Bruton says bankers should be prosecuted

Interviewed in the latest issue of Hot Press, Richard Bruton, Fine Gael spokesman on finance, says that there should be prosecutions of people in the banking sector. He also insists that public service pay should be cut, that public service pensions should be capped – and he outlines what Fine Gael would do to ‘fix’ the economy.

In a thoughtful and often provocative interview, which sets out Bruton’s position on the Irish economy more fully than ever before, Bruton says of the banks, “The system is too close to the political leadership. And it was too close to the bankers that they were regulating.” Asked if there should be prosecutions, he answers, “There should, of course, but the standards of proof in the criminal courts are extremely high. The Director of Corporate Enforcement has been working on what were abuses for more than nine months and yet there still isn’t any charges laid. The demand for people to be arraigned is huge.”

Asked if public service pay should be cut, Bruton replies, “Yes is the short answer.” Bruton also says that reform of public service pensions is necessary. “The actuarial value of pensions at the top end of the scale…. is simply unsustainable. You have to establish a principle that the State shouldn’t be contributing in any way, shape or form, towards a pension greater than some figure – say, the average industrial wage. So we should cap the level at which tax resources are supporting pensions. If you want to build up a higher pension than that, you do it yourself. You won’t be getting tax relief or you won’t be getting subsidy.”

In relation to the policies Fine Gael would implement in order to get the Irish economy back on track, Bruton tells Hot Press, “We would bring private money into a holding company, which would have some public equity and use that money to fund investment in infrastructure for energy, telecommunications, water. These investments have a sound economic return and would be attractive to pension funds.”

Nor does he see NAMA as the solution. “With NAMA, the Government is effectively putting the taxpayers’ arms around the banks and saying, ‘We’ll take off your shoulders all those bad loans you gave out. We are going to keep you in business. And the taxpayer is going to shoulder the problem’. The taxpayers are absolutely incandescent with rage about this. There were massive failures in the Regulator and the Central Bank and they can’t go with no consequences for those failures.

“The consequence has to be a total clean sweep at the top of those organisations. They were part of a cosy circle – including the government – that was saying all this was based on solid foundations and that there would be a soft landing. Anyone who was critical of that was deemed suicidal.”

In a wide ranging interview he also:

*Insists that Fine Gael was wrong to sack his brother John Bruton from the position of party leader
*Says that Enda Kenny is “a bit wooden” in the Dáil
*Admits that it’s crazy that sitting TDs can get Ministerial pensions before they retire
*Recommends watching Jools Holland on a Friday night to keep up with interesting new music (“He rarely has a bad band on…”)

To read this compelling interview in full, see the latest issue of Hot Press, in shops now!