Tonight with #vinb: We now know Labour’s way is Frankfurt’s way

On Tonight with Vincent Browne, Richard Boyd-Barrett, Tom Molloy, Regina Doherty and Ursula Tipp will consider the position of government in the aftermath of the Yes vote to the EU Fiscal Treaty. Vincent Browne shares his thoughts on the stance of government - before it was elected, and now. {jathumbnailoff}

There is no prospect of this Fine Gael/Labour government securing an amelioration of the bank debt unless there is a crisis in Spain or elsewhere that usurps German obduracy on the issue and we might get some respite in the slipstream of that.

Remember just over a year ago we heard the bombast from Eamon Gilmore on “Labour’s way or Frankfurt’s way”. Now we know Labour’s Way is Frankfurt’s way. The Fine Gael manifesto stated:

“Fine Gael believes that the IMF/EU bail-out deal has not and will not restore investor confidence in our country, and must therefore be renegotiated to reduce the interest rate and to ensure a fairer sharing of the cost of fixing Ireland’s broken banks. The current deal is bad for Ireland – and bad for Europe”.

In the banking section of the manifesto, Fine Gael promised:

"Fine Gael in Government will force certain classes of bond-holders to share in the cost of recapitalising troubled financial institutions. This will be done unilaterally for the most junior bondholders (owners of preference shares, sub-ordinated debt and similar instruments), but could be extended – as part of a European-wide framework – for senior debt, focusing on insolvent institutions like Anglo Irish and Irish Nationwide that have no systemic importance”.

But, according to repeated statements over the lat few months by Enda Kenny, the government never sought a write down of the debt since it came into office. Enda Kenny has boasted Ireland will not have the word 'defaulter' branded across its forehead.

So the massive bank debt, which is and never was the responsibility of the Irish people, is to remain foisted on the Irish people and not even a request will be made to rectify that injustice, in spite of election promises.

#vinb tweets below. Refresh the page for updates.