Cork Protest at 700 Million payout to Anglo Irish Bank Bond holders.
CorkSaysEnough .
Protest at 700 Million payout to Anglo Irish Bank Bond holders.
Wed Nov 2nd
1pm Anglo Irish Bank, Anglesea Street
AND THE LUCKY WINNER OF THE €700 MILLION IS....?
On November 2nd, Ireland will hand over a cheque for €700 million to an unnamed ‘bondholder’ of Anglo-Irish bank.
Unfortunately it will only be the first of another series of pay outs. On January 25 next year, a further €1.41 billion will be paid and in June that will be followed by €1.05 billion. In total, over €3 billion will be handed out to Anglo-Irish bondholders.
These pay offs are to unsecured bondholders. In other words, to rich bankers or hedge funds who received a higher rate of interest because they, apparently, took a greater risk. These gamblers are not even covered by the notorious bank guarantee scheme introduced by the Fianna Fail government.
In June of this year, government Ministers said they would not pay them. Michael Noonan stated that ‘I don’t believe the taxpayer should have to redeem what has become speculative investment’. Brendan Howlin claimed that these particular bondholders were ‘legitimate targets for a haircut’.
But they once again they have broken their promises.
IN a pathetic gesture of submission, Noonan travelled to Brussels in September to meet the European Central Bank chief Jean-Claude Trichet. Trichet’s sole interest has been the protection of bankers and centres speculators and so he told Noonan to pay up.
Here is how Noonan explained his capitulation,
‘I asked Trichet for his advice. I know him fairly well now and he is a very good and fair man. He has been dead against ( refusing to pay).’
The words may sound like those of an errant schoolboy who was asking permission from his master. But this is actually how an elected Minister of an independent state explained himself. Moreover, this was the very man who promised to engage in tough negotiations to relieve the debt burden on the Irish population.
Yet Noonan and Howlin will now rob the poor and vulnerable to expand the coffers of the rich.
If the government had chosen not to pay over the €700 million, they would be no need to screw PAYE workers with a Universal Social Charge this year. There would also be money left over to pay for extra Special Needs Assistants in our schools and a proper fuel allowance to elderly people, who are threatened with death from hypothermia this year.
If they had chosen not to pay over the full €3.4 billion to Anglo-Irish bondholders there would be no need for savage cutbacks in the December budget.
Of course they will do none of this, because this government answers only to global financial interests – not to the people.
Their contempt for their own population is so deep that they will not even reveal who are the lucky recipients of their generosity.
The United Left AllianceTD, Richard Boyd Barrett, has asked the government on two occasions to name the bondholders but each time he has been given a fob off answer. This week he has once again submitted two written questions:
‘To ask the Minister to name the original purchasers of the bonds that are now being paid out in the €700 million payout to bondholders on 2 Nov.
To ask the Minister the names of the bondholders to whom the cheques are written that make up the €700 million payout on 2 Nov and the amount payable on each cheque.’
Should any information be forthcoming, Socialist Worker will provide it immediately. But in the meantime, we need to come onto the streets to cry to high heavens against each outrage.
For too long we have been suckers – now it is time to act.
CorkSaysEnough .
Called by Cork Says Enough