TAOISEACH BRIAN Cowen has dismissed as a smear claims that a member of the Government had anything to do with the “golden circle” involved in the €300 million loan for shares deal with Anglo Irish Bank.
During heated exchanges in the Dáil yesterday Mr Cowen accused the Fine Gael leader, Enda Kenny, of putting out statements that impugned his integrity.
“One of the points raised by the deputy was whether the Ministers in the Taoiseach’s Cabinet entourage supported a €300 million deal with select golden circle customers of Anglo Irish Bank.
“We were not involved with this; it was an internal bank matter. It had nothing to do with members of Government or any parties in the Government,” said Mr Cowen.
He was responding to a question from Mr Kenny about when he had found out about the transactions involving Anglo Irish Bank.
Mr Cowen said the suggestion that he was protecting the bank was nonsense and baseless. “It is wrong, contemptuous and has no basis in fact. It is a political slur and smear campaign in an effort for the Opposition to capitalise on difficulties that currently exist in the financial system to see if it can get some cynical political advantage,” he said.
The Taoiseach said he wanted the Irish people to know that he was trying to ensure the principle of accountability applies for anybody involved in any wrongdoing whatsoever, “in this Anglo Irish Bank or any other”.
Mr Cowen said one of the ways confidence in the Irish banking system could be ensured, externally as well as internally, was to confirm that those who had the independent statutory authority to investigate these matters were doing so.
“As far as I and the Government are concerned, recognising their independence, they cannot come to a conclusion soon enough. Whatever facts must be dealt with or whatever further processes must be instigated can then be initiated.”
Yesterday the Taoiseach rejected a suggestion from the Labour Party leader, Eamon Gilmore, that there was anything untoward about the action he took to advise the Revenue Commissioners against imposing a tax on contracts for difference (CFDs) when he was minister for finance in 2006.
The chairman of the Green Party, Senator Dan Boyle, said last night that the party could review support for the Government if Fianna Fáil politicians were implicated in the Anglo banking scandal, but he said that was a hypothetical situation.
“As of now, we have no knowledge of that and as of now we have no reason to believe that is the case, and every day we are in government, situations like that could arise over any issue, but we are in government to achieve things and we believe we are achieving things,” he said.
Fine Gael TD Lucinda Creighton queried last night why Government Ministers had gone out of their way to state that the behaviour of former Anglo Irish bank chief Seán FitzPatrick was not illegal. She said the 1990 Companies Act unequivocally outlawed directors’ loans, except where such loans could be considered reasonable. “Mr FitzPatrick’s loan arrangements with Anglo Irish Bank, as well as the cross-guarantee from Irish Nationwide, need to be fully investigated,” she said.
Anglo’s annual report, due to be published tomorrow, will show that an apartment in London owned by a member of Seán FitzPatrick’s family was rented to the bank.
It is understood the apartment was used by the bank’s employees who were based temporarily in the UK. The rent paid on the apartment will be shown in the bank’s annual report as “a related party disclosure” concerning Mr FitzPatrick.
