CORMAC MURPHY – 04 JULY 2013
Banker David Drumm has named eight people he believes need to explain their role in the €400bn bank guarantee.
Included in the list are former Taoiseach Brian Cowen, then Financial Regulator Patrick Neary and ex Central Bank Governor John Hurley.
In his latest interview, former Anglo Irish Bank chief executive Mr Drumm again refused to say whether he would return to Ireland to answer questions on the collapse of the lender.
The US-based ex-banker said he believes the explosive Anglo tapes were carefully selected by the person who leaked them "to further his or her agenda".
The comments came in his second interview in a week with journalist Niall O'Dowd of the Irish Voice in New York.
Mr Drumm said the tapes were edited to create "the false impression that Anglo Irish Bank misled the Irish government in issuing its blanket guarantee".
He again insisted he and his fellow Anglo executives did not mislead the Cowen-led government in 2008.
He said: "This intentional and systematic misinforming and misleading of the Irish public in relation to the government guarantee and the events leading up to it has been going on for several years and it has to stop if the public is to finally understand what happened."
Mr Drumm named the eight people who should explain what role -- if any -- they played in the guarantee as:
* Brian Cowen, former Taoiseach
* Kevin Cardiff, former secretary general at the Department of Finance
* Patrick Neary, then Financial Regulator
* John Hurley, former Central Bank Governor
* Richard Burrows, former Bank of Ireland chairman
* Brian Goggin, former BoI chief executive
* Eugene Sheehy, former AIB chief executive
* Dermot Gleeson, former AIB chairman
Mr Drumm said the question of who supported the guarantee on the night of September 28, 2008, and who opposed it and why needs to be answered.
He also called for the public to be told what was the specific advice received by financial consultants Merrill Lynch.
Mr Drumm said he wants to know if other bank bosses -- including those of AIB and Bank of Ireland -- were involved in the decision to grant the guarantee.
Mr O'Dowd asked the ex Anglo chief if he would return to Ireland to answer questions but Mr Drumm said his lawyers wouldn't allow him to answer that question.
In a response to a comment by Central Bank Governor Patrick Honohan -- following the publication by the Irish Independent of the Anglo tapes -- that criminal charges should be considered, Mr Drumm said the authorities have had the recordings for four years.
"Everyone, Anglo and its officers and directors, have been investigated by the ODCE (Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement), An Garda Siochana and the Central Bank, as well as the internal investigations carried on in the bank after it entered public ownership," he said in the interview.
"These investigators have had all of the telephone records as well as all the documents that Anglo gave to the Central Bank during the time that Anglo sought liquidity assistance from the Central Bank.
"Yet, there has been no allegation of wrongdoing against anyone in the bank related to the subject matter on the tapes," he added.
Mr Drumm said this "conclusively proves" there was no attempt to mislead the authorities.
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