Irish Left Review - Joined up thinking for the Irish Left

There is much to dislike in the former IMF chief economists Peter Boone and Simon Johnson’s prognosis The European Crisis Deepens about the prospects for the Eurozone, particularly one of the three parts of their recommended solution being much deeper austerity for the next 10 years in countries like Ireland. There assessment is inevitably a right-wing one, but still I think its worth reading if only confirm the suspicion that creating the Euro in the first place was a very bad idea - one driven, as John Ross has shown, by the needs of economies that due to the scale of modern production needed a fixed exchange rate area right across their main market.

Boone and Johnson’s analysis also reinforces John’s original argument that a fixed exchange rate across vastly different economies simply will not work. However, at the moment this failure is being paid for by ordinary people. It’s also worth bearing in mind while reading the following quote an earlier point made in a section called Economics of Austerity May Fail.

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Statement from Repudiate the Debt Campaign

Once again the Government is handing over public money, this time €1.25 billion, to pay off the bond-holders of Anglo-Irish Bank. This callous, odious and unjust debt is taking a heavy toll on the Irish people.

This odious debt imposed on our people by the EU and ECB is simply costing the lives of the sick and of children.

There is no other solution than the complete repudiation of this debt. No tinkering with promissory notes or the like will address the simple fact that this is not the people’s debt, and it is not their responsibility to pay it through massive transfers of wealth from our country and our people, with a callous “austerity” programme and cuts in health, education, and social welfare, all just to save the German and French banks.

Repudiation of this debt is they only way to stop the savage attacks and the heavy price tags forced on our people.   The governments strategy of no bondholder left behind is killing our people.

Paul Doran

Co-ordinator

087 6837650

On the evening of Wednesday 18th January, the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC) held a protest against an official Israeli parliamentary visit to the Oireachtas. This visit of two Israeli Knesset [Parliament] members and their entourage was kept secret by the Irish state until the evening before the two MKs arrived. With less than 12 hours notice, the IPSC organised a protest of over 40 pro-Palestine activists outside the gates of the Dail to coincide with the MKs’ official meeting with the Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade and Tanaiste, Eamon Gilmore TD. The MKs were ushered in via a back entrance due to unspecified “security concerns”.

According to a report in the Irish Times (written by resident Israeli Zionist journalist Mark Weiss), MK Rueven Rivlin, the Speaker of the Knesset, was present “at the invitation of his Irish counterpart, Ceann Comhairle of the Dáil Sean Barrett, who was hosted by Mr Rivlin last July”. Incidentally, this visit too was kept under the radar, though a report in Friday’sIrish Times quotes MK Rivlin as saying “[as the Ceann Comhairle was leaving Israel] he hugged me and said it was a really great experience”.

The other members of the Israeli delegation included MK Yitzhak Herzog, Mira Ratzabi, Director of the Knesset Foreign Affairs Department, two advisors to MK Rivilin, his spouse, and two Israeli “security officers”. While initially billed as a “parliamentary exchange”, the fact that Mrs. Ratzabi was present, along with high level meetings with Irish President Michael D. Higgins, Minister Gilmore, and an audience with the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade suggests that this was far more than a mere parliamentary exchange. It appears the Israeli regime, which has long had its sights trained upon Ireland as a ‘dissenting state’,  is making a conscious effort to ply hasbara [propaganda] to the current political leadership of Ireland.

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Ireland is not Greece:  we get a lot of that from Government ministers, Troika officials and commentators.  This truism, however, says less than it purports to.  Yes, Ireland is not Greece.  Ireland is not Belgium, Romania, Brunei, the Yukon Territory or Idaho, either.  Of course, the message is that Greece is a basket-case that no investor would want to go near for decades; whereas they are ready to queue up to lend to Ireland in bucket-loads.  Therefore, the more we can distinguish ourselves from Greece, the quicker we can get back to business as normal.

But there’s one interesting measurement that shows that Ireland is definitely not like Greece - it’s actually worse.

When one looks at overall Government debt, it seems that, while Ireland is in a bad state, Greece is far, far worse (all estimates are based on Irish Government and IMF projections).

In 2015 Government Debt as a % of GDP

• Greece:  165 percent
• Ireland:  115 percent

Okay, we’re above the projected Eurozone average (88 percent) but, whew, at least we’re not like Greece.

However, when we remove international flows (e.g. profit repatriation, etc.) and use GNP, or GNI which is almost the same thing, the comparison alters (Greek GNI is assumed to be the same proportion of the GDP in 2015 as in 2010).

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Press release from Debt Justice Action today, following the ‘incendiary’ remarks from Minister Leo Varadkar. See also this very clear Q&A explaining Anglo/INBS promissory notes, Emergency Lending Assistance (ELA), the role of the Central Bank of Ireland, the ECB and the liabilities of the Irish state.

The campaigning network Debt Justice Action has today dismissed claims from Minister Leo Varadkar that failure to pay the debts of the defunct Anglo Irish Bank would trigger a ‘financial bomb’ in Dublin. Their network’s campaign - Anglo: Not Our Debt - is calling for the suspension of Anglo/INBS repayments as a first step towards renegotiation and write down of this debt.

Campaign spokesperson Andy Storey said that the suspension of Anglo payments would not spread contagion through the European financial system as most of the Anglo debt is owed to central banks and Anglo is an isolated problem from the so-called ‘pillar’ Irish banks. Dublin Community worker John Bissett said that social and economic ‘bombs’ were already going off in deprived communities as a result of cutbacks: “That such pain should be inflicted on those who are already most marginalised, while the gambling debts of zombie banks are paid off, including the unsecured Anglo bond of €1.25 billion falling due on 25th January, is unconscionable” said Dr Bissett.

Jimmy Kelly secretary General of Unite trade union said “The campaign is calling on the government to open negotiations with the Irish and European Central Banks, who bear co-responsibility with the Irish government and the Anglo bankers for the creation of the unjust Anglo debt.”

The bulk of the re-payments are government issued “promissory notes” - a promise to pay money in future - to Anglo/INBS which will cost Ireland over €30 billion during the next 20 years. The campaign proposes that all payments to Anglo creditors should be suspended pending negotiations until a write down of the debt is agreed.

Nessa Ní Chasaide of global justice organisation Debt and Development Coalition Ireland (DDCI) said “the lesson from Africa, Asia and Latin America is that ruining whole societies to repay illegitimate debts is wrong and unworkable - a solution must be based on cancellation of illegitimate debts that ensure lenders are held accountable for their mistakes, rather than sacrificing people’s rights to fear of financial markets. Some indebted countries have taken effective action - for example, Ecuador, after auditing its national debts, suspended some debt repayments in 2008, showing debt reductions are possible.”

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This is a comparison between the number of vacant housing units uncovered by last year’s census, compared with the social housing needs of the state on a county-by-county basis, as provided by the Dept. of the Environment.

The excel file of this information is here.

Below is a graph of the ratio of vacant housing to social housing needs:

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