Troika’s arrival was a ‘bloodless coup’, says Enda Kenny

Outgoing Central Bank governor Patrick Honohan warned Taoiseach Enda Kenny that the Army was close to being deployed to protect the banks and ATM machines during the financial crisis, the Taoiseach said yesterday.

Opposition parties including Fianna Fáil and the Green Party have since disputed Mr Kenny’s version of events with some saying that he must clarify them – although it is not the first time Mr Kenny or other Coalition members have made such comments.

Last night Sinn Féin finance spokesman Pearse Doherty said the Taoiseach’s comments raised very serious questions as to why neither he nor Patrick Honohan entered “this very pertinent information into their evidence in the banking inquiry”.

He queried the veracity of the comments and said he had written to his banking inquiry colleagues “that this issue needs clarification from the Taoiseach and governor Honohan”.

Speaking at the European People's Party (EPP) congress in Madrid, the Taoiseach said the arrival of the troika had been a "bloodless coup", as he outlined the budgetary decisions the Government had made during the crisis, including the reduction of public sector numbers by a fifth and cutting the pay bill by 20 per cent.

In a wide-ranging speech to the European political group to which Fine Gael is affiliated, the Taoiseach said the general election would take place in "early spring" as he warned against dangers of populism.

He said the government he formed after the last election had “the biggest majority in the history of the State because the people had enough of the parties that had been there previously”.

He said that political stability was a key factor in securing economic growth, adding the current Government had further work to do. "To get your unemployment rate from 15.2 to 9.4 per cent [is encouraging] but to get it down from 9.4 to 6 per cent, where we want to be in the next period is even more challenging." Asked what he would do if he was Greek prime minister, Mr Kenny said he had already told the Greek leader Alexis Tsipras that "nobody is going to pay your bills for you".

“We had to make arrangements with the ECB and our colleagues at European levels to give us latitude to make our decisions to help improve our lot.”

Noting that growth in Greece was approaching 1 per cent when centre-right prime minister Antonis Samaras was leader, Mr Kenny said: "Populism is a danger to all democracies."

Mr Kenny was addressing delegates from centre-right parties from across the European Union, including members of Spain’s governing centre-right party, which is facing elections on December 20th.

Tensions

Meanwhile, Minister for European Affairs

Dara Murphy

was elected as vice-president of the European People’s Party, one of 10 centre-right politicians to be elected to the post yesterday.

His election was confirmed despite tensions within Fine Gael about his nomination amid expectation in Brussels that EU commissioner Phil Hogan or European Parliament vice-president Mairead McGuinness would be put on the ticket.

Ahead of the vote Mr Kenny said Mr Murphy was an "outstanding candidate" for the position, which has previously been held by the Taoiseach himself, former Fine Gael junior minister Lucinda Creighton and former taoiseach John Bruton.