Tallaght based Sinn Féin TD Seán Crowe has welcomed this week’s arrest of two former Senior Executives of Anglo Irish Bank, but said much more is needed before those responsible for the Irish banking crisis will have been held accountable.
Deputy Crowe said:
“It is three and a half years since the investigation into Anglo began and this week’s arrests are a welcome development.
“Since the crisis began, the State has pumped over €64 billion into the banks, excluding NAMA. The banking crisis forced us into a Troika conditional loan agreement of €67.5 billion and the public have been paying for that arrangement through increasingly severe budgets. We have a fair idea about what happened in the banking system and how it happened – what people now expect is justice and accountability.
“The Judicial process is lengthy and has to be done fairly, but two individuals facing charges after three and a half years is not exactly what most people expected when the extenf of the corrupt practice in sections of the Irish banking system emerges. Sinn Féin has put questions to the Minister for Finance about the resources for this investigation and have been assured that the resources are in place.
“I would hope that the Government commitment to this investigation remains firm and that we are not treated to the same half-hearted approach to accountability that has characterised white collar criminality in the past, and where investigations achieved very little.
“We know that people routinely get sentences for trivial things like not paying their television license, surely then those responsible for bringing the State to a point of economic collapse must not go unpunished.”