Martin Mansergh: I know nothing, I was in a building 500 metres away

Martin Mansergh is a long time loyal member of Fianna Fail, the most corrupt political party in the country. He’s also a great admirer and defender of the criminal politician Haughey.

In May 2008, just before our corrupt political/administrative system was exposed to the world, Mansergh was appointed as Minister of State at the Department of Finance.

On a recent Marian Finucane Show (June 30) he boasted about his involvement with the IMF and the World Bank as they grappled with the global financial crisis.

Yet, when asked about is involvement with the crisis in Ireland, Mansergh denied everything.

Marian Finucane: You were working in the Dept. and presumably in contact with the Minister for Finance throughout that period.

Mansergh: Well, I was in a separate building. My main job was the office of public works.

Finucane: Was there a sense around the place of the kind of pressue that was going on?

Mansergh: Well, as I say, I wasn’t in the building, I was in a separate building about 500 metres away. I was not in the loop. My job in Finance was basically to relieve the Minister of some of his parliamentary responsibilities.

So here was a Minister of State at the Department of Finance who claims he wasn’t even aware that there was political/financial tension in the air.

And his excuse; he was in a building 500 metres from his boss’s office.

So, either he was hiding away for months on end in his ‘safe’ office with no landline, mobile phone, computer, television, radio or newspapers.

Or

He posseses the same level of honesty and integrity as his criminal hero Haughey.