On
Sunday last we in the Ballyhea/Charleville Says No group marched for the 69th
week in protest at the continuing bank bondholder bailout. In the march with us
was 6-month-old Patrick O’Brien, brought along by his parents John and Clara,
who in turn had been alerted to our protest by John’s parents Pat and Frances.
Patrick O'Brien, b. Jan 2nd 2012
On
Monday Irish Nationwide Building Society (INBS) paid out two bonds which
between them came to over €600,000,000; on Tuesday and Wednesday, Anglo pay out
two bonds which between them come to over €500,000,000. Both those banks are
zombie banks, now owned entirely by us, kept open for the single purpose of
paying off bonds; all four of those bonds are unsecured, unguaranteed.
Here's
what Michael Noonan said about the bank bailout in the Dáil just two months
before becoming Minister for Finance: "The Minister for Finance (Brian
Lenihan) reduced social welfare payments, punished the blind, disabled, widows,
carers and the unemployed and he taxed the poorest at work, and for what? It
was so that the taxpayer can take on liability for debts the country never
incurred and arose from private arrangements between private institutions. What
a disaster and an obscenity."
Here’s
what the same Michael Noonan said a couple of months into his tenure as
Minister for Finance, in an RTE interview in the US with Richard Downes: “I put
my cards face up on the table, saying, ‘Look, it’s no longer a bank. Anglo is
now merged with Irish Nationwide. It’s a warehouse for impaired assets. Its
deposit base has been moved out into the pillar banks. And it doesn’t work as a
bank anymore. You can’t put your money on deposit in Anglo Irish. You can’t get
a loan from Anglo Irish. So the only thing that gives it the name of a bank is
because it has a banking license. It needs the banking license to access the
monies from the Central Bank. So I said that as far as I am concerned, this is
not a real bank. This is a warehouse, and we need your assistance in dealing
with the senior bond holders because we don’t think the Irish taxpayer should
have to redeem what has become speculative investment.”
On
Monday I was 59 which puts me in the same generation as Michael Noonan, Enda Kenny,
Eamon Gilmore and Pat Rabbitte, the same generation as Brian Cowen and Brian Lenihan
of the previous government. I look at the legacy my generation is passing on to
the generation of John and Clara O’Brien, to the generation of young Patrick O’Brien.
And I am ashamed, ashamed and angered. Instead of confronting a problem that is
of this generation – even if not fully created by ourselves – we have allowed ourselves
to be blackmailed and bullied into a situation where we are now raising
generations of debt-slaves and/or emigrants.
My own kids are aged 23 and 21 and the liklihood as of now is that for most of their working lives they will be paying off this massive bank debt, with interest. As things stand, and if you too
are of this generation, this is our legacy to them, the result of the inept, incompetent and - worst of all - spineless governance by our own.
You
CAN do something about it. With €30bn of Promissory Notes to be fought for,
with €50bn in bank bonds yet to be paid, this war is far from over. Join us.
March with us in Ballyhea and Charleville or start your own march. But protest,
take a stand. Before it IS too late.
Regards,
Diarmuid O'Flynn.
