Banking reports: FG to table motion of no confidence
Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny is to propose a motion of no confidence in the Taoiseach in the Dáil later this morning, in light of the details of two reports into Ireland's banking crisis, published yesterday.
Pressure is mounting on the Government to allow the Commission of Inquiry into the banking crisis examine the role played by ministers.
Taoiseach Brian Cowen says he accepts responsibility for all decisions he made while Finance Minister, but none of those are to be examined according to the draft terms of reference of the proposed inquiry, which is instead being urged to examine the failures within the banks, and with the regulatory regime.
Mr Cowen was accused of overseeing spectacular failings that ordinary taxpayers have been left to pay for as the two damning reports on Ireland’s banking crisis were released.
Former International Monetary Fund officials Klaus Regling and Max Watson said that economic policy during the boom heightened the vulnerability of the economy as then finance minister Mr Cowen veered more towards spending money while taxes were cut.
The Regling/Watson report reveals that failings in official policies and bank governance seriously exacerbated Ireland’s credit and property boom and depleted its fiscal and banking buffers when crisis struck.
In the second report released yesterday, Central Bank governor Patrick Honohan said the Government’s budgetary mismanagement helped overheat the economy and “create a climate of public opinion... that the party could last forever”.
In a statement Deputy Kenny said that after reading the reports, he believes the Taoiseach was the chief architect of the "catastrophic failures of policy" that led directly to our current economic crisis.
He accused Mr Cowen of having misled the Irish public repeatedly as to the origins of the crisis.
Mr Cowen's actions in delivering inappropriate budgets year after year and his inaction in driving a tougher regulatory regime for our financial sector are all central to our "home-made" recession, Deputy Kenny charged.
As no votes can take place in the Dáil this week, the motion of no confidence is likely to be postponed to next Tuesday or Wednesday.
Fine Gael's Finance Spokesman Richard Bruton is equally unhappy.
"The notion that people like Brian Cowen, who are at the centre of the investigation that needs to happen, should decide the terms of reference… and not only that, but to decide to exclude himself and his department from any scrutinty - that is simply outrageous," Deputy Bruton charged.
