THE GOVERNMENT must appoint an independent inspector to discover the true scale of bad debts in Irish banks and jail bankers found guilty of corruption, Sinn Féin MEP Mary Lou McDonald has declared.
“The time for speculation as to the state of the banks’ balance sheets is over. We need to have the truth,” said Ms McDonald, who will take over as the party’s vice-president tomorrow.
Delivering the main speech to the opening night of the party’s ardfheis, the Dublin MEP said all of the banks’ senior executives must be sacked – “not retirement with golden handshakes”.
“The golden circle involved in dubious investment at Anglo Irish must be named and shamed.
“They are not heroes. There was no patriotism in their actions. Fianna Fáil and the Greens must stop protecting the Anglo circle.
“To the back-slapping clique, Ulick McEvaddy and his friends, Mary Harney and Charlie McCreevy, we say: ‘the taxpayer owns this bank; the taxpayer is now in charge; the taxpayer cannot be left in the dark’.”
She said bank executives must not only face the abolition of future bonuses and cuts in salaries, but should also face having to pay “mispaid bonuses and overblown bonuses” given in the past.
Given that the banks were now dependent on taxpayers’ support, she said: “The banks must now be forced to impose a moratorium on home repossessions for a minimum of two years.”
She said banks must reschedule mortgage payments and allow mortgage-holders to move off fixed-rate mortgages to cheaper, variable-rate mortgages. They must be forced to make loans available to small businesses.
Demanding equal VAT rates in the Republic and in Northern Ireland, she said: “This is the time to build the all-Ireland economy.
“Partition is costing Ireland hundreds of millions of euros each year. The simple fact is that we cannot afford the Border.
“Rather than criticising people who shop in Newry, the Government must work for VAT harmonisation, tax harmonisation and nurture a dynamic all-Ireland economy.”
Criticising the Government’s €2 billion spending cuts, the Dublin MEP said: “The Irish people will tighten their belts but only when we see those at the top tightening theirs. Sinn Féin will protect no privileged clique.”
The Government’s actions “run the risk of deepening the recession and undermining our ability to rebuild the economy”, she said, but added that “there is a way forward”.
“Let no politician lecture the people on pensions until they relinquish their unfair pension advantage. Let all of them, Enda Kenny and the rest, do the decent thing. Stop drawing ministerial pensions. Do it now.
“Let no Government politician seek sympathy from workers who have lost their jobs; from thousands who cannot make their mortgage repayments; from broken-hearted families who see off the latest wave of Irish emigrants.
“From these people, the victims of Government incompetence, there is no sympathy, only anger. The golden circle has had its day,” said Ms McDonald.