SUGGESTIONS THAT SPAIN may have secured a better deal on its EU bailout funding than Ireland have been rejected by junior minister Brian Hayes.
Hayes said it was “just not right” to suggest that the fourth eurozone bailout is being offered on terms more favourable than those given to Ireland.
He said that the bailout deals were fundamentally very similar, but Spain had a tighter timeframe in which to impose austerity measures – meaning they could potentially be more dramatic.
Speaking on RTÉ’s This Week, Hayes said:
They have got a two-year period to correct that deficit to under three per cent, which means very, very difficult choices in terms of tax and expenditure. To present this as some better deal with Spain is just not right.
Hayes said many features of any agreement would be the same. “There will be a memorandum of understanding there will be conditionality in terms of the financial sector, the troika will be involved.”
Sinn Féin today criticised the government for not winning a better deal from the troika. A spokesperson for the party said:
It is clear that Spain has got more favourable conditions on EU loans than the Irish government did. Many people will ask why the Fine Gael-Labour coalition could not have secured the same terms.
Hayes also echoed finance minister Michael Noonan, who said yesterday that the Spanish bailout would be positive for Ireland as it would bring a stability to the eurozone that would enable our economy to grow.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say