Protesters urge new Finance Minister to act on cancellation of Third World debt
Around 50 members of the Debt and Development Coalition gathered outside the gates of Leinster House in advance of yesterday’s Cabinet reshuffle. Former Foreign Affairs Minister Brian Cowen was later given the Finance portfolio.
Spokesman Eamon Stack said: “The new minister for finance is our representative at the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. We want him to ask for 100% debt relief without any condition and without taking away the aid already available.
He said countries such as Zambia were paying one third of their revenue to service debts while average life expectancy had fallen to 37 years in the past decade.
Many of the protesters said they had seen at first hand what crippling debt repayments did to poor countries.
Sister Eileen from Belfast, who worked in Nigeria and Ghana for 26 years, said there was no money available for education.
“We had people there who couldn’t afford to go to school. I can hardly go to bed at night thinking about it,” she said.
Sr Eileen praised the attitude of the young people who turned up to the protest, including 20 transition year students from Scoil Chríost Rí in Portlaoise.
They displayed a collection of postcards signed by TDs from all politicalparties.
Labour Party TD Joan Burton said the people of Ireland wanted a differentapproach to debt relief from the Government.
“I hope the minister for finance will go to the World Bank as a persuader for the justice of debt cancellation. At the moment I think the shots are still called by people who don’t understand the conditions that people in Africa are living in,” she said.
Ms Burton added that it was possible for these countries to lift themselves out of poverty if they were given a chance. “If you look back at Ireland 30 years ago we weren’t exactly at the top of the economic list. But with loans, grant aid, investment in education and basic services we’ve transformed our own country. In the case of many African countries it might be a bit slower but a lot of them have the capacity to do it.”
The protesters marched to the Department of Finance to hand in their postcards calling for debt relief, along with a petition, to Mr Cowen.
