Paul Williams: Tapes are black box recordings of doomed Anglo Irish

After investigation, it's obvious that the banking inquiry is too limited, writes Paul Williams

THE startling revelations in the Irish Independent's Anglo Tapes investigation left the Irish public apoplectic with anger and made headlines around the world.

It was the first time since the collapse of the banking system, with its catastrophic consequences for every citizen in the Republic, that a small glimmer of light was shone on the fateful events that drove our country to bankruptcy and ruin.

The Anglo Tapes have effectively become the black box recorder of what was really happening in the cockpit of the bank as it plunged to destruction, costing us at least €30bn in the crash.

From the mouths of the doomed bank's top executives spilled the unvarnished truth of their readiness to dupe the taxpayer into footing the bill.

Thanks to the Anglo Tapes – recordings of internal phone calls at the bank between 2007 and 2009 – CEO David Drumm, his head if capital markets John Bowe and others tell us what was really going on behind the scenes.

Bowe's flippant remark that a €7bn loan – that Anglo originally requested from the Central Bank in September 2008 – had come from his arse echoed across the world.

The executive outlined the bank's strategy of luring the Irish taxpayer into their sordid game.

They played down the amount of money actually needed while convincing the State that it had no choice but to lend Anglo cash.

It was critical that the figures were low enough, so that the Central Bank and the Department of Finance didn't 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 that loan sum "could creep up".

Bowe's strategy certainly worked – because that is exactly what happened.

But we still wouldn't know the truth five years later if it wasn't for the Anglo Tapes investigation.

What probably sent pulse rates soaring most was the sneering, sniggering arrogance of the players in our tapes.

Especially David Drumm's naked contempt for the Financial Regulator, the Central Bank, the Department of Finance, the minister and, of course, the people of Ireland.

The Anglo Tapes investigation raised so many questions that an overwhelmed Finance Minister, Michael Noonan, at one point rebuked theIrish Independent for "mucking about" in matters that obviously shouldn't concern us – or, by implication, the public.

The announcement yesterday by the Central Bank that the tapes contained no new evidence of criminality necessitating a garda investigation may be based on sound legal analysis.

However, the Anglo Tapes have exposed the need for a much more comprehensive and searching banking inquiry than the one currently proposed by the Government.

The terms of reference, which only go to the night of the infamous bank guarantee, are far too narrow.

The tapes clearly show how executives in Anglo were prepared to exploit and abuse the scheme, no matter what the cost to the State.

The personnel in the various Government departments and regulatory agencies also have a lot of questions to answer – especially why were they were led by the nose into disaster by a bunch of bankers.

Irish Independent