Banking inquiry week 9: Avoiding the meat of the matter?
In a memorable interview with RTE’s Prime Time in April 2009, Peter Bacon was in no mood to justify the ethical rationale for why Nama was necessary.
“I’m an economist, not a moralist, so let’s deal with the economic issues,” he told Mark Little in no uncertain terms.
Bacon was in a similar mood at the banking inquiry last Wednesday. He gave short shrift to questions about governance within the policy process. These concerns were outside his responsibility as an economic consultant, he maintained.
Bacon authored three reports for the government on the housing market in 1998, 1999 and 2000. ...
