Eamon Delaney reviews An Irish Voice by Niall O’Dowd
April 12, 2010
Eamon Delaney reviews An Irish Voice by Niall O’Dowd
The O’Brien Press
14.99 euro PP287
Niall O’Dowd chronicled a crucial part of my life, and the lives of thousands of others. When I went to New York in 1990, to work with the Irish Consulate, the newspaper that O’Dowd founded, the I...
Fine Gael finance spokesperson Richard Bruton blogs about Anglo
April 01, 2010
It will cost every family €2,000 per year. Every family, every year. And that is just the interest payments. As a result of the Government’s bail out plan for the banks every family will pay €2,000 per year just to pay the interest on the money being borrowed to pour in to our banks. Think about that figure. Maybe the price of a family holiday; a new suite of furniture; or perhaps college registration fees for a child going on to third level. All that cash, from every family, every year just to pay the interest on the debt being racked up to bail out Anglo Irish Bank, Irish Nationwide and the others. Debts built up because of their reckless banking practices watched over and encouraged by an absent Regulator and a Minister for Finance who just looked the other way.
And still no admission of guilt or acceptance of responsibility from Fianna Fáil for the mess they helped create. Worse than that, instead of realising that their banking plan has failed miserably to achieve what it set out to do, admitting the mistake and changing policy they push on and stick with their failed plan. Through stubbornness or ignorance they refuse to realise their mistaken approach and persist in pouring good money after bad. The worst of all cases is Anglo.
The taxpayer is now facing a bill of €40bn, and counting, for bailing out Anglo Irish Bank and the reckless debts it ran up under the stewardship of Sean Fitzpatrick. This is real money. Not Monopoly money or some magic source of free money from the European Central Bank as many Government spokespersons would have you believe. This is money that Fianna Fáil and the Greens are borrowing to support their failing banking policy, but you and I and our children are the ones that are going to have to pay the bill.
To put that figure in to context the Government will collect just over €30 billion this year in all forms of taxation. Income tax, VAT, Corporation tax and all the rest. This is the money we have to pay for schools, hospitals, Gardaí and all the services we all depend on so much. But in the blink of an eye that sum, and €10 billion more, has been poured in to Anglo.