Joe O'Reilly (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)

The Government has successfully concluded the first and second quarterly programme reviews with the European Commission, ECB and IMF. The EU and IMF have endorsed actions taken and to be taken by the Government regarding our public finances, the banking sector and jobs. The thesis which came across during the general election campaign and in the House today from Members of the Technical Group and Sinn Féin that in some way we should default unilaterally does not hold up in reality. I agree with the Minister, Deputy Joan Burton, who suggested that we need a specific debate on the matter. If we were to default unilaterally the following questions arise. From where would we source money? What interest rate would we pay? How would we pay our public servants and how would we maintain our public services? These are critical questions and people who use the bland, evocative and populist terms such as "burning bondholders" and "defaulting" are failing to fill in those blanks. I challenge Deputy Boyd Barrett to come into the House soon and fill in those blanks. He should suggest to us where he believes we will get the money, what interest rate we will need to pay, how much we will get, how we will pay it and how we will maintain our services. If he takes up that challenge, then it would be worthy of discussion, but until then we have an empty formula.

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