TAOISEACH ENDA Kenny has invited the Director of Corporate Enforcement to examine expenses paid to former Irish Nationwide chief Michael Fingleton, saying that the authorities should take court actions if any illegal activities took place in the Irish banks.
Speaking at a European summit in Warsaw, Mr Kenny called on the statutory authorities to investigate Mr Fingleton’s expenses “as expeditiously as possible”.
The Irish Times revealed yesterday that Anglo Irish Bank, which took over Irish Nationwide in July, has queried €88,000 in expenses claimed by Mr Fingleton from the building society from 2005 to 2009, including €48,000 spent at the K Club golf resort.
Mr Fingleton has also refused another request, this time from Anglo, to repay the controversial €1 million bonus paid in 2008 and to return an €11,500 watch he received when he retired in 2009.
The Taoiseach said that the Director of Corporate Enforcement had “statutory responsibility to follow through on these things”.
“I assume that when the director has satisfied himself that he has got whatever information he is seeking, that that is sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions,” said Mr Kenny.
“I detect for a long time a real sense of anger in people that the carry-on within some elements of banking over the past number of years has impacted severely on people’s lifestyles, quality of life and on their ethical standards.”
“[People] would like to see that, if there are persons out there who are guilty, that they would be brought before the court and, if they are found guilty, that the law of the land takes its course,” he said. The public didn’t want to “see these things drag on”, he said.
Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore said the Government would do everything in its power to force those who had received excessive payments in the banks now owned by the State to repay them.
Mr Gilmore said he was not surprised to learn that Mr Fingleton had sought expenses of €88,000 on top of the €1 million bonus and a retirement gift watch costing €11,500. He called on him to repay the money and return the watch.
“There’s nothing that surprises me any more about what we are hearing about the bad practices that were occurring in the banks over the years and that led and contributed to the crisis that we’ve ended up having,” he said.
Mr Gilmore conceded that Mr Fingleton was unwilling to repay the bonus so he wasn’t expecting him to hand back the €88,000 easily.
“Mr Fingleton has been reluctant to move before so it may well be a case that he may have to be obliged to move,” he said.
Where expenses were improperly obtained or overpayments had been made, the money would have to be repaid, Mr Gilmore said at University College Cork where he was addressing a conference.
The public who were suffering as a result of the banking crisis were “entitled to see retribution from those who abused expenses regimes in the banks”, he said.
Minister for Enterprise and Jobs Richard Bruton criticised Mr Fingleton’s expenses, saying that they were “totally inappropriate”.
He said that he supported whatever actions Anglo took to recover the money from Mr Fingleton.
Dublin North West Labour Party councillor Steve Wrenn said that he made an official complaint to the Garda last night about Mr Fingleton’s expenses.
