Either incompetence or indifference caused collapse

Sinn Féin MEP Liadh Ní Riada has said the testimony of financial whistleblower Jonathan Sugarman to the Oireachtas Finance Committee last week shows that we have only scratched the surface of how the banking collapse happened.
The Ireland South MEP said neither the Government nor the banks themselves have been honest about irregular practices in the financial sector.

“Mr Sugarman’s statements, if true, point to, at best incompetence and at worst indifference to grossly irresponsible financial practices from banks by both their operators and a compliant, if not complicit, government,” she said.

“I have met with Mr Sugarman before in Brussels and based on his professional reputation, and my encounters with him, I have no reason to doubt his representations to the committee.

“Neither Fianna Fail, who presided over the collapse, nor Fine Gael, who have bafflingly carried on their failed policies, have any interest in seeing the truth of the collapse come out.

“Mr Sugarman himself, who not only went to his bosses and the Central Bank but the Gardai with his concerns, remarked himself how whistleblowers are treated by official Ireland, citing recent Gardai whistleblower cases and attempts at smear campaigns and cover ups.

“The only thing we know for sure is that the government and banking institutions of the time were either riddled with incompetence or riddled with corruption.

“Either way, robust checks and balances need to be implemented to ensure the mistakes of the last banking crisis are never repeated. Future generations will already be paying the cost of that crisis for many years to come.”