THE GOVERNMENT must act in the interests of the people and not the banks, Donegal South West TD Pearse Doherty said today.
Speaking in Dublin in advance of the stress tests results, Sinn Féin Spokesperson for Finance set out his party’s position.
He said: “Already today Anglo Irish bank and Irish Nationwide have been paid over €3 billion in promissory notes and this evening we will find out that tens of billions more is being shovelled into the State’s banks.
“The Government needs to put three objectives at the core of the Government’s response to this banking crisis. We need to reduce the liability to the State, to ensure that there is a functioning banking system and the Government need to restore confidence in the Irish economy.
“The Government can’t solve the State’s debt problem by creating more debt. Up until now it has been the taxpayer but now the Minister needs to ensure that at a minimum €21 billion of unguaranteed bondholders take a share of these losses.
“While the Minister claims this will draw a line in the sand and this will be the final figure, this is a guarantee he cannot give. There are now serious questions as to whether the criteria for the stress tests have been adequate.
“After today, each working person in this State will be shouldering the burden of €39,000 of bank debt. This needs to stop. This is unsustainable. The Government needs to act today in the interests of people, not banks.”
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