Séamus Healy (Tipperary South, Workers and Unemployed Action Group)

The payment of this promissory note is a major millstone around the necks of the Irish people and a major contributor towards austerity, affecting everybody across the board but particularly low-income and middle-income families. Professor Brian Lucey told the Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform last week: "[O]nce we start paying under the present schedule it will be next to impossible to renegotiate that schedule or to get out from under it." Is it not true that we have a short window of opportunity between now and 31 March to address this issue on the basis of what Professor Lucey has said? If it is not addressed and solved before 31 March we will be forced into this situation for the long term and the austerity we have now will continue almost forever. The effect is that these promissory notes will cost us at least €47 billion, although other estimates go as far as €74 billion or even €85 billion. Is there not now a narrow window of opportunity to deal with this matter? If we do not deal with it before 31 March, will we not be in serious difficulty?

See this speech in context