Cost of reckless actions ‘borne by generations’

PEOPLE will be paying the price of Irish banks’ reckless borrowing for many generations to come, the Irish Congress of Trade Unions has claimed.

Speaking at his organisation’s biennial delegate conference in Tralee yesterday, ICTU general secretary David Begg said: “At the end of 2003, net indebtedness of the Irish banks to the rest of the world was just 10% of GDP. By early 2008, it had jumped to over 60%.

“Without large-scale foreign borrowing by the banks, the property boom could not have grown as it did. The cost of unwinding the consequences of this will be borne by Irish people for generations to come. It is an outrage.”