Adams ignorant of economics, claims Fine Gael

GERRY Adams has been accused of showing “ignorance of economics” after the Sinn Féin leader outlined his party’s position on the public finances.

Reacting to a series of interviews by the Louth candidate and Sinn Féin leader, Fine Gael said it was obvious “nothing had changed” since the last general election when his party suffered as a result of his poor grasp on finance issues.

Fianna Fáil TD, Niall Collins, also suggested that with such “cynical and nonsensical contributions” Mr Adams “should follow Enda Kenny’s lead and avoid debates altogether”.

Asked on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland about his views on the Finance Bill through the Dáil, Mr Adams said: “The Irish people cannot afford this budget, we cannot afford to give a dig-out to these international bond-holders and these banks, and that is what this money is for.”

But FG’s Leo Varadkar intervened: “I’m not sure Mr Adams has actually read the Finance Bill but it is nothing at all to deal with bailing out banks or bond-holders.”

Mr Adams went on to say his party would unilaterally withdraw from the bailout deal agreed with the EU and IMF and rely instead on funds from the national pension reserve fund to run the country. Asked what would happen if the EU and IMF withdrew support Mr Adams said: “Let’s put it up to them.”

But if such action was taken, the European Central Bank and the IMF would simply cut off funding, meaning customer deposits would be at risk, according to Mr Varadkar.

In a later interview Mr Adams said SF “would close Anglo Irish, would close the Nationwide, would bring together the IIB and Bank of Ireland,” forgetting the names of Irish Nationwide and AIB.

Asked to respond to the criticism, Mr Adams denied charges of poor economic knowledge: “We have a clear position based on core values,” he said.