A deliberate Government Policy is ripping off Irish Mortgage Holders and Small Businesses.
According a survey of interest rates published by the Central Bank, variable rate new housing loans averaged 4.13%
Typical Eurozone mortgage rates are 2.1%-roughly half the Irish rate.
And interest rates for small businesses have come down everywhere in Europe except Ireland, according to retired governor of the Central Bank, Patrick Honohan .
The excuse given by Government and Central Bank is that they “can’t intervene in the market”
This is pure deception.
They are intervening in the market with the effect of keeping rates artificially high! There is effectively no competition in the Irish Market
Fine Gael Finance Minister Michael Noonan has designated Bank of Ireland(BoI) and Allied Irish Bank (AIB) as “Pillar Banks”. This means that they cannot be allowed to fail and will be subsidised or bailed out again by government if necessary. This has frightened off foreign competition-Danske Bank and Bank of Scotland have already left.
This allows AIB, BoI and Permanent TSB to run a cosy cartel at the expense of householders and small businesses.
The Government is the owner of AIB, Permanent TSB and EBS as it holds the vast majority of the shares. It can call special general meetings of shareholders at any time and it can instruct the banks to lower the rates. All other banks would then have to lower their rates to stay in business
But the government will not do this. Instead it hypocritically calls in the banks from time to time “to express its concern” at the high rates.
The high interest rates are, in effect, a penal tax imposed by the government on householders and small businesses.
The balance sheets of the banks are being repaired by this tax. The banks are being “fattened up for privatisation”. When sold off the money will be used to pay back loans borrowed to bail out huge investors in the banks before they crashed.
There will be no compensation by government for small investors such as investors of pension and redundancy lump sums who were wiped out in the crash of bank shares.
Labour and Fine Gael are deliberately running this scam on the public. Fianna Fáil are just moaning about it rather than exposing this huge scandal.
Candidates of these parties should be forced to explain and to commit to ending the scam
THIS INJUSTICE TO MORTGAGE HOLDERS AND SMALL BUSINESSES MUST END.
Seamus Healy TD
Tel: 087 2802199
15/2/2016
Statement by Seamus Healy TD 0872802199
Banking Inquiry Confirms that Irish Super-Rich and Entire Irish Elite Are Responsible for Greatest Crisis in the Financial History of the State
IRELAND HAS NO ECONOMIC SOVEREIGNTY TO STAND UP TO EU BULLYING
The report of the Banking Inquiry and the published evidence shows that the greed of the Irish rich combined with the compliance of their elites are responsible for untold misery due to the financial crash including mass unemployment, emigration, negative equity, loss of homes and life savings. It also showed that the policies of successive governments have left Ireland with no economic sovereignty to protect our citizens.
A new left government completely excluding Fianna Fail and Fine Gael is necessary to tackle this situation. New regulations and procedures are not enough. The rich and their elite hangers on will not implement any regulations if it does not suit the rich.
The government, central bank and the regulator had plenty powers and advance information to enable them to intervene to prevent the crash but failed to use them.
In his evidence to the Inquiry, the then Deputy Governor of the Central Bank Tom O’Connell, put it in a nutshell: ““It’s sometimes said that nobody seemed to know that a property boom or bubble was developing. That’s … that is completely incorrect in my view ——Ireland’s banking and economic crash should never have happened, should never have been allowed to happen, with all the consequences of huge increases in unemployment, rising emigration, enormous debt, suicides, etc., that we have seen.-the liquidity pumped out into the banks was €140 billion, you know, with the … both from the Central Bank and the ECB. I mean, once you spell that out, that’s €140,000 million – there are 12 digits in that.——- One can only surmise that, as Professor Alan Ahearne has said here to your committee, too many people were benefitting from the boom time for prudence avoidance … prudent avoidance measures to have been taken. ”
TOM O’Connell is right!
The Inquiry found that the almost universal adoption of the “soft-landing theory” without any substantial testing or challenge“must be regarded as a key failing for the government, the Central Bank and the Department of Finance”-Ciaran Lynch TD Chair. The Economic and Social Research Institute, charged with advising citizens and government on economic matters, and employing numerous professors of economics, also predicted a soft landing.
There was significant overlap in membership between the board of the Central Bank and the governing council of the ESRI. Irish elite insiders from business, trade union leadership, academia and the business professions dominated both boards.
Citizens should use the election to clear out the representatives of the super- rich from government before the cause another similar crash
Seamus Healy TD
At 2pm today we march in Clonmel not just against the water charges but we march for change.
We march for the Right to:
– Have a health service which is fit for purpose.
– Education, including the restoration and increased provision of SNA’s, and an education which is truly free.
– Have gainful and decent employment which would provide dignity, respect and a living wage.
– Democratic Reform where citizens are at the heart of decision making.
– Housing, and to end homelessness and clearing of social housing waiting lists.
– Sustainable Energy, fighting climate change is not a ‘cost’ – it is a necessary strategy for human survival.
– Natural Resources. The assets of our nation were declared in the 1916 Proclamation as belonging to the citizens of Ireland, a Proclamation which
also pledged to cherish all the citizens of the state equally. The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) is one of the biggest threats to people’s ability to provide labour, social, and environmental protection and represents a proposed transfer of economic and political sovereignty from the Irish citizens to multi-national corporations.
– Equality, the right to equality encompasses social and economic rights which are implied and un-enumerated rights in our Constitution. These rights should be protected in legislation which will address the issues of poverty.
– Debt Justice, as past recklessness of financial speculation is imposing an intolerable burden on people’s future.
Just us at the Main Guard, Clonmel at 2pm.
Seamus Healy TD – 0872802199
Workers & Unemployed Action 