Michael Noonan (Limerick East, Fine Gael)

The Government will also have to nominate the taxes it proposes to increase. The Minister has a great nerve, with a couple of months to go in the life of this Administration, to commit a subsequent Government to budgetary profiles for the next four years.

I return to the issue of bondholders because it is crucial to this debate. Negotiating agreed discounts with bondholders is not a novel idea. I recall from the dim and distant past economic lectures on the theory of banking - the Minister of State, Deputy Roche, will also remember them - which featured a straight hierarchy of debt. Those who bought shares were buying risk capital and could lose everything. Subordinated debt holders - the bondholders - who received a higher return and interest rate were next in line for a hit if there was insufficient money in the equity stake to cover liabilities. One then had senior debt holders who were not equated with deposit holders.

See this speech in context