Debt claim demands a response - IMF chief criticises debt deal

YESTERDAY’S assertion by Ashoka Mody, the former IMF chief of mission to Ireland, that Enda Kenny’s Government “blew” an opportunity to get a deal on debt write-down and a “slower pace of austerity” from the troika when it took office four years ago, will hardly enhance the reputation of the Coalition.

It again raises questions that Fine Gael and Labour must have hoped had been left for history but now need to be answered — once again it seems that a what-might-have-been is at the centre of Irish life.

Mr Mody’s claim will re-energise the impression that the country’s situation was so very difficult, so close to calamity, that our Government was happy to accept almost any terms to avert collapse and the very real prospect of social chaos.