'Occupiers' to stay: no intention to force out protestors

THE GOVERNOR of the Central Bank has said it has no intention at the moment to try to dislodge the Occupy movement protesters who have set up a camp outside its doors on Dame Street in Dublin.

Patrick Honohan said not everyone was happy with the presence of the protesters, though some had said their presence symbolises, “albeit in a rather ambiguous and even incoherent way”, the feelings of a large part of society on what has gone wrong in the financial sector and banks.

He said that as long as no one was harmed or put in danger by the protesters’ presence, the bank was not inclined to take action to have them moved.

He said no firm decision had been made as to the future location of the Central Bank, which now has 1,400 employees spread across six Dublin locations.

There has been speculation the bank might buy the half-built building on North Wall Quay in Dublin that was once intended to be the headquarters of the now-defunct Anglo Irish Bank.

“No firm decision has been taken, but it looks as if the clock is ticking for our occupancy of the Dame Street tower,” he said. “We won’t go suddenly, and we won’t board it up. There could be scope to retain some central banking activities here for a number of years, if it takes that long before a suitable purchaser emerges. We have some ideas here and are open to others.”

He said it may not be widely known that Ireland is the 15th largest international financial centre in the world, according to the International Monetary Fund.

Any doubt over the quality of supervision and the degree to which international standards are being enforced on financial firms in the IFSC would adversely affect the functioning of that sector, he said. Prof Honohan was speaking in the Central Bank at the launch of Bank Architecture in Dublin, A History to c 1940, by Michael O’Neill.