Angry Irish set to use election to protest against bailout (Feature)

By Fiona Smith Feb 22, 2011, 11:46 GMT

Dublin - The Irish have not been out on the streets protesting much lately. For the last two years, they have stoically endured savage budgets with cuts to public services and social welfare while billions of euros were poured into banks.

They saw their country's sovereignty seemingly handed over to the IMF and EU last November in return for austerity measures and a massive increase in debt, with barely a protest in sight.

In contrast to the reaction to austerity measures in Greece last May, where protesters carried banners saying 'We're not Irish' to signal that they wouldn't stand for government cutbacks, Ireland has taken its punishment lying down.

But revenge is a dish best served cold and Friday's election will provide a long-awaited opportunity for the public to register their protest.

'I am angry,' says Therese Bradley a business woman and mother of three. 'It's appalling what they've done to this country and now they're running it on the basis of what the ECB has told us to do.

'That would be like taking advice on a business from your accountant without taking any other aspect into account. We need a change of approach,' she says.

One of the biggest changes is the almost certain knocking of the ruling Fianna Fail party off the political pedestal it has occupied for almost 80 years, with polls suggesting that its vote will shrink from its usual 40 per cent or so to 16 per cent in the upcoming election.

'We need to get rid of all the corruption,' says Greg Causer, a pilot in his 40s. 'What is needed is a hatchet to cut away all the dead wood until we get to the new.'

Fianna Fail was in government during the heady years of the Celtic Tiger economic miracle (1995 - 2007) which was fuelled by a massive construction boom.

With Fianna Fail boasting of its light regulatory touch, Irish banks between 2003 and 2007 increased net borrowing from abroad by a staggering 50 per cent of annual gross domestic product (GDP).

After the house price crash in early 2007, it became increasingly difficult for the banks to roll over these funds. The commercial Anglo Irish Bank carried out various criminal transactions to try to circumvent its failure to do so.

To hide the departure of one large shareholder, Anglo Irish loaned 392 million euros to 10 investors to buy a 10-per-cent equity stake in the bank.

The bank also made undisclosed personal loans of more than 100 million euro to its former chairman and chief executive, Sean FitzPatrick.

In September 2008, the Irish government guaranteed Anglo's loans and its bond payments, along with those of all Irish banks, worth 500 billion euros.

The costs of bailing out Anglo, now estimated at 35 billion (47.5 billion dollars)and other banks mounted as the banks' losses grew, creating a giant hole in the public finances and turning a banking crisis into a sovereign-debt crisis.

When the government finally sought a bailout worth 85 billion from the EU and the IMF last November, the public firmly laid the blame at Fianna Fail for pitching the country into crisis.

Revelations that Prime Minister Brian Cowen had played golf with disgraced Anglo boss just months before issuing the guarantee intensified public rage at Fianna Fail.

Along with that rage, there is disillusionment with the entire political process. 'We are sick of it all,' says John Cooley, a public servant in his 40s.

'The real leaders of the country, the ECB, the EU and the IMF, did not take part in the pre-election leaders' debate,' he says.

Patricia Finn, an accountant, is also weary of politics. 'I'm looking forward to getting the present government out,' she says. 'But I don't think any of them know what they're doing.'

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