Irish bailout documents leaked to Bundestag

Ministers were left red-faced after the German parliament was given an EU review of the Irish bailout before the Dáil did.

In a repeat of a similar occurrence last year, the Bundestag’s finance committee received a European Commission paper which questioned whether Ireland should have cut public sector pay rather than reduce staff numbers.

The document also called for a speedy introduction of the Government’s long delayed reform of insolvency laws.

The report was compiled after a fact-finding mission to Ireland by the EU/ECB and IMF troika in April.

The document stated that the Troika was closely monitoring overspending in health and social welfare, and that a new pension scheme would be needed for public servants.

The European Commission warned that increased spending in these areas would need to be off-set by cuts elsewhere.

Social welfare reform and a need to re-skill workers were also cited as significant concerns in the report.

A European Commission spokesperson said it was “extremely regrettable, unfortunate and irresponsible” that the document had been leaked after being given to German TDs.

‘Irresponsible’ lapse

The German government has described the leaking of a draft report on the Irish bailout programme as “unfortunate and regrettable”, while the European Commission said it was “irresponsible”.

Commission spokesman Amadeu Altafaj said the document was not a formal troika report but was a paper drawn up by commission staff following their visit to Dublin in April.

Asked about the status of the paper, he said it was “draft or pre-draft” and was not due to be formally released until Jun 25. “Once again it is extremely regrettable. It is unfortunate and it is irresponsible,” he said.

A German spokesman said reports on countries under bailout programmes had to be circulated to the budget committee of the Bundestag under German law.

“It goes to a handful of officials and politicians and this is necessary under German law and in the interests of transparency,” he said.

“But it is not intended to be made public and we regret that it was made public in this way.”

— Ann Cahill