The President of the Workers’ Party, Michael
Finnegan, has said that the revelations of the Anglo Irish Banks tapes should
be no surprise to anyone in this country and merely confirmed what most people
believed about the attitude of the banking elites.
Mr. Finnegan said that calls for public inquiries
into the revelations were merely a distraction and the real issue at stake was
the influence the bankers were able to wield with the government and senior
civil servants.
“The real shock about the Anglo tapes is that
anybody at all is surprised about their content”, said Mr. Finnegan. “Workers
in this country have long suspected
that the state as a whole was being taken for a ride by bankers. Would there
be any real difference in content
if these tapes had come from the decision makers in the top multinationals
operating here? Clearly there would not and the recent US Senate hearings on
tax avoidance showed that Ireland continues to be a soft touch.”
“If we were able to hear recordings of senior
government ministers or civil servants from the night the banking bailout was
agreed would their attitude to ordinary taxpayers and citizens be any
different? We may never know but we can
take a clue from the subsequent lectures on the need for ‘patriotism’ and the
claim that ‘we were all in this together’.
The message was the same, that whatever mess big business gets itself
into that the workers of this country can always be forced to foot the bill and
driven into penury if necessary”.
The Workers’ Party president said another round of
tribunals or lengthy investigations would not satisfy the Irish people. “It
is time that the workers of this country
got some justice. They have had enough
circuses, they now want to see people put on trial and the economic crimes
against the Irish working class did not end in 2008, they continue today. Justice
dictates that the burden of debt should
be lifted from PAYE workers who did not incur it. The only way to do that is
to default on
debts that are not ours”, said Michael Finnegan.
Issued 28th June 2013