Sinn Féin election candidate, Thérèse Ruane, has accused Eamon Gilmore of being entirely disingenuous in relation the IMF/EU loan. She insists that it’s time Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Labour explain how they will repay the €67.5 billion loan at exorbitant costs to the Irish people.
Cllr. Ruane said: “The Labour Party is talking about trying to re-negotiate the interest rate on the EU loan. This misses the point. The fact is that if they believe we cannot afford to pay the interest, can they explain to the electorate how they are going to repay the €67.5 billion loan beginning in four years time?
“The simple fact is that this loan is the result of a bad deal negotiated between the outgoing Fianna Fáil-led government and the EU and IMF. Over half of this loan will be put into insolvent banks. The debt servicing on the State’s debt by 2014 will be €8.7 billion.
“We cannot afford this level of debt. We cannot even afford to pay the interest never mind the loan itself.
“This is the worst type of auction politics. Fianna Fáil say don’t worry. Labour and Fine Gael say they will renegotiate part of the interest rate. They need to come clean and explain to the electorate how they intend to pay all of this money back on top of an exchequer deficit of €18.7 billion.”
