FINANCE Minister Michael Noonan has coined a new phrase when it comes to public-service journalism – he calls it "mucking around".
Apparently, our Anglo Tapes investigation, which stirred the nation to anger and made headlines worldwide, was a bit of "mucking around"
"Mucking around" is the new government-sponsored phrase to describe publicising information that a public, already weighed down under mountains of debt, really needs to know about.
"Mucking around" is shining a tiny light into the deep, dark caverns of the Irish bank collapse and the bailout.
"Mucking around" is what happens when the State abdicates its responsibility. When it promises and fails to investigate why we will be up to our ears in hock for a century to come.
Mr Noonan (pictured) did not refer to the Irish Independent directly by name but he certainly implied that anyone who dared take a hard look at the rotten bank was "mucking around" in garda business.
So maybe it is not surprising that Mr Noonan and his colleagues now appear more interested in finding out who gave me the Anglo Tapes.
A week after we first exposed the arrogance, lies and deceit at the heart of Anglo, our politicians want to shoot the messenger and stop us revealing any more disturbing truth.
The Special Liquidator at the now defunct IBRC is trying to establish the source of the leaked recordings. They are expected to ask gardai to investigate the leaks of the recordings, when they could be better deployed tackling our rampant white-collar crime problem.
It might just distract an apoplectic public from the burning questions raised by the Anglo Tapes investigation – especially why has there been no proper inquiry into the mess in five years.
But just in case anyone has forgotten what they were about, let us recap.
Last week, the Irish Independent published the contents of about 40 minutes of taped telephone conversations between executives in the toxic bank as it careered towards the abyss.
From the mouths of Anglo's Director of Treasury John Bowe, his colleaguePeter Fitzgerald and CEO David Drumm spilled the truth of what was really going on behind closed doors as the bank dragged Ireland towards bankruptcy.
Anglo infamously asked the State for a loan of €7bn – which Bowe took "from his arse", knowing that the bank needed many times more than that.
But, as John Bowe said on tape, the plan was to lure the Government into a bailout trap by being careful not to give them a "choice" or think it was too expensive for the taxpayer.
Then, with "skin in the game", the Central Bank would have no choice but to support its own investment and so that sum "could creep up".
But what probably sent blood pressures soaring most was the sneering, sniggering arrogance of the players in our tapes.
Drumm showed nothing but contempt for the Financial Regulator, the Central Bank, the Department of Finance, the minister and the people of Ireland as they plunged the plane into a nose dive for earth.
What the tapes prove is that the Government can no longer establish a proper statutory public inquiry into the banks – because ministers are already intent on silencing the only source so far of any coherent explanation of what was going on.
The question on everyone's lips over the 12 days since we first broke the story is why executives linked to the breaking of Anglo Irish Bank were not only retained by the State to fix it, but were promoted to higher positions in the process.
But so far the Government has done little other than blame Fianna Fail – and send its blood hounds after the Irish Independent in a bid to silence the truth.
How could we possibly trust any of them in the Dail to carry out an inquisition on our behalf?
What we need is a powerful, fully public hearing, using the template of the Leveson Inquiry in London – where there will be no room for disingenuous politicians "mucking around".
Irish Independent
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