The Irish Congress of Trade Unions calls for the Government not to repay Anglo loans
Tuesday 1 November 2011The Irish Congress of Trade Unions today added its voice to the calls for the Irish Government not to repay the $1billion or €700 million bond to the unsecured and unguaranteed senior Anglo-Irish ‘Bank’ bondholders, tomorrow, Wednesday 2nd November.
Paul Sweeney, Chief Economist, said that now as the Greeks got a 50 per cent write down on all their debt, the moral obligation, (just as there is no legal obligation) on Ireland to repay all of this sum is greatly undermined.
This is a private, not sovereign debt, run up by Irish private sector bankers. The Irish taxpayer gained nothing whatsoever from this loan. A billion dollars makes up a high proportion of Irish public spending in this time of unprecedented austerity.
The ECB, worried primarily about bank solvency (and inflation), will be annoyed, but will not be able to do anything about any Government imitative on negotiation of this “debt”. The ECB stood by when these
