FG: Tapes show that FF 'was firmly wedded to Anglo'
Fresh revelations in the Anglo-tapes scandal about Brian Cowen’s administration shows his party was willing to save the failing bank at any cost, his political opponents claimed.
The former taoiseach’s government refused to shut down the Anglo-Irish Bank despite warnings from their external financial advisers, Merrill Lynch, that the institution was a “basket case”, the latest batch of recordings published in the Irish Independent showed.
Fine Gael Dáil finance committee member Dara Murphy alleged it was further proof of the cosy relationship that existed between Fianna Fail, developers and Anglo Irish.
“While there is no doubt that the entire country has been sickened to its very core at what the Anglo tapes have revealed this week, the reality is that tens of thousands of families are living with a daily reminder of the greed, avarice and utter contempt that was shown to the Irish people in respect of the dealings at Anglo,” he said.
“The unholy alliance of Fianna Fáil, their developer friends and the greedy bankers who conspired to inflate the property bubble, forced tens of thousands of people to take out mortgages they couldn’t afford so that they could buy houses that were massively overpriced. It is these people who are paying the price for the light-touch regulation that flourished under Fianna Fáil, leading to this abhorrent behaviour by senior bankers.
“The tapes today confirm what we have suspected all along; that Fianna Fáil was firmly wedded to Anglo and was willing to save the bank at any cost.”
Taoiseach Enda Kenny has ramped up pressure on members of the previous coalition government over the bank guarantee and bailout.
Hours after being branded a “political thug” for his allegations of an “axis of collusion” between the former Fianna Fáil-led government and Anglo Irish Bank, the Taoiseach added fuel to the fire and repeated the need for a parliamentary inquiry.
He agreed with remarks from German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who blasted the Anglo chiefs exposed in a series of damning tapes.
Ms Merkel said the tapes were hard to stomach and an insult to people trying to earn an honest living.
Previous recordings outlined how bosses were ordered to go to the Central Bank with “arms swinging” to demand a multi-billion euro taxpayer bailout – or “moolah” – as Anglo was collapsing in 2008.
The Taoiseach has said the tapes highlighted the “vulgarity” of the time.
Senior executives from Anglo Irish Bank discussed putting pressure on the then Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan in December 2008 in the latest recordings to emerge from the Anglo tapes, which are published in this weekend’s Sunday Independent.
The conversations involved then chief executive David Drumm and director of treasury John Bowe after the bank guarantee and centred upon whether the Government would approve capital for the bank and back up the guarantee.
Mr Drumm talked about how he planned to handle a meeting with Mr Lenihan the next day.
He said: “So, I’ll probably punch him (Lenihan). And I mean punch him, as if to say: What are you actually doing? Because you are creating an awful lot of uncertainty, and em, can you just, can we move the game where you give us a little bit more clarity than you have given in relation to availability of capital.”
Later in the conversation Mr Drumm said he planned to tell Mr Lenihan: “What’s this about having to go through due diligence? You made that decision on the 29th of September.
“You’ve told the f**king world we’re all solvent. Now can you protect your €100bn guarantee of us by writing a €2bn or €3bn cheque and get on with it?”
A few weeks after this conversation was recorded, Anglo Irish bank was nationalised.
