25 of those to blame. Add your own...

[toxic avenger]

The Tribune has a good article naming some of the spivs, the haircuts-about-town, the snake-oil-salesmen, and their cheeleaders, responsible for the state of Ireland's economy and reputation today. For some, the time for blame has passed, the time for solutions is upon us. For me, that's pure horse-sh1te, the time to vent is only just beginning (call it catharsis and future deterrence). These people need to be named and exposed, as a warning sign to those who would consider future collaboration in economic treason.

The list in short (go to the link for biographical whipping)...

Seán Quinn;
Padraig Walshe, IFA Leader ;
Brian Goggin, Former Bank of Ireland chief executive;
Turlough O'Sullivan, Director general, IBEC;
Justice John Quirke, Former chairman of the benchmarking body;
David Begg, General secretary, ICTU;
Mary Harney;
John Hurley, Central Bank governor;
Patrick Neary, Former financial regulator;
Seán Dunne;
Finbarr FitzPatrick, Secretary general, IHCA;
Mark fitzGerald, Sherry FitzGerald chief executive;
Dermot Gleeson, AIB chairman;
Lar Bradshaw, Former Anglo director and DDDA chairman;
Bernard McNamara, Property speculator;
Tom Parlon, CIF chief and former IFA leader and politician;
Dan McLaughlin, Bank of Ireland chief economist;
Marc Coleman, Economics journalist;
Eugene Sheehy, AIB chief executive;
David Drumm, group chief executive, anglo irish bank, 2005-2008;
Bertie Ahern;
Sean FitzPatrick, CEO, anglo irish bank, 1986-2005; Chairman, 2005-2008;
Charlie McCreevey;
Brian Cowen;
Sean and Sheila Citizen????


The last entry is a suggestion by themselves for one possible 25th entry, but they invite suggestions for others. I personally thought it was a little hard on Coleman, who was only wrong like many were, 'top 25' status responsibility for the recession is over the top. David Begg similarly, I wouldn't, despite my problems with the senior leaders of the union movement getting too cosy in partnership with the others, put in there. I'd put Ahern top of the tree, head honcho conman number one. But there are so many that could be added, half the country bought into the con, willingly so.


Twenty-five people who had a role in Ireland's recession



Add/remove your own (with arguments - no libel needed)...

[myk]

I personally thought it was a little hard on Coleman, who was only wrong like many were, 'top 25' status responsibility for the recession is over the top.

i noticed that inclusion as well, I think it is just journalistic b!tchiness and in fighting, which isn't surprising from the Tribune. It moves closer to the Sindo style each week.

[atlantic]

1.Bertie Ahern
2.ECB
3.Regulator
4.Government Ministers and Tds
5.Banks

[toxic avenger]

Particularly when there are people like Brendan O'Connor (this from July 2007) more worthy of inclusion:

Tell you what, I think I know what I'd be doing if I had money, and if I wasn't already massively over-exposed to the property market by virtue of owning a reasonable home. I'd be buying property. In fact, I might do it anyway. You don't even need money to buy property these days. Imagine if you walked into the bank and said, "Listen, guys. I want to gamble a million on the stock market. I have 100 grand myself, will you guys lend me 900 grand at really low rates and I'll pay you back over 40 years? In fact I won't even pay off the principal, I'll just pay off the interest." They'd laugh you out of it. But substitute gambling on the property market for gambling on the stock market and they'll fall over themselves to give it to you.
So why would I be buying property right now if I could? Well, for starters, property is good value these days. It's certainly cheaper than it was six months ago. While the official figures on aggregate surveys are talking about drops of two to three per cent in property prices, anyone who is out there in the jungle will tell you that it is a buyer's market bigtime.
If you're smart and you have balls and you're dealing with the right buyer you can knock 10 per cent or more off the price of a house these days. And that could well be a house that has already been reduced in price by 10 per cent or more in the last six months. Because while the big picture suggests a 3 per cent drop, the big picture is made up of lots of little pictures and you don't knock 3 per cent off the price of your house if you can't sell it. Individual house prices fall in substantial chunks.

The smart, ballsy guys are buying up property right now - Analysis, Opinion - Independent.ie

[Factorem]

What about Madam?

[toxic avenger]

Some untouchables don't make the list either. There are so many uber-rich FF builder types getting away with it, like the Bailey Brothers, even after Tribunal excoriation:
FF, Bailey brothers and Anglo in lucrative Metro deal

[Pauli]

The entirely justifiable inclusion of Harney simply emphasises the extraordinary omission of ex-IBEC ideologue, ex-Fàs chairman and MKC lobbyist Brian Geoghegan. It would be irresponsible to leave him off such a list.

[toxic avenger]

And a good argument against the inclusion of Sean and Sheila Citizen here:
Diarmuid Doyle - "What the country needs now more than ever is a spending splurge from those who can afford to splash out"

[tic tac man]

Surely the good Sir Doctor Tony O Reilly deserves an entry for doing his damdest to keep the PD/FF bloc in power for the last decade.

Now how could the Tribune have missed him.....?

[toxic avenger]

I don't know who wrote it (perhaps a collaborative effort?), but it's quite good. Here's some of it on chief responsibility shirker, Mr. Ahern:

So here we are, a nation in the agonising throes of atoning for our sins. And where's the man who was in charge of the good ship Titanic for the past 11 years? Honduras. We jest not. People are losing their jobs and their homes all over the country. The nation has lost its reputation. But Bertie Ahern soldiers on, selling the secrets of the Celtic Tiger lodestone to unsuspecting, far-flung audiences. One week, he's addressing international real estate investors in Manhattan. The next week, it's Tegucigalpa, where burgeoning Honduran entrepreneurs queue up to pay $150 each to hear the former taoiseach's dissertation on 'The Celtic Tiger: the Irish Model of Development'.


Meanwhile, back on Planet Leinster House, the monthly pay cheque of about €8,000 is dutifully made out to backbencher Bertie Ahern, along with an annual index-linked pension of €164,000. There is a time-honoured tradition that ex-taoisigh get paid in absentia, even when they've left a trail of devastation in their wake. Most TDs attend the Dáil fewer than 100 days in the year. Ex-taoisigh make an appearance three or four days. It frees them up for the lucrative lecture circuit and the company directorships. While he is in tribunal limbo-land, awaiting Judge Alan Mahon's final report, the offers of directorships have been sparse. Unsurprisingly, one he has gratefully accepted is with a property development company. He always got on well with the builders.


Not that Bertie Ahern was ever bothered with material trappings. His singular genius was the way he could hob-nob with the rich – displaying a salivating admiration for them – while creating the impression that he was with the people, shaking their hands and kissing their babies. Sure, the poor fellow didn't even have a bank account when he was the minister for finance and sanctioning tax breaks for super-wealthy individuals.


Ireland's most famous socialist saw nothing wrong with stuffing state boards with his cronies. He made his buddy Joe Burke chairman of Dublin Port, twice. He got his partner, Celia Larkin, onto the National Consumer Agency. His fundraiser-in-chief, Des Richardson, and his pal, Chris Wall, made it onto the board of Aer Lingus while the taxpayer still owned it. His constituency treasurer, Dominic Dillane, is a director of Fáilte Ireland. One of his so-called dig-out donors, Jim Nugent, was chairman of Cert, whose HQ was built in Ahern's Dublin Central constituency. And so on....

It goes on to predict that Ahern will have trouble running for the Park, not because of Mahon's report, rather because his rich pals are fast running out of the money he'd need for a successful campaign...