Sunday 16 September 2012

THE DIRTY DOZEN w/e Sept 23rd 2012

On October 1st a €1bn unsecured unguaranteed AIB bond will be paid, that's almost a third of all the combined extra taxes/cuts proposed for Budget 2013, yet not a word about it in our media, the people abandoned to the market sharks.

Leo Varadkar can state on national television that the Promissory Note for 2013 can be dealt with as was the P Note of 2012, transformed from contentious debt to locked-in Sovereign Bond repayable in the late 2020s, and not even be challenged. It's official government policy now to bequeath debt that was never ours in the first place to future generations, a shameful legacy that goes unchallenged.

People are leaving in droves; those of us who stay will be paying bondholder bank debt not just next year, not just for the next ten years - for generations. And again, all this is fine - let's just beg for improved terms and conditions.

Our Finance Minister annouces that he's going to sit back and wait to see what kind of deal Spain can cut with the ECB, then hopes to piggy-back on that deal - this is how you negotiate on behalf of your people? 

Our Health Minister cuts 600,000 hours from home help for the elderly, every minute of every hour of which is precious to those individuals, even as our banks bleed billions of our money to their failed bondholders - these are the values of a society in which you want to live?

In Ballyhea and in Charleville we're now in week 82 of our protest against all the above but this week we're taking the show on the road. Today (Sunday, Sep 16th) we were in Ballyhea, Charleville, Adare and Limerick; tomorrow (Monday) we're in Nenagh, Roscrea, Portlaoise, Kildare, Newbrige, Naas, Bray and Dublin, full itinerary details here.

We finish up on Tue in Dublin with a march from the Garden of Remembrance to the Dáil, to demand that this term, this government gets off its knees in Europe, puts away the begging bowl, and insists on justice - end the bank bondholder bailout, burn the Promissory Notes, reprint the billions destroyed in the Notes of 2011 and 2012, cancel all bank-related debt to Europe, refund the €21bn taken from the National Pension Reserve Fund.

Time, Enda and Michael, to get tough.


2 comments:

  1. Interesting how you NEVER mention the DEFICIT. Your country is BORROWING to fund Social Welfare, Pensions et al. It is spending €15 Billion MORE THIS YEAR than it is taking in, in taxes just to fund services and pensions and Social Welfare. Your country is grossly overspending to fund itself. It is not all down to the banking debts problem. Foreigners are helping to fund YOUR DEFICIT. Your last government went random in the Celtic Tiger period. Sure you are bust since 2008. THE DEFICIT is the elephant in the room that is being ignored. Wake up Ireland. You have a catastrophic DEFICIT problem since 2008. Your tax revenues are not sufficient to fund spending. This requires painful medicine. There is no easy way out of it. Anybody who claims otherwise is an economic illiterate.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It is not as black and white as you think.
      The reason the social welfare bill is so high is because of the 450k off job seekers unable to find work. There is no growth so companies will not employ people and those who are lucky enough to have work are probably doing two jobs. I am trying my hardest to get work, I've deferred a masters whilst currently on a cloud computing course. Like it or not, well paid people put aside wages for a private pension (which is tax free) that is their right.
      The tax shortfall is increasing and everyone can not survive on less income plus growth is contracting.
      Personal debt either by loans, credit cards or mortgages are extremely high and unsustainable. Yes, people went overboard with cheap credit from banks and yes they should have shouted stop but no-one did. Personally I don't believe anyone, especially banks, regulators or politicians who did see this coming down the track, quite simply, if they didn't then there are serious questions to be asked about their competence and lack of responsibility/ownership of the current crises.
      We need to stop paying bondholders, if they choose not to read and understand the T&C prior to signing on the dotted line that is not our problem. They are as responsible for their own losses as everyone else.

      Delete