Ireland Entering 2nd Debt Crisis In Just Over A Decade - Tóibín
Aontú Leader & Meath West TD Peadar Tóibín has warned the government on their approached to Ireland’s increasing debt mountain. He stated;
“This is the second time in just over a decade Ireland is experiencing massively increasing debt. The major difference is, on the last occasion Ireland started from a relatively low debt level before the debt ballooned. However, on this occasion Ireland’s debt is again rocketing but from a very high base”.
“Most estimates indicate that the budget deficit will continue until 2025 with our debt topping out at €270 billion. This would mean that Covid and the government management of it will have cost €70 billion in financial terms. This works out at a debt of 54,000 for man, woman and child living in this state. This equates to over €100,000 of debt for each worker in the state. It is likely to mean that Ireland will be the 3rd highest indebted nation of the world surpassed by only the US and Japan.”.
“There is no doubt that the enormity of this debt has been added to by Ireland having the longest and most severe economic lock down in the EU. Deep lock lockdown has happened here as a result of government mistakes on vaccine roll out, protecting out airports, protecting our nursing homes, lack of all Ireland cooperation and extremely poor hospital capacity”.
“This debt may well completely alter the states approach to Housing, Health, Education, Transport and Regional Development in the future. It is likely that FF and FG will seek to cut investment from these critical areas to pay down interest and capital. Given the history of FF and FG, it is likely that they will also revert to form and seek to tax the country out of this debt crisis”.
“There are other far less damaging solutions. Firstly we need to use the tools we have to manage Covid properly so society and the economy can open safely. Secondly, during the last financial crisis, the EU imposed a deal on Ireland that was not imposed on any other country. We were forced to bail out their banks at a rate that added a further €3.2k onto the per capita debt rate in this country. That was twice what a German person and four times what a French person would”.
“Ireland will make a net contribution of €15.7 billion euros to the EU Budget over 7 years . Ireland’s GDP is radically distorted and as a result so too is our contribution to the EU”.
“Austria, Germany, Holland, Sweden & Denmark all secured rebates on their contributions to the EU budget ranging from €377 million to €1.6 billion. We secured no such rebate. We received a reduced agricultural budget, a reduced CAP allocation, and a slice of the Brexit fund alongside all other member states – in return for no contribution rebates, and our per capita contribution exponentially increasing. Given the new world of debt we live in, the debt that we were saddled 10 years ago, the debt that we have just taken on and the outsized contribution we make to the EU Budget all as to be renegotiated”.
“Finally, our Debt Mountain can be reduced by managed inflation and steady growth. If the government decided to tax and cut the economy it may well lead to economic stagnation, a brake on fixing our housing and health crisis and no real impression made on our Debt Mountain”.
