Charlie McCreevy

This may seem a joke but former Irish finance minister Charlie McCreevy has been awarded a gold medal. It begs the question as to what should be the prize for failure: a wooden nickel?

On Wednesday in Dublin, less than a week after two official reports were published on the monumental mismanagement of the Irish economy during the Celtic Tiger period, the Irish Exporters' Association awarded a gold medal to McCreevy for his role as an EU commissioner in pushing through the EU Services Directive. The award came weeks after Ryanair's Michael O'Leary recruited McCreevy for the airline's board and being a director of Ireland's best known company will surely bring more handy earners to add to three lavish public pensions.

The Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland in 2006 presented its inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award to Charlie McCreevy, a chartered accountant by profession, citing his role as Minister for Finance in presiding over a period of historic prosperity. He was also lauded for  always having spoken his mind, while few doubted his candour. 

Two years before, McCreevy was voted Ireland's Best Ever Minister for Finance, according to a poll conducted amongst the readers of Finance Magazine. Other former ministers who polled well included Ray MacSharry in second place and Civil War era minister Michael Collins in tenth. In a separate sub-poll carried out amongst the leading Irish financial services economists, McCreevy was also voted as the best finance minister

Damien Kiberd wrote in the Sunday Times in April 2004:"Worryingly, there have been some suggestions that Charlie McCreevy, the finance minister, might relinquish his current post as part of a summer cabinet reshuffle but it would be better for all of us if he stayed where he is. McCreevy is not just a 'safe pair of hands.' He is also tough enough to prevent EU interference with Ireland’s benign corporate and capital tax regimes and simultaneously to resist the growing clamour for government meddling in the finely balanced property sector....Property enthusiasts will claim that we need not fear a meltdown because we have entered a different era, an era of long-term cheap credit. Perhaps. But an adjustment to somewhat higher money rates next year is going to place immense strain on at least part of the house-owning public in this country.

For this reason, we need strong leadership at the Department of Finance. The sort of leadership that will ignore calls from Oireachtas committees, NESC and academic economists for substantial interference in the whole property and construction sector."

Speaking at a press conference in Dublin in September 2009 before the second Lisbon Treaty referendum, Ryanair's Michael O’Leary said if Ireland did not vote Yes, “our economic future will be destroyed by Government and Civil Service mismanagement and the narrow vested interests of the public sector trade unions.” He said he believed a majority of the Irish people was minded to vote Yes this time because of the economic uncertainty. But if the campaign was left to “Brian Cowen, Micheál Martin, and all the other incompetents,” there was a danger it could be lost again.

O’Leary said without Europe and the euro, “the Irish economy would be run by our incompetent politicians, our inept Civil Service and the greedy public sector trade union bosses who, through social partnership, have in recent years destroyed Ireland’s competitiveness, created an epidemic of useless quangos and feathered the nests of the public sector at the expense of ordinary consumers in Ireland.”

This description would have been apt for McCreevy's seven years as Minister for Finance.

Finfacts has given McCreevy a third place rank in the list of individuals and groups responsible for the economic crash.

The two official reports last week said the bust was largely homegrown and yesterday McCreevy told reporters he has not yet read the banking reports but might do so over the summer.

There is a fat chance of that happening.

Despite the human toll, he is in clover with a gilt-edge meal ticket for life as former colleagues Bertie Ahern Mary Harney and others have. 

The Sunday Business Post reported last week that during his five years as EU Commissioner he earned more than €1.4m, including a salary of €238,000 and a €35,000 residence allowance.

Upon retirement he receives a €537,000 step down payment over a three year period to ease into the loss of salary. He will receive a €51,000 per year EU Commissioner pension on top of his €70,000 a year ministerial pension and his €52,000 per year TD pension.

His chump change from Ryanair is €32,000 per year.

Let them eat cake!

Irish Banking Crash: Two official reports detail monumental political, regulatory and business management failures

Irish Economy: Ahern, Harney, McCreevy, Cowen and the other individuals/groups with responsibility for the economic crash