Sinn Féin has challenged Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Labour to outline how they believe the State can afford to pay back the €67 billion EU/IMF rescue package.
Party vice-president Mary Lou McDonald said the State was pushed into accepting the Lisbon treaty, which despite assurances, had put Irish corporation tax rates at risk, and that being forced into drawing down the bailout could potentially be disastrous.
“It would be tragic if we stepped into the same trap with EU/IMF bailout,” she said.
Ms McDonald, who is running in the Dublin Central constituency, said Sinn Féin was the only party in the Dáil that said the Lisbon treaty was a bad deal and the party was now being proven right after recent suggestions about implementing harmonised EU tax rates.
“When Lisbon was negotiated we said they’d signed the State up to a very bad deal. I think the chickens have come home to roost on that matter, not least with the kind of pressure that our right to set our own corporation tax rates is now at."
She said the mantra was at the time was that people should "vote yes for jobs" and "vote yes for recovery", but this was far from the case.
“I know out on the street the question is ‘where is the recovery and all of those jobs’,” she said. “It seems history is repeating itself [with the EU/IMF bailout] because we know have yet another bad deal, negotiated by Fianna Fáil and supported by Labour and Fine Gael. It’s a deal that will bring a huge burden of debt down on the State.
“We’re saying we’re correct on this matter just as we were with the Lisbon treaty. We once again challenge those who say we draw down the EU/IMF money, the tens of billion of debt, to explain very precisely how we will pay that debt.”
Ms McDonald said that whatever corporation tax rate is set the decision should be taken in Dublin and not Brussels.
Regarding the bailout, Ms McDonald said it was not necessary. She said the State had enough money to see itself through the next 12 to 18 months between taxes generated and the National Pension Reserve Fund and that by implementing Sinn Féin’s economic policy, Ireland could be “match fit” to return to the bond markets in that period.
“We’ve said consistently that the medium- and long-term way that you deal with the deficit is to grow Exchequer revenues, which means getting people back to work,” she said.
“We have a plan that is about saving, reducing the deficit and getting people back to work, but we will not accept any scenario where you take €67 billion more debt on to the State.
"Having shed that overwhelming debt and going back to the markets with an economic plan that’s about job creation and increased exchequer revenues, I think absolutely that’s a much more attractive bet in terms of borrowing at reasonable rates."
