Letter to today's Irish Times:
Sir, – Ireland’s debt repayments for the now dead Anglo Irish Bank
and Irish Nationwide Building Society (INBS) will reach over €47.9
billion if the repayments are not suspended. The bill could even rise
to €85 billion when borrowing and interest charges are added in. The
debts run up by these two institutions are not primarily the
responsibility of ordinary people living in Ireland – they are
principally the responsibility of those who supported Anglo’s and INBS’
reckless lending.
Yet we have been saddled with repaying the
debts through a system of “promissory notes”. The next payment,
amounting to €3.1 billion, falls due on March 31st. Such payments are
scheduled to continue until 2031.
This money could and should be
used to maintain and expand public services and provide a desperately
needed stimulus to the depressed economy. For example, €3.1 billion
would cover the cost of running Ireland’s entire primary school system
for a year.
It is clear that the Irish Government is viewed as a
compliant debtor by the international lenders, especially by the
European Central Bank (ECB). The Government must take action to
fundamentally re-orient this unbalanced relationship.
We, 57
teachers and researchers from a wide range of Ireland’s third-level
institutions, therefore call on the Government to immediately suspend
these repayments so that Ireland is viewed as a challenging negotiator
by the relevant parties, including the ECB, and to ensure that this
unjust debt is written down. – Yours, etc,
