Cllr Mulvihill Jnr Welcomes Major Progress On Benk Debt Deal

The Labour Party Cllr John Mulvihill jnr welcomes the news that a deal on bank debt has been reach at the EU summit in Brussels.

“Since the blanket bank guarantee in 2008 which Labour voted against, Ireland has been saddled with crippling bank debts. While the terms of thatguarantee can not unfortunately be reversed, the deal reached in Brussels today significantly reduces the burden on Ireland. The deal will see a separation of Ireland’s bank debt from its sovereign debt and this is something Labour has been working hard towards since entering Government last year.

“The debt levels faced by Ireland before this deal was struck were unsustainable and were hampering our recovery. The ease of this burden however, is a major breakthrough for the Government and itincreases our changes of returning to the financialmarkets by the end of next year.

“While the bailout programme has been tough on citizens, the fact that we reached all the targets set-out in the programme undoubtedly helped us to secure this deal today. Much more does indeed need to be done but this is a significantdevelopment on our road to recovery and growth.”