Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

This has been a useful debate, in stark contrast to what occurred in 2010 and 2011. I am more of an optimist than a pessimist. I do not know what good will come from looking backwards. Clearly, we have to make sure we do not repeat the mistakes of the past, but a certain element in this country appears to be addicted to failure and does not want to recognise that the country has turned a corner such that we are beginning to see real improvements in our economic performance. Whether that is done for party political advantage or to get certain commentators out of the hole they dug three years ago when they argued that the country should default is a question for another day. However, we need to provoke ourselves to the understanding that, having gone through dreadful turmoil, the country is coming out the other end a better place.

I congratulate the Minister for Finance on the great judgment he has shown iin the last two and a half to three years. The years of experience he gained in various political positions have made a huge contribution to the negotiations in which he and our officials have been engaged. I also congratulate the public servants of the country. The people do not know them because they are not on television, but I have seen close up, at many meetings in Brussels, Luxembourg and elsewhere, the extraordinary expertise displayed by the officials of the Department of Finance and the diplomatic community as they worked to get the country to a better place.

Deputy Billy Kelleher spoke about our mandate to renegotiate the programme agreed by the previous Administration. I am not going to spend my time arguing about the way in which we went about it, but history will show we have renegotiated the programme to ensure the country can exit from it. Nobody owes this country a living. We live or we die economically based on whether we can obtain funds from the international money markets. Obtaining money at good rates is more important to the country than to any other eurozone member state because we depend hugely on our international reputation. This is an open trading and highly deleveraged economy. Unlike the Mediterranean economies, we do not have a big public sector. We never had an industrial revolution. This is a very nimble economy. Financial services, pharmaceuticals and information technology are big. All the elements that represent the global economy are in the economy of the Republic of Ireland. Ireland is not like Greece or Portugal, which is why it is crucial that we extend our wings and fly independently of any programme or precautionary credit line.

Opposition Deputies have posed a fair question in asking why we have chosen to exit the programme now. All of the buying and selling that takes place in the sovereign debt market occurs in the first two quarters of the calendar year. By May it is all done and dusted. January and February are the months when countries go the sovereign debt market to sell their wares. The NTMA and the Governor of the Central Bank have pointed out that people require absolute certainty on Ireland's position at that stage of the year. If we were to apply for a precautionary credit line, I am sure the other governments would agree in principle, but unanimous agreement would be required from the 28 member states. In some cases, the decision would have to go before countries' parliaments for approval. A parliament might choose to delay the decision, seek additional clarification or introduce conditionality. In these circumstances, the NTMA would be in the markets in January and February while the debate on the precautionary credit line was rumbling on. We need certainty in circumstances where the authority mandated to borrow the money is already in the market.

We would have required a precautionary credit line were it not for the fact that the State had amassed in excess of €21 billion in cash reserves, which allow the interest rate on debt, particularly on ten year bonds, to fall to an historic low. Last week Standard & Poor's stated the average cost of ten year money was 5% in the last decade. The current cost is slightly over 3.5%, even though we are still in a programme. My arguments are set out in a context of absolute certainty for the NTMA, the Governor of the Central Bank and the status of Ireland as we try to return to the markets.

It is not just about the sovereign debt markets. As an open trading economy that is highly deleveraged and much more privatised than many of the economies I mentioned, our big advantage is not only in terms of the sovereign but also in terms of the banks, semi-state companies and large public limited companies. The markets do not distinguish between an Irish PLC and the Irish sovereign. Diminishing risk in the sovereign diminishes the risk for PLCs, banks and all of the things that make the Irish economic engine work. That is the essential point we are making. We are well funded into 2015 based on the assumption that the State will be unable to raise any money next year. Mr. Corrigan of the NTMA said at the weekend that his objective was to obtain €7 billion next year. As part of a programme, through the work of the NTMA, he has already obtained €6.5 billion, albeit in short-term and long-term money. This was the first allocation of ten year money we got away in the past three years. This is not some kind of risky move as some would like to pretend. This is a move based on where market sentiment lies for Ireland and the sovereign debt markets. Thankfully, the British economy which matters more than anything else suggests a growth rate of 3% next year. This will have a huge impact on the Irish economy because 10% of all jobs in the country are related directly to exports from Ireland and Britain. Things are moving in the right direction.

The Minister for Finance is correct that these are finely judged and balanced issues. In the decision the Government has taken and its endorsement by Dáil Éireann we can point to a credible exit from the programme to the markets. No one owes us a living and we live or die based on what we can afford to borrow. If we cannot afford to borrow, the country has no future. In the decisions we have taken we will be vindicated.

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