Ireland Needs a New Debt Policy

Poor countries still pay $100 million dollars every day in debt repayments to the richest countries in the world. This is despite the fact that a huge proportion of these debts are historical and were accumulated by dictators such as President Mobutu of Zaire, who left the people of the DRC to repay illegitimate loans of over $12 billion. To make matters worse, impoverished countries are currently facing yet another devastating debt emergency due to the impacts of climate change, the global financial crisis and the ever increasing problem of food security.

In response, Debt and Development Coalition Ireland (DDCI) are campaigning to ensure that Ireland’s new debt policy, currently being formulated by the Department of Finance, supports;

1) Greatly expanded debt cancellation, free from conditions for all Southern countries that need it.

(2) Recognition by Ireland, the EU, the World Bank and International Monetary Fund of the responsibility of lenders in the creation of unjust debts.

(3) The establishment of debt audits in the global South.

(4) The establishment of an international taskforce on tackling historic, illegitimate debts.

(5) Recognition of the climate debt owed to countries of the Global South and the need for grant based support (not loans) to Southern countries to cope with climate change.

You can support the campaign by contacting your local TDs and demanding that they raise a question about the need for a new, just debt policy in the Dáil. Furthermore, encourage them to request that Minister Lenihan and Minister Power add their support to the above concerns.