Irish 'caved' in too soon on bailout - German Frank Schäffler

PatsytheNazi

Interesting article in the Irish Times today regarding the comments form German parliamentarian Frank Schäffler. I'm sure it's what some of you suspected also suspected, Lenihan with the typical FF attitude of ' ah sure, it'll be alright boys ' nudge, nudge, wink, wink. As he says, we were forced into the so called rescue fund and far from fixing the problem, it's making it all worse. God help us is all I can say :rolleyes:

Our only hope is that more politicans in Germany and France emerge like him to see the whole approach is only throwing more fuel on the fire ?

“At heart Ireland caved in too quickly to the pressure of the larger countries, it was in effect forced into the rescue fund,” Mr Schäffler said. “That was to calm the markets but they haven’t calmed, which is the lesson for the future: rescue funds don’t solve the problem but act like oil on the flames.”

Sorry for not providing the link -
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/world/2011/0512/1224296752160.html

lmimmfn

is it online on the irish times site? would like to read the article

Sand

This is the article the OP referred to.

Free Democrat (FDP) parliamentarian Frank Schäffler suggested that not everything being demanded of Ireland is “in its own best interests” while French and German national interests explain pressure for Ireland to raise its corporate tax rate.

The underlined part is a major understatement.

“At heart Ireland caved in too quickly to the pressure of the larger countries, it was in effect forced into the rescue fund,” Mr Schäffler said. “That was to calm the markets but they haven’t calmed, which is the lesson for the future: rescue funds don’t solve the problem but act like oil on the flames.”

This doesnt tell us anything we dont know - Irish debt has soared since the ECB got involved, and any plan to return to the market in 2012 looks ridiculous. The ECB and the IMF are both claiming priority over private bondholders, so private bondholders would need their heads examined to step into the the Irish quagmire, especially with the bondholder "burden sharing" thats planned for the future. Its clear the rescue fund has failed, but thats because its a solution to a liquidity crisis, and what we have is a solvency crisis.

“We’re experiencing just the start of the crisis, not the end, and we will be confronted over again with these (EU) questions, making it important that we have answers,” he said.

Hes right on this - Merkel and Sarkozy have so completely mishandled this crisis. Theres nothing to indicate that the Germans and French will suddenly snap out of the current trend to blame the periphery and refuse to acknowledge the issue as anything other than a public liquidity crisis.

PatsytheNazi

Here is an article today in the Independent where the IMF basically state what we all unfortunately know too well - Ireland had a very poor team bating for it. Like I said in the OP, typical FF ' ah sure, it'll be alright boys ' nudge, nudge, wink, wink. And that's what passes as 'government' in Ireland :rolleyes:

" It blamed a lack of "political fortitude" in Ireland for many of our problems, along with poor-quality institutions........The report singled out fiscal institutions for blame, saying their quality "ranks relatively low". "

http://www.independent.ie/business/irish/imf-lays-blame-at-feet-of-previous-government-2646120.html

OnTheQT

In fairness we're just the whipping boys. All countries had poor regulation and governance that didnt really know what they were doing. We're paying for other countries mistakes aswell as our own