THE QUESTION FINE GAEL WOULDN'T ANSWER
During
the recent European elections a succession of Fine Gael candidates wouldn't
answer the following simple question: what will happen to the €500,000,000 the
Central Bank gets when it sells the first of the Promissory Note Sovereign
Bonds later this year, is that money destroyed?
In
a subsequent interview on Matt Cooper's popular drivetime Today FM programme,
newly elected Fine Gael MEP Brian Hayes likewise wouldn't give a straight reply
to that question.
Even
in the Dáil, responding to three separate Parliamentary Questions, Finance
Minister Michael Noonan wouldn't reply. ‘The Central Bank is independent in the
exercise of its functions and the management of its investment holdings is a
matter for the bank itself. Neither I nor the Department of Finance have
any role in those matters’ said
Minister Noonan. Slightly bemusing, considering Michael was one of the
primary architects of the deal that gave birth to those notes.
PATRICK HONOHAN GIVES US THE ANSWER
On
Friday July 18th, a group comprising two members of the ‘Ballyhea/Charleville
Says No’ campaign group (Fiona Fitzpatrick & Diarmuid O’Flynn), two MEPs (Luke
Ming Flanagan & Nessa Childers) and two Independent TDs (Stephen Donnelly
and Peter Mathews) met with Central Bank Governor Patrick Honohan and asked him
directly that simple question. Governor Honohan’s answer was unequivocal – yes,
the millions will be destroyed, or to use his own formal description, ‘extinguished’.
That’s
just the beginning. Mr Honohan also confirmed that the €350,000,000 raised from
the sale last year of portion of the 2012 bond has already been ‘extinguished’,
as was the entire €3.1bn borrowed to pay off the 2011 Promissory Note, as will
be another €500,000,000 next year, and another the year after – every euro in
fact of the entire €25,000,000,000 thus raised in the coming years.
So
now we have the answer.
NOT THOSE DAMNED PROMISSORY NOTES AGAIN!
For
even the most hardened of media commentators the details of the original Promissory
Notes, never mind the details of the subsequent conversion of the Promissory
Notes to Sovereign Bonds ‘deal’, is a labyrinth, a hazy maze of dates and
rates, a confusion of Notes, Bonds and most of all, massive numbers. For the
rest of us?
Suffice
to know this: to bail out the creditors (read major European banks) of two bust
Irish banks (Anglo Irish and Irish Nationwide) and thus save not just the European banking system but possibly the euro itself (a premise accepted by Mr Honohan at that meeting), during the next 40 years the Irish
people will pay at least €70bn (when the 2011 & 2012 Notes are included),
the bulk of which falls due in the final two decades. That’s over €15,000 for every
man, woman and child in this republic.
Think
of it like this: You go into your bank in
the morning to be told “Here’s a loan of €250,000 to pay off a debt built up by
an associate of yours, for which your solicitor signed you off as sole guarantor - I know, I know, he didn't consult with you but he is your appointed solicitor. I will now take every cent of that money and ‘extinguish
it’ - you'll never get to spend a cent of it. But here also is your payment schedule. Don't worry, I've set it up to make it easy enough on yourself over the next few years; the bulk of the
pain will be felt by your children and grandchildren, by which stage you and I will be long gone from the equation."
Would you accept that scenario? Multiply
it by 100,000, that’s what Michael Noonan has done on our behalf,
that is the legacy this generation leaves for the next. And that's just on the remaining €25bn of the Promissory Note debt. What cost the entire bank bailout?
LUKE MING NAILS IT, AS DOES PETER MATHEWS
“Since
we never got to spend a cent of that money, and never will, I don’t care how
low the interest rate is, I don’t care how long we’re given to pay – I'm not
paying this debt!”; so said Luke Ming Flanagan to Minister Honohan.
“It’s
simply ‘protection money’ to the ECB!” fumed Peter Mathews, a Chartered
Accountant and former banker.
TAKING THE FIGHT TO EUROPE
If
you're okay with that, do nothing – just don't get in the way of those who are doing something. If you're not okay with it, join the
Ballyhea/Charleville campaign group (we march every Sunday morning, 10.30am),
join Luke and Nessa, Stephen and Peter, join all eight MEPs now fighting our
cause in Europe on these Promissory Notes bonds as we take this fight to the ECB in Frankfurt, our next port of call
(Sinn Fein’s Liadh Ní Ríada, Lynn Boylan, Matt Carthy, along with Derry’s
Martina Anderson, with the other two Independents in Europe, Marian Harkin and Brian Crowley, all stand with us).
Far from being too late, it has never been more urgent - we must stop the sale of those bonds, or we condemn future generations to debt slavery.
FOR UPDATES
TWITTER:
@ballyhea14 (Diarmuid O'Flynn)
@fb_fitz (Fiona Fitzpatrick)
FACEBOOK PAGE:
Ballyhea bondholder bailout protest
