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TAOISEACH ENDA KENNY has told the Dáil that Ireland still has “a number of options” to hand which could further reduce the price of its €67.5bn EU-IMF bailout.
The Taoiseach said the “discussions and negotiations” being conducted by himself and the Minister for Finance, Michael Noonan, were focussed on reducing the overall cost of the economic situation Ireland had found himself in.
Kenny was responding to barbs from the opposition benches who had attacked the government for apparently agreeing to a European arrangement where Greece will default on up to 60 per cent of its loans.
The opposition accused the government of priotising the European debt crisis over the country’s own affairs, saying Greece was being allowed to default on a massive portion of its loans while Ireland was not getting any such provision.
Fianna Fáil’s Micheál Martin and Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams had both attacked Kenny for apparently failing to secure any concessions on the bill for bailing out Ireland’s banks – which has come to public attention in advance of a repayment of Anglo Irish Bank’s bonds in November.
That repayment, due in eight days time, will see the now-nationalised bank repay $1 billion – around €720m – to the holders of senior unsecured bonds, although the government’s bank guarantee does not oblige it to cover those prices.
Adams had specifically pointed out that if this repayment did not go ahead, the government could use the money to pay Special Needs Assistants and fund hospitals and schools, saying “ordinary people were suffering at the bottom” while billions were still being given to overseas bondholders.
Adams urged Kenny not to give another “gift” to Anglo’s bondholders, and asked why it was acceptable to write down the debt of the Greek government but not that of Irish banks.
Kenny said, in response, that the Greek situation was far worse than that of Ireland, and repeatedly asserted that Ireland “was not Greece”.
The Taoiseach added that all of the current European negotiations were geared on ensuring that the problems being encountered by Greece – which may not now be able to return to the international bond markets for another decade – did not spread to other countries.
He also attacked the previous Fianna Fáil-Green Party government for signing off on the “horrendous legacy” of promissory notes to Anglo Irish Bank, which had given that bank enough funds to repay its bonds as they fall due, even when those bonds were not guaranteed.
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One optin is to tell the banks to sort out their own mess they got themselves into & give the taxpayers back the money theyve robbed from them. Not to mentin halving all government TD’s\Ministers\Assistants\etc etc salaries.
Unfortunately are bereft of ideas as to how best do this, or they would have mentioned them in Kennys statement. Notice how reluctant they are at really challenging the Banks to come up with some pain relief plan for themselves. mathew Elderfield thretened to do something and he was told, back off by the banks, so really we are were we are and people thought FF were bad!!! Taxpayers and other suffering will, under this administration (even if there is little alternative) suffer even more. Oh i hate doom and gloom!!!
@Alan – is there ANY alternative? Seriously? Special Needs Assistants, hospitals and schools, while just political ammunition to Adams, really could do with all that cash. Are the government doing the best of a bad deal, or could more be gained by doing as Adams says?
We are in the EU, it’s supposed to be a fair arrangement. Greece getting up to 60% off their debt is sending out the wrong message to Europe especially Ireland. If a similar deal isn’t struck for us then it’s time we rethink our membership in my opinion.
quite right
we would lose most of our trade as it’s all with EU countries, that would ruin the country even more!
We would be decimated without our inter-EU trade agreements! What a ill-thought out idea.
People in Europe (like elswhere around the globe) don’t buy from us because were in the EU, they buy from us because they either need or want our produce.
@ A Musgrave… China and India are not in the EU Dictatorship but they have the benefit of basically Free Trade with the EU, with no tarriffs on many goods and 3% on most of the rest, Free trade was the argument for us joining “the common market”, but the world trade agreements effectively done away with the reason we joined in the first place, We are in this mess because we gave away control of our own interest rates and control of our own currency, The EU as it stands and the Euro is destined to fail, you cannot have a common currency and not have the checks and balances which naturally regulate it and the economies which use it.
Basically the EU has to become all or nothing, Don’t think I want a United States of Europe! People fought for our Independance for a reason, it is sickening to see it being given away!
Hi A Musgrave…. I used to think the way you do but am beginning to wonder……………..
Whilst we have had a huge amount of grants etc down the years from the EEC/EC/EU I’m starting to wonder if we added it all up, would it total what we’ve lost in our fishing stocks for example?
Farmers have received CAP payments down the years, but when you see countries like Saudi Arabia, China etc buying HUGE swathes of agricultural land across Russia, South America, Africa, Australia to ensure they can feed their own increasing populations over the coming decades, then you have to note that agriculture i.e. food production will be a huge industry and we are well placed for that.
Remember also that our biggest trading partner is the UK and through negotiated trade agreements with them, we could have access to the Commonwealth nations.
We could still be a trading partner with Europe…. but the major upcoming world economies are the BRIC counties.
We’ve always been told about our “special relationship” with the US, because of English first language, education etc so no reason for that to change.
Also we could print our own cash… We could take control of our finances again. Didn’t Greenland leave?
also see how much of your taxes are going to the ECB now…..
http://bondwatchireland.blogspot.com/
If you totalled it all up I think you’d be horrified at how much membership of the EU is currently costing us
Stephen McLaughlin
India and China u said… how does a worker in Irelnad? minimum 8.75 phr! what about in india or china? E150 pa. that’s y talk talk and the others left ireland and that’s y these countries are dominating the world trade. capitalism talks everywhere!
So M. Martin is attacking/complaining? Wasn’t it the plonkers from his party that got us into that mess?
Remember the FG and Labour manifestos, the grand standing, putting a foot down, over our dead bodies rhetoric? All trashed now. Just another set of bait promises to hook the electorate. If Greece can achieve a colossal write down, the argument for Ireland demanding likewise is unassailable. Only the most perverse political masochism would demand even more sacrifices from citizens. The worry is that Kenny, Noonan and the boys will swallow the nonsense that the EU/ECB/IMF are actually ‘protecting’ Ireland by insisting it, the taxpayers, pay back every singe cent. Even a moneylender would blush before pushing that.
Where is our haircut?
I bet the ATM’s will still have cash when they do default. There’s another myth getting blown out of the water soon.
They had in Iceland.
It is the most inane argument I’ve ever heard. If I hear it threatened again I’ll throw my cushion at the telly.
fianna fail should keep quiet, its them tw*ts that got us into this mess in the first place
The EU will only act when they absolutly have no other option. The way they have handled the Greek crises shows this. I wouldnt expect any concessions any time soon.
We have already had a write-down of debt, in the form of interest rate reductions. We will get more similar write-downs. Morgan Kelly reckons we will eventually be given 50 years of finance at 2 percent or less. That seems more and more likely.
Is it desirable? Could we not leave the Euro and go back to the punt? Are there in fact any real alternatives?
It is possible to have more than one currency. It used to be quite common. Switzerland has had this for 80 years and are considering introducing a third.
Liberalising the issuance of currency wlll help mitigate against the collapse of the Euro.
http://www.feasta.org/2011/09/17/the-parallel-punt/
have your say