfare recipients, teachers, nurses, gardaí and the lower paid in the civil service in the form of increased taxation and cutbacks. Where is the equity in all this? Our leaders both in the church, politics, banking and trade unions have let us down badly. What has annoyed ordinary trade union members was the recent cave-in by the minister to the higher paid civil servants. There should have been an outcry from our trade union leaders over this. I wonder is it because trade union leaders are benchmarked with regard to pay and expenses with the higher paid civil servants?
At the beginning of the Great Depression in the US, Franklin D Roosevelt said, “These unhappy times call for the building of plans that build from the bottom up and not from the top down; that put their faith once more in the forgotten man and woman at the bottom of the economic pyramid”. These words have relevance for us today in Ireland because 95 per cent of the leaders in politics, banking and trade unions are still there. We need a revolution as FDR stated and it must come from the bottom up. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – With growing realisation that most of the country’s financial institutions were very badly managed (“Fingleton’s successor says events at INBS an outrage”, Front page, April 20th), should not the present boards of these same financial institutions demand the return of all performance-based bonuses paid out to the chief executives and their senior management teams? – Yours, etc,
Madam, – Your finance correspondent reports, “Irish Nationwide has hired forensic accountants from Ernst & Young to unearth and pursue any malpractice discovered, according to its chief executive” (Business This Week, April 23rd).
Am I right in saying this is the same Ernst & Young which acted as the independent auditor to Anglo Irish Bank? Am I also right in saying this is the same Irish Nationwide that facilitated the former chairman of Anglo Irish Bank in hiding his loans with the building society on an annual basis for a number of years?
Ernst & Young may have discharged its legal responsibilities as auditors to Anglo Irish Bank as the loans were not technically illegal. However, is there a possibility this now State-backed financial institution could, at a minimum, take the appearance of independent corporate oversight seriously? – Yours, etc,