Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

The question Mr. Trichet is, were you there to save the Irish people or were you primarily interested in saving the big European bankers who were heavily exposed in Ireland? And up to 2008, capitalist European bankers and bondholders, as you know, gambled wildly and speculated on commercial and residential property. And created a huge bubble in pursuit of super profits. Now that is what capitalists do in the financial markets. But when their gambles crashed Mr. Trichet, how do you justify placing their massive burden of private debt, private debt, onto the shoulders of the Irish people who had no hand, act or part in their dealings? How do you justify the taking of €60 billion from the public services and the living standards of our people, putting them into the European financial markets? How do you justify that morally?