SINN FEIN CORRECTLY SAYS IRELAND NEEDS NO ENFORCED EU/IMF LOAN, ONLY FOR THE BANKS

Sinn Fein Deputy Doherty: No ‘grubby little deal’ as Dail voted today to pass financial bill.

Published Date: 25 January 2011

By Carolyn Farrar @donegaldemocrat.com

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“I think it’s absolutely scandalous what’s happening here,” Deputy Doherty said. He said the opposition parties should have “the government on the ropes” but are instead “offering to allow them to stay on and give legal effect to the harshest budget in the history of the state.”

Instead, he said, Sinn Féin has argued that “this government has no mandate to introduce the measures that it has done.” But Labour and Fine Gael “are allowing them to push it through. It’s absolutely incredible and has exposed Labour and Fine Gael for what they are.”

“If you disagree with the bill, if disagree with the budget and you have an opportunity to finish the likes of this government, then you would do so,” Deputy Doherty said.

The Gaoth Dobhair-based deputy also said it was “nonsense” to believe that Ireland would be penalised by the European Union for letting an election take its course.

“The idea that the EU commission would punish Ireland because the government collapsed and we had to have an election is laughable,” he said. “As long as the parameters of what is set down in the IMF/EU deal are met, then they will not have an issue with what is being proposed.”

The Donegal South-West deputy also repeated Sinn Féin’s contention that Ireland does not need the finance package. “The reason we need the package at the minute is that 35 billion euro is going to the banks,” he said. “We argue that we should not be putting any more money into banks and we have enough in our own resources to address the structural deficit.”

Deputy Doherty said Ireland has a deficit of about 18 billion euro and available cash reserves of about 30 billion euro. “If we don’t put any more money into the banks — and Sinn Féin is unique in that — then we don’t need the bailout,” he said.

Read more at: http://www.donegaldemocrat.ie/donegalnews/Doherty-No-39grubby-little-deal39.6701866.jp