Yes vote could cost every adult €5000 a year – O’ Connell

The Wexford Sinn Féin spokesperson on the fiscal compact treaty has said that the Irish people cannot afford to be pushed into a yes vote on May 31st and that such a vote could cost €5000 to every adult in the country. Mr O’ Connell slammed what he called the casino capitalism of European bank institutions and laid the blame for the eurozone crisis directly at their door.

Speaking at a public meeting against the treaty in Enniscorthy last  Thursday night, Mr O’ Connell said;

“There are people who are trying to convince the Irish people that the fiscal compact treaty will somehow flatten out and stabilise things. It won’t do that and it will cost us. By one estimation, in terms of increased austerity policies and higher taxes totalling €15 Billion by 2015, it could place an extra burden of €5000 on every adult in the country. This is in addition to the seed amount of €60 Billion for socialised bank losses - not including interest charges and servicing fees. The yes campaigners are good at asking the question, where will we get the money if we vote no? I would like the yes side to tell me where we would get the money to handle astronomical debts like that.”

“The debt that we have taken on as a result of private banking losses is unsustainable. It’s increasingly unlikely that we’ll be able to pay them back regardless of what we do. When people ask where we are going to get the money the question should be: where are we getting the money to pay the €20-30 billion a year to bail out foreign banks that gambled with ours? This is almost the same amount as our deficit that supposedly requires this austerity programme. Where will we get the money to pay the estimated €11 billion - for starters - that we will be obliged to pay into the ESM fund if we accept this treaty and our Dail then ratifies the ESM.”

“Over 700,000 people are living below the poverty line in this state today. They are there as a direct result of the failed austerity policies implemented by successive governments. They are there because our government accepted the fallacy that it was reckless spending and borrowing by the Irish state that put us where we are today when clearly it was the casino capitalism of banking institutions across the eurozone that doomed us to this fate. On the 31st of May we are being asked to ratify a treaty that absolves from any wrong doing and permanently secures the future of these toxic banks at the expense of ordinary families across the continent.”