Joe Higgins MEP challenges President José Barosso over EU/IMF "bailout" to Ireland (19-01-11)

[hayzerclon]

That's exactly the problem with these people in Europe. Yes the crisis was caused by irresponsible regulation of Irish banks but that is not synonymous with the Irish people who are now carrying this death. Oh well, as long as the French and German gamblers make their profits all is well...

[iEffluo]

Barosso, "It is important to understand where the responsibility lies"

But the responsibility does not lie on the head of the common Irishman...

[citizenkane01]

A bit late, but Enda Kenny now also blames an Irish public gone 'Mad with de spending'. C*nt.

[lukekhealth]

JULY 2ND!!!!! THE STREETS OF DUBLIN!!!! SPREAD THE WORD!!!

[MrGibeno]

Barosso all the way! :D

Support the EU,

the advantages are far to numarable to list...

[Rekaert]

@MrGibeno There are no advantages, there is only the incremental destruction of Democracy, the gradual eradication of freedom, and the eventual financial enslavement of the peoples of Europe. The sooner this fascist, totalitarian, bureaucratic nightmare collapses under the weight of its own rot, the better.

[Semordnilaps]

@MrGibeno Sarcasm?

[superhoops2432]

this is a bailout to cut up control of the various national countries national resources.EU is just a money cartel for the rich speculators

[Seanyboyh]

Europe and more to the point the ECB wants these nations to support the bailout of european banks. They know that inevitably we will default and when that happens they will take what has been offered up as collateral for the loans. Our pension fund, social security, forestry, ports, airports etc. They will end up owning everything unless we say no. The EU is totally undemocratic and is designed to usurp its member nations sovereignty. People need to wake up before things get a whole lot worse

[mjakes20]

He should be Taoiseach.

[Freshhhhh1982]

Your country now has to be bailed out Barosso you fucking scumbag.

[PoSSeSSeD82]

Barons has just declared they need to be bailed out! Justice!

[yourayseven]

Bar Joe, is socialism dead in the rest of Europe? Does nobody care about Liberty,Equality and Fraternity anymore? I'ts time for the working class people to stand up and brake the shackles of financial oppression. It's a shame Joe had to step down from his position as MEP but I suppose we need him more in Dail Eireann

[40ny]

Good man, Joe. Thanks for shining your light on this obnoxious man. A pity there weren't 4 million more like you.

[No1GorgeousLady]

Joe is of course right

[Tonyo1221]

Barosso is Portugeese - they are going to be bailed out too, shortly. practise what you preach Mr Barosso.

[s13hgp]

José Barosso is just an ignorant man, he has no business acumen or indeed no common sense. Who voted him into power?

[ivangrozny27]

Higgins is right of course, even though many of the 'Irish people' allowed themselves to be seduced by lashings of cheap credit and this group-think that we were in some sort of 'new paradigm' where 'property prices only go up'. And it looks like the masses are going to vote in the gobshites from FG/Lab who rarely if ever raised any complaints during the bubble years. And why did they keep quiet? Because the masses would've punished them at polls for not keeping the punch bowl overflowing.

[irelandbacktoirish]

left wing block in the next parliament ? Labour ,socialists,Sinn Fein,people before profit alliance and left wing independents ? Discuss...

[dave2009ization]

Joe Higgins is spot on there the markets have way too much influence on politicians and have us trapped in a vice of austerity and social inequality. The EU claim they are democratic but why did the Irish people have to vote twice on Nice and Lisbon just because they did not like the result ! Capitalism needs to be reformed completely to include morality and social considerations otherwise the same mistakes of the past will repeat themselves ad infinitum.

[IMFHater]

@celticrover Welfare??? Private banks are the biggest recipient of welfare in Ireland followed by farmers with their EU grants. Funny how you say you believe in capitalism yet bailing out private bank's is OK with you. Your a total moron and worse a fool. If you haven't noticed the self employed are all ready crippled thanks to your Fianna Fail friends. You are a traitor to Ireland, FACT. PS. Many in the public service are low paid and over worked. I doubt if u did a hard days work ever.

[celticrover]

Higgins supports the best paid and most underworked public servants in Europe. He's a dangerous communist and would cripple the self-employed with massive taxes in order to pay for public sector pen-pushers and social welfare.

[celticrover]

Higgins supports the best paid and most underworked public servants in Europe. He's a dangerous communist and would cripple the self-employed with massive taxes in order to pay for public sector pen-pushers and social welfare.

[Kgadjnr]

Nice one Joe! Pity a few more real men wouldn't stand up to these EU pricks

[MrGilles1990]

Left or right we are all against EU back-door imperialism!

[Realverynice]

Joe Higgins is SUPERMAN!!!!

[irelandbacktoirish]

why the socialist party has not expanded and tried to run for government at this stage is beyond me ,we have all lost hope in the 3 main parties ,forget about the green party because they are finished and the media has made sinn fein look like a ragtag brigade of dreamers which they are not . people are turning to parties like the socialist party because they represent the ordinary people and speak up for the country ,something the current politicians dont do .give these guys a chance FGS !

[Ciano90]

@irelandbacktoirish Couldn't have said it better myself!!

[mikser]

Barroso, the arrogant pig. Fair play to Joe Higgins, the only politician with the balls to say it as it is. If capitalism was at play here those French and German banks should have taken the hit on their speculation in the Irish market. What happens instead? The Irish people are taking it up the rear end.

[Seano71]

The sooner this EU Federal State project collapses the better for us all. We can take bout our fishing rights, tell the Froggie and Kraut banks to get fucked and use that money to buy a NAVY and some NUKE to protect ourselves. Another thing, what are we doing in the Euro when we mainly trade with the US and UK? Bring back the Punt, give me my Republic back. Enough of this EU nonsense and their jibberish so called Lisbon Treaty.

[proviso58]

He was treated like a joke at the time of the so called Celic Tiger.Of course since the tiger turned around and bit us in the bum ,he has been proved to have been right all along 100% right.

[prieudieu]

Joe definitely a hero now, look at him go and then look at all the other shameless gombeens elected to represent the Irish people in the last EP elections.

[rafaelading]

You told them, Joe. Barroso is saying we are trying to help you to pay French and German bankers who made bad calls. We know regulation failed. That is our fault, the fault of our government and our bankers together. The speculators are another story. They have come temporarily at least to grief. But there is a rumour that they are buying back their properties at rock bottom prices to avail of an upturn when it comes. And what about that €5bn put aside by NAMA to pay them?

[tucays1]

what a ratbag this barosso is, fuck the EU leave it now.

[utick]

there will never be a united states of europe, because to achieve that there would be referendums all over europe and we know how the europhiles feel about those

[anthonynewsome]

well said Joe - BifBarf n his cohorts sold us down the drain - those of us left to pay for the Celtic Turkey have no voice in politics - this country spent 700 years seeking its independence - & over a 15 year period FF Harney & Greens turned ireland into a UK of the 1980's with Thatcher driven Policy based upon greed & corruption - Harny set the HSE up to take the fall for her actions of Privatising the health services here - Bertie n BifBarf set their ultra rich pals up to cream the wealth

[ireland474]

By the way watch how interest will rise now as soon as germany economy picks up,we need that like a hole in the head,we needed high interest rates to cool down the property market but the eu only cared about germany and frances economy so left them low,worst mistake we made was joinning the euro

[ireland474]

You tell em joe,fuck the eu,let them all burn,the eu is doomed to failure,the euro will probably be abandoned either this or next year at the latest,as for barosso spain arent exactly in great financial shape either are they

[IMFHater]

Sadly Irish people will line up in their thousands to vote for Fine Gael who are just as corrupt as Fianna Fail. The scum in both of these parties will sell us to the wolves of international capitalism. Shame, shame and shame again.

[Semordnilaps]

@IMFHater Well, up the United Left Alliance then, to build a real opposition both inside and outside the Dail.

[8orwellish]

This man speaks the unvarnished truth. I could see that the Irish are not accustomed to being manipulated, because until 10 years ago they were relatively poor. The outrage of some of their politicians is genuine and heart-felt. I hope this guy becomes famous for telling off that slave-trader/pimp in Brussels.

Barosso is the lead slave-trader. Look at his arrogance!

As if the bankers of Ireland or any country 'belong' to that country. Bankers have all learned how to leech off society.

[EamonnKee]

Barosso didnt answer the question. Why transfer the debts of gamblers onto the Irish taxpayers? Its our govts fault for believing the ECB when it said fiscal system was good &regulaor was doing a good job. The stupid govt. let us down again by bailing out investors at the behest of the ECB. ECB are "helping" us pay to pay off the gambling debts of their biggest banks. by giving us with a LOAN at punative rates. We are propping up the Euro. Joe touchd a nerve. Methinks Barosso protests too much!

[higgo007]

Joe Higgins is a great Orator and represents me as an Irish man in Europe I am glad I helped to vote him in and he will always get my vote!

[mrdoonaree]

Joe Higgins is the only irish politician who speaks the truth and genuinely speaks for ordinary people in Ireland, I really dont know what Barosso is getting hot about...it is the european financial institutions who speculated on ireland taking advantage of the unregulated local bank institutions in Ireland. They gambled , they lost, the irish tapaper now pays?! We should have defaulted and been willing to bring down the euro ,maybe we still can.

[mrdoonbeg]

Barroso, former member of the Communist party? Leading OUR european parliament? What next? Oh yeah, next comes world reserve currency. The plan is working perfectly...

[MedicalChemistry]

You can't say this is the fault of Europe. Im sorry but the financial corruption created this mess and ankers took advantage of low interest rates during the boom. We are as much to blame for letting this happen as we should financial regulations. This pisses me off. We are happy to take credit for the Celtic Tiger and econimic boom, but when recession hits, it's not our fault. Lets just be honest Irish politicians should equally share the blame for their shear ignorance to what was happening.

[Rita702]

@MedicalChemistry Joe's Party did speak out against what happened during the boom years and predicted the crisis.

[MedicalChemistry]

@Rita702 All the worse.... I know that people were predicting this... Just that we couldn't care less as to what was going on because everything was good, and it was hard to convince someone with a six figure salary that this was not good...

[MrSean677]

Joe Higgins is one of the only ones that knows what he's talking about

[1984ioc]

the united states of europe this is turning into without a democratic proceess,who votes in Barroso etc.How come there are so little referendums etc.Ireland needs to get out now and hae its own currency which we can devalue st8 away.I nveer thought id come to share certain ideologies with right ring groups but i am taking to Nick Farage alot,for what he says and the way he comes accross.Ireland attracts the wrong people for politics

[lendusaquid]

The Irish and UK Governments are the best that money can buy.

[rafael21fabio20]

Barosso is such an idiot and I aint even Irish.

[ComradeMorshu]

Leuvaarden, is that you?

[christoir246]

WE ARE IRISH,NOT EUROPEAN. FUCK EUROPE.

[doesnotcompute81]

Joh Higgins is a legened :)

[eamonreillydotcom]

Barusso kicked Joe's ass.

[B0XofAWES0ME]

this is the first irish politician thats actually taking irelands side

[macgiver351]

The sooner the better this shambles of the EU collapses, it has not worked out the people of europe have lost their democratic way of life. Lets hope sinn fein gets into power because they are the only party who have the balls to tell the IMF/EU where to go...

[killnickleback]

@macgiver351 Sinn Fein have murdered hundreds of people to further their cause, is that democratic?Sinn Fein still demand an 32 county republic and harp back to the days violent revolution that gave us a "Free" State.But the repressive regime that replaced the Brits gave a lot of POWER to the Catholic Church who used it to oppress freedom of speech,hide child abuse,repress women...the list goes on.A vote for Sinn Fein is a vote for violence.

[TheSpinner111]

The PAYE worker always pays!!

[Chickaldo9]

hi

[TheRpq]

Mr Barosso is right.

Mr Higgins is right.

The people of Ireland have and are being wronged.

The Irish politicians and regulators let this happen to Ireland over 15 years or so.

ALL banks business is to lend to others. They did.

A regulators job is to regulate. Neery Failed and got paid v well to be a failure.

The politicians job, in this instance, was to protect their people, a protection implicit in us giving them our vote. They Failed us and are still paid obscenely to be failures...etc..

[AmhranaiAlainn]

Joe Higgins is a man with integrity and ethics made of iron and the only politician willing to go to jail defending the rights of Irish people and his belief that there is a better way to real democracy. For the democracy that is marketed to people of western countries is actually edging closer to a blend of ultra capitalism & totalitarianism. The 'Celtic Tiger' was orchestrated and sold to Ireland by private interests. The ultimate source goes beyond the ECB, to Wall St, the place of pure evil.

[noonesflower]

fucking scumbag is barosso

[oisin39]

Give it back to Britain. Irish Politicans made a bollixs of the Country. No wonder we are in this mess.

[Elevationary]

@oisin39 "Your a Troll".....and your subscriptions says it.Are you Irish or Dutch?

[oisin39]

Shut down this EU

[Taisythecow]

GOWANN THE JOE!!!!

[TancoTV]

Thanks for the debate. Some interesting points. Remember these are only my opinions. I'm not part of any political party or any special interest group. I am just expressing my personal views. As I have been giving my gagging orders I must sign off. Thank you.

[waaeaa]

@TheLoveschach

Yes I do, that is my experience of them. Hypocrits, who trade under the name of humanitarian causes, they are usually just assholes with big egos, who love the attention and power. Then when they get power themselves, they act as Soviet style commisars, shutting up the ordinary person, and living the life of riley. Just look at the soviet union and nearly every trade union in Europe, corrupt ego maniacs.

[Baz5789]

Fair play Joe

[Baz5789]

Irish banks were not regulated properly and they lent money to whom they shouldnt have => some EU banks unwisely lended money to Irish banks WHOM THEY SHOULDNT HAVE => but because the irish banks who owed the EU banks money went bust and couldnt repay, the EU/IMF are lending the money to payback with a crippling interest rate so the money will pass right through Irish banks to EU ones and only the Irish people will be burnt with horrible budget after budget - even though they are not to blame.

[irishphil101]

Europe hasnt supported Ireland, its enslaved it!!

[jimberkt]

Barosso completely side stepped the question. Joe asked him how it was moral to transfer the banks debt to taxpayer.

[johnmacward]

@TancoTV You're own particular self interest is not something socialists like Joe care about. We much prefer the enormously bigger picture of why modern capitalism still can't provide for the basic needs of the MAJORITY of people on the planet. The system you advocate is short minded and highly unstable.

[waaeaa]

Barosso was a communist in his younger days and no doubt is a marxist. Like all marxists they pretend to be the humanitarian freedom fighters, all to get power and applause.

Then when these same assholes get into power, well just look at how they treat our Lisbon vote and another lower level marxist J Higgins.

Reality check Joe, these are your commisariot overlords telling you where to go.

[TancoTV]

I was completely "shocked" when I saw this on the news! You have gone too far Joe Higgins. You do not represent the Irish people or the working people of Europe. You clearly only represent Joe Higgins. My business exports 90% of it goods from Ireland mainly to mainland Europe and we have actually managed to double our workforce in the last 12 months. Stop making enemy's we need friends in Europe to sell our products. Put your energies into solutions and job creation. Don't do that again please?

[mccoya2]

@TancoTV What are you talking about?? He is spot on! German / French / UK private banks speculating on the Irish property market. They lose, we pay. Is that what you are suggesting? You say Joe Higgins doesnt represent the Irish people. He is the only Irish politician I have heard stand up for the Irish people. Your clearly only representing your business. Not the Irish people. I am 'shocked' with your comment, if you are Irish that is.

[Glgebhrste]

@mccoya2

Indeed - While poor regulation from the Irish government was surely one of the main factors in the collapse - don't forget that the place where tax money is NOW going is to pay off guarantees to international institutes, who invested in bonds in the dodgy Irish banks.

The logic is simple as follows: International investors made huge investments in Irish banks, so when those investments turn bad - the Irish taxpayer must cough up because our government didn't regulate the banks enough

[kascally]

@TancoTV - Joe Higgins actually does 'represent the Irish people'; that is what an election means. I sincerely hope he does this kind of thing on a repeated basis. Barosso was forced to dodge the question of morality since it is obviously a term he is unfamiliar with.

Meanwhile, perhaps some of the other members of the socialist group in the EU parliament will discover they have a backbone.



[LovePsalm1]

@TancoTV WILL SOMEBODY PLLLEEEASSEEE THINK OF THE BANKERS!

[TancoTV]

@LovePsalm1 Trust me I would love to burn the German/French banks but the problem is by doing that we would burn all the "little" German/French savers and if the banks were to tell the German/French savers that their money is gone because the Irish went on a spending binge and won't pay it back I'm not sure we would be welcome in Europe much longer... But maybe that is what Joe Higgins would like to see; I'm not sure that's the best outcome for our country's future.

[Goobag]

@TancoTV

No he does represent the working people. You are an exporter. You do not represent the working people. Many people would like to tell Europe to stop acting like a cunt and shoulder some of the burden. Would you give an idiot that doesn't know how to handle money one hundred grand? No because they wouldn't be able to pay it back. A few things came out of Europe a few years ago saying what we had was a bubble and would eventually burst. Presumably the so very qualified bankers of Europe

[Goobag]

@TancoTV (cont)

had access to this information. Why did they still keep giving money to Irish banks?

You sicken me. Keep your head down and don't make trouble. Don't annoy the master. As long as you still get your bit it's all fine, isn't it?

Don't worry though. Most business owners are as craven and immoral as you and would buy from satan if he had a good deal. You'll export your goods. But maybe we could make sure the common man (not you) wasn't getting fucked in the ass quite as badly.

[cobrakoi1]

@Goobag well said mate u have a good grasp of our economic situation, shame that more irish dont pull their heads from their arsehole and enlighten themselves. The rest of the world riot's, while the irish just slap on a bit of vaseline and say go ahead

[Elevationary]

@TancoTV He is an Irish Citizen,he is allowed to say what he likes,Tell me Tanco, what do you do to the employee's in your business?do you shut them up,or fire them if they dont agree?or would you stick them in a Tanco Bail wrapper and wrap them up( like a German French Baguel sausage.)?

[griffinrob]

Well done Joe you tell them. We need more people like Joe representing us.

[raidenshred]

Higgsy's fightin' Brosso after school, pass it on!

[TheEuropeanAgenda]

Who lent to these Irish institutions? European Banks - that's who! Why did the Irish banks take the money - because of low interest rates from the ECB.

[wolfandcub0070]

"Why has the debts of european banks and speculators been dropped onto the shouders of the irish people" .... this fundamental question avoided by baroso

[utick]

barroso act like he a hero but at the end of the day its tax payers money bailing out bankers bad gambles

[sirhcelah]

BUILDERBURG GANG MEMBER José Barosso GETS UPSET HA HA

[nobodylotion]

barroso is right. ireland should not be going cap in hand to the EU looking for a bailout.

instead, let's default on the debt we owe to EU banks.

[Brulluhman]

Ireland does seems to be a taxparadise for companies. Ireland isn't in deep shit, when they tax companies more.

It isn't up to the EU to tell them where to get the money from. Specially when there has no international agreements been made to top off bonusses. That means the risk of another bigger crisis stays, and the citizens of Europe and USA have to play somekind of credit insurance company for that billion euro shit.

[fergaloleary]

well done joe - i havent seen him like this since he won the snooker world championship in 1982 .

[optionsupdate]

do Ireland and germany require the SAME interest rate and exchange rate?

[TheEuropeanAgenda]

Well done Joe! You should have replied to him saying the low interest rated from the ECB which was one of the biggest drivers of the property bubble. Barosso really showed his real colours there...