Rock Bottom

Anyone seeking for a metaphor for all that is wrong with Ireland at the moment need look no farther than the Dublin docklands.

There, you will find the proposed new headquarters for Anglo Irish Bank, a building planned in happier days, before the bank imploded and was nationalised.

A government strapped for cash as tax revenues plummet and unemployment rises might be expected to take the step of cancelling the vanity project, since the bank – which it now owns – has a perfectly functional headquarters on St Stephen’s Green.

But this is Ireland, and the building project is going ahead. Not only that, but Anglo Irish Bank is lending €68 million to Liam Carroll’s Zoe Group to finish the building.

‘Here we have a perverse situation where an insolvent bank is proposing to give taxpayers’ money to an insolvent developer to build a new building that will probably never be used,’ Fine Gael’s Phil Hogan said.

The latest opinion poll shows Fianna Fáil at 17%, half the level of Fine Gael. Tomorrow, spinners will say they are taking unpopular decisions for the sake of the country.

How does the country benefit from a digout to a busted builder?

By Gerard Cunningham

Gerard Cunningham occupies his time working as a journalist, writer, sub-editor, blogger and podcaster, yet still finds himself underemployed.

2 comments

  1. NAMA Is GUBU Culture.

    Will Bord Pleanala politically approve and introspectively legalise the ‘illegal’ Anglo-Irish Bank HQ building GUBU-ed by The Developers Autocracy, DDDA? Will pseudo-bankrupt Anglo-Irish Bank rob €68,000,000 from taxpayers to give to examinership-challenged Zoe Developments to complete the ‘illegal’ building? Will NAMA approve taxpayer money to complete the HQ absurdity?

    Will Mr Brian Lenihan use NAMA to keep this apparently unprecedented misuse of taxpayer money secret and outside the Feedom of Information Act?

    Being situated on The Liffey the ‘illegal’ Anglo Irish Bank HQ is an ideal location for a State Casino to be run by Ireland’s Wild West Indians. Space can be made available for solid patriots politically appointed to DDDA, Bord Pleanala, EPA-Ireland, Anglo-Irish Bank and NAMA. The grotesque Green Party could be in charge of protecting The Final Nail, Fianna-Fails bicycle shed, from the barbarians in Sheriff Street.

    http://galwaytent.blogspot.com/2009/08/nama-ground-zero.html

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