‘Treasonous’ to oppose bondholders

Former Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan has said proposals to share the cost of Ireland’s collapsed banking system with those European banks who had funded their lending practices as “a form of economic treason.”

Lenihan was speaking in the Dublin parliament as debate continues over the 26-County state’s economic collapse.

Sinn Fein Finance Spokesperson Pearse Doherty said he was “sickened” by the comments by the Fianna Fail deputy leader, blamed by many for precipitating the budget and banking crises.

“It sickened me to listen to Deputy Lenihan throwing out accusations that I and others in my party, along with many others who are not involved in politics, who are involved in the international bond markets, who are economists, academics and international observers, are involved in ‘economic treason’.

“Because we believe that there should be burden sharing or burning of bondholders, an internationally accepted term, and put forward proposals to that end, Deputy Lenihan has the audacity to stand up and say that is akin to economic treason.

“Maybe he was struggling to find words in his contribution that could distinguish his ideas from those of the Government, because it is following the road map he laid down.”

Meanwhile, Doherty has described the member’s bar in the Dublin parliament as “a den of secrecy” which should be opened to all visitors to Leinster House.

The Donegal South West TD is also demanding that a photograph of disgraced former bank chief Michael Fingleton be removed from the wall of the bar.

The facilities a Leinster House include a members’ bar and a visitors’ bar. The former is restricted for the use of current and ex-members of the Dail and Seanad [Senate] only.

The public can gain access to Leinster House as guests of Oireachtas members and, as such, are eligible to use the visitors’ bar, but not the members’ bar.

In an article, the Donegal TD described the members’ bar as “a place that represents all that is wrong with Irish politics. It is elite, exclusive and secretive.”

Mr Doherty said he was shocked to see a photograph of “none other than Michael Fingleton surrounded by a bunch of current and former Fianna Fail and Fine Gael TDs and Senators”.

* An inquest found on Thursday that Rachel Peavoy, a young mother of two, died of hypothermia in poorly-maintained council housing in Ballymun, Dublin in January last year.

Ciaran Craven, counsel for Rachel Peavoy’s family, said an inquiry was needed into the management of the property as “this was a young woman, who has left two orphaned children, who froze to death in Dublin”.

Urgent Appeal