Catherine Connolly’s Bank Criticism Sparks Controversy in Campaign

The ongoing political campaign for the presidency has turned contentious, centering around Independent TD for Galway West, Catherine Connolly. Her past as a barrister for banks juxtaposed with her recent criticisms of their practices has raised accusations of hypocrisy from the political party Fine Gael.

In a significant speech in 2017, Connolly addressed the tracker mortgage scandal, highlighting how banks overcharged thousands of customers by denying them the tracker rate they were entitled to. This scandal, which affected many and resulted in the loss of 315 homes, involved banks charging incorrect interest rates. Connolly asserted, “The banks did this because they got away with it and they knew the tracker mortgages were good for their customers but not good for the profits of the banks, so they decided they would change that.” She went on to describe the banks’ actions as “criminally wrong” and called for a serious investigation by the Garda.

Connolly’s earlier statements further illustrate her critical stance towards the banking sector. During her unsuccessful bid for a Dáil seat in November 2010, she condemned the bank bailouts, stating, “These debts were incurred recklessly by the banks, particularly Anglo Irish, AIB and Bank of Ireland, and it is an obscenity for the Government to amalgamate this private debt with the State’s debt and place the burden on the ordinary worker.”

In the same year, she voiced her support for the Small Business Alliance, a group aimed at addressing the banks’ refusal to lend to small businesses. She warned that the banks’ decisions could lead to hundreds of small businesses failing. Connolly expressed that the government’s bailout of banks without conditions to ensure lending was “simply unacceptable.”

The political atmosphere surrounding Connolly has been charged. In November 2010, a dispute arose regarding potential conflicts of interest. While serving as a councillor, Connolly was involved in a debate about another councillor’s income from a rental accommodation scheme, which she claimed was a misuse of the mayor’s office. In her response, she described the insinuation of wrongdoing as “shocking” and a “real abuse of the position of mayor.”

Connolly also criticized shifts in government housing policy, particularly a move away from acquiring local authority-owned properties to leasing private properties for those on housing waiting lists. She highlighted the irrationality of these decisions, noting that 3,600 households had been on the waiting list for up to ten years. “Even more bizarrely, it is proposed to hand back approximately 20 acres of residential zoned land to a central body which has yet to be set up and which remains unnamed and unidentified,” she remarked, emphasizing the lack of sense in these policy changes.

As the campaign progresses, Connolly’s complex relationship with the banking sector continues to garner attention and debate, raising questions about accountability and the integrity of political figures in Ireland.