Financial experts from the European Commission and IMF will arrive in Dublin today, to continue discussions over a bailout for Irish banks, latter now inextricably tied to our overall country’s present economic greed.
New figures from the Bank for International Settlements have now disclosed that England faces the biggest potential losses from any meltdown in our economy, with British banks having loaned more finance to the this government, it’s consumers and businesses, than any other country in the EU.
The British Chancellor Rt. Hon. George Osborne, MP, part of the old Anglo-Irish aristocracy and heir to the Osborne baronetcy of Ballintaylor, in County Tipperary, has pledged to help Ireland after new figures showed British banks have a £140 billion exposure to our beleaguered nation.
British Chancellor, George Osborne, MP, heir to the baronetcy of Ballintaylor, Co Tipperary
The Chancellor attended crisis talks in Brussels to discuss the growing debt crisis in Ireland with the Royal Bank of Scotland amid the growing fears that an Irish collapse could have a serious knock-on effect in Britain, Mr Osborne said that the Treasury was considering all options for financial aid.
Mr Osborne said:
“We are going to do what we regard as being in the British national interest and Ireland is our closest neighbour, so it is in our national interest that the Irish economy is successful and that the Irish banking system is stable. Britain stands ready to support Ireland on the steps it needs to take to bring about that stability. I won’t speculate on what kind of assistance we might provide. There are options, and we are looking at all of those.”
EU and IMF officials will carry out intensified, short and focused work in the Irish Finance Ministry to study the possible cost of Ireland’s banking crisis.
Senior EU officials confirm that a multi-billion cash injection could be ready within five to eight days following agreed decisions to intervene. The announcement of a bailout would be co-ordinated with a four year Irish austerity programme of public-sector cuts and the possible setting up of a fund which would prop up Irish banks against problems experienced in the future.
Meanwhile yesterday Brian Cowen TD continued to deny that the Irish government was talking about an EU and IMF rescue. Mr Cowen stated: “There has been no question of a negotiation for a bailout. There are no negotiations going on. If there were, the government would be aware of it, and we are not aware of it.”
However, his comments are been totally undermined by other senior financial figures in Europe who all confirmed yesterday, that talks between the two sides about a rescue package had continued throughout the weekend. Belgian finance minister, Didier Reynders, even joked that the basics of the EU bailout had been agreed, “Now that we have the answer, we are just waiting for the question, despite there being no request seeking help from the Irish Government“.
Today, speaking on RTÉ Radio’s News At One, Thurles born Mary Hanafin said a contingency fund, may be one of the options being examined. She said the Government’s aim was to protect the taxpayer and that a resolution would not be at any cost. Hopefully Brian Cowen was watching.
The Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan, earlier today, told the Dáil that if a substantial contingency fund arose following from talks with the IMF and the EU it would be a ‘very desirable outcome‘, however he said they were not at that point yet. He stated “If the Government have been reticent in public comment about contact with our European partners and the International Monetary Fund, it is to protect the taxpayer“.
It seems that this present government is, understandably, not being totally honest with those expected to now ‘carry the can ‘ for their unpardonable failures. A rescue deal will be deeply unpopular with the Irish electorate and any such move to implement a bailout is likely to meet strong resistance from Fianna Fail, hence their adolescent public dishonesty. Our riches-to-rags transformation will be seen as humiliating to their party faithful and most certainly to their electorate as a whole.
One of the dangers we, as a country, now face is that European leaders are likely to demand that Ireland increase its low Corporate Tax rates as the condition of any future bailout agreement. This danger is echoed by Josef Proll, the Austrian finance minister. Our low-tax regime is responsible for pulled in foreign investment from America and other non-European companies, fuelling our growth rates over the past 20 years. European Commission officials, drawing up the terms for any EU bailout, to close off Ireland’s widening budget deficit, will signal that Ireland will have to raise taxes to boost our states future revenues. Since most of any future help will come from a €374billion European Financial Stability Fund, which is funded by Euro countries and the support of all countries will therefore be needed, since part of this aid package will come from a £50 billion EU emergency fund, underwritten by Britain to the value of £7 billion.
Over the coming months we will know if we can keep our National Anthem, our Vertical Tricolour, our President, our totemic use of the Irish Language and hopefully England will be prepared to kill the fatted calf, following our recent secession from the dominion of the British Commonwealth in 1922.
It is with regret, that I report that we as a nation no longer see democracy in action presently here in Ireland, which begs the question; “How can a Government tell us, that we must pay increased taxes for drastically reduced services, when that Government continues to misuse funds in a cynical and contemptuous way?
The blame lies with each and everyone of us, because we wilfully elected, and therefore deserve, our current batch of so called politicians. We, because of our own personal greed, refuse to vote beyond the vision of our own narrow petty interests and even now fail to make current protests in any positive or cohesive manner. In frustration, we throw eggs, cheese and paint at our Minister for Health, which now justifies the government continuing to allow ministers to swan about using fuel guzzling Mercedes Benz, together with garda drivers to ferry them around like rock stars and all in the interests of national security.
We now must begin to envisiage Ireland as a Nation and not a collection of constituencies, yet we now will have a situation that when the by-election for a seat in Donegal falls to the opposition parties, and it will, this puppet government will have its strings pulled by Michael Lowry TD and Jackie Healy-Rae TD, at the expence of the Nation as a whole entity.
If this be democracy then “Cead mile failte romhat, a Shlanathoir”, the Shlanathoir or saviour in this case being the IMF.
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