Banks! Banks! Banks!

The above sign has been erected outside Anglo Irish Bank on St Stephens Green and I don't think there would be too many would disagree with its sentiments (mis-spellings aside). It's a kind of 'a plague on all their houses' against the bankers, politicians, unions and pretty much everyone except the poor taxpayer who is delivering the moolah to bale them all out. All very justified.


I still have a major problem though in that the banks are merely trying, through all of whats going on, to get back to where they were and what they were at before the proverbial 'merdre' hit the fan. Is this progress? The bankers are still being paid exorbitant amounts of money and paying themselves bonuses for Gods sake! Is this justified?

Surely if you are in line for bonuses there should be a corresponding sanction for the people who have delivered the banks, the economy and the country down the tube! If this was the case then most of them would end up owing their place of employment money, such is the extent of the bad job they have done for which they have all (paradoxically) been handsomely paid!

People keep telling us that we have to save the banks without telling us why. Every international competitor on the banking scene, who were introducing some (much needed) competition into the banking market, are now running away like scalded cats. This means that as soon as the banks get enough money into their coffers again (from us) they will be back to business as normal. They are all private companies with their main focus as delivering 'shareholder value' - profits into the private sector. They have no responsibility (imho) to 'get the economy rolling again' as we are being told - notably by politicians as the banks themselves are making no such claims!

Interestingly Vincent Browne on TV3 last night covered a new TASC report which detailed the amount of cross-pollination of directorships held by a small few people mostly in Dublin who populate the board rooms of the biggest companies in Ireland. Each non-executive director was likely to be paid (€66,000-€130,000) a huge amount for their part-time work and each was likely to hold around 10 other non executive directorships!!!!!!!!

This is absolutely extra-ordinary and applies, no doubt, in great part to the boards of our banks also! Whats the bet that many of those directors also have contacts/appointments related to our great independent media and political spheres also? I always think it would be a most interesting task to 'map' as it were all the connections, through marriage, family, appointments etc. between business, media and government. Wouldn't that make for interesting reading!

I won't even go into the extremely low levels of women sitting on these 'old boys networks'....oh, sorry I mean 'boards'!!!!!!

Anyway, as these self same people are forever telling us (although for very different reasons) none of this gives us the rope to drag ourselves out of this very deep hole! That I think will be provided by neither the banks, nor the government. It will be provided by the ingenuity of the Irish people who are already showing signs of imagining themselves out of this mess.

I say this because, as you may know, I am a judge on the Deise Den competition currently running on WLR fm which is offering a €25,000 prize pack for some lucky new or nearly new business in this area. I have been very enthused and heartened by the range and amount of entries to the competition and while unfortunately there can only be one winner, many of the entries and finalists offer the potential for people to at least create employment for themselves and who knows, even expand and possibly provide much much more than that in the not too distant future.

One thing is for sure though: there is a wealth of ingenuity and imagination and determination out there amongst people! They are all to be encouraged and congratulated on their bravery and their spirit. I salute them all. We need more like them!