Deputy Noel Coonan has described the €85 billion EU-IMF bailout package for Ireland as a “heavy burden on the shoulders of every taxpayer for the next ten years”. The international rescue package has been accepted by our inept Government but the local Fine Gael TD said the package has not been accepted by the people of North Tipperary and South Offaly who continue to be weighed down on a daily basis by insurmountable mortgages and repayments.
“What further worries me is that this Government is using the National Pension Reserve Fund to help provide an additional €10billion in capital to the banks on top of what we have already sacrificed for their ineptitude. The banks could end up receiving €35billion in total to clean up their mess and this will all be shouldered by taxpayers,” said Deputy Coonan.
“It’s immensely disappointing that this Government did not negotiate an interest rate of less than 5.8%. This average rate charged by the EU and IMF has cast a black shadow over our independence which we fought so hard to achieve. We will receive loans from Britain, Sweden and Denmark and right now I feel the country’s spirits are at a new low with the continual dismal news of budgets and bailouts cancelling Christmas for everyone.”
Fine Gael believes the EU-IMF rescue deal had the potential to secure an EU agreement on a jobs growth package and also an agreement to share the costs of rescuing the banks with the bond holders but “this Government failed on all counts”, according to the Tipperary North TD. The package comes with a number of strict economic guidelines and the loans will take 10 years to repay.
Deputy Coonan continued: “This Fianna Fáil-led Government, and the two North Tipperary Deputies who have supported it, have recklessly governed our country. They led us to believe that we were living in a Celtic Tiger bubble that would never burst. They are not and were never fit to be at the wheel and sailed our sacred boat straight into turbulent and chaotic waters. Consequently, we have lost control of our ship and placed ourselves in the hands of international nations.”


