I have yet to hear an explanation for the payment of unguaranteed bonds
Vincent Browne responds to comments on last night's show with Labour TD Dominic Hannigan, Independent MEP Marian Harkin, financial adviser Paul Sommerville and Zaki Laïdi, professor at Sciences Po.
Tonight I received several emails to the show regarding the payment by the Irish government of unguaranteed bonds:
"Congrats on your pursuing the FG/Enda binned pledge regarding the write down." – Mark Daly
"I will answer the question for Dominic Hannigan. Our government, which includes him, just hasn't got the balls to stand up to the Germans." – Alan Lawes
"This is dreadful. Repetitious, boring bullying; insane asking the same question and getting the same answer. Downright embarrassing. Little preparation of programme. The question has been answered repeatedly." – Austin Quirke
"We will only see an improvement in this country when the TDs stop reverting back to the previous governments mistakes and tackle their own mismanagement of affairs, and the Labour TD should be ashamed to sit on your programme when he has no intention of answering your valid questions!" – Carol from Limerick
I think it is valid we pursue the squandering of vast sums of public monies to pay off debts we do not own, debts not covered by the bank guarantee and not demanded under the deal with the troika. This is a gigantic sum of money, desperately needed for, among other matters, job stimulation. I have not heard an explanation for the payment of these unguaranteed bonds. I intend continuing to ask that question.
Watch an extract from the show below, along with a transcript of the exhange between Dominic Hannigan and Vincent.
Browne: We paid another €1.5bn two weeks ago to unsecured bondholders. It’s just incredible. And there was no acknowledgement, no debate about it, no fuss about it, no nothing. Can you understand, Dominic, why we continue to do this?
Hannigan: Well yes, because we’re in a situation that we want to get out of as soon as possible. Don’t forget the country was virtually bankrupt, Vincent, when we took over …
Browne: Why are we paying €1.5bn to unsecured bondholders
Hannigan: The important thing that this country has to do is regain its reputation on the international stage
Browne: Alright, just tell me
Hannigan: Some of the benefits already…
Browne: Why did we pay €1.5bn to unguaranteed bondholders in AIB?
Hannigan: Because, as I said, we’re trying to regain our reputation abroad. Just this week we’ve seen some of the benefits of regaining that reputation. We’ve seen international investments. Today, just before we came on air, we saw the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste in Dun Laoghaire announcing more jobs for the country. We wanna see more of that, but we can only get more foreign investment by regaining the confidence of international investors. And that’s what we’re trying to do, slowly, but surely.
Browne: Grand. Do you think the confidence of investors is improved by the recklessness in paying debts we don’t own?
Hannigan: Well I think the recklessness came a long time ago…
Browne: Don’t mind that, don’t tell us about that, just deal with the question, we’re paying €1.5bn for debt we don’t own, that we have no legal obligation to pay, no moral obligation, it’s not part of any deal we did with the troika, nothing, we’re paying this €1.5bn, we did it two weeks ago, why, what’s the justification for that?
Hannigan: I only wish when we came into government that we had a clean book…
Browne: Just please don’t make speeches about tangential issues when I’m asking a question. What is the reason that we paid €1.5bn to unguaranteed bondholders in AIB two weeks ago?
Hannigan: Because as a nation we need to stay above the line, we need to make sure that we pay our debts…
Browne: And how does that…pay our debts?! That’s not our debt!
Hannigan: So that we can…
Browne: It is not our debt!
Hannigan: And we’re going to be borrowing for the next few years…
Browne: Dominic, it is not our debt!
Hannigan: Well, yknow, Vincent, you have to look at it like this, the Government made commitments, the last government made commitments in relation to bank bailouts that we as a sovereign government now have to live up to…
Browne: This is nothing got to do…
Hannigan: We have to pay back…
Browne: Do you understand? This has nothing to do with the bank guarantee, not covered by the bank guarantee, we have no legal obligation, no moral obligation, no obligation at all to pay this debt – why did we do it?
Hannigan: It’s an easy solution for you to sit here and say oh let’s not pay this debt, but the reality is…
Browne: But why did we do it?
Hannigan: …as a government we have to make sure that we have access to funding so that we can pay for those services out there, like our nurses, like our social security, we need to make sure that that money is in the bank…
Browne: It’s just incredible, you won’t…you…you…I’ve never come across this before even in talking to politicians that somebody just waffles on and on, you’re completely ignoring the question…
Hannigan: Ah I’m sure you have Vincent…
Browne: …completely ignoring the question, so we’ll try again now. We paid €1.5bn to AIB bondholders, debt we had no responsibility for, neither the people of the country, nor the State had no responsibility for, nor did the State have any legal obligation to do this, no moral obligation, no obligation under the deal we have with the troika or anything else. Why did we do that?
Hannigan: I think you need to look at the benefits…
Browne: Ho ho ho
Hannigan: of making sure that we pay back loans and debts such as this…
Browne: It’s not ours! What’s the benefit of paying back…
Hannigan: One thing that we’ve managed to do since we came in just 15 months ago what we’ve managed to do is we’ve managed to cut €10bn off our interest…
Browne: [Puts head in hands and makes sobbing noises]
Hannigan: The reason…
Browne: [Appealing to the others in mock tearful voice] What’s this got to do with the question? What’s it got to do…ok I give up, you win, you win
Hannigan: Vincent, Vincent
Browne: You win, I just give up, I give up, I give up, I give up