Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 28 June 2018

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach

Sale of Promissory Note Bonds: Discussion

9:30 am

Mr. Diarmuid O'Flynn:

"Quantitative squeezing" was a term that was coined by Luke "Ming" Flanagan in the European Parliament and that is what it is because €30 billion is massive for us. It is difficult to take on the ECB but that is what we should do. It is not just on the basis of morality that this can be challenged - and it is immoral - but it can also be challenged in terms of legality. We have commissioned reports suggesting other avenues that can be explored, which I can send to members. The ECB must be challenged and we must stop the sale of further bonds now. As members will know, if a person owes another person money, once the money has changed hands it is a lot more difficult to get it back. We should also be fighting to get back what has been lost. All the ECB would have to do is reprint the €14.5 billion as it would be a drop in the ocean for the ECB.

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