Independent TCD senator Shane Ross
MICK Bailey was fresh as a daisy. There was a bounce in the builder’s step.
I spent the first hour of Friday morning accosting people in Dublin’s Molesworth Street. Mostly they were people I do not know and, more often, people who certainly do not want to know me.
I spotted Mick Bailey of Bovale builders fame while I was loitering with intent outside Leinster House, coincidentally contemplating a column on Bovale’s bankers, Anglo Irish.
LAST June I received a fascinating visitor. The guy said he was a former internal auditor of AIB. He wanted advice. At first I was not overexcited. I sometimes seem to attract every crackpot in Ireland. Some are genuine. Others are headbangers.
Eugene McErlean was no headbanger. He was the real McCoy. At first he was a slight disappointment. He had no complaint against AIB.
THE accountants Ernst &Young sat in the front row in the Mansion House. Silent. Demands from shareholders that the number crunchers should answer questions were turned down.
The Anglo directors sat on the podium in the Mansion House. Silent. Demands from shareholders that the part-timers should answer questions were turned down. AGM chairman Donal O’Connor made a shaky start in his first task as Anglo chairman.
There is a glimmer of hope for Anglo Irish Banks. As the big meeting beckons in the Mansion House on Friday, directors are tumbling from their pedestals.
First ,chairman Sean FitzPatrick and director Lar Bradshaw fell on their swords, then chief executive David Drumm hit the tarmac. And last Wednesday financial boss Willie McAteer resigned. Suddenly, the guard is changing. The big three are gone. A fourth was caught in the cauldron.
In a sense they have all cheated the gallows. Do not expect them to be in the Mansion House on Friday to face questioning from shareholders.
Monday
My last day of a week in Boston. I switch on CNN to hear Barack Obama fingering Ireland as one of the countries to which the USA exports labour.
He specifically brackets us with India and the old Eastern block. Ominously, he is answering a question about where he will raise money to fund his middle class tax cuts. Corporate taxes are his target. Ireland is specifically in his sights.
I freeze, but I cannot blame Obama. He owes Ireland nothing and has done little to court the Irish vote. A president without Irish baggage is not good news for us. Any move by Barack to coerce US multinationals home could be devastating for Ireland. The first leg of the Celtic Tiger — construction — is already amputated. The removal of the second leg — multinationals — would cripple Ireland. If Barack is elected tomorrow, Brian Cowen should take the first aeroplane to Illinois.
On the plane home I read John Murray of RTE’s hilarious new book on business jargon. It will make a great Christmas present. It takes pomposity apart. It pokes fun at captains of industry by name and takes lumps out of all the social partnership waffle.
Continue reading ‘We’re Not On Obama’s Radar’
On October 22nd I will be bringing forward my Broadband Bill during Private Members Time in the Seanad. I published my bill a year ago and still the Government has failed to provide universal, high-speed broadband to every household and business in Ireland. I am committed to pushing my bill through the Houses and I would like to enlist your support once more. Continue reading ‘My Broadband Bill’
Yesterday Patrick Neary, the Financial Regulator, came into answer questions before the Economic Regulatory Affairs Committee about his role in the current banking crisis. I have written here already about my views on his job performance and my views are well known. I wasn’t going to tread on eggshells when I got to put questions to him in person.
Continue reading ‘Financial Regulator Admits Banks Were Never Brought To Bear’
I PICKED up the message on the answering machine. The voice was Eamon Dunphy’s. There was a tremor in his voice. “You not there, senator?” he demanded. “I have just seen Paddy Neary, the Financial Regulator, on RTE’s Prime Time.”
The normally fearless Dunphy paused: “I am terrified. I am going to emigrate.”
Dunphy was on the button. The poor Regulator had just been mangled by Mark Little. With a great deal of help from himself.
The issue of banking is on the Order of Business to be discussed in the Senate, what is striking is that this crisis is not over, it’s worrying and should be at the forefront of the debate. I am struck by the fact that everybody is beginning to be critical of the regulator.
ONCE upon a time there was a little company called Lloyds of London.
Lloyds gave guarantees to big companies .
Lloyds collected members. Starry-eyed middle-class mugs queued up to join Lloyds because it offered easy pickings. Every year members were sent a cheque in return for providing security for insurance against mega disasters.
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