Minister Pat Rabbitte urges Fianna Fáil to stop rewriting history

“This morning Micháel Martin claimed that the Colm McCarthy group was commissioned to draw up a list of State assets for sale because “it was in the original Memorandum of Understanding”.

“There was no original MoU even in contemplation in June 2010 when the Government approved the terms of reference for the McCarthy group – the first such term of reference being:

“to consider the potential for asset disposals in the public sector including commercial state bodies in view of the indebtedness of the State”.

“Micháel Martin is trying to rewrite history. The Fianna Fáil led government appointed McCarthy in June 2010 some five months before they put the country into hock. The November 2010 MoU took on board the McCarthy agenda but assented to a request from the then Government not to put a figure in the MOU because the General Election was unavoidable and imminent. When the new government came to office we were told the figure expected was €5Bn, that it was for the purposes of writing down debt and that this was the same figure that appeared in an IMF staff working paper and, of course, in the McCarthy Report.

Minister Rabbitte added “Colm McCarthy’s report illustrated that strategic direction of the semi state sector had been neglected by the Fianna Fáil Government for 14 years. This Government is addressing that problem so as to maximise the contribution can make to the economy.”