Please Ireland – Remain cool

Please Ireland – Remain cool – We have a hopeless government but we are stuck with them this week so we must force them to do the right thing. The ECB/IMF must be told by FG/Labour what we will bear and what we will not. I want to see Team Fine Gael plus Joan, Ruairi and Pat meet the ECB/IMF and tell them what we will tolerate. This government is now a caretaken and that much is obvious. The defacto government should get the interest rate down to avoid default. The new team should tell the IMF/ECB that they will vote against the budget to facilitate a change of government. Enda Kenny and Eamonn Gilmore should do this in Ireland’s interest. This is about the quality of Irish life. The political parties are all partly complicit in this but the decisions over the past two years have been dreadful. Nationalising debt!

We must remain cool. The government is hopeless and lying most of the time. Maybe some of the lies are negotiating tactics.

Tonight on TV Peter Matthews, banking expert said that the banks needed €66 billion to cover development loans and €25 billion for dodgy mortgages. That is €91 billion in total.

We could be in a worse position. Because we owe the ECB about €130 billion for funding the banks for the past 6 months and the Anglo/AIB/BoI bonds are mainly held by German/French and UK banks, we are in an interesting position to negotiate a partial write-off. I am more sanguine about this that some of the hysteria. Paul Mills in the Irish Examiner writes that €140 to €150 billion is the figure we are to receive in bailout money (18.11.10 page 26).If we receive that much then we will owe €220 billion and that is well beyond our ability to pay. It would represent 146% of GDP and we would need to default on our debts or have a write-off ( same thing net). Interest at 5% on €220 billion is €11 annually. If taxes are only say €33 billion, that means we would have to live on €22 billion plus loans. Just work out the rest and hide your head. Damien Kiberd, a few months ago reckoned that we would reach a debt of up to €200 billion. So.

National pride is only that pride. It is psychological. We must get back to looking after our society and make sure that we ensure that inequality does not get worse. Never waste a good recession. So open up the windows to our secret societies like the management of the HSE, the quality of medicine and the access to law in the country. How but how can someone be awarded €10 million for reputational damage in any sane society. Are any of us that significant – No. Law Reform – Lets start with libel and slander.

In practical terms, I do not care a damn what Jim Power says about negative equity and mortgages. As a society, we will have to deal with the issue and look after those in standard housing who might spend the next 20 years paying off negative equity and not be able to provide for their families. The cliche of putting people first will be tested. There is not much point in refusing to deal with this issue and taking special extra-ordinary efforts to deal with the banks.

There is no way that the Boards of the Irish banks and their chief executives during the bubble should get away without penalty. I read that the former CEO of AIB has a €500,000 pa pension. Madness! Where is the inability to pay clause?

What we are suffering now is a switch from 1.5% cost of loans from the ECB to a 5% loan cost from the “bailout”. I say – get lost lads. You will have to do better than that.

Message to Brian Lenihan: Tell them this is their problem as much as ours. The ECB was about as useful as our Central bank and Financial Regulator during the Neary Regime in carrying out its function. So lads, you will have to pay your part of the costs of bailing us out because you are also bailing yourselves out. This is hardball lads and make no mistake.

I may be difficult to go in and say the mateship buddy boy stuff is suspended for a while until we get sorted. But lads – get the finances in order.

The Irish public will have to be respected and be kept fully informed. This is not about political parties. It is about leadership and confidence. Fine Gael’s economic A team has been pitching up very well. That is Brian Hayes ( Improving all the time, I now support him enthusiastically – unctuous previously), Richard Bruton, Michael Noonan, and Leo Varadkar. Pat Rabbitte laid about Pat Carey tonight on Prime Time with Richard Crowley. Great theatre! Next is to say what Labour will do but now maybe that is irrelevant, the realisation of which has probably made Pat very mad and angry. He does not fancy being the Minister for Economic Paralysis in the next government.

We need an alection to change government because the Cowen Administration is laid to waste by the EU/IMF. Europeans and the US have given them the thumbs down. They are in effect saying that we will supervise you money-addicted muppets until we see that you are behaving according to the EU Treaty Rules (Maastricht).

My advise to Pat Carey is to tell the truth. I have taken beatings from Carey since 1985 and many of his voters have me as second choice. Now I know I am better than you Pat! But you have the advantage of an FF base and decades of work in the school in Finglas West and in Summer projects for the Catholic Youth Council. I respect the reasons that people vote for you. That is politics in this country. I also respect Carey even if he annoys me by blathering at times.