GREEN PARTY chairman and finance spokesman Senator Dan Boyle believes key figures in the Irish Financial Services Regulatory Authority should consider resigning over their handling of the banking crisis.
Mr Boyle said that, in his opinion, Patrick Neary, chief executive of the financial regulator, had not done his job correctly.
Asked whether Mr Neary should resign at a discussion on the crisis at the Leviathan "political cabaret" in Dublin on Wednesday, he said: "I believe the man hasn't done his job right and he should step down."
Asked whether this reflected his party's position, Mr Boyle, deputy leader of Seanad Éireann, said: "I think it's one of the things that need to be considered.
"The party position would not be as personalised, but we would have ongoing concerns that the bank crisis came about through poor banking practices which were not effectively regulated."
He added: "As part of an ongoing process of change within the financial industry, changes need to be considered within our regulatory bodies."
A spokeswoman for the financial regulator had no comment.
Mr Boyle said that what had happened was consistent with regulation in other countries, "where a hands-off approach towards financial institutions in their jurisdictions was similarly adopted".
He said the "failure to intervene when unsustainable products were being offered, such as 100 per cent mortgages" showed that financial regulation needed to be reviewed.
Meanwhile, the chief executive of British-owned Bank of Scotland (Ireland), Mark Duffy, has said that senior executives at the Irish-owned banks should resign if the State and private investors inject fresh capital into the banks.
In an interview with The Irish Times, Mr Duffy said: "There are consequences of that investment and I would absolutely insist that the management within those companies was not the same management going forward."
He said that bankers "live by the sword and die by the sword" and that senior executives should step down if the banks are recapitalised in a co-investment by the State and private investors, following similar resignations of chief executives at the UK banks. "It will be a test for corporate culture and the Government's resolve as to what happens next, because I don't think we have a good national record on accountability," he said.
