The notion that the European Union or International Monetary Fund (IMF) would bring solutions to the State’s economic crisis was badly misplaced, the People Before Profit Alliance said today.
The left-wing political group said the Government was on the brink of "sacrificing the last semblance of Irish democracy and economic well-being" and called on the public to mobilise and stand up to the "vultures and bullies" arriving here from the EU and IMF.
"These bodies are the champions of the 'free' market madness that was embraced so enthusiastically by the Irish government over the last decade and a half, and which got us into the dire situation we now face," People Before Profit member Cllr Richard Boyd Barrett said.
Mr Boyd Barrett said the IMF would seek to intensify "economic 'shock therapy'" and inflict further suffering on the vulnerable and the least well-off in Irish society.
Sinn Féin vice-president Mary Lou McDonald said that, having already destroyed the economy, the Government was now putting the State and the welfare of its people "at the mercy of foreign interests".
Ms McDonald, who lost her seat as an MEP for Dublin last year, questioned the worth of past interventions by the IMF, saying they were characterised by "privatisation of public services and huge unemployment".
"Hundreds if not thousands of teaching and nursing positions would be in jeopardy crippling our public services [if the IMF intervened]," she said. "These officials from the EU and IMF and any other vultures circling around this country should be told to get lost."
The Debt and Development Coalition Ireland said it was misleading to suggest the IMF promoted tough love as its policies had previously failed impoverished people around the world.
The coalition, which counts Amnesty International, Oxfam and Trocaire among its 70 members, said Irish people should contest the IMF's power as it "is dogmatic and not interested in listening to the opinions of others".
