German Chancellor Angela Merkel has dealt a major blow to Ireland’s hope for an Irish bank debt deal by stating that no funds from the new European Union bail out fund can be used retroactively.
Last June Prime Minister Enda Kenny told the Irish media that the new fund would be used to pay down ireland’s bank debt which is over $100 billion, the amount the Irish taxpayer paid to bailout their bankrupt banks.
Merkel made her remarks after a meeting in Brussells at which there was widespread speculation that a deal had been agreed to restructure Ireland’s debt.
Instead she made clear that none of the new bailout money would be used retroactively.
Merkel stated bad assets held by Spanish and Irish banks would not be dealt with by the €500bn rescue fund called the ESM -- and stated the money could only be used for future crises.
She said "There will not be any backdated direct recapitalisation. If recapitalisation is possible, it will only be possible for the future, so I think that when the banking supervisor is in place we won't have any more problems with the Spanish banks -- at least I hope not," she said. Though she did not mention Ireland it is also included.
Back in June Kenny though he had a deal that it would be used retroactively and stated it was a "seismic shift".
Irish government figures rushed to limit the damage.
"Do we believe retrospective debt is still alive for Ireland? Yes," a source said.
However, Fianna Fail's finance spokesman Michael McGrath said the statement from Merkel "completely undermines the credibility of the Government's approach to the negotiations on bank debt".
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Switch to the desktop site to post a comment.curtisjohnson | Oct 21, 2012, 07:23 PM EDT
Jacers, that's essentially correct - their banks are leveraged and reliant on the European ponzi scheme and cannot afford to have a Euro exit/default. I think she is 80% bluff.
Towngate | Oct 21, 2012, 03:59 PM EDT
Btw ... anyone know what has happened to the disappeared 'sirpeter'? have I missed something?
Towngate | Oct 21, 2012, 03:46 PM EDT
jacers! @0807 Yeah, Kevin might be 'the-boy-at-the-back' of the class, but have you never thought of blaming the cunning devisive Inglishmen for making 'There' and 'Their' sound the same in order to plant strife amongst the narives! ~~~~~ A GARDA SPOKESMAN SAID: "Shur, da counthry has niver been shart av tick Micks! Imagin' fallin' far dat wan ... mixin' up 'der' wid 'der' ... what nixt?"
jacersagain | Oct 21, 2012, 06:02 AM EDT
Curtis - Pardon my iggerance if you please – but are you saying that Germany doesn’t have any money either, despite what their blissfully-ignorant blustering country’s leader, Dr. Merkel, claims? If so, then I agree. If Germany has money, then the rest of the world has… erm, missed something, or been thieved under their noses. Guess where that point is going to go…
curtisjohnson | Oct 20, 2012, 10:57 PM EDT
Moreover, the Germans are also loaded with bad debt and their own banks are part of the european ponzi structure - their government tries to keep these truths from the sheeple by acting tough and bluffing - in the end it needs the system to survive and cannot risk the exit of one of the PIIGS from the EU. Ireland should have at most guaranteed the deposits of its banks for Irish citizens and then withdrawn from the EU. It seems the model to follow is Switzerland's (Norway's requires massive oil/resource wealth and is more appropriate for Scotland).
curtisjohnson | Oct 20, 2012, 10:45 PM EDT
The compulsory bailout of the trans-national creditors of international banks by the Irish taxpayer was truly a criminal swindle. If any nation can be said to have benefited from the swindle, it would have to be Germany. The Dublin criminals and institutions that effectuated the bailout were the same forces that led to the obsession with anglo-materialsm and mass consumption. Without their toxic influence, there would have been no financial crisis/bubble. Hopefully, the anglo vision of industrial estate Ireland is extinguished forever but it is difficult to be optimistic.
jacersagain | Oct 20, 2012, 08:07 PM EDT
Townie - I actually thought Kevin's comment was more of aspiration than a capable achievement. He can't be an educmacated person, 'cos be spells 'there' where it should be 'their'.
Towngate | Oct 20, 2012, 07:44 PM EDT
KevinKehoe: Excellent comment. I might just take issue with the 'poor farmers' and their guaranteed Single Farm Payment - irrespective of what they produce, but I agree with the insanely high Irish Salaries and Welfare payments. On the Bailout Funds - we should remember we are striving, and are obliged, to pay back the money we begged for, in order to prevent the total collapse of the Country. Halve the benefits, State related Salaries and Pensions,sequester all Irish earned personal and company capital held abroad; just until the debt is paid off. It sounds harsh, but prices would soon drop and adjust to the new economic climate.
jacersagain | Oct 20, 2012, 07:37 PM EDT
Good post by seanomelbourne, putting up-front truth. D’yez know what? With all this talk of banks having no money, despite what we blessed privileged plebs save up with them, I’m convinced that money doesn’t exist. Nope, it don’t… ask former Lehman employees, for example. They played around with other people’s money, only to find out that it didn’t exist. As for Dr. Merkel, IMO she’s a looney, completely out of touch with all who live in the EU. Shame on her and her cohorts. If there's no such thing as money, how come there can be a bail-out "fund"? Political leaders like Merkel and Kenny need to be taught the history and origins of "money".
seanomelb | Oct 20, 2012, 06:28 PM EDT
Bob40wil! the Irish did not make the bed, the bankers and government raped and pillaged the economy and forced the Irish to pay their debt. Sounds similar to what happened in America. Did they (the Americans)make their own bed and now have to sleep in it??
aloistmartin | Oct 20, 2012, 05:57 PM EDT
Enda Kenny as Oliver Twist; " More Please "
Pittsburghkid | Oct 20, 2012, 02:19 PM EDT
Merkel is right. Ireland should not be a welfare state. Ireland should pull out of the EU, and become a tax haven for the rich. Low taxes will attract the wealth from Europe.
KevinKehoe | Oct 20, 2012, 01:54 PM EDT
The German Chancellor and the rest of European nations that have strong economies and keep control of there spending and are suppling the bailout money to the weaker nations keeping them afloat are not stupid. Among other things they know only to well that my own country Ireland as well as Greece, Spain and Italy are fundamentally corrupt and somewhat incompetently run. In the case of Ireland the IMF and the ECB have stressed to Irish politicians that they should not be consecrating so much on cutting essential services for there citizens but on cutting high salaries and being more efficient in how they run there country. They are fully aware that the past government as with the present one are paying themselves way to much for a small country along with the high ranking civil servants who are among the highest paid in all of Europe. They also know the Irish working & middle-class along with small farmers are squeezed almost dry so that these overpaid & self-righteous traitors keep there creature comforts while there citizens suffer. Hence the cringing & spineless behavior of Kenny and his crew at the recent & past Europe summits. Its up to us Irish to get our house in order and rid Irish society of there parasites once and for all and then we will get fair hearing from Europe. Strong Irish Leader backed up by a strong Irish nation.
bob40wil | Oct 20, 2012, 01:19 PM EDT
Ireland made their bed, now they have to sleep in it, their economy is owned by the EU now.
jamthecat | Oct 20, 2012, 12:42 PM EDT
The world is being run by stupid, stupid people who have no sense of decency left in them, and Andrea Merkel epitomizes it all. "The facts may show that I am wrong and you are right, but I'm in control, so I am right and you are wrong and that is all there is to that." Stupid. The best thing Ireland could do, right now, is go back to the Punt and tell the Euro to take a hike.
CitizenWhy | Oct 20, 2012, 12:29 PM EDT
When you give up your currency you give up your sovereignty. The Republic of Ireland is once again reduced to a Free State under the domination of Germany.
Searlit | Oct 20, 2012, 12:19 PM EDT
She's starting to look at little like Margaret Thatcher.
WoundedKnee | Oct 20, 2012, 11:41 AM EDT
The Irish government won't do this, because they are spineless, but a genuine Irish people's government would tell the EU that Ireland cannot afford the 1 billion per year that it spends on welfare and other benefits for foreign migrants. Ireland has never received one word of thanks from the EU or from the countries concerned--Poland, Latvia etc. Further, it would inform the EU that in view of the national emergency Ireland is facing, free movement of EU citizens will no longer apply in the case of Ireland. If that means some Irish won't be allowed into Lithuania or Slovakia, so be it--they'll survive.
cillowen | Oct 20, 2012, 10:34 AM EDT
why should she care about the dead.
miltonedunn | Oct 20, 2012, 10:08 AM EDT
Could be that the GOP caused your debt with another war true?
Portia777 | Oct 20, 2012, 09:41 AM EDT
Merkel stated bad assets held by Spanish and Irish banks would not be dealt with by the €500bn rescue fund called the ESM -- and stated the money could only be used for future crises." What planet is she living on? So, she is creating future crises ? and providing the money/mere paper to solve them. That is simply insane logic. There is no debt. Debt was created out of thin air by banks creating money when people asked for loans. So, why not print paper money, so all have food, shelter etc? or would that mean the 1% loose power and control over the wee slaves of Eire. Go on Alan and Enda- you know the solution.