Ireland bitter about €85 billion plan

“It's an €85bn deal -- now it's up to us,” headlines the Irish Independent, one day after the EU and the IMF signed off on the €85bn bailout for the economically stricken country. The massive cash injection will cost an average of 5.8 per cent in interest, a figure the Irish Examiner describes as “crippling” and which will cost alone an average of €10 billion a year to repay. The Irish Independent writes that the aid comes on condition that Ireland contributes €17.5 billion to its own rescue from pension funds (€12.5 billion) and its cash reserves. “Until now,” the Dublin daily notes, “Irish and EU law had made it illegal for Ireland to use its pension fund to cover current expenditures.”

“This is not a rescue plan,” writes Irish Times columnist Fintan O’Toole - master of ceremonies at the 100,000 strong anti-austerity march of 27 November. “It is the longest ransom note in history: do what we tell you and you may, in time, get your country back.” Accusing the EU itself of being “mere pawns of the European banks and the ECB”, O’Toole writes, “There are two international options for dealing with broken and delinquent states: the Versailles option and the Marshall Plan option. After the first World War, the Versailles Treaty imposed harsh reparations on Germany, helping to destroy both Germany and Europe… Yesterday’s bailout of broken and delinquent Ireland is much more Versailles than Marshall.”