Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

If the entire amount of €22.5 billion is drawn down from that fund, the cost to Ireland of the additional interest which the European Union will be charging us will be close to €5 billion over the lifetime of the loan. When RTE questioned the European Court of Auditors about this, it confirmed that there is no precedent for the European Union charging a margin of that kind on moneys being made available to other countries. For example, when Latvia, Hungary and Romania got money through the European Union previously, a margin of that kind was not applied to the interest they were charged. Before we begin the debate on the EU-IMF motion, will the Taoiseach tell us why Ireland is being charged a very high 3% interest penalty on this money which is coming through the European Union? Why is it that there is no precedent for this level of interest penalty being charged to a country that is borrowing money through the European Union, and why did the Government agree to it?

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