Dinner with Anglo board members 'has no relevance'

A PRIVATE dinner he attended with senior board members of Anglo Irish Bank in April 2008 had “no relevance at all” to the economic situation and the banking crisis, Taoiseach Brian Cowen insisted in the Dáil.

Mr Cowen defended his role as minister for finance when the crisis in the banking system became public, and accused Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny and deputy leader Richard Bruton of “trying to personally smear me”.

There were heated exchanges during leaders’ questions as Mr Kenny accused the Taoiseach of being responsible for the situation that culminated “in you and your Government imposing an extra debt of €50,000 on every family in the country which they did not ask for, did not cause and which they are not responsible for. You are responsible,” he said.

He claimed that because of the “lack of regulation and oversight” when the Taoiseach was minister for finance, “you have caused this cataclysmic financial consequence for every person in this country”.

Mr Cowen retorted: “I will not have my integrity challenged here by you or the guilt by association you are trying to impute.”

The Fine Gael leader referred to a dinner on April 24th, 2008 which Mr Cowen attended as minister for finance, just over a month before he became Taoiseach.

Mr Kenny said “the IMF report was on your desk indicating that the property situation in Ireland was about to burst”. Mr Cowen had “extended the facility for loans in respect of the Dublin Docklands Development Authority site”, and Seán FitzPatrick and others were on the board both of the authority and of Anglo Irish Bank.

Mr Kenny said Mr Cowen was aware of the “difficulties that a senior investor in Anglo Irish Bank, Seán Quinn, was having in respect of shares”.

He asked whether Mr Cowen discussed those issues at the dinner, and whether he asked questions “as a good minister for finance should” about a situation that was “clearly beginning to spiral out of control”.

Mr Cowen insisted the dinner he attended had “no relevance at all” to the economic situation. “As minister for finance I attended such meetings and dinners with other bankers down the years during my time.” He added that the “challenge to liquidity in the banking system which subsequently turned into a serious problem on September 28th , as we saw, was dealt with by me on the basis of the best possible advice available to me at all times”.

“I do not accept for one moment this idea that Brian Cowen is personally responsible for the collapse of the banking system in Ireland.” He rejected Mr Kenny’s contentions, and said “I treat them with contempt.”

Mr Kenny retorted: “That’s precisely your problem. You also treat the citizens of this country with contempt.” He added: “You said the meeting you had within your capacity as minister for finance had no relevance to the situation. That’s the same thing your predecessor said when he addressed a meeting in Manchester as a citizen as distinct from being a minister.”

The Taoiseach accused him of “trying to revise history”. He said that “right up to the general election of 2007, everyone held the same view of the future prospects of the Irish economy at that time”.

He told Mr Kenny: “I am not going to take the revised version of history coming from you, since you had an even looser fiscal policy framework to put to the Irish people when you sought this job at the last election.”