Sinn Fein county councillor Gerry Murray has described the intervention of the IMF in Ireland's current economic crisis and the offer of a bail out by the British government as the end of nationhood and the taking of the 'Saxon shilling' by a government that “has sadly lost all sense of national pride”.
“The last vestiges of Irish sovereignty are now being relinquished in a most shameful and ironic manner,” Cllr Murray said. “If this Government had any sense of irony, much less history, they would have politely declined Britain's offer of a bail out.
“Over the last 10 years via various EU treaties we have relinquished our right to formulate and articulate our own independent foreign policy, added to that we have now effectively given up the right to formulate our own economic policy. But arguably the most shameful act of all by this Government was the giving away of our oil and gas resources, the very means that would have given us a sustainable exit strategy from the worst economic crisis in the history of the country.
“We are in a daily worsening economic crisis brought on by the policies of the Fianna Fáil/Green Government and its predecessors. They have put the people in hock to international money-lenders and put in jeopardy the State’s remaining economic sovereignty.
“What is needed now is not a British or EU bail-out that will further indebt us. What is needed is a credible recovery plan – credible both nationally and internationally. This requires the abandonment of the Government’s disastrous banking policy, the renegotiation of all our oil and gas deals, and the removal from office of the Government. We need a general election as soon as possible and at all costs. We must try to prevent the passing of the threatened slash-and-burn Budget which will deepen the recession.”
