This isn’t part of the bailout, minister

I TAKE issue with Minister for Communications Pat Rabbitte on the question of the €700m recently paid to speculators who bought unguaranteed bonds at knock down prices and made a killing when the government paid the full face value of the bonds.

Paying this money is not part of the bailout. The ECB want the money paid because it is in their interest but it is not in ours. The IMF are not part of this bullying strategy.

The budget will be looking for savings of €3.8bn and we have just thrown away €0.7bn. Converting non-government bonds to government bonds and paying full face value is not in the national interest and I seriously doubt that the ECB have the power to impose this legally. I have no confidence in this government in terms of how it spends our money.