(top: Shane Ross. Below: Anglo executives Matt Moran, left with David Drumm in 2007).

“Matt Moran, the Anglo chief financial officer granted immunity by the Director of Public Prosecutions, features in the latest transcripts. The tapes show him as a key figure in the Anglo hierarchy.”

“No inquiry would be credible without Mr Moran or other top Anglo executives, immunity or not. They are all central to the narrative. Indeed, the inquiry must call the DPP to explain the decision to grant immunity to Moran. Such immunities, while common in the US, are rare in Ireland. An inquiry without Moran would be incomplete; an inquiry with Moran is certain to be challenged in the courts. The inquiry is already looking like a busted flush.”

…

“In the latest tapes, Moran is heard discussing the flood of money leaving Ireland in late September 2008, just before the bank guarantee. Rich members of the elite, who helped to fuel the property boom, were shipping their money out of the country, fearing a bank bust. They were moving hundreds of millions into Germany and other safer havens just before the crisis erupted. No doubt they were being assisted in doing so by top bankers and stockbrokers. In this instance, despite their loud protests of financial patriotism, the financial top brass were looking after their rich clients. They were far from wearing the much flaunted “green jersey”, the excuse later used for much irregular activity.”

“Yet they were happy to insist that they were wearing the same green jersey when rescuing fellow bankers. It was apparently in the interests of Ireland that Anglo and Irish Life & Permanent should save each other for the good of the country while the personal wealth of the big financial fish was simultaneously in flight overseas.”

Independent TD and member of the Public Accounts Committee Shane Ross in yesterday’s Sunday Independent.

They played for time as countdown to catastrophe ticked away (Sunday Independent)

Previously: Hon Mayo

 (Leon Farrell/Photocall Ireland)