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A European Commission spokesman said the publication of confidential draft documents was "irresponsible".

Explainer: How do Irish bailout documents keep ending up in Germany?

The European Commission says the latest leak is “unfortunate and irresponsible”. But why does it keep happening?

THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION has described the latest leak of confidential documents relating to Ireland’s bailout programme as “unfortunate and irresponsible”.

A spokesman for European economics commissioner Olli Rehn said this afternoon that it was “regrettable” that details of the latest documents – this time a European Commission working paper – had been made public before their formal publication in Ireland.

The Irish Times had this morning published details of the latest paper, outlining its concerns that the burden of austerity measures need to be distributed equally between the various levels of society.

But what are the procedures for distributing papers like this – and how come they keep getting out?

Contrary to what some people might (forgivably) believe, it’s not the case that Germany has some special position, simply because of the extent to which it is funding the bailouts of other countries.

Rather, Germany is an example of a country where democratic procedures require documents to be distributed by politicians in order to enforce greater oversight of how that country spends its money.

Today’s leaked document – as with each of the others – has been compiled by the teams who visit Ireland each quarter to inspect our progress under the European Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund programme.

These quarterly reviews – the last of which was held in April – are used by the Eurozone’s finance ministers to decide whether Ireland should receive the next round of its bailout loans.

In essence, the ministers use the Troika’s reviews and briefing notes as a way of examining whether Ireland’s on what they consider to be the road to recovery – and whether, therefore, it is deserving of the next round of cash.

Draft and circulate

In order to allow this, draft versions of reviews and working papers are sent around to ministers in advance of the European Council meetings where they decide to approve such loans.

Though this would naturally appear to affect Ireland, it would also be the case for Greece and Portugal (and, soon, Spain) – with Michael Noonan receiving the draft versions of paperwork relating to the first Greek bailout, to which Ireland was a contributor.

Where Germany comes in is the fact that the German Bundestag has a particularly prominent role in overseeing how Germany spends its money. There, the Finance Committee has the power to tell minister Wolfgang Schauble whether to release Germany’s cash or not.

In order to facilitate this decision, the Finance Ministry is therefore required to share any documents with MPs – from whom such reports end up in the media.

Rehn’s spokesman said the Commission’s working paper, as detailed this morning, would be formally released on June 25.

In the Dáil today, Enda Kenny said following the most prominent leak – the leaking of documents outlining some of the government’s Budget plans, including a VAT increase, last November – new rules had been adopted where confidential documents were distributed to TDs as well.

“The government made it clear before, that the reports would be given simultaneously to the Oireachtas joint committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform,” Kenny said, pointing out that the documents were shared on a confidential basis before their formal release.

“It’s not a case of taking individual documents and giving them to international committees,” the Taoiseach said.

Read: Leaked document suggests Ireland may need further budget cuts in 2012

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25 Comments
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    Mute Jason Comerford
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    Jun 13th 2012, 2:24 PM

    maybe Enda should check the Bundestag for the “shredded” bailout docs.

    107
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    Mute Paul Carr
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    Jun 13th 2012, 5:21 PM

    That was the bank guarantee. You’re blaming that on Ze Germans too?

    6
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    Mute lisa duignan
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    Jun 13th 2012, 5:59 PM

    They lent to us didn’t they?

    12
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    Mute Stray Mutt
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    Jun 13th 2012, 6:28 PM

    Vee have meens of finding out.
    Se walls have ears. JA?

    9
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    Mute john g mcgrath
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    Jun 13th 2012, 2:34 PM

    Lads it’s quite simple the stuff is written for Enda he just reads it out if he is asked a question he has not got script he just invokes “jobs growth stability inherited problem ect ect ” until the person asking the question goes away or time runs out.
    Of course the Germans see these papers first they write them !!!

    48
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    Mute Eilish Deegan
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    Jun 13th 2012, 2:39 PM

    I suppose with a bit more information out there the germans might start taking pity on us for havin such load of overpaid baffoons running this show

    36
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    Mute B9xiRspG
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    Jun 13th 2012, 2:44 PM

    Wonder if we would be better off if Germany won WWII.

    Mind you as it’s going, they slowly but surely taking over Europe!

    42
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    Mute Joe O'Reilly
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    Jun 13th 2012, 3:11 PM

    As Gavan points out, it’s not that Germany is the only country that gets these documents – all the governments do, but the Germans are obliged to share them with their Parliament, which apparently leaks like a sieve. Come to that, the Oireachtas committee also gets them in advance, afaik – but of course our politicians are apparently better at keeping secrets. Who knew?

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    Mute vv7k7Z3c
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    Jun 13th 2012, 3:14 PM

    @Joe – That’s exactly right. In fact, what I thought was ironic (but not worthy of including in the main piece) about this morning’s Dail exchanges is that it was Mary Lou McDonald who bemoaned the latest leaks, even though she’s a member of the Oireachtas Finance committee which is apparently given the documents at the same time…

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    Mute Joe O'Reilly
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    Jun 13th 2012, 5:10 PM

    @Gavan – would it then be very impolite to draw attention to the fact that Mary Lou can not only keep a secret, but can publicly keep a completely straight face when dealing with the matter?

    Unless of course she just hasn’t turned up to the Committee meetings…

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    Mute Kerry Blake
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    Jun 13th 2012, 2:44 PM

    Have any of the briefing papers related to Greece and Portugal ever been leaked or are we just ‘lucky’ in this regard?

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    Mute Joe O'Reilly
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    Jun 13th 2012, 3:08 PM

    Sure – there was a leak of Greek documents back in February, for example.

    13
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    Mute B7584
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    Jun 13th 2012, 2:26 PM

    Whats ‘aughing stock’ in German?

    26
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    Mute B7584
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    Jun 13th 2012, 2:27 PM

    Laughing*

    16
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    Mute vv7k7Z3c
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    Jun 13th 2012, 2:28 PM

    That would be “der Spottopfer”.

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    Mute B7584
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    Jun 13th 2012, 2:42 PM

    I’ll have to remember that! :D

    16
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    Mute Getard Langslanger
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    Jun 13th 2012, 7:26 PM

    Coincidentally sounds like de spoofer. Apt name for a lot of our crowd

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    Mute Paul Anthony Ward
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    Jun 13th 2012, 2:43 PM

    Ah FFS… Not again!!

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    Mute Cal Mooney
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    Jun 13th 2012, 5:38 PM

    Great to see FFg carrying on FFailures mess ups… Not like FF can complain, they started this whole debacle.

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    Mute Adam O'Sullivan
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    Jun 13th 2012, 3:53 PM

    There is a very simple solution to this problem. At the end of every report just put in a paragraph about how German food is bland their football team sucks and they’re pop music is shite and see if they leak that!

    18
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    Mute Billygoatmuff
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    Jun 13th 2012, 3:28 PM

    Wonder if my mate Gunter can get me this Saturdays lotto numbers!

    17
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    Mute Tony Skillington
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    Jun 13th 2012, 8:38 PM

    Just shows the utter disrespect and distain this country is regarded with both in Europe and Germany…weak political leadership in this country over the past few years and a cowardly attitude toEurope and sure why should we be suprised?

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    Mute Joey Dempsey
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    Jun 13th 2012, 3:12 PM

    Suprised the questioned needed to be asked, its quite simple really, pretty much everything our increasingly silly government makes a decision on has to be approved by our german friends!

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    Mute Gavin McGuinness
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    Jun 13th 2012, 5:34 PM

    This can’t be any more embarrassing.

    I know the “German overload” stuff is all fun and games but I didn’t expect it to be literally true!

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    Mute Tomas O Beag
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    Jun 14th 2012, 7:33 AM

    Why should we be surprised we are the laughing stock of Europe , the good country whose leaders get pats on the head for being good Europeans !!!

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