A large delegation from the Dáil's Technical Group has met representatives of the troika as part of its latest evaluation of the Government’s adherence to the €85 billion bailout programme.
Seven members of the group, comprising independents and TDs from the United Left Alliance, met a team of eight drawn from the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Foundation.
The meeting, which lasted about an hour and 20 minutes, was the first to be held involving the Technical Group.
The group's whip Catherine Murphy said the meeting had been a useful one and had in many ways established the ground-rules for future discussions involving the group.
She said the troika had placed emphasis on members of the group producing evidence-based facts to back up arguments or points it was making. This would allow more flexibility by the troika in its overall approach.
The group comprised Ms Murphy, Stephen Donnelly, Shane Ross, Mick Wallace, Mattie McGrath, Richard Boyd Barrett and Clare Daly.
The group raised many questions, including its doubts about the sustainability of the State’s debt; the continuing refusal by European authorities to allow burden-sharing by bond-holders, and growth prospects.
It also argued that the austerity approach had had a huge impact on the domestic economy, and had unfairly impacted on the lives of people.
In a joint statement issued after the meeting, two ULA members Richard Boyd Barrett of People Before Profit and Clare Daly from the Socialist Party said they had challenged the troika on its "doomed" austerity policy and its focus on the privatisation of state assets.
They said they had also criticised the three bodies for protecting continuing payments to senior unsecured bondholders.
"I pointed out that the austerity policy of the passed four years and the strike of private investment has destroyed hundreds of thousands of jobs,” said Ms Daly.
“The experience of Eircom and Aer Lingus as well as that of the sell-offs in the neo-colonial world demonstrates to us the consequences of pursuing this policy,” she said.
Mr Boyd Barrett said the troika had failed disastrously in its failure to stem the deepening economic crisis in both Ireland and the wider European economy.
“I questioned the troika on precisely what role it had it terms of requiring the full repayment of senior bondholders and the Anglo Irish promissory note and the more general policy of bank-bail-outs and austerity,” he said.
