The three-pronged team of inspectors that presided over the bailouts of euro-area countries, including Greece and Ireland, should be scrapped and replaced with a European Union-based body, EU Economic Commissioner Pierre Moscovici said yesterday.

The remarks by EU Economic Commissioner Olli Rehn to the effect that Ireland should not question the squandering of over €3.1bn to pay back promissory notes to speculators in a dead bank is the latest masterclass in arrogance, courtesy of the country’s new EU overlords (Irish Examiner, Mar 14).

THE Government has insisted it can push through the budget despite losing yet another TD who departed with a stinging rebuke to Taoiseach Brian Cowen.