Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
FORMER GREEK FINANCE minister Yanis Varoufakis says the ECB’s reaction to Ireland’s property crash was similar to that of the British government during the Great Famine.
The 1845-1852 famine, partly caused by a potato blight, led to the death of around 1 million Irish people, and the emigration of at least another million.
Varoufakis, who rose to prominence at the height of the Greek debt crisis due to his truculence in dealing with European partners, compared the EU’s treatment of Ireland to the Irish policies pursued by the imperial British governments of Sir Robert Peel and Lord John Russell over 160 years ago.
Charles Trevelyan, who was in charge of the administration of government relief during the Famine, has gone down in history along with Oliver Cromwell as one of the great bogeymen of Irish history.
Immortalised in The Fields of Athenry, Trevelyan limited the British Government’s food aid programme to its stricken colony because of a firm belief that God was teaching the Irish a lesson.
Varoufakis sees modern parallels in the approach by Jean-Claude Trichet of the European Central Bank to the Irish banking crisis.
In a lengthy blog post, he writes:
When Irish voters rejected the Treaty of Lisbon in 2008, the EU forced them to vote again until they delivered the “right” outcome.A year later, when private Irish banks imploded, threatening their (mainly) German private creditors with severe losses, Jean-Claude Trichet, the European Central Bank’s then-president, immediately “informed” the Irish government that the ECB would shut down ATMs across the Emerald Isle unless Ireland’s unsuspecting taxpayers made the German banks whole.
Varoufakis took a swipe at Ireland last year, when he said other indebted EU countries were “energetic enemies” of efforts to negotiate a better deal for Greece.
Taoiseach Enda Kenny bluntly opposed the idea of debt relief for Athens when asked about the matter during crisis talks on 25 June last year.
Yet Varoufakis says Ireland was also treated harshly, comparing the ECB’s response to our debt crisis to the the huge export of food from our shores while the population died of starvation and disease.
Varoufakis adds:
The ECB, in an affront comparable to British behavior during the 1845-52 Potato Famine, instructed the government to invoke “financial stability” to force Ireland’s weakest citizens to repay every euro the defunct private banks owed to German creditors.Financial stability was obviously a smokescreen: taxpayers were forced to repay even the debts of a bank that had already been closed (and thus systemically irrelevant).
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Travellers
What happened to the “family” members well known to the Gardai? Were they dyed for injuries caused? Did they get time? What happened ?
Sued……
@Alan Cooke: Don’t be ridiculous.
The taxpayer pays for it all..sure aren’t we loaded.
You’d find the family involved haven’t two pennies to rub together…
I feel for the Garda, it’s a rough line of work, especially having to deal with this section of society that is encouraged by our Government to continue living in the filthy, disgusting manner that they do.
I have always said that they get away with murder because the Garda are afraid of them. If a tax payer like myself was to drive for 5 minutes without tax or insurance I’d have squad cars all over me. The people in question are a law unto themselves. It’s not a f*cking culture, it’s not a race, it’s bunch of criminals taking the piss and taking our money.
I’m no right wing xenophobe, I’d take 1000 Syrian refugees over having one more of these f*ckers in our country. Who do you think would contribute more to society?
Break them up for good, stop their benefits, stop giving them ANYTHING and lay the f*cking law down on them once and for all.
Eoin. Every Prison in the country has a population of them. But is it a deterence, No. When members of your family have been continually locked up going back a dozen generations it becomes normal for them. So blaming the Gardai is pointless.
@Eoin Fitzpatrick. Well said. They’re nothing but a blight on Irish society.
@Eoin Fitzpatrick: Well said Eoin. Unfortunately these gutter rats are the one’s that get the most protection and assistance from the state. Our justice system is nothing but a disgrace.
I forgot to mention their Sharia law for women…
I don’t understand why there isn’t an insurance policy to deal with these cases. Surely this would take out the high court and legal fees and save the state thousands.
@john B; The state wouldn’t work that way, but I’m sure they could have settled through mediation without going to court.
John B. Let’s say for argument sake that they were insured through a private insurance company. So being realistic because of the nature of the Job the premiums for each individual Garda average out at €5000 per year. With 13,000 Gardai that equates to €15 Million per year in Premiums. Now ask yourself does the state pay out €15 Million per year in Garda compensation claims? So which is the cheaper option for the tax payer?
Sry that should be €5,000 x 13,000 Gardai = €65 Million in Premiums.
90,000 is a lot and while I am not saving he doesn’t deserve it, it plays into the whole compo and insurance problems in Ireland…
@Paul: The real question is, how much will the people who started and caused the problem have to pay? €0. Can we seriously consider getting a protest going for justice in this country and we get it sorted once and for all.
Not only will the travellers not pay a cent but you will continue to pay their welfare and pay for the house they wrecked and the house currently wrecking
Sounds like people that would say howya boss
Ah cmon, he got involved in a fight with a load of drunken people and was awarded 90k
That sort of thing happens to people every weekend.
He deserved a few bob for the hassle but 90k…
@Stephen Maher: “That sort of thing happens to people every weekend.”
Really? Know a lot of people that get told ‘“I’m going to have you shot McGowan, you b&stard” and “I know where you live. We’ll burn you out.” while doing their job every weekend?
What’s €90K going to do for him with respect to somebody shouting abuse at him? Look your man hit his arm to break free and he received ‘soft tissue damage’. To you and I this is a common day bruise, nothing more. We all know that this is a compo gravy train, for the solicitors, the claimants, the staff employed to process the claims etc. It’s a great excuse for insurance companies to profiteer through increasing premiums also. It’s the modern day equivalent of the army deafness claim debacle some years back. If somebody is seriously hurt due to state negligence then they should receive compensation. I’m struggling to see how the state is negligent in this case where a garda effectively received a bruise. What happened to the colleague? Has he/she also got a claim in?
He needed surgery on his spine after being assaulted doing his job. He has been affected permanently. Its nobodys job to get assaulted. Nurses deal with these vermin regularly too and if one of them suffered the same fate nobody would question compensation. It was also just over 60000 when you take out his fees . Hardly a record payout for someone that has had there life affected
I don’t know any called McGowan but Iv heard people being threatened countless times over the years, and seen hundreds assaulted, witnessed a shooting, saw a girl run over in a hit and run.
Dublin is a lovely place.
@Michael Devlin: spine injury is seperate to this case..90 grand for a bruise?..probably 6 months off work..and he brought his wife to the incident? how much will she get ? cop on ..its a gravy train ..900 queuing up…
@Stephen Maher: THIS HAPPENED IN ARKLOW..YOU KLIPE
Ye I know , and your point is what?
Just waiting for the assh*le comments saying he doesn’t deserve it, that it’s all in the line of duty.
It happened 18 years ago? That’s a disgrace to wait that long.
Youknowhesright
Between the legal profession/judges and the garda they are taking the state for for fools. The self employed at the end of the day are the ones that are picking up the bill..Great little country. 900 cases awaiting trial. It’s a scandal the payouts awarded.
Coz only self employed pay tax etc??????
If u want to become a Garda it has to be Insurance in order to pay compensation payment from taxpayers!
Thosj. And who pays the premiums to the insurance company?
The judges are a joke, and some gardai have no shame.
have your say