This is a question for Our Politicians on Your Doorstep about Rescuing Senior Bondholders of Anglo-Irish Bank with Our Monies.
AVIVA is one of Anglo-Irish Bank’s senior bondholders. AVIVA is also a huge multinational insurance and financial corporation based in the United States. It is the sixth largest insurance business in the world, paying massive profit dividends to their shareholders. In the recent past, it has moved 200 jobs from Ireland, outsourcing them to India.
ALL of the senior bondholders of Anglo-Irish Bank, including AVIVA, have been bailed out by the government and will be paid in full for their losses. To do this, the government is using our taxpayers’ monies, our National Pension Reserve Fund, and the monies we have borrowed at very high rates of interest from the ECB and the IMF. This is our children’s future being given to this multinational corporation to repay it for having gambled on the stock price of Anglo-Irish Bank.
When the government funding for rebuilding Lansdowne Road Stadium ran short, AVIVA stepped in to top up the final bill, but in a public bid that auctioned off the rights to Lansdowne as a national resource. Lansdowne was renamed AVIVA Stadium. It has not been renamed Irish taxpayers and AVIVA Stadium.
When VHI announced the other week that it was putting up premiums drastically, AVIVA spokespeople gave a number of interviews tut-tutting the lack of responsibility of VHI in so doing and advertising AVIVA’s wares. AVIVA said it had no plans to raise premiums. Over 30,000 people switched to AVIVA. Today AVIVA announced substantial price rises in its premiums.
Health is a core social need for all households in this country. Our front-line health services are toppling over into chaos and rates of severe morbidity and early mortality are rising. Our children deserve a far better and more secure future with good health services. They will NEVER have this if we have to pay AVIVA and the other senior bondholders.
