Unions React To Lenihan's 'Blame' Game

The ICTU and SIPTU President has strongly reacted to comments made today by the Minister for Finance for attributing blame for the economic collapse to union activities.

During RTÉ Radio One’s Morning Ireland programme this morning, Brian Lenihan said an external report on the Department of Finance, to be published soon, would identify “the dominance of the social partnership process” as responsible for enormous damage to the financial system.

However, Union President Jack O’Connor has rubbished the claims, saying instead that the Minister for Finance was instead responsible for the "single worst financial decision in the history of the State".

Mr O'Connor said the inclusion of Anglo-Irish Bank and Irish Nationwide in the banking credit guarantee on 29th September, 2008 compounded the destruction wrought on the economy by the Fianna Fail Government’s mismanagement over the preceding decade.

"People in all walks of life will suffer the consequences of what happened on that fateful night for a long time to come. It was obviously a deal between friends. Unfortunately for all of us, the Minister believed that he was dealing with a short term liquidity problem rather than outright insolvency."

"Minister Lenihan is now attempting to divert attention from the responsibility he bears for the present mess by scapegoating the so-called ‘social partnership’ process."

The Union President added that the cause of the bubble and subsequent collapse lay in the fact that the net foreign debt of the Irish banks grew from the equivalent of 10% of GDP in 2003 to 60% in 2008.

(DW)