Sir, – The report highlights that the banks behaved badly, even incompetently. It goes on to imply that the so-called big players from the audit world had a very cosy and non-challenging relationship with the banks. It then recommends that “financial institutions be obliged to obtain independent audit of regulatory returns”.
This may be very naive of me but is this not what auditors are supposed to do in the first place? If so, what has been the response of the auditors concerned? – Yours, etc,
BRIAN ROSS,
Bray,
Co Wicklow.
Sir, – Writing on the causes of a previous financial crisis, economist JK Galbraith concluded: “No one was responsible for the great Wall Street crash. No one engineered the speculation that preceded it. Both were the product of the free choice and decisions of thousands of individuals.”
This is the sad reality of financial crises throughout history and ours is little different. They are everyone’s fault and no one’s fault. – Yours, etc,
PAUL SAMMON,
Islington,
London.
Sir, – The game was rigged, and it still is and everyone whose house is worth a half a million and rising will continue to profit from it.
So everyone wins, right? Tell that to the homeless and the young people trying to save for a shoebox apartment. So don’t blame the bondholders, and don’t blame Brussels, because as sure as eggs is eggs, we’ll be back, trotting after the troika again in five or ten years, bawling like babies and saying we can’t understand where all the money went and could we ever have another hundred billion to square our accounts. And don’t worry about getting it back, because our grandkids are good for it. – Yours, etc,
ARTHUR DEENY,
Blackrock,
Co Dublin.
Sir, – Your cartoon (January 28th) of Irish politicians playing golf with bankers is a gross exaggeration and quite unfair to our political class. It is more likely they were only caddying for them. – Yours, etc,
L MURRAY,
Foxrock,
Dublin 18.
Sir, – Your editorial "A study of imperfection" (January 28th) highlights a key contradiction in media analysis of the banking inquiry report. In the wake of the report, The Irish Times and others have reminded us – the electorate – that the report's failure to find fault with any individuals is due to our rejection of the proposed constitutional amendment related to Oireachtas inquiries, which would have given them greater powers.
The suggestion being that the inquiry’s inability to lay blame is actually our fault. Given the same commentators generally seem to accept that the inquiry itself, the timing of the report, and the delay in dissolving the Dáil until it was issued were all motivated to a large degree by political reasons – namely to remind voters of the undeniable failures of the previous government just before the current one asks to be returned to power – I, for one, am glad that the electorate rejected the constitutional amendment.
While the media might have been more satisfied being able to name and shame individuals, it would be a dangerous road to have gone down to let that naming and shaming be as a result of political motivations, rather than truly independent findings based on facts. The findings of any inquiry team comprised of politicians can never be detached from underlying party politics, spin and electioneering. Limiting such an inquiry’s powers is a good thing, which is something the electorate seems to have accepted, even if the media and the politicians have not. – Yours, etc,
RÓNAN PALLISER,
Stepaside,
Dublin 18.