BUSINESS OPINION: Unlike our island neighbours we seem to have lost our sense of outrage, writes JOHN McMANUS

IT’S A simple question: if the people of Iceland can apparently refuse to be made pick up the tab for the incompetence and greed of their banks and people who did business with them, why do we have to?

The Labour Party is to table a Private Members Motion in the Dáil calling for a 'comprehensive parliamentary inquiry' into the banking crisis.

Party leader Eamon Gilmore said the party would also next week publish a Bill designed to address what he called 'defects' in current legislation governing the powers of the Dáil and Seanad to conduct inquiries into important issues.

New figures from the Central Statistics Office show that the number of people signing on rose again last month.

The seasonally adjusted Live Register figure rose by 3,300 in December to stand at 426,700 from November's total of 423,400. The figure had fallen in October for the first time since March 2007, but has now risen again in the past two months. The unemployment rate was unchanged at 12.5%.

During 2009, the number of men signing on increased by 45.4%, while the number of women rose by 47.5%.

HARRY McGEE Political Correspondent

SEVERAL SENIOR Government figures have now ruled out holding a public inquiry into the banking crisis any time in the immediate future.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin said yesterday such an investigation was not an immediate priority for the Government, strongly indicating such a vehicle would not be established during 2010.

By Fionnan Sheahan Political Editor

Wednesday December 30 2009

ROGUE bankers will face the courts in 2010 over their "malpractice" and "improper conduct" a cabinet minister predicted last night.

Energy Minister Eamon Ryan is the first member of the Government to publicly indicate that he expects legal action to be taken next year.

"I can't believe in the scale of our banking problem that it didn't go beyond incompetence into malpractice," he said.

By Vincent Ryan
Sunday May 10 2009

THE Government is spending €118m a year renting office space in Dublin from some of Ireland's richest people, and has so far failed to negotiate discounts despite the collapse in property prices.

Included in this figure is €1.127m spent renting empty office space, the Sunday Independent has learned.

The Office of Public Works says it rents office space as needed on behalf of government and other public service bodies. However many of the rent contracts have upward only conditions attached, meaning the rents cannot be reduced.

The spokesman also defended the amount spent renting empty office space. He said that the OPW keeps one per cent of its property portfolio vacant so as to maintain a degree of flexibility in case a new tribunal or agency is formed.

Sherry Fitzgerald Communications Director, Jill O'Neill, confirmed that commercial rents in Dublin have fallen by as much as 13 per cent since the property bubble burst in the last 18 months.

At a conservative estimate that means the State could have saved about €15m if it had sought to renegotiate the terms of leases on buildings it is renting across the capital in the last year alone.

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