Banks caused our demise, not FF : SIndo letters

mayotom

Banks caused our demise, not FF : Sindo letters

Letters to the Editor : Sunday Independent

Sir -- Blaming Fianna Fail for all our current economic woes is disproportionate and needs to be examined. The greed of the banks has us where we are today.

One can argue all day whether the finance minister should have been keeping an eye on the regulator. But we trust people to do their jobs and obviously Mr Neary didn't do his. Of course the government did make mistakes and Micheal Martin has rightly apologised for them. I'll even go further and be more specific. Fianna Fail should have introduced a property tax for second and subsequent homes, as they were advised to do by two Bacon reports. People who never heard of the word 'portfolio' were buying up houses hoping to make a quick profit, thereby falsely inflating prices for those young couples who only wanted to buy a home. Likewise they should not have increased Children's Allowance by such a huge percentage in their effort to address childcare costs. This only fuelled the cost of childcare.

On the other hand look at the growth in employment, the improvements in infrastructure, education and welfare supports. Should Fianna Fail apologise for all the increases it gave in public sector pay and social welfare over the growth years? If that's the case, surely people are being disingenuous if they can't appreciate that adjustments have to be made now in the changed current climate. A case of eaten bread is soon forgotten I suppose.

*Eamonn Kitt,

Tuam, Co Galway*

Sunday Independent

so according to Mr Kitt, Micheal Martin has apologised for the mistakes of the past, so we should leave it at that and move on by voting them in again.

the last paragraph tells us how FF bought votes in 2002 and 2007 by bloating the public service to such a level that we had to borrow to sustain it, even though the tax take was far higher than ever before.
Social welfare increased, public service pay increased, private sector pay increased to match, minimum wage rocketed, basic services and food prices rocketed to pay the wages, inflation went out of control and Ireland became uncompetitive, tourism ground to a halt and BOOOOM the country went BUST.

Then the banks!!!

so should FF:P apologise ??? YES YES YES* and then move aside, never to return.

p15574

http://election.fiannafail.ie/candidates/details/eamonn-kitt/

'nuff said.

Liam Byrne

Expect more and more of this over the coming week as FF try to reconvince floating voters.

grahmkeatley

To put the sole blame on FF, in my opinion, is wrong. Yes - they are at fault for not saving for a rainy day, and by creating an unsustainable budget for many years. I am not defending them in any way. But to suggest FG by default wouldnt have done the same is also a huge leap.

FG are in my opinion more Bank friendly, and some of their own advisors have stated that the guarantee by FF was a textbook attempt to reverse a growing unease. It is a shock opposite which is often advised to inject false confidence in a falling system. This is a big reason for the size of our debt, and if FF wasnt the one in charge for FG to oppose, I do think it would of been a choice that FG also considered.

Again, it is hypothetical and pointless to run through what-ifs, but Ireland itself is a very small factor in the greater global crash and while we should of been saving money and keeping our balance books in check. It was largely the public who encouraged the culture of credit, expense and growth. FF pandered far too much, but to suggest that a different party would of for certain done likewise is as big a leap in assumption as my previous scenario.

-Graham

gandalf

Ah they have given the Lehman Brothers excuse a new set of clothes like their leader then.

No matter how many times FF and its members try to spin things they have absolutely devastated the economy of this country with their failed stewardship over 14 years. Any gains that were made have been wiped out and the fact that every day our brightest and best are shipped overseas should really make them hang their heads in shame. However as we can see from Mr. Kitts letter FF don't do shame or sincere regret.

Just crocodile tears from Michael Martin a man who pretends that he wasn't part of the cabinet over 14 years that aimed this country at the iceberg that damaged our sovereignty and sunk our economy.

henryporter

Remarkable how he didn't declare any involvement with FF so that he would come across as some disinterested punter.

Did the banks base an entire economy on revenues from a building bubble - I think not. Did the banks seek to give the public service wages equal to 'benchmarked' private sector wages without any mechanism to roll back when the sh1t hit the fan - again I think not.

Another clear example of FF not coming to terms with the destruction it has created and trying to blame anyone but themselves.

ixtlan

Well to offer 2c...

I'm not a FF apologist but...

And before I get shouted down... while I give preferences pretty much all the way down the ballot paper, FF did not get my final vote last time, and are unlikely to get my final vote this time...

The way I see things.

FF should be out of government this term for various reasons. Ultimately they were the ones pulling the levers of power and they screwed up big time. They screwed up because they were weak and populist, taking easy options to bolster unsustainable tax revenues and inflate social and public service spending. All in order to buy the electorate and keep power.

Would FG/Labour have done differently? Quite possibly they might have. The situation has gone to such an extreme that it's hard to imagine they would have done quite as badly. However for all FF's faults and their current spin in trying to blame "the wider political/parliamentary system", they have a point. We had an election in 2007, at pretty much the height of the boom, at a point where revisionists say it was clear that we were heading for collapse. FG proposed a cut in stamp duty... which would have inflated the property bubble just a little more... All parties proposed increased public spending and lower taxes. Why? If it was so obvious there was a problem? Because they were all weakly pandering to what the public was clamouring for.

So, yes, FF is to blame primarily, and they deserve what they get in the election, but we need to understand why this happened, so that we don't repeat it again in 20-30-40 years. The main point... take difficult unpopular decisions when times are good if they are the right decision, do not pander to every whim of the public. Politicians are supposed to lead, not to be running around vacuuming up every possible vote at any cost.

Ix.

Rubik.

Brian Cowen doing the usual FF trick of a giveaway budget in the led up to the 2007 election, along with his economic polices of his pervious 4 years as Minister of Finance, overheated the economy - making the situation far worse than it otherwise would have been.

A FF-led Government bought in a new system of banking regulation in 2003 and this system failed spectacularly. Kitt is being more than a bit selective in his analysis.

mayotom

so is Eamonn Kitt of the same family at Michael Kitt TD, Tom Kitt TD, Aine Brady TD, Michael F Kitt Former TD and Gerry Brady Former TD all part of the same clan????

Can 2011 mean the closure of the Kitt family business??

oceanclub

Either the Independent or Kitt himself are patently dishonest for not publishing his title with that letter.

What next - letters from B. Lenihan?

P.

mayotom

oceanclub wrote: »

Either the Independent or Kitt himself are patently dishonest for not publishing his title with that letter.

What next - letters from B. Lenihan?

P.

+1

CDfm

ixtlan wrote: »

Well to offer 2c...

I'm not a FF apologist but...



FF should be out of government this term for various reasons. Ultimately they were the ones pulling the levers of power and they screwed up big time. They screwed up because they were weak and populist, taking easy options to bolster unsustainable tax revenues and inflate social and public service spending. All in order to buy the electorate and keep power.


Ix.

And to quote the letter

One can argue all day whether the finance minister should have been keeping an eye on the regulator. But we trust people to do their jobs and obviously Mr Neary didn't do his.

David Begg of ICTU was and is on the Central Bank Board. The Regulators Regulator.

The Dept of Finance Officials are still in place too.

And, BTW John Bruton says that the Dail and government exercise no real power but rubberstamp civil service decisions.

So can we expect a real Civil Service/Public Service shake up for their mismanagement too.

I would like to think so -but experience tells me it is going to be more of the same.

See Page 7

http://www.centralbank.ie/data/AnnRepFiles/Central%20Bank.pdf

Dr Brian Hillary, David Begg & Deirdre Purcell were probably Civil Service Nominess - wtf do they know about Banking Regulation. I wouldnt appoint them to regulate a sweet shop because they have no relevant experience.

Paddy Power a sucessful bookie would have been a better fit.

johnmcdnl

it was FF's job to make sure the banks were regulated was it not

1+1=blame FF surely...

wasn't it FF that encouraged all the house buying and all that craic

once again

1+1=blame FF


I could continue but I'm just not even bothered too - we all know FF were in charge when everything went badly wrong so it is their fault - they weren't fixing another party's mess - it was all of their own creating - they were ruling basically for the entire celtic tiger which puts the entire blame on their shoulders??



if FG were leading would they have done the same - possibly yes and there is a strong possibility that they would have but how can FF as a party have any sort of belief that any half educated person with any half bit of a brain will vote for them in this election......

unfortunately the polls seem to suggest that their are a lot of people out there who are that stupid and blind and ignorant and won't look at the facts straight out and vote for someone different:(

CDfm

johnmcdnl wrote: »

it was FF's job to make sure the banks were regulated was it not

1+1=blame FF surely...

unfortunately the polls seem to suggest that their are a lot of people out there who are that stupid and blind and ignorant and won't look at the facts straight out and vote for someone different:(

A portion of the blame yes, but, they are just one part of the problem.

But there are statutory boards independent of government appointed to prevent political interference and whose job it is to do so.

No matter what the polls say - the theory is that those running the central bank were in charge of banking regulation and they either did or did not do so.

The fact is the day to day business of a Government Dept is handled by officials.

And this is a key issue on how future governments are going to exert authority over their departments.

ilovesleep

Did anyone write into the Sindo in response to Mr.Kitts letter and put him into his place.

blinding

Twas the banks alright but FFraudsters were really really helpful to the banks (the morons)

CDfm

the Level of hypocracy about the roles of the unions and senior Officers of the Dept of Finance is amazing is amazing.

jimmycrackcorm

If FF are to be blamed then why is it that Greece and Iceland are so F**ked also? Probably Portugal given a little time too?

CDfm

jimmycrackcorm wrote: »

If FF are to be blamed then why is it that Greece and Iceland are so F**ked also? Probably Portugal given a little time too?

iceland is an anomaly there -population 300,000 and not in the EU.

but high wages and an uncompetetive economy has been a feature in the PIGS economies, in all cases there was an inability to regulate state spending and either corruption or regulatory failure i its banking sector

Ireland is a bit unique that we had a typical bubble/boom collapse where the banking sector collapsed as itsupplied to money that caused the boom which led to the collapse.

Greece borrowed and could not repay

Irelands has also had to deal with the collapse of tourism as well as building.

mayotom

ilovesleep wrote: »

Did anyone write into the Sindo in response to Mr.Kitts letter and put him into his place.

Fianna Fails Kitt just doesn't get it Sunday Independent

Lame Lantern

You'll be surprised how effective talk like this is going to be. A lot of floating former FF voters that are tenuously voting for opposition parties because of the widespread understanding that FF ended the world will quite happily accept any piece of evidence to suggest that their party isn't to blame and come home. The touch of defiance will be intoxicating to lapsed zealots.