Political establishment an accessory to crimes of banking elite by making ordinary people not the bondholders suffer the losses
Responding to the arrest of Sean Fitzpatrick (pictured left), former chair of Anglo Irish Bank, Richard Boyd Barrett TD of People Before Profit/United Left Alliance said: “Nobody who has suffered the austerity policies forced on us since the crisis began will shed a tear for Sean Fitzpatrick. The lending practices of his and other banks to developers and speculators were a huge factor in the scale of the crisis the country is in.
“However the response of the government at the time to the emerging banking crisis which is essence has been stood over by this government is in itself criminal. A conscious choice has been made by the political establishment in Ireland backed up by the troika to put people through the ringer in order that bankers here and abroad do not pay for their mistakes.”
Joe Higgins TD, United Left Alliance said: “The banking guarantee of September 2008 stands the most catastrophic decisions made by a government since the foundation of the state. The former Fianna Fáil government should be in the dock alongside Sean Fitzpatrick for seeing to it that those who recklessly lent to Anglo be compensated by a transference of wealth from the working people and poor of this country to them.
“If Sean Fitzpatrick is handed down a jail sentence in three years time, which is how long we are told the process will take place, no sentence of any duration will serve justice. Justice will only be served by non-payment of the odious debts he and other bankers are responsible for.”