A workman removes the signage from the former Anglo Irish Bank HQ in Dublin

A workman removes the signage from the former Anglo Irish Bank HQ in Dublin

GARDA SERGEANTS HAVE called on senior management to provide more manpower to investigate possible fraud at Anglo Irish Bank.

The president of the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors, Padraic Dolan, has told Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan that “adequate staffing” needs to be provided to investigate the bank’s collapse.

Dolan repeated calls for additional staff to be allocated to the fraud squad, and said white collar crime as a whole should be “upgraded in priority” by garda management.

He highlighted criticisms of apparent delays to the investigation of the banking crash, saying:

Almost everyone in the country is asking why have there been no prosecutions of the central figures involved in those scandals. We are being compared to the United States where, it seems, almost overnight people are brought before the courts in handcuffs charged with serious frauds.

Minister Brendan Howlin last month called for the probe to hurry up, saying people who made “reckless and outrageous” decisions should be held accountable.

Dolan suggested that additional staff for the Garda Fraud Squad and other sections could help bring a “speedy resolution” to the Anglo Irish Bank affair. “The country deserves no less,” he added.

The AGSI president also criticised the Commissioner on several issues. He said garda officers were “extremely disappointed” in their working relationship with Callinan.

Dolan also branded the closure of garda stations “disgraceful”. Justice minister Alan Shatter said on Monday that more closures were on the way.