REACTION:THE REPORTS on the banking crisis showed that the Taoiseach was responsible for "spectacular and catastrophic failures", Fine Gael finance spokesman Richard Bruton has said.
Labour’s Joan Burton said the reports showed that, as ministers for finance, Brian Cowen and his predecessor Charlie McCreevy “manifestly failed in the discharge of their duties to the public”.
Sinn Féin TD Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin said the reports showed “how the Government recklessly managed our economy and led us directly into the current financial crisis”.
Fine Gael finance spokesman Richard Bruton said: “Brian Cowen and the regulatory and banking systems he oversaw are guilty of spectacular and catastrophic failures of economic management.
“That message comes out loud and clear from the two reports published today by Patrick Honohan and Klaus Regling and Max Watson. The reports confirm that ordinary Irish people have been spectacularly failed by an economic leadership with Brian Cowen at the apex.
“The reports show that Ireland was not pursuing sustainable economic policies that were blown off course by an international financial tsunami. Far from it: Ireland’s economic leaders were guilty of catastrophic policy errors.”
Labour finance spokeswoman Joan Burton said: “Never before in the history of the State have the policies of a Government been subject of such excoriating criticism as today’s reports on the banking crisis from both the international panel and the Central Bank governor.
“Ministers have worked overtime in the past week to extract as much favourable comment as they can from the two reports. All that effort is in vain because the entire thrust of both reports is a thorough indictment of the financial governance of this State over a prolonged period.
“Both reports stress the ‘homemade’ elements of the banking crisis and they dismiss out of hand the ‘Lehman defence’ so often invoked by Ministers that international factors were primarily to blame for Ireland’s problems. Not so, according to both reports.”
Sinn Féin Dáil leader Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin said: “These are reports of fraud, burglary and mugging of the Irish people by a gang of corporate criminals aided by this government. People need to be held to account.
“These reports show how the Government recklessly managed our economy and led us directly into the current financial crisis. They are an indictment on Government policy and of Brian Cowen’s role as finance minister.
“They are also an indictment on the financial regulator, on rating agencies and on bankers.”