Shatter astonished at Ronan’s Auschwitz reference

Fine Gael TD for Dublin Rathdown, Alan Shatter, has said today (Thursday): “It is beyond my personal comprehension that the notorious and diabolically misleading ‘Arbeit Macht Frei’ which greeted the tragic and doomed victims of Nazi tyranny as they entered the Auschwitz Concentration Camp, would be proclaimed by Mr John Ronan, who is an internationally known Irish businessman, in a witness statement made by him to an Irish Parliamentary Committee, the Joint Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis.

“It is totally bizarre that he felt the need to have the statement translated into Irish.  I can only presume that he did not know the origin of the phrase or its misuse to seductively encourage people to cooperate in their own death and destruction and in that of their loved ones. 

“I am calling on Mr Ronan to formally seek to have this phrase removed from his statement and to provide an explanation for its original inclusion. 

“I believe it is entirely inappropriate that such a phrase appear on the Irish Parliament’s website available for global viewing.  It is noteworthy that John Ronan’s statement as published has, in places, been redacted.  I do not know what consideration, if any, was given to redacting this offensive and despicable phrase which is synonymous with Nazi inhumanity.  

“I believe that the Chairman of the Committee should arrange for its redaction but that should not excuse Mr Ronan from giving an explanation for his use of it.”