Majority of public want us to obey bailout
A smaller but still sizeable number are against compliance, believing the bailout agreement represents a bad deal, according to a Red C opinion poll for the Irish Examiner.
The Government’s own performance has come in for criticism in the poll, with a clear majority of those who expressed a view believing that the Fine Gael-Labour Coalition has not done a good job of managing the economy.
The findings come exactly a year to the day after the previous administration held a press conference to announce the €85 billion bailout.
The agreement is set to run until the end of 2013.
Asked if the Government should continue to comply with the terms and conditions of the bailout, 48% of respondents agreed. One in three disagreed, while 22% had no opinion.
Part of the reason for the high number of people in favour of continuing with the bailout may be a lack of faith in the Government’s own economic performance.
Asked if the Coalition had done a good job of managing the economy since being elected in February, 45% disagreed, 29% agreed and 26% expressed no opinion.
Less clearcut, however, is the public’s view of the Government’s performance in renegotiating the bailout, with the figures narrowly in favour of the Coalition.
Asked if the Government had reneged on its election promises to demand a better deal for Ireland, 39% disagreed, 36% agreed, while 25% had no opinion.
The closeness in the figures may reflect the fact that, while the Government did secure an interest rate cut on the bailout loans, it has not burned senior bank bondholders.
There are also mixed views on whether Ireland should hold a referendum seeking a write-down of its debts, were such a plebiscite possible.
Asked if the Government should hold a referendum seeking debt forgiveness, even if this would mean additional cuts in exchange for a debt write-off, 39% of people polled disagreed, 34% agreed and 27% had no opinion.
Writing in today’s Irish Examiner to mark the first anniversary of the bailout, European Commission vice-president Olli Rehn insists there is “light at the end of the tunnel” for Ireland.
“Continued, strong implementation of the programme is the best way for the Government to repair the damage that has been done to the economy due to the excesses of the past and to lay the foundation for sustainable, job-rich growth in the future,” Mr Rehn wrote.
But Government TD and banking expert Peter Mathews argues that the terms of the bailout agreed last year were an EU/ECB “stitch-up of Ireland” and that the stitch-up “remains firmly intact”.
The poll of 1,010 adults was conducted by telephone between November 14 and 16. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.2%.
