Robbing the people to pay the bankers

Statement by the Communist Party of Ireland 
1 October 2012

The decision today by the government to hand over €1 billion to unguaranteed and unsecured AIB bondholders reveals once again the priorities of this government. It has put a greater price on looking after financial speculators than on the health and well-being of the Irish people. 
     This is another black day for our people. While the government hands over a billion euros, another 178 people will leave our country today—1,200 this week—the majority under twenty-five years of age. Our youth are flooding out of the country; so who is going to pay this debt? 
     This debt is simply unpayable, and repayment is unsustainable. We need to stop the haemorrhage of our people, and this can only be achieved by stopping the haemorrhage of capital, being thrown away in paying an unpayable debt. The choice facing our people is stark: emigrate, starve, or resist. We need to repudiate this debt now.