Anglo payment - Time to stop crying wolf

There is no way of sugarcoating the payment of €1.2bn of public money to private Anglo bondholders.

Not in the unlikely event that Michael Noonan, the finance minister, arrives back from Frankfurt with a cut in the punitive interest rates on the borrowings we have for propping up the collapsed bank. Not even if we had the satisfaction of knowing exactly who are these secret gamblers who ostensibly took a risk on investing in Anglo but carried no loss on its demise.

But just as there is no way of the Government putting a positive spin on the pay-out, there is no sense in continually fear-mongering about the implications of not paying.

Talk of a “bomb” going off if the bondholders were not sated (Leo Varadkar), of no money to pay salaries of teachers and nurses (Eamon Gilmore), and of all-round “catastrophic consequences” (Enda Kenny) only serves to fuel public anger.

For too many people the bomb has already gone off and the catastrophe of losing a job, home, dignity, prospects and hope is already upon them.

When people are already being savaged, it’s time to stop crying wolf.