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Matt vs Mario.
ECB President Mario Draghi has written a letter to Matt Carthy, after the Sinn Féin MEP raised a number of questions about the European Central Bank’s involvement in the Irish bailout.
Draghi told the Midlands North West MEP the ECB did not call on Ireland to burn bondholders.
I must be absolutely clear that the ECB does not have any authority to issue instructions to any euro area government or its ministers, in the same way as euro area governments and EU institutions are not in a position to issue instructions to the ECB.
However, he said he thought the decision to protect bondholders was the right one.
Draghi reiterated his position that the ECB cannot appear before the upcoming banking inquiry, telling Carthy:
“Owing to the ECB’s accountability to European institutions and primarily to the European Parliament, the ECB is not in a position to participate in inquiries conducted by national parliaments.”
However, Dragi did add that the institution “stands ready” to interact on an “informal basis, outside the context of the banking inquiry”.
Speaking on Morning Ireland, Carthy said he was not satisfied with Draghi’s stance, saying the letter “reinforces” the need for the bank to send representatives to appear before the inquiry.
“The letter is long and in some respects detailed, but it raises as many questions as it does answers,” Carthy stated.
Carthy said he and fellow MEPs “will do whatever we can to get any level of engagement” and called on the government and banking inquiry committee to “exert enough pressure” on the ECB to provide witnesses and documentation.
The legal structures needed to compel politicians such as Bertie Ahern and Brian Cowen, as well as senior bankers and institutions, will be signed off on today. It’s unlikely the ECB will be included in this.
Michael Noonan and Pearse Doherty had great craic during yesterday’s Oireachtas Finance Committee meeting – yes, really. Must be the spring weather.
There was good will on Twitter yesterday, after the adoption rights bill was passed in the Seanad.
Originally published: 9am
Go girl !
@Riddled Fidl: sound feen.
Bond Villain
@Dave Connolly: I don’t know much about him but there’s something very unusual about the guy that I can’t put my finger on.
Bill Gates is villfied by the anti vaxx crowd wanting to put micochips in the covid vaccines but Elon who publicly has stated his idea for putting microchips into brains gets a free pass.
@Ally Mc Culladgh: it’s a great idea. Could cure blindness, deafness etc
And once she gets the vaccine that’s her and the community under the control of the evil tech lords! I for one welcome all this, pump me full of the vaccine and give me unlimited data and a bucket of Monster and I’ll be set to go!
They’ll have their own satellites?!! And not just one – BUT TWO?!!! The thermosphere is about to get very crowded if individual satellites are required for everyone.
@Steve: no, they are shared satellites. The article is a bit unclear tho! They each get a dish for home…
@Steve: They don’t have many up there at the moment but in order to provide the sort of coverage they are looking for they are talking about 30,000 devices in Low Earth Orbit eventually. If completed it will literally change the look of the night sky.
However, it’s certainly a much more efficient solution to broadband supply in rural areas than envisioned under the National Broadband Plan. Under the NBP those people would (eventually) have to be tied in to the fibre grid which would mean building a mini exchange and rolling out a 10+ km of fibre to connect the scattered houses. For the same 4 customers.
Spacex estimate the cost of their network, when complete, should come in around the $10Billion mark. It will cover the entire globe. We’re talking about paying €3Billion to cover the island of Ireland. One of us is doing it *wrong* and I’ll leave it there.
@John Considine: we should be on the phone to SpaceX immediately and be asking to be a test country for this StarLink internet. Could save us a few billion…which is much needed.
@HarveyLemonade: To their credit, ComReg have made consideration for the provision of such a service almost 4 years ago:
https://www.comreg.ie/media/dlm_uploads/2017/07/ComReg-1726sR.pdf
I believe Starlink hope to be operating commercially here by the end of the year. Presumably that means the application process for licensing is going well. I believe the costs will be comparatively high to start though. I remember reading the bi-directional satellite dish was going to cost €500. Found the article on the Indo:
“The service costs €99 per month plus a €499 charge for the required satellite dish and a €61 delivery fee.”
@HarveyLemonade: been saying since before the NBP was launched. Old world thinking and way too expensive.
@John Considine: shame you’re wrong though.
Fair play.
Hang on. Were the government not paying somebody a shed load of money to do this already?
@Dave Thomas: they’ll dump it the minute they get fibre
I have heard about this Space Ex Broad Band in the states..
It is a satellite of sum sort if my memory serves me.. getting great reviews
The system is called starlink and it is based on the low ceiling of the satellites in orbit and all u need is a dish and away u go..
Price wise I think is an issue great at start but goes up..
But I’d say well worth it..
@Sportmad: I thin the idea is to make it affordable! Everything Elon does is an attempt to make things cheaper – electric cars, rockets, tunnels, solar panels and now broadband. He has already reduced the cost of putting a rocket in space by 10s of millions
@David Kelly: yes that is his Model but the cost of entry is Cheap about $500 inc all equipment and attachments as it’s a portable device mainly..
But the reviewers if I’m not mistaken are complaining about the nominal user cost which is very high..
It is an incredible product to be fair but look at the Tesla car price out of reach of majority
We are in a dead zone also, was promised high speed ISDN line by May 2006, still waiting…
However we’ve been notified that we will have high speed by the end of this summer which is a huge relief as long as it’s not another false dawn, we’re only 6 miles from Tralee!
@David Grey: I’m only 6 miles from cork city, fibre a 200-300 metres north, south and west of me. Not in NBI plans until 2024 at the earliest. I’ve already registered with starlink for service before the end of the this year. Pay 45 a month already for single digit speeds from Vodafone, 99 a month for starlink but will be well worth it
“Eeey”
Many individuals and biz stuck in broadband never-ever land may be interested in “Plan B for #NBP” which I recently sent to Gov ministers, TDs etc about National Broadband Plan & potential of low-Earth orbit LEO sats like #Starlink.
Summary: http://bit.ly/3cyDb1A
I don’t blame anyone for getting starlink in, but good lord I hate that company for what they are doing to the night sky. By the time they are finished they will have tens of thousands of satellites meandering across the night sky. Star gazing will never be the same for anyone on the planet ever again. Astro photography also horrifically impacted.
I’ve just seen the 60 satalites pass over caherdaniel co Kerry. It’s mad looking. 13/5/21. .
have your say