LENIHAN AND MCGRATH MUST EXPLAIN HORSE FAIR DEAL ON BANKERS’ TAX
Issued : Monday 13 December, 2010
Brian Lenihan’s decision to put a 90% tax on bankers’ bonuses looks like it was agreed at a horse fair.
If Mattie McGrath’s account of events is true, then Mr Lenihan has shown himself to be a closet member of Fianna Fáil’s gombeen wing.
Mattie claims Mr Lenihan was putting a 70% tax on bankers bonuses until he intervened at the last minute to get the rate increased.
Mattie is quoted in the Irish Independent saying: "We discussed the rate, and he says 70pc tax, and I said no I want 99 (pc) and he said 80 and I said no, 90pc and he said sit down behind me I'm going to announce it."
What happened next? Did they spit and shake hands on it?
Mr Lenihan should tell us. If it is true, then it raises the prospect that the Minister negotiated our deal with the IMF like a gombeen at a horse fair too.
However, Mattie’s account of events gives rise to suspicion. He claims he only voted for the cut in the minimum wage after getting a deal on bankers’ bonuses with the Minister.
But if that was the case why did he vote against the cut two hours after voting for them?
Mattie should tell us. Otherwise we must assume that he saw the numbers in the Dáil at the time meant he could vote against the Government without bringing it down.
Then he could claim to the people of South Tipperary that he opposed the cut to the minimum wage when he actually supported it.
This is the sort of gombeen politics that has destroyed the country and typical of Mattie’s two-faced approach to the people of South Tipperary.
He steals other parties’ policies and pretends they are his own. He lashes Cowen and Lenihan yet he votes for their savage cuts.
Last weeks’ shenanigans again mark out Mattie as the king of the gombeens.
