EU ‘ripping off’ Ireland with €9bn profit on loans, Higgins claims
As teams from the troika of the EU, ECB and IMF began work in Dublin on their latest quarterly review of progress made under the bailout agreement, TDs criticised the interest rates being charged on the loans as “incredible”.
“It appears the posse of men who rode into town last November posing as good Samaritans are ripping off blind the Irish people,” Socialist Party TD Joe Higgins said.
He called on Taoiseach Enda Kenny to schedule a debate before the Dail’s summer recess on the “the incredible €9bn rip-off”.
People before Profit TD Richard Boyd Barrett said the troika was applying “cannibal logic” to Ireland, which involved “destroying our economy and our services, supposedly in order to save them”.
The bailout, he added, was “sucking us dry to the tune of €9bn”.
In response, the Taoiseach said the Government had inherited a deal “signed by the previous administration”.
The €9bn figure relates only to the profit which the EU and Britain stand to make from the bailout.
The EU is providing loans from its rescue funds, while Britain is providing a bilateral loan.
The €9bn does not include the potential profit the IMF could make on the loans it is providing.
Nor does it include the potential profit on the bilateral loans being provided by Denmark and Sweden, as the agreements on these have yet to be finalised.
The overall profit on the entirety of the bailout package, therefore, could comfortably exceed €9bn.
Meanwhile, Mr Kenny confirmed that European Council president Herman van Rompuy did put forward a compromise at a summit in March which would have secured Ireland an interest rate cut on its EU loans in return for discussions on a common consolidated corporate tax base (CCCTB).
The proposal would have committed Ireland only to discussions and would have ended French demands for an increase in the Irish corporate tax rate.
The Irish Examiner reported earlier this year that Mr van Rompuy was shocked when Mr Kenny rejected the proposal.
Questioned on the issue by Fianna Fáil leader Micheal Martin yesterday, Mr Kenny confirmed that a compromise was put on the table but that he rejected it because it was “not acceptable”.
Mr Kenny said: “It was an attempt by the president to bring forward a text which he thought might be acceptable, but I rejected it.”
Ireland is still attempting to secure a cut in its interest rates.
