Benefits of Anglo deal must tackle jobs slump, says Burton

Social Protection Minister Joan Burton has warned the troika that the benefits of the Anglo promissory note deal must go into battling unemployment.

Ms Burton brushed aside suggestions that the bailout chiefs are uneasy at Labour’s push to use the money freed up by the agreement to soften the impact of this year’s budget.

“I think the troika, no more than myself, must be very, very aware of the difficult news that unemployment in the eurozone countries is at 11% and overall in the EU at 10%,” said Ms Burton. “They are shockingly high figures, and in Ireland it’s 14.6%.”

She also dismissed claims that the Anglo deal, which should cut the country’s borrowing requirements by some €20bn over the next decade, could be in danger of falling apart.

Ms Burton said the EU recognised that the agreement was good for Ireland and the rest of the union.

Ms Burton a and Labour colleagues are pushing for benefits from the deal to be used to ease the pain of this year’s budget to the tune of up to €1bn.

Ms Burton’s budget stance was backed by Siptu, which called for the Anglo savings to be used to boost the economy.

The union’s general president, Jack O’Connor, said the resources should go to job creation and halting welfare cuts.

“The Government must grasp the opportunity presented by its recent promissory note deal to abandon the misery of one-sided austerity and launch a stimulus plan for jobs and growth,” said Mr O’Connor.

“The public should be assured that the €500m cut in social welfare spend pencilled in for 2014 will not proceed and that there will also be no reduction in health service spending. Apart from providing some sense of financial security for lower and middle income families, this would also shore up consumer spending.”

The remarks came as the German Bundesbank’s monthly report stated that the Irish Central Bank’s involvement in the promissory note deal is “problematic”.