Fintan O’Toole: All that austerity was a mistake. Awfully sorry

A German official admits the cruel cuts imposed on Ireland were unnecessary

Fintan O'Toole

Ajai Chopra of the IMF in Dublin. Illustration: Eoin Coveney

Ajai Chopra of the IMF in Dublin. Illustration: Eoin Coveney

So it was a mistake, all that austerity, all those cuts that blighted people’s lives, all that squalor, all that doubling of child poverty, all that creation of mass homelessness. Awfully sorry.

This week, Prof Christian Kastrop, who was a key figure in the euro zone’s response to the great banking crisis of 2008 (he was president of the Economic Policy Committee of the Council of European Finance and Economic Ministers and of the Eurogroup) told The Irish Times Berlin correspondent, Derek Scally, that Ireland was hit with unnecessarily harsh austerity measures a decade ago at Berlin’s behest.

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