Excellent post in Dublin Opinion. Prof Ruane is head of the ESRI (Economic and Social Research Institute) that advises the Irish government.
Hiding Behind the Wall of Banks
Jun 24th, 2010 by Donagh
….Prof Ruane said the ESRI did not know what was going on behind “the wall of banking”.
Ruane says this despite the fact that it is well-known, or at least is on the public record, that she is a former non-executive director of Depfa, the German bank whose collapse was responsible for the biggest rescue of an Irish-based bank in history. Fortunately for the Irish government when Depfa was bought up by Germany’s second largest bank, Hypo Real Estate prior to the problems in the credit markets, it’s operation was no longer based financially in Ireland. There was some pressure at the time from the German government for Ireland to help out with the €102bn bailout of Hypo Real Estate. This is because the problems that lead to its instability were apparent to the German and Irish regulator at a time when Depfa was operating out of Ireland. Such a burden would have probably collapsed the Irish economy completely….
…But its not like those Irish directors were given positions on the board of a German bank – that it should be noted, did no business in Ireland and was only availing of the soft regulatory regime and low corporation tax – because they knew what they were doing! (Link to full article)
