Like most Irish people, I am a huge fan of the EU, and of the many benefits we enjoy thanks to our fellow European citizens, via the EU.

Nevertheless I feel compelled to nitpick at the statement that the EU bailed Ireland out.

I believe the most important components of the so-called bailout instrumented by the IMF, ECB, and EU were that:

  A. Ireland was forced to turn about 65bn euro of private (banking) debt into public debt [for scale: our national debt was 36bn a couple of years before]

  B. The Irish government was allowed to run an _enormous_ budget deficit for many years

I don't know what would have been best for Ireland given the situation, but I'm not delighted about A and B. Even if the terms of the bailout were best for Ireland, all of money received went onto our national debt, which is now well over 200bn euro, and which we must pay back with interest.