THE UNITED LEFT ALLIANCE is to force a Dáil vote tomorrow evening on whether the State should repay the unsecured bondholders of Anglo Irish Bank.
A motion has been tabled by the five-member group, backed by the other 11 members of the independent technical group, which would force the government not to repay obligations worth up to €50 billion.
The motion includes an instruction not to repay the €1.25 billion unsecured bond issued by Anglo which matures tomorrow, or any further payments to bondholders in Anglo, now the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation.
It also orders the government not to pay up for any of the promissory notes issued by the State to Anglo, which are due to begin maturing in March of this year.
Those promissory notes – a form of IOU issued by the government to Anglo so that it could meet its immediate obligations in the last few years – are set to cost the government over €3 billion, plus interest, each year for at least 15 years.
People Before Profit TD for Dublin South Central, Joan Collins, said she did not expect the motion to be carried – anticipating that it would be “trampled down” by the government’s majority – but that it had been tabled to raise the issue in the Dáil.
“The people who bought these bonds bought them at a 50-to-80 per cent discount, and they’re being repaid in full. It’s an absolute outrage that they’re getting the full payment,” she told TheJournal.ie.
That’s money that could be used for overturning the cuts in health, education and other areas… we cannot understand why this is happening, when at the same time the government are introducing huge austerity.
The government is likely to table an amendment to the motion, in order to water down its criticism of the government, in order to avoid a straightforward vote on whether to honour the outstanding Anglo bonds.
Debate on the motion is to begin this evening at 7:30pm, with 90 minutes of debates this evening and a further 90 minutes’ tomorrow.
The ULA’s motion in full
That Dáil Éireann:notes that:
— the Government intends to pay €1,250 million to unsecured Anglo Irish Bank bondholders on 25th January, 2012;
— these bondholders are anonymous speculators, many of whom bought Anglo Irish Bank bonds at between 50% and 80% discount and who stand to make huge profits if they are paid full face value for the bonds;
— the Government intends to make a payment of €3,100 million on a promissory note for the Anglo Irish Bank/Irish Nationwide Building Society (INBS) debt on 31st March, and that promissory note payments to the value of €3,100 million will be made every year until 2023, with further payments due after that date also;
— Anglo Irish Bank/INBS payments will reach at least €47,000 million by 2031, with future related borrowing and interest charges bringing the possible total cost of the Anglo Irish Bank bail-out to approximately €85,000 million;
— the Government plans to raise up to €1,200 million per year by 2015 through household and water taxes, deepening the impoverishment of ordinary people – and especially the unemployed and low paid; and
— while payments to un-named bondholders are prioritised, the Government plans to cut thousands of jobs in the health service, to close hundreds of nursing home beds, to cut 3.5% from education spending over the next three years, and to cut €475 million from welfare spending this year; andresolves that the Government:
— shall not make the Anglo Irish Bank bond payment on 25th January, 2012;
— shall not make any further payments to Anglo Irish Bank bondholders; and
— shall not pay the promissory notes for the Anglo Irish Bank/INBS debt on 31st March, 2012 and shall not make any such payments in the future.Signed by: Joan Collins, Richard Boyd Barrett, Clare Daly, Seamus Healy, Joe Higgins, Stephen S. Donnelly, Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan, Tom Fleming, John Halligan, Finian McGrath, Mattie McGrath, Catherine Murphy, Maureen O’Sullivan, Thomas Pringle, Shane Ross, Mick Wallace.
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