Finance union adds voice to calls for banks crisis inquiry
Issued : 3 September 2009
Irish Independent
Finance union IBOA has joined a fledgling chorus of voices calling for the Government to set up a public inquiry into what went wrong with the Irish banking sector. The union is backing a call made last month by UCD economist Colm McCarthy, author of the recent 'Bord Snip' report on public spending cuts, for'Dirt-style' inquiry to aid public understanding of how the banks "got into this mess". Mr McCarthy was referring to the 1999 public accounts committee probe into Deposit Interest Retention Tax (Dirt) evasion by banks.
IBOA general secretary Larry Broderick said an investigation should aim to draw important lessons for the future. "Not only does the general public deserve a thorough explanation," said Mr Broderick in a letter to the Finance Minister Brian Lenihan, "but thousands of ordinary bank employees also deserve to know how a substantial failure of leadership in the financial services sector has placed their jobs and livelihoods in jeopardy."
However, Mr Broderick cautioned against using such an inquiry to find "individual scapegoats, no matter how tempting that might be". The union leader said that the culture of Irish banking is largely unchanged, despite the recent convulsions that have rocked the industry. "Such an inquiry could serve an essential function in charting the future direction of the financial services sector," he said.
The Green Party has also come out in support of an Oireachtas committee inquiry into the failure of the banking system.
Joe Brennan
