Get all the very latest news in Ireland straight to your email every single day Sign up! Thank you for subscribing See our privacy notice Invalid Email

The disclosure that we paid €60billion interest on the country’s debt since the crash is bad, but the fact much of the borrowing was to bail out the banks which are now screwing us is sickening.

What is even more galling is these rogue institutions, which all but broke the country, were rewarded for their recklessness and criminality by being handed a 20-year tax holiday.

In case you didn’t know it, Ireland is one of the most indebted nations on earth and is much worse off than the likes of Greece.

And just in case you think I’m exaggerating about the level of how much we owe, the chief executive of the National Treasury Management Agency, Conor O’Kelly, described it as a “mountain of debt”.

While I don’t want to unduly scare you, we all should be worried about the country’s massive arrears which stands at more than €205billion – a sum which can never be paid back, meaning it will be a burden on the Irish people for ever.

Another way of looking at it is the interest on the national debt has almost tripled from €20billion to €60billion on Fine Gael’s watch. This is in spite of the fact interest rates were, on average, 4% back then compared to just 1% today.

(Image: Gareth Chaney / Collins Photos)

What the Irish Tories had been doing for most of their two terms in office was borrowing money to pay the interest on other borrowings.

I know, you’d have to laugh until you realise it’s the public who will end up footing all the bills. If an individual was at this scam they’d be behind bars.

So what was that lost decade of austerity when wages and benefits were slashed to save money all about?

The massive interest payments, which are one third of the health budget each year,

not only highlights the sheer scale of the debt, it is also a warning of the

dire consequences for this country when interest rates rise.

If this wasn’t bad enough, Mr O’Kelly also warned the chances of a recession are not just high, they’re 100%.

What we learned on Thursday is the claims of a booming economy and full employment are nothing but a sham and that no matter how well the country is doing the massive debt can never be paid off and will have to be substantially added to just to pay the interest if there is a downturn.

At this stage it’s pointless claiming it’s not fair a country of little more than 4.7million souls has been stiffed for €205billion – the equivalent of each man, woman and child in the State owing around €35,000.

What is outrageous is the banks, which received more than €60billion that should have gone to health and education, are tormenting the taxpayers who saved them.

It is deeply immoral on the part of these financial institutions and their friends in Fine Gael to be destroying families who are behind with their mortgages.

There are up to 80,000 families and individuals faced with the threat of losing their homes and the Government has facilitated their pending social disaster by changing the law and inviting vulture funds into the country to do the bank’s dirty work.

It is a sick Irish joke the public who saved the banks when they were broke are now being hounded by these same institutions because they are in financial difficulties.

There is any amount of debt forgiveness involving tens of millions of writedowns for big businesses but few for families struggling to pay a mortgage.

Instead of punishing the reckless financial institutions for almost bankrupting the State itself, Fine Gael and their pals in Labour instead rewarded the banks with a 20-year corporate tax holiday.

The end result is the country lost out on perhaps billions of euro which could have gone to paying off the national debt which they are partly responsible for.

Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe, who is fast becoming the new Brian Cowen due to his out-of-control spending, is now considering lifting the €500,000 pay cap on bankers’ salaries.

(Image: Gareth Chaney Collins)

I have not the slightest doubt he’ll cave in to the bankers’ demands as he and his party have done in the past.

When there is such a huge national debt, you’d imagine the Government would be using all its resources to hoover up as much tax as possible, but that’s not the case, except when it comes to PAYE workers.

This week it was revealed that one of beef baron Larry Goodman’s firms, based in Luxembourg, paid just 0.4% tax on profits of €52.6million.

Nothing illegal in that, he just uses the loopholes left lying around.

It should also be remembered the Dail brought in emergency legislation to save the Ardee, Co Louth-based Goodman group from collapse in August 1990.

That’s why in Ireland only the workers need worry about the national debt because the system is set up in such a way that those who create it are shielded from the pain of having to pay it back.