Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

This year we will pay €9.1 billion in interest and in addition the private banks, which we bailed out with money we gave them, will pay out €17 billion to senior bondholders. This is €26 billion. Our primary deficit this year is €3 billion. Is it not simply false to claim we will face a huge deficit cliff if we repudiate the debt and refuse to pay off senior bondholders and give a bit of relief to our economy and distressed mortgage holders? We have the money. We put it into the banks.