Ex-German government officials comments highlights the damaging nature of straitjacket and top-down EU fiscal policy - Tóibín
Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín TD has hit out against the EU's austerity-driven approach to Ireland in the wake of claims by a former senior German official that there was a heavy handed attitude towards Ireland during the recession.
Professor Christian Kastrop pointed towards a rigid economic ideology behind the inflexibility of the EU institutions towards Ireland.
An Teachta Tóibín stated:
"It is worth taking stock of Professor Kastrop's remarks. We should never forget that Irish citizens were compelled to take on 42% of the EU's entire banking debt. The direct social and economic cost to Ireland caused by the austerity measures drawn up by the European Central Bank, European Commission and IMF and slavishly implemented by Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Labour. Indeed the cost of the EU's banking crisis is €9,000 to every person in Ireland.
"A major negative outworking of the EU structures and legal framework, including the Fiscal Treaty that was backed by Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Labour, has been the continued straitjacketing of economic policy across 28 very different member states."
"The parties in power in Ireland must be held accountable for being complicit in implementing a ruthless austerity programme designed to shore up the wealth of European banks and their bondholders.
"The fact that Fine Gael and Labour point-blank refused to even look for a write-down on the odious debt placed on the shoulders of the Irish people highlights that while the EU sought to ensure utmost protection for a banking elite, Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Labour failed to even try to fulfil the essential responsibility of Irish governments to defend their own citizens.
"Aontú wants to be ensure that in the future Irish governments do not roll over at the negotiating table in the EU institutions and, unlike Fine Gael and Labour, we will seek to work with other European countries that are also damaged by the one-size fits all approach of the powerful EU bodies and governments."
