Ireland's Ahern vows firm line after 'horrendous' banking scandals
DUBLIN (AFX) - Prime Minister Bertie Ahern promised firm action to deal with banking scandals that have led to high level executive resignations. Two of the country's most senior business figures, the chairman of national airline Aer Lingus and thechief executive of the Bank of Ireland, the country's oldest bank, resigned on Saturday as a result of separate bank scandals. "All these kind of abuses... individually they are bad enough; collectively they are horrendous," Ahern told Ireland's RTE state radio. "We can't be in any way ambivalent about what is happening. These are very serious matters. They have to be fully investigated." Ireland had built up a very credible financial services centre since 1997 and had to ensure it was "absolutely perfect", he said. The chairman of state carrier Aer Lingus, Tom Mulcahy, resigned on Saturday after he was linked in the Irish media to an unfolding investigation of tax evasion at the country's biggest financial institution, Allied Irish Banks PLC. Several other senior executives have also been named in the media in connection with the AIB wrongdoing. Michael Soden, chief executive of Bank of Ireland, resigned the same day after admitting that he had accessed internet sites containing "adult material" on his computer in contravention of the bank's own rules. |