SEANAD REPORT:THE APPROACH being taken by the Government to the debate on the legislation to nationalise Anglo Irish Bank was reason for Seanad members to fight a civil war among themselves, Joe O'Toole (Ind) said. The Anglo Bill passed through the Seanad late last night without division.
Mr O’Toole joined in Opposition condemnation of the limited time being allocated for consideration of the measure. He found it disturbing that while there had been talk of aiming for a national consensus on such matters, this was the third occasion on which there had been no consultation with the Opposition on the approach to be taken.
The Government’s attitude showed contempt for the political process and was a very poor start to the attempt to deal with an extraordinarily difficult crisis when the world was watching us.
Liam Twomey (FG) said it was ironic that on the 90th anniversary of the First Dáil all major announcements were being made by the Government in Dublin Castle.
Frances Fitzgerald (FG), expressed outrage at the restricted time being given to the debate and said the biggest question people wanted answered was: “Who is being bailed out?”
Seanad leader Donie Cassidy said the time afforded for the debate was the same as that which had been allocated in the Dáil.
Shane Ross (Ind) said the outcome of the recent Anglo Irish shareholders’ meeting showed that a dark shadow of silence was being established over Irish corporate life, and this sent out a clear message that no one was going to be told the truth about what had happened in the bank.
One of the tragedies of the nationalisation, whether it was right or wrong, was that it had the capacity to cover up what had actually happened. They did not know what the danger from the nationalisation was, whether the auditors had missed vital matters or whether the directors had known what had been happening. “This is a complete fiasco.”
Mr Ross said the new appointment to the bank, Maurice Keane, was a man who had sat as part of the old guard for many years. “It is an extraordinarily bad appointment, because the message is coming through that a former chief executive of Bank of Ireland who also is a director of DCC and who stood four-square behind someone who was actually found to have done insider dealing is now rewarded by being put in a key position in Anglo Irish. This is not a good message to send out to the world.”
The indications were that there could be a repetition, he said.