'Lame bank rescue policy' has led country to the brink

THE TAOISEACH and the Minister for Finance had “cruelly and ineptly” exposed Ireland to the mercies of the international bond markets, according to Labour’s deputy leader and finance spokeswoman Joan Burton.

“The catastrophic pursuit of a lame bank rescue policy has led the country to the brink, where not only is our primary banking structure at risk, but the rating of Ireland as a sovereign State hangs in the balance,” she said at the start of the two-day Labour Party “think-in” yesterday. “Fixing broken banks, in the long run, is a difficult but technical matter of restoring our credit ratings and getting debt renewals at reasonable interest rates, comparable to those that apply in Germany.”

She said a new government, “without the historical baggage of the crony capitalism of Fianna Fáil”, could restore Ireland’s reputation and reduce borrowing costs.

“Addressing the jobs issue is about fixing our society. The recession in Ireland is due largely to the collapse in domestic demand, as the International Monetary Fund has acknowledged,” she said.

“Confidence is the most important and elusive quality in getting our economy moving again. Deflationary policies will simply prolong the cycle of decline that the Government has locked the economy into. We need to give confidence to people in employment that they can hold their jobs. We need a series of confidence-building measures for small and medium-sized businesses that it is worthwhile investing again, and that credit lines will be restored for sustainable investment.

“The Labour Party has set out a series of initiatives that would act as confidence-building measures, both for businesses and for the 466,000 people who are currently unemployed, that they will find work again,” Ms Burton said.

These included setting up a strategic investment bank; abolition of upward-only rent reviews, and creation of a meaningful internship programme for recent graduates and qualified apprentices.