Call for ECB to examine costs of Irish loans

One of the country’s leading consumer advocates has called for Irish MEPs to mount a campaign in Brussels to highlight the comparatively high-interest rates banks are charging Irish companies and households.

Dermott Jewell — policy adviser at the Consumers’ Association of Ireland — told the Irish Examiner it was unacceptable that while the ECB set rock-bottom rates to stimulate the eurozone economy that the costs of Irish loans were substantially higher than anywhere else.

The call came on the day that ECB president Mario Draghi stoutly defended the independence of his central bank against attacks from German politicians, who have claimed the ECB’s policy of ultra-low interest rates is hurting savers and pensioners in Germany.