Former AIB internal auditor Eugene McErlean confirmed today what we at Public Inquiry have been saying for years (as far back as 2005). He told the Committee on Economic Regulatory Affairs:
“It is my opinion that the Financial Regulator’s report published in December 2004 failed to tell the whole story about overcharging. The report gave the impression that the regulator had acted in the public interest. I think it is relevant to consider that if a whistleblower had not exposed the problem in 2004 then the overcharging practices may have carried on indefinitely.”
This statement makes the following points:
The so called Financial Regulator acted against the public interest by deliberately keeping secret, information that was vital for consumers.
By its actions the so called Financial Regulator was acting in the interest of a bank that was robbing consumers.
By failing to take action against this robbing bank the so called Financial Regulator exposed consumers to potentially great loss.
By failing in its duty to act against this robbing bank the so called Financial Regulator has helped to endanger the international reputation of Ireland.
The so called Financial Regulator has a putrid record of tolerance and facilitation of thieving financial institutions and as Mr. McErlean points out is quite prepared to tolerate theft indefinitely. There is no evidence whatsoever that this policy has changed, we are still waiting for even a single banker to be arrested.
Mary O’Dea, currently acting head of the Financial Regulator, should be sacked immediately. In recent weeks we have heard several so called informed commentators praising this woman because she questioned the mafia style actions of one bank at one meeting after the avalanche of filth had already engulfed and enraged the general public.
She has been a senior director of Ifsra since its establishment in 2003, she is and was fully aware of all its rotten policies that effectively protected corrupt financial institutions and exposed the general public to great loss and has seen the international reputation of Ireland in tatters.
And she’s not the only one who should be fired in disgrace. For years, I’ve had to listen to insulting, condescending, bullshit from a number of departments at Ifsra about so called financial complexity; about secrecy laws, about ‘who the hell do you think you are Mr. Sheridan calling us and asking impertinent questions.
The whole rotten edifice should be cleaned out once and for all and that should include all staff members who knew, by dint of their position, what was going on in this organisation that has betrayed the Irish people.
They will have to be sacked because, clearly, their long and close association with the rotten stench coming from the Irish financial sector has long ago destroyed their sense of morality, a sense of morality that would, in normal people, lead them to immediately resign in shame.
Copy to:
Financial Regulator (so called)
The FSAI (Food Safety Authority of Ireland)is prosecuting Wrights of Howth for passing off farmed salmon as wild. Now there’s a serious issue to get your teeth into – no pun intended!