A flawed and deadly assumption

On 4th Oct last I wrote:

“There will be no sacking of senior bank management, there will be no appointment of outsiders to bank boards or if there is they will be given the job of making the coffee. There will be no financial cost to the banks; there will be no strings attached to the deal because it is the banks that are calling the shots.”

Here’s what happened.

No banker has been sacked.
No banker has had his pay reduced or capped.
No banker has suffered any restriction on bonuses or share options.
The committee set up to oversee bonuses and pay for bankers is a joke.
No independent outsiders are being appointed to bank boards. The observers being appointed will be chosen by the bankers from a panel approved by the Minister. These observers will have no power whatsoever; they are nothing more than window dressing.

Ireland is the only Western state that has failed to take effective action against the greedy and irresponsible bankers – Why?

Again, on 4th Oct I gave the answer:

“We at Public Inquiry have been shouting the message for years – Ireland is a corrupt state, the politicians do not work in the interests of the people, the civil servants for the most part serve the politicians and the Government, not the people. Banks and other big business do as they please with impunity; they are never, ever brought to account. How long will it take before the message gets through?”

Let me be even more precise. Instead of acting in the interests of the State and its people the Government, the regulators and the bankers are acting to protect the corrupt system of administration that has evolved in Ireland over recent decades.

This is not to say that any person involved in the present scandal are themselves corrupt individuals. It is to say that the actions of those involved are exactly what can be expected from those who are making decisions within a corrupt system.

This is why people like Shane Ross, David McWilliams and others always express puzzlement at the reaction of politicians and regulatory authorities to these scandals.

Their mindset includes an assumption that Ireland is just like any other any other Western democracy. They assume that the Government and regulatory authorities will always act in the best interests of the State and its people. This assumption is the fatal flaw in their reasoning.

During the period when we were waiting to see the details of the guarantee scheme that the Government and regulatory authorities were working out with the greedy and irresponsible bankers these financial experts expressed views on what action would or should be taken.

They are now expressing shock that all their predictions and analysis turned out to be wrong. They have expressed astonishment that the Government has, in effect, allowed the bankers off the hook.

Why is it that we here at Public Inquiry can make an accurate prediction of how the authorities are going to act based on our analysis of the situation and all the experts get it wrong? The answer is simple – We start off from the undeniable fact that the administration of Ireland is intrinsically corrupt.

Once this fact is accepted everything else falls into place. There will be no surprise when banks and other financial institutions are allowed to rob their customers, no surprise when state authorities fail to act against stock market fraudsters, no surprise when politicians who blatantly commit perjury are not made accountable.

Nothing will change in this country until the reality of what we are as a nation is accepted. No individual, organisation or state can begin to reform itself until the reality of their situation is faced and accepted, it is only when that point is reached that the rot can be cut out.

We are a long way from that place.

Copy to:
Senator Ross
Financial Regulator