Wednesday, March 31, 2010
FINE Gael has lashed the Government for asking taxpayers to bear an enormous burden without any evidence to show why its strategy was right.
Fine Gael finance spokesman Richard Bruton said the Government should have been under obligation to prove why the opposition’s banking proposals could not be implemented.
He said Finance Minister Brian Lenihan was expecting taxpayers to trust the judgment of a Government without enough evidence or justifiable track record.
"This is a huge gamble that we are being asked to just accept is the least worst option," he said.
He was especially critical of the protection afforded to Anglo Irish Bank and the volume of money the Government was prepared to pump into it over the next 15 years: "I believe what the Government is doing is choosing to nurse Anglo and the bad decisions of the past to protect professional investors."
He said the cost of Anglo’s reckless actions would be carried by children yet to be born.
"We have the obligation to pay off all that money. And that is wrong. This is hard cash that will be on our children’s children’s children. It is they who will have the obligation to pay it," he said.
Labour’s finance spokeswoman Joan Burton said there was a massive burden on "every man, woman and child in this country".
And this was because of "socialism for bankers and socialism for developers".
She said it was like a Shakespeare tragedy that began in hubris that carried on to destroy the country but not the bankers.
Ms Burton said thenational debt would almost double and the payment promises Mr Lenihan had made to Anglo, Irish Nationwide and EBS would affect every budget for more than 10 years.
She said in Anglo’s case €1.8bn would be taken out of current spending every year for 10 years and this would limit what successive finance ministers could spend on services.
Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny also drew parallels with what the bailout would mean for the services people expect.
He said Government deputies would vote to support cuts to special needs teachers, adding that these were the effects of the Government’s mismanagement of the economy.
Sinn Féin’s Aengus O Snodaigh said there had been no bailout for ordinary people, like himself, who invested in Eircom shares and lost money at the time.
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