DUBLIN – Niall Shanahan, Communications Officer of the Impact trade union, has blogged Irish workers that the repayment of Ireland’s bank debt ‘has already cost you 9,000 euros personally’.
‘It has cost all other EU citizens an average of 192 euros each,’ he continued.
‘Regardless of your level of interest in economic matters, most people know that Ireland has an enormous debt burden. It’s safe to assume that most people also understand that a big chunk of it is because of our banks. . .
‘Well this week we discovered just how much that debt accounts for in the EU. Eurostat figures confirm that Ireland has repaid the biggest chunk of debt in the EU.
‘We’ve all paid 41 billion euros to date. That’s only about a billion more than Germany, but we top the league in terms of the amount of cash that all the EU countries have paid; and the big difference between ourselves and Germany, is that 41bn euros is 25% of our economic output (GDP). In Germany the 40bn euros they’ve paid is just 3% of GDP.
‘Next on the list is the UK. 10bn euros paid, representing just 0.5% of their GDP.
‘After that, there is a really…really big drop off. It means that the European banking crisis, to date, has cost every individual in Ireland almost 9,000 euros each.
‘The average amount per person in the rest of the EU is 192 euros. No wonder we’re patted on the head and told we’re the best.
‘It’s sobering to think that Ireland makes up just 0.9% of the EU population, and the Irish economy makes up 1.2% of the EU’s GDP. We’re a tiny piece of the EU economic jigsaw, yet we’ve paid 42% of the total cost of the European banking crisis.
‘Our total bill is 64bn euros. After our fifth year of austerity budgets, and an agreement to give us a deal on the debt, there are no signs yet of that happening other than the confidence expressed by our own Government that a deal can be done.
‘Paying what we have paid already has meant massive job losses and another generation of Irish emigrants who have little choice but to go. And crippling personal debts. If we are not relieved of the remaining debt burden, Ireland will be forced further down the current path.
‘We have contributed more than enough to prove our credentials. But we will suffocate if we are forced relentlessly to focus on repayment.
‘Without a deal on the debt, trying to meet this cost will further contract the economy, which will make it impossible for the Irish economy to grow. . .
‘The Febuary 9th rallies are a unique opportunity to protest the root cause of our economic crisis, as opposed to the effects of the economic crisis, which is what most protests have focused on since the crisis hit.’
