In Ireland, The Big Banking Names Are The Beneficiaries

From Who's being bailed out? by Michael Burke, Guardian

Some of that justified anger should also be directed at the European Central Bank. As with Greece, the crisis was provoked by the bank. In the case of Ireland it was the ECB's announcement that it would stop providing short-term funding to Ireland's stricken banks. In the case of Greece, it was an announcement that it would no longer accept Greek government bonds as collateral.

The response of financial markets was both swift and brutal, leading to a buyers' strike of government debt and the inevitable bailout. But it is important to be absolutely clear who is being bailed out. In the case of Greece the total amounted to €110bn, while there are fears that in the Irish case the rumoured sum of less than €100bn will not be enough to repay all the creditors.

It is these creditors who are being bailed out. There is not a cent in either package that will be used to stop school or hospital closures or to prevent a single lost job. In fact, the Dublin government has just published its national recovery plan, which will lead to an acceleration of the downward spiral. There is a further round of cuts to welfare entitlements, to public sector pay and jobs, and a 12% reduction in the minimum wage. All these have the effect of depressing the incomes and spending of the middle-income earners and the poor – who spend a much greater portion of their income. So the policy will further depress consumer spending, which will in turn cause job losses and depress tax revenues. Real spending on education will fall by 7.5% over the next four years, while health spending will plunge 12.5%. Given the rising numbers of the elderly, the real fall in spending per patient will be deeper. Expenditure on other programmes will drop by an average of 27.5%.

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