Response to Ireland's confirmed application for a bailout

 21 November 2010

In response to Ireland asking for an EU bailout, Sam Bowman, Head of Research, argues that the bailout will be bad for Britain:

"The proposed bailout for Ireland is a bad deal for for the UK. It puts the interests of the European Union and the eurozone before the interests of Ireland and the British government should have no part in paying for it. Asking the British taxpayer to cough up £7 billion shows just how audacious the European Union has become in its desperation to keep the eurozone project afloat.

“The UK successfully avoided entering the eurozone. Ireland was not so lucky, but it entered in full knowledge of the risks involved. Bailing out Ireland now would undo much of the benefits that Britain has yielded from keeping the pound and would make a mockery of the spending cuts announced by the coalition last month.

“The proposed bailout is a bad deal for Ireland, because it will simply extend the current pain for even longer and create another lost generation of Irish young people. Ireland’s leaders should take the politically difficult step of defaulting on Ireland’s debt and allowing the insolvent Irish banks to wind down.

“In the end Ireland will have to choose its own path out of this crisis. But the British taxpayer should not be held responsible for past mistakes by Irish politicians.”

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