SF says bank debt now sovereign debt

THE GOVERNMENT’s open-ended commitment to cover bank losses plainly exceeded the State’s fiscal capacity, said Sinn Féin finance spokesman Pearse Doherty.

“The losses of the banking sector have become the losses of the taxpayer. Bank debt has become sovereign debt, and that is the problem. And it is the ordinary citizens who are suffering for these failings.”

Mr Doherty said the Minister for Finance should realise that the time for “sticking-plaster solutions” was long gone.

“What are you and your Government going to do? Are you telling the people of this State that they are going to foot a further €24 billion for a defunct banking system?”

He accused the Government of believing that the point of unsustainability had not yet been reached. “The point of unsustainability is the iceberg that will sink this State.”

Stephen Donnelly (Ind, Wicklow-Carlow East) said he was concerned that the Government’s plan was not radical enough and it did not address underlying structural issues. The banks had the same managers and were operating in the same stressed market.

Joe Higgins (SP, Dublin West) said Fine Gael and Labour would continue Fianna Fáil policy “to the letter”. “Where is the fighting talk of the Labour Party today? It is only six weeks ago that it was firing salvo after salvo in the direction of Frankfurt and the European Central Bank.”

This was “an abject and shameful capitulation without an excuse or a word of apology. The giant casinos that are the financial markets in Europe have won again.”

Catherine Murphy (Ind, Kildare North) said it was the fifth time a figure had been given, but the question was not whether this was the final one but why should the taxpayers carry this liability at all.