Financial Justice Ireland

Lobbying Organisation Financial Justice Ireland

Date published 21 May, 2020

Relevant Matter Public policy or programme

Public Policy Area Finance

Period 1 Jan, 2020 to 30 Apr, 2020

Specific Details We wrote to the Ministers for Finance and Foreign Affairs, and their counterparts in other parties, calling for permanent debt cancellation for developing countries in the light of the Covid-19 epidemic

Intended results We called on the Irish government to use its influence to support the call for: - an immediate and permanent cancellation of all principal, interest and charges for the remainder of 2020 for all countries in need, and most urgently for PRGT and IDA countries. - to push for extension of this offer to payments due on multilateral debt in 2020, including those of the IMF and World Bank (WB).

Name of person primarily responsible for lobbying on this activity Maeve Bateman

Did any Designated Public Official(DPO) or former Designated Public Official(DPO) carry out lobbying activities on your behalf in relation to this return? You must include yourself, and answer Yes, if you are a current DPO or a DPO at any time in the past. (What is a Designated Public Official?) No

Did you manage or direct a grassroots campaign? Yes

What is the directive you gave to the grassroots campaigners? Email the Minister for Finance asking him to: (1) Cancel all debt payments for countries suffering from the economic impacts of coronavirus, due in 2020. (2) Help countries in trouble to restructure their debt rather than bailing out lenders. (3) Ensure new finance, granted to tackle the coronavirus, does not create more debt.

Was this lobbying done on behalf of a client? No

Lobbying activity

The following activities occurred for this specific Subject Matter Area.

Email (2-5)

We emailed the Minister for Finance and the Minister for Foreign Affairs twice, asking for them to take a policy in support of debt cancellation for developing countries affected by Covid 19. We also copied in their counterparts in other parties, and Department of Finance officials involved in the IMF and World Bank.

Designated public officials lobbied

The following DPOs were lobbied during this return period on this specific Subject Matter Area. These DPOs were involved in at least one of the Lobbying Activities listed above, but not necessarily all of them. As returns are specific to a Subject Matter Area the above Lobbying Activities may be associated with multiple returns.

Paschal Donohoe Minister (Department of Finance)

Simon Coveney Tánaiste and Minister (Department of Foreign Affairs)

Róisín Shorthall TD (Dáil Éireann, the Oireachtas)

Cian O'Callaghan TD (Dáil Éireann, the Oireachtas)

Paul Murphy TD (Dáil Éireann, the Oireachtas)

Alan Kelly TD (Dáil Éireann, the Oireachtas)

Pauline O'Reilly Senator (Seanad)

Neasa Hourigan TD (Dáil Éireann, the Oireachtas)

Seán Crowe TD (Dáil Éireann, the Oireachtas)

Pearse Doherty TD (Dáil Éireann, the Oireachtas)

Paul Ryan Director (Department of Finance)