PRESENTATION
TO MEPs
EUROPEAN
PARLIAMENT, BRUSSELS
JULY
1st 2015
BACKGROUND
The Ballyhea protest began
on March 6th 2011 and has been maintained ever since with a weekly
march that now alternates between the village of Ballyhea and the town of
Charleville, every Sunday morning.
During those four years and
four months of weekly marches the group morphed from simply protesting to
actively campaigning, very quickly realising that neither our government nor
our media were going to be of any assistance to us.
This was the group's fourth
trip to Europe to meet with the various institutions but the first visit by
invitation and the first also specifically to meet MEPs.
The invitation came from the
GUE/NGL parliamentary group via Luke 'Ming' Flanagan MEP and involved making
two presentations. The first of those was in the morning, to the regular
meeting of the GUE/NGL Group; the second was at noon and was open to all other
MEPs.
MEMBERS OF THE TRAVELLING
CORPS
Fiona and Rob Fitzpatrick;
Cathleen Quealey and Pat Moloney; Frances and Pat O'Brien; Trish and Derek
O'Dwyer; Sadhbh O'Flynn; Ellen O'Regan; Phil Ryan; Darragh Ryan; Joan Collins
TD; Peter Mathews TD; Dr Constantin Gurdgiev (economist).
MEETING WITH GUE/NGL
First off it should be noted
that even in the weeks leading up to our visit to Brussels, events in Greece
were dominating all else in the
Parliament (understandably so) and in the GUE/NGL Group especially, of which Syriza
is a member, with several high-profile MEPs. This then was always going to
overshadow our presentation but so be it; our hearts are with the Greek people
as much as our own, their struggle is our struggle and that was a point we
would try to make.
We had 45 minutes to get our
message across and so decided to focus on the most odious element of the
bank-debt that has been forced on the Irish people, the Promissory Note bonds.
Luke introduced us to the
gathered MEPs and/or their Parliamentary Assistants, and we were up and
running.
I set the scene with a short
Powerpoint presentation (Diarmuid O'Flynn by the way, penning this), which was
split into three stages.
First, there was an
introduction to who we are on the Ballyhea and Charleville campaign, those who
had come to Brussels and those who would loved to have come but couldn’t.
SYMMETRY IN NUMBERS
Next came an outline of what
we’re campaigning on, pointing out the symmetry in numbers between the total
Troika loans to Ireland and the total bank bailout cost - €67.7bn and €69.7bn
respectively – but more particularly, the symmetry in numbers between the
bailout costs for three banks (Anglo mainly, but also INBS and Irish Permanent)
and the entire tax take (income, corporate and capital) for the year 2010 -
€30.85bn and €30.88bn respectively.
 |
| Neither pie very appetising - design Derek O'Dwyer |
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?
Finally, the big question –
what was the point of making this presentation, where do we go from here?
Because it cannot initiate
legislation but can only vote on legislation proposed by others (the Commission
or the Council), the European Parliament has been described as the most
expensive rubber stamp in history. Nevertheless MEPs do have influence and do
have real clout.
In the first instance we
asked that MEPs use every opportunity they can to include Ireland when they
speak of countries affected by austerity and on this point, countering all the
lies and spin about our phoenix-like 'recovery' from the ashes, we gave many current
instances of real suffering and hardship in Ireland.
WRITTEN DECLARATION
On a more practical level,
we asked that they support a Written Declaration on the Promissory Note bonds
that we will be preparing over the summer break. The reason for not doing so
immediately is that once it's been initiated, you then have just three months
to get the required 50% of MEP signatures if you want to bring this to Plenary.
Getting it there will be a challenge anyway (there are hundreds of such Written
Declarations doing the rounds of MEPs here, all desperately seeking a
signature, many of which – despite their worthiness – fail to do so); losing a third of the time allowed before we even start doesn't make any sense.
TASK FORCE - STOP THE SALE OF THE P NOTE BONDS
Separately, we are also in
the process of putting a Task Force together which will focus on ending the
sale of the Promissory Note bonds, with the aim ultimately of either a) their
total destruction of the bonds or b), holding them in the Central Bank until
they all die a natural death. It would also be our aim to recover the billions
already destroyed in that process, plus the €3.1bn from the 2011 Promissory
Note.
ELLEN O'REGAN - LETTER FROM AN EMIGRANT'S MOTHER
Following this, and the
couple of minutes that surely made the greatest impact on all those present,
Ellen O'Regan read from one of the letters we've received over the years on the
effects of the fallout from the economic crash, the bank bailout, the
subsequent unequally applied austerity measures. The letter was on emigration
or more specifically, the effect of emigration on one particular family, penned
by the mother.
Finally, Peter Mathews, Joan
Collins and Constantin Gurdgiev spoke in turn, with Peter (a Chartered
Accountant and former banker) highlighting how rules were bent and twisted to
foist the debt on the people, Joan outlining the history behind the case she
has taken on the legitimacy of the Promissory Notes (she is still awaiting a
Supreme Court date for a final ruling on that), and Constantin looking ahead,
sketching suggestions on what can now be done to stop the sale of those
Promissory Note bonds.
Because our own presentation
had overrun there was no time for discussion, which was unfortunate.
Nevertheless it was a positive meeting, elicited a very positive response.
OPEN MEETING WITH OTHER MEPs
Our second presentation took
place at noon and didn't have the numbers we had at the morning meeting. Nessa
Childers (S&D) was there, as was Marian Harkin (ALDE); unfortunately that
was it from either of those Groups – disappointing but understandable, given
all that was happening with Greece, given also that S&D especially were
involved in trying to find compromise wording on ISDS on the TTIP submission to
the parliament Plenary session on the following week in Strasbourg.
All four Fine Gael MEPs were
there, Sean Kelly, Mairead McGuinness and Brian Hayes staying for the duration
of the meeting, Deirdre Clune offering her apologies for not being able to
remain for the presentation but offering to meet us at a later date.
Also present were three UKIP
MEPs.
The introduction to who and
what we're about on this occasion was much shorter, though Ellen's reading of
the letter again brought the place to a standstill, a tear again in many an
eye.
Constantin went into much
greater detail on his proposal on stopping the sale of the Promissory Note
bonds, including addressing any and all concerns the ECB, the Commission or the
Council might foreseeably have.
GIVE AND TAKE
With Luke in the chair, the
discussion was then thrown open to the floor and first to speak was Brian
Hayes. In the sense that he didn't point-blank shoot down what we're about, it
was encouraging, and given that he was Junior Minister for Finance for a period
in this government before being elected to the European Parliament, most of
what he said was predictable, nothing that we haven't heard ten thousand times
before, from our media especially.
It kicked off a lively
debate in which Lynn Boylan (who had also spoken at the morning meeting) and
myself both took issue with a few things Brian Hayes had said.
MATHEWS GIVES IT BOTH BARRELS
Probably the
most powerful intervention of all in this session however came from Peter
Mathews, who didn't hold back in his assessment of how Fine Gael/Labour
coalition has performed on the bank-debt issue, and on the Promissory Note
bonds especially. There was a statement in there of how, biologically, men
happen to be born with balls and a backbone but that in the case of this
government, they have behaved like jellyfish. Doesn't read back as it sounded
in Peter's very cultured south Dublin tone but believe me, it was all the more
impactful for that!
Overall, and given the
circumstances, we were satisfied with the visit, have come away with a lot of
new contacts, new plans, very specific ideas.
A LONG AND LONELY ROAD
There is a sad note though,
a persistently disappointing note. Four years and four months now we've been
fighting this battle, 228 weeks marching, every week. And a few staunch allies
apart on the political, economic and media front, and in Ratoath and Dublin on
the regular weekly protest-march front, we're still more or less on our own.
We have seen this week what
might have been achieved if our government had done what they promised in the
elections they would do, and stood up to the ECB and the others in the Troika.
We know now that in the IMF,
when it came to burning bondholders we even had an ally within that Troika.
WHAT COULD HAVE AND SHOULD HAVE BEEN
Tsipras and Varoufakis and
his new government in Greece were in a much weaker position when they were
elected five months ago than Kenny, Noonan, Gilmore, Burton and their new
government – with its massive majority and massive mandate – was when they were elected in late Feb 2011;
additionally, the Troika itself was in a much, much weaker position, as was the
euro and eurozone.
Yet, judging that freedom,
independence and dignity trumped the threats made by the Troika, Tsipras and
Varoufakis choose to stand and fight for their people, while our government
buckled, agreed to the debt slavery of generations.
THE NUTSHELL
Look, it's this simple:
- In 2010, Anglo, INBS and Irish Permanent were already insolvent;
- The Promissory Notes were a workaround by all three of 1) the Irish Central Bank, 2) the then Irish government and 3) the ECB, of the ECB's own rule prohibiting use of ELA (Emergency Liquidity Assistance) for insolvent institutions;
- If the same thing were to happen today, a bank with solvency problems, there are structures in place at a European level to deal with it;
- It was the fault of the EU institutions, not Ireland's fault, that in the third year of the crisis there were still no such structures in place in 2010;
- Bailing out its creditors and saving those three banks – none of which was systemic in Ireland – was done to save the euro, the eurozone and even the EU itself;
- Halting the sale of the Promissory Note bonds would not impact negatively on anyone, anywhere, in the EU; those billions are already in circulation and forcing Ireland to borrow billions (which is what NTMA is doing, selling other bonds to buy out the Promissory Note bonds – have I lost ye yet???) to take those Promissory Note billions back out of circulation is simply a punitive exercise by the EU institutions at this stage;
- This can be done, easily and simply, and it would save future generations tens of billions in payments for debt that could hardly be more odious.
So why are we still so alone
in this battle?
