Italian Bank Bailout and Ireland

Sinn Féin MEP Matt Carthy has said reports that the proposed bank bailout in Italy will see the burning of bondholders, at the insistence of the European Central Bank (ECB) highlights the injustice inflicted on the Irish people by the 2008 bank bailout in Ireland and the double standars of the ECB.

Carthy, a member of the European Parliament’s Economic & Monetary Affairs Committee, said:

“Reports that the proposed bank bailout in Italy will see the burning of bondholders, at the insistence of the European Central Bank (ECB) highlights the injustice inflicted on the Irish people by the 2008 bank bailout in Ireland and the double standars of the ECB.

“Since my election as an MEP, I have continuously highlighted the toxic and undemocratic nature of the ECB.

“In particular, I have continued to emphasise the need for the ECB to take responsibility for the part which it played in foisting tens of billions of banking debt onto the shoulders of Irish people.

“Former European Central Bank president Jean-Claude Trichet warned the Irish Government that a “bomb would go off” in Dublin if the Government burned bondholders.

“In a subversion of democracy, the interests of the Irish people were sacrificed for those of rotten banks and bondholders.

“The ECB can continue to act with impunity as their structures are designed in such a manner that means that they are answerable to no one.

“Unfortunately due to the undemocratic structures of the ECB and the fact that it is accountable to no one, the ECB continues to abdicate responsibility for its role in bailing out the Irish banks.”