Labour wants proof over Anglo bailout

LABOUR leader Eamon Gilmore will withdraw his charge of “economic treason” against the Taoiseach if Brian Cowen produces the documentation to show Anglo Irish Bank had to be bailed out.

Mr Gilmore is still standing over the controversial claim, which provoked a passionate response from Mr Cowen in the Dáil last month.

He said the Taoiseach claims he made the decision in September 2008 that Irish Nationwide and the now-nationalised Anglo Irish Bank and Irish Nationwide should come under the bank guarantee on the basis of advice available to him.

“We want to see what that advice is, we want to see what documents that lead to the Taoiseach to include Anglo and Irish Nationwide under the blanket guarantee,” Mr Gilmore said yesterday.

He said this guarantee has put the Irish people “between a rock and a hard place” because it has “locked us into a situation where it’s going to cost thousands of millions of pounds to keep these banks going and it’s going to cost thousands of millions of euro to have them wind up.”

Mr Gilmore said: “That’s why I made the charge that I did make and if he can produce advice and satisfy us that the decision to provide the guarantee to Anglo and Nationwide was a soundly based decision and was a decision based on the public interest then I have no hesitation in withdrawing the charge.

“But today he hasn’t produced any evidence of that. In fact, the only excuse he has given to date is that there wasn’t any written advice at all which I must say I find hard to believe.”

In an interview earlier with Today FM, Mr Gilmore defended his decision not to take a position on the Croke Park deal on which public sector workers are being balloted.

He said there were “dangers down the line” if the issue became politicised and he did now want to “make a political football” out if it.

Mr Gilmore said his party will pursue a strategy of “trying to bring about a defeat of the Government in the Dáil” by forcing votes on contentious issues.

He also challenged the Government to proceed with by-elections to fill three vacant Dáil seats, in Donegal South West, Dublin South and Waterford.

“It’s quite clear they are running away from holding them and that is evidence of a Government that is just serving out its time and is afraid to face the people.”