THE GOVERNMENT has criticised as “shallow” and “disingenuous” Fine Gael’s decision to vote against tomorrow’s Dáil motion on the Memorandum of Understanding with the European Union and the International Monetary Fund.
Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan was one of a number of Ministers who said Fine Gael’s decision was politically motivated and had the potential to provoke a nervous reaction in international financial markets.
Fine Gael countered last night by accusing Fianna Fáil of engaging in “political hypocrisy of the highest order” and describing tomorrow’s Dáil vote as a stunt.
On Sunday, Fine Gael announced it would be opposing the vote on the basis that it was a bad deal, that Fine Gael could negotiate a better deal, and that Enda Kenny, because of his involvement with the European People’s Party (EPP), would have greater sway with the European Commission.
But those claims were challenged by Mr Lenihan. He said he had spoken to European economics commissioner Olli Rehn, who had confirmed that Ireland could not renegotiate the interest rates for the rescue package.
Mr Lenihan said the IMF interest rates were set and could not be varied. He said that the European stability funds from which Ireland would draw down funding were also non-negotiable. He cited that lowering the 6.05 per cent ECB rate would mean persuading 14 different states, all of which had agreed it.
He also dismissed Mr Kenny’s assertion that he would have a better “in” with the commission. Mr Lenihan said that Mr Rehn was a member of the liberal grouping, which also counted Fianna Fáil as a member. He said that German chancellor Angela Merkel’s party was also a member of the EPP, to which Fine Gael is attached.
“If [Mr Kenny] wants to engage with Europe perhaps he should persuade Dr Merkel to tone down some of her comments in recent weeks,” said Mr Lenihan.
He did accept that there was room to negotiate some of the conditions from 2012 onwards.
Fine Gael deputy leader James Reilly said Fianna Fáil was adopting a hypocritical approach to the debate.
“They initially refused to hold a Dáil vote on the deal. Now they can’t wait to have one. The only thing that has changed is Brian Cowen’s need to keep his restive backbenchers happy,” he said.
“Fianna Fáil’s decision to vote on the bailout is a political stunt designed to deflect attention away from the dismal nature of the deal. Fine Gael has already made it quite clear that we regard the IMF-EU bailout package as a most incompetent piece of negotiation.”
He said he was certain key elements of this bailout could be renegotiated and said it made no sense to support a vote on a bailout which it intended to renegotiate.
Minister for Tourism Mary Hanafin accused Fine Gael of being populist and said it needed to say how it would raise the money.