MARKETING ARREARS

Ruairí Quinn
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Once upon a time, I accompanied Minister for Finance, Ruairí Quinn, to Washington for the IMF/World Bank annual meeting.

It was a time when "third world debt" was in the headlines and the Department of Finance was under serious pressure from NGOs to support debt forgiveness.

The World Bank had a scheme running at that time which gave some debt relief to the most highly indebted poor countries (HIPCs). This scheme involved budgetary contributions from the richer member states.

The scheme was voluntary but the Bank had worked out a set of indicative contributions from the member states.

US President Bill Clinton

Bill Clinton attended part of the meeting and amid great fanfare announced a significant increase in the US contribution to the scheme.

Ruairí asked me why Ireland was not doing the same. I think the NGOs had been getting at him following Clinton's announcement.

I had to explain that Ireland had paid up in full but that this US contribution, despite the terms in which it was announced, was not new money. It was the US finally agreeing to pay up part of its arrears under the scheme.

He seemed a little dubious about my explanation. After all, Clinton was one of the good guys, was he not?

However he was finally convinced and managed to explain that to David Hanley on his morning radio programme the following morning.

I was reminded of the parable of the Prodigal Son.

A neat piece of marketing by Clinton, I have to admit - making a virtue of necessity.

I never forgot the sheer brass neck of it.