Fine Gael TD calls for bank debt writedown

A Fine Gael TD has insisted the Government must seek a writedown of Ireland’s bank debt, in a direct contradiction of the Taoiseach’s stance on the issue.

Enda Kenny has thus far refused to seek any reduction of the bank debt, and is instead seeking alternative ways to ease the burden, such as a lower interest rate.

But Peter Mathews said the Government simply had to go back to the EU and the ECB and seek a writedown. “I’ve been emphasising the need to bring it to Frankfurt and to Brussels — that it is only right and just that we would insist on a writedown of the debt that has now fallen on the people of Ireland.”