TAOISEACH BRIAN Cowen has denied that Irish sovereignty will be compromised by any rescue plan agreed with the joint European Union-International Monetary Fund delegation, which arrived in Ireland yesterday.
Mr Cowen also rejected any suggestion that the arrival of the IMF represented an abject admission of failure.
“I don’t believe there’s any reason for Irish people to be ashamed and humiliated,” he said.
During the course of a 15-minute press conference yesterday, the Taoiseach repeatedly refused to be drawn on any outcome of the discussions, other than to say that the Government had made no formal application for a loan and that technical discussions would be taking place this week.
Mr Cowen defended his communications strategy on the basis it was premature to disclose any information until the negotiations had come to an end. The Government was acting in the best interests of the taxpayer, he said.
Specifically, he would not confirm if the comments from Central Bank governor Patrick Honohan that a facility of tens of billions of euro would be made available reflected the view of Government.
He disputed several time that he had been muddying the waters or “speaking in riddles”.
“Work has not been sufficiently completed, or options put before the Irish Government in sufficient detail, for us to decide what our ultimate position will be. We are engaged in those discussions in an open and transparent way,” he said.
Asked to respond to comments by Prof Honohan that Ireland would be offered loans amounting to tens of billions of euro, Mr Cowen said that Prof Honohan was entitled to his view, but he indicated that the Government had yet to concede that point ahead of its negotiations with the EU and IMF.
“At the moment we are in the process of working out what the best options are and I think that is what people would expect of a government that is working to protect the interests of the taxpayer,” he said.
Mr Cowen, when asked about yesterday's Irish Timeseditorial arguing that the sovereignty generations of Irish people had struggled for had been squandered, rejected the proposition.
“There is no question of a loss of sovereignty for Ireland . . . Those sovereign decisions that are there for us to take regarding putting order on public finances [are being taken],” he said.
Mr Cowen said the focus of the discussions would be on the banking problem and its implications for the euro. Ireland had ceded sovereignty in this area when joining the euro but the process would not impinge on Ireland’s sovereignty on tax or on fiscal matters, he added.
“The important point here is that we are working with partners to come up with a solution to deal with the currency area generally. We want to do that in a way that brings certainty and confidence.
“It will be the sovereign decision of the Irish Government, on behalf of the Irish people, that will decide what shape any package would be, were we to decide that that is in our best interest,” he said.
Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan also told the Dáil that the reason the Government had been reticent in making public comments was because negotiations were ongoing and it wanted to act in the best interest of the taxpayer.
He said if a substantial contingency fund arose from the talks with the International Monetary Fund and the European Union it would be “a very desirable outcome”.
However, they were not at that point yet, he added.
Green Party Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources Eamon Ryan accepted that the Government “may need help” from Europe.
“I don’t have a problem with that, and I don’t have a problem recognising the scale of the problem,” he said. “What we need to do is get the terms and conditions right.”
Mr Ryan said the Government would publish its four-year fiscal plan about the middle of next week.
He did not expect that the level of cuts in the plan or next month’s budget would have to be amended as part of the terms of the rescue.
In an interview with Sky News, Mr Ryan said there was not a question of “humiliation” in accepting a bailout, and that terms such as bailout were “slightly pejorative”.