Name, shame and jail them
Ansbacher crooks must pay
The Ansbacher secret accounts operated between 1978 and 1995. During that period, the Dublin government often lectured the Irish people on the need to tighten belts and cut spending. In one two-year period during this time, 20 per cent of hospital beds were closed due to government cutbacks because there was not enough tax revenue. How many hospital wards would the Ansbacher millions have kept open?
During this time, people on the dole were penalised and often threatened with imprisonment for a day's window cleaning on the quiet - and many street traders in Dublin were actually jailed because they sold fruit on street corners to make ends meet.
In 1988, 200 Dublin Corporation workers were dismissed from their posts for illegitimately claiming from the Social Workers Sick Fund. They had only scammed a small amount of money to subsidise their modest incomes. No protection for them from the Companies Act, no judge, no jury,not even an investigation. Just sacked.
Today, we have to suffer the monotonous drone of politicians apportioning and deflecting blame. Fine Gael have piously called for the naming of the 120 Ansbacher account holders currently under the inspection of High Court investigator Gerard Ryan, although they had opposed any discussion of the issue during the Moriarty Tribunal. Labour leader Ruairí Quinn has recently suggested that the government should consider revoking the second tax amnesty, yet he was a member of the government which introduced it. As for Fianna Fáil and the PDs - well, where shall we begin?
The Central Bank knew of the Ansbacher accounts since 1990 but decided to turn a blind eye. Although there has supposedly been an investigation of the issue over the last two years, nobody has been charged.
While certain parasitical politicians feed off this latest scandal, the reality remains that it is the establishment they are part of that has sponsored the golden circle and their inaction that has enabled white-collar crime to prosper.
Legal loopholes must not be allowed to shield these criminals. Those named who claim to be innocent should be afforded the chance to vindicate themselves. Those who have subverted the tax system must be duly prosecuted, convicted, and incarcerated.
These wealthy spongers and fraudsters must be made to pay.
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