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THE GOVERNOR of the Central Bank has said that the bank currently has no intention of pushing for the removal of the Occupy Dame Street protest camp from outside its offices on Dame Street.
The Dublin protest movement launched its camp in October and is modelled on the Occupy Wall Street protests which first erupted in New York but later spread across American and global cities.
Speaking this evening at the launch of Michael O’Neill’s new book Bank Architecture in Dublin, Honohan said that the “clock is ticking” for the Central Bank’s base at the Dame Street building because its staff level had outgrown the property.
“We won’t go suddenly, and we won’t board it up. There could be scope to retain some central banking activities here for a number of years, if it takes that long before a suitable purchaser emerges,” he said. “We have some ideas here and are open to others.”
He said that a “new development” for the Central Bank on Dame Street “has been the arrival of the Occupy movement”.
Although the bank doesn’t “welcome their presence”, Honohan said that so long as no one is “harmed or put in danger” by the protesters, “we are not at present inclined to take action to have them moved away”.
The governor also acknowledged that the group goes some way towards representing the views of wider society about the banking sector and the financial crisis:
While not everyone is happy with their being there, several people have said to me that their presence symbolises, albeit in a rather ambiguous and even incoherent way, the feelings of a large part of society in regard to what has gone wrong in the financial sector and with the banks.
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Why don’t they just apply to the bank for a mortgage on the site? Why should they live there Rent free.
Ah yes Gerry, should we start charging the homeless now for staying on the streets as well? Where should we draw the line here?
Google HUMOUR Evan and you will understand.
How do they wash themselves? Although they are Crusties…
Evan,
I think that the difference between the Occupy People and the homeless is that the Occupy choose to live there, the homeless don’t. Thoughts?
Ah sure, what harm are they doing. Bless there cotton socks.
C
It’s an eyesore , waste of time , damaging local business , bad for tourism and achieved nothing , need I go on .
Keep your friends close and your enimies closer………
Jeez you’d think they’d have finished digging the tunnel into the bank by now…..
They did…..there was f@@k all in the vault!
Can someone tell me in plain english how The Occupy Dame Street protest camp is allowed stay there? What’s the deal? Just asking
It’s the bank’s property, and they’re pretty much facilitating the protest in that they haven’t had them moved off their property yet.
Thanks for that, Cheers Karl
Like Noam Chomsky said the movement needs to evolve into something more.
Definitely; they are way too passive!
Yep. Politically expedient. Fears about where and how the movement might grow if evicted. Govt can rely on the rest of us to watch it on the 6one news and be thankful someone is doing something about the mess we’re in. Clearly a very unattractive way to protest, so it’ll never draw active popular support. Like tree dwellers etc…
Someone is doing something ?? Who , where , when ? Did I miss something in the last 100 and whatever days . All I see is a group of anti-capitalists hanging around a bank making a mess , oh and playing chess outside the department of finance . Oh and one more thing referring to me as a scumbag talk show host on their Facebook site just because I won’t agree with there pathetic protest on radio . Apart from that am I missing something they have achieved ?
I saw this on Monday. Is Mr. Honohan pretending this doesn’t bother him so they’ll pack up and go in the same way you might ignore the tantrum of a child?
Mr. Honohan
This is a public letter to you and your Senior Management Team at the Central Bank of Ireland ;
As the custodians of property owned or leased on behalf of the Irish State in Dame Street Dublin I wish to draw your attention to the illegal and unauthorized temporary dwellings that have been erected within the boundaries of said buildings such that same have become a public nuisance , an eyesore and a risk to Public Health.
It is your function and role as Head of the Central Bank and that of your Management Team to ensure the immediate removal of said dwellings for the protection of public order and as a means of ensuring confidence in your abilities with respect to good governance.
There is little difference between your Management of this issue and any other matter that presents itself during the term of office granted you by the Government of Ireland.
It is appalling that statements purporting to come from your office suggest ambivalence on this trespass while tolerating a complete abuse of the right to private property and it’s ownership in Ireland by the occupies of State buildings.
This misguided and wholly inappropriate passive response by the Central Bank implies an inability to deal with matters that may be of a more serious nature and should be rectified immediately
As a citizen I exhort you and your Team to display courage and determination and remove this
Shudupyeamuppet
Mark, can I ask: are you a politician, or ex-politician? You sound very much like one.
Perhaps Mr Honohan realises, unlike you Mark, that rights aren’t absolute; rights to private property must live alongside rights to the freedom to protest peacefully.
Who owns the plaza in front of the Central Bank?
Shut up
………and remove this unhygienic camp from your offices with some urgency.
Your right Mark!
Let’s knock that monsterous Sam Stephenson designed eyesore with all in it down around their stinking ‘favela’ and be done with the lot of them. Then we can return College Green to the elegant piazza it once was where fashonable ladies can desport themselves in true style and sedate gentlemen with canes and top hats can again buy their plug tobacco in peace at Kapp & Petersons. Ah! the gaiety of it all!
:)
Seriously lads , I believe it is as Ann said earlier
” Keep your friends close and your enemies closer” .
The bank is waiting for the protest to fizzle out or evolve ….
I hope they stay there for as long as it takes ,
They are a great group of people in there .
Friendly and chatty , and peaceful!
Thanks for the laugh Mark. You’re funny too John. But Mark is better. :-)
If these people wanted to help this country they’d clean up this mess and go look for a job. This eyesore is on one of the main tourist streets in dublin.
As far as I can see they are one of the few groups doing anything to stand up and be counted. Seems like everyone else is just rolling over and taking it. More power to them!
I think one or maybe two is an accurate figure for the amount of people that actually think they have achieved anything , apart from insulting people’s intelligence !
This is the problem with the country. Its packed to the brim with lemmings. Anyone who dares to stand up to the crooks is labelled a waster, a fool, a crusty, a whatever. Its no wonder we are the laughing stock of the world with this ‘bailout’.
I think, that the minority of psychopathic bankers that infest these buildings, are quietly delighted, that instead of being hauled off to jail, they are allowed to be seen as
sympathetic towards protesters. To them, It must
seem like a get out of jail card.
They cannot understand,
why we would allow them to destroy our economies and reward their failures. To them, it is a small price to pay to have the impotent protesters on their doorstep, while being allowed to continue unhindered in our destruction. Our only defence, is to educate ourselves as to the nature of this condition. Then, we must make sure that they can no longer participate in our decisions regarding policies that effect all of us,
IRS
IRS
My apologies , for the malfunction
of both my brain and my soul.
im lost. There’s a handful of people living in makeshift housing outside the bank that are achieving …? someone please end that sentence for me.
or does anyone have a clue? and the head of the bank has no problem with this. infact he’s agreeing with it. am i missing the point here or what?
AWARENESS
Better idea?
i understand ur answer Julian, but can also tell u that if i asked my mother or girlfriend about the people on dame street i know they wouldn’t have a clue what i was on about. so i don’t think it’s making the every day Joe soap aware of anything. have i better idea? yeah the journalist of Ireland get off their arses and start telling it as it is. but they won’t. they just trod along and word their stories so’s they don’t get themselves in trouble.. if we want a revolution it starts with the media!
Where are all the comments gone?
The problem with the Occupy Dame Street is that they have no coherent strategy. I believe they don’t really know what they’re protesting about and what they should be focusing on, thus making them redundant and open to ridicule! That’s why I think Honohan isn’t bothered about removing them because they are ineffectual at what they are trying to do.
I recognised one of the protestors when driving by the other day. I might set up a camp in his front garden for a while.
What’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.
Reada
If I erected a temporary shelter At the entrance to St Stephens Green the Gardai together with City officials would move me on under a raft of Regulations Laws and ordinances. The Central Bank at the moment looks like it is….an ugly illegal camp being tolerated by an institution who are responsible for regulation of the financial services. If they cannot manage their own property would you put them in charge of a child’s piggyback.
Mr. Honohan show some courage and do your job.
Mark I can just imagine you resplendent in your ‘bender’ under the Fusilier’s Arch handing out leaflets calling for the reintroduction of the penal code!
In any case I think Patrick Honohan’s position may be explained by comparison of his position with that of the governor of the Bastile in revolutionary France or maybe he’s just embarrassed into inaction by the ineptitude of the organization of which he is now head. Either way I think it’s becoming apparent that accusations of inaction are now being leveled at both sides in this standoff. Time to start digging up the paving stones I think!
Thomas I thank you for you’re intellectual contribution. It looks as if you gave considerable in depth analysis to the issue before making such a profound statement . I apologize for not giving due consideration to the potential for views such as yours and am overawed that you would give us all the benefit of such a powerful insight.
Wow!
Indeed Mark. ShupyamuppetMcCarthy!
Mark. Does Enda pay you to keep us amused while he tries to sell the country from under us, making sure we can’t afford to buy it, by taxing us with trumped up household and septic tank charges? Just asking…
From what I hear some of the businesses & local shops are none too pleased & are blaming the ‘protest’ for a drop off in trade . I read something about the potential loss of about 50 jobs as a result of the protest although how that could be quantified is another story but it would appear to me that if the orders come to evict it will be on foot of high court action taken by local small businesses
Also there now seems to only be about 6 hardcore ( & i mean that in every sense of the word) people ‘occupying’ at any given time
Point taken ,time to move ,Bye !
Just saw the photo… Looks like a chunk of landfill has been dumped on the street.
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