made a mockery of our justice system and caused further wastage of taxpayers' money
Sorry...Which Taoiseach are we talking about now?
Does anyone really think it would be a good idea to give back all the money taken since the mid 70's (plus indexation and interest)?
No, I don't. But I also don't think it's a good idea that government should be able to do what it likes and then change the law afterwards to make it ok, and sweep the whole thing under the carpet as a minor flaw in legislation.
Some people avoided these charges by complaining, while the charges continued to be levied against others. The government have known about this problem since at least 2001.
AT A MINIMUM. The following should happen.
1. ALL money taken since 2001 should be refunded with interest.
2. Those who knowingly continued with these charges after stopping the charges for people who complained, should be diciplined.
3. If any current member of the Cabinet knew what was going on they should spend a bit of time on the back benches.
4. The constitutionality of retrospective legislation should be tested by the State, to avoid the expense to individuals of testing it.
5. Any refunds should be done without the people in question having to fill in a single form, or make a single phone call. The state should do the leg work.
I'm not affected by this situation one way or the other, but the State set the bar for integrity in it's dealings with the banks and it needs to now put up or shut up.
If the state weasles out of this and sweeps it under the carpet as a simple mistake, then business leaders should feel justified in behaving that way too.
It's easy to have principles and integrity when it's someone else in the hot seat.
-Rd