Dublin South West Sinn Féin TD, Seán Crowe, has described recent media reports of a proposed bank bailout for Italy, that will see the burning of bondholders at the insistence of the European Central Bank (ECB), as a ‘poke in the eye for Irish tax payers.’

Deputy Crowe, a member of the Oireachtas European Union Affairs Committee, described the Italian bail out approach as a blatant example of the double standards of the ECB and European Institutions when it comes to dealing with different EU States and their debts.

Deputy Seán Crowe said:

“Recent media reports that the proposed bank bailout in Italy will see the burning of bondholders, at the insistence of the ECB, once again highlights the burden and injustice inflicted on Irish people by the 2008 bank bailout, when bondholders and speculators were allowed to walk away from their debts.

“In a subversion of democracy, the interests of the Irish people were sacrificed by Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Labour for those of rotten banks and speculative bondholders.

“The failure to impose losses on senior bondholders to recoup some of the cost of the €64 billion bank bailout was a disgrace and this latest ECB poke in the eye proposal will only add fuel to that controversy.

“Irish establishment politicians and the European elite consistently told Irish taxpayers that bondholders could not be burnt and pressurised to follow through on paying these private debts.

“Former ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet went as far as warning the Irish Government that a ‘bomb would go off’ in Dublin if the Government attempted to burn the same bondholders.

“Sinn Fein has continuously argued that the large Irish speculative debt accrued by a small group of individuals was not the responsibility of Irish tax payers. It was a private debt and should never been forced on to the shoulders of Irish tax payers.”

Crowe continued:

“It seems that the ECB wants to treat Irish and Italian tax payers completely differently. Thanks to the new approach from the ECB and European Institutions some EU taxpayers won’t have to carry all the burden of the bloated excesses of their own wealthy gamblers and speculators, while others will. No taxpayers should have this burden forced on them.

“We know that the ECB is full of contradictions and continues to act with impunity.  Their undemocratic structures are designed in such a manner that it means that they are really answerable to no one but themselves. Their banking rules are written in stone for some and quite flexible for others.”

ENDS