Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

With regard to the argument of the European Central Bank, that institution would take it back to monetary financing, stating the origin of all of this was the emergency liquidity assistance that Anglo Irish Bank or IBRC was able to access using the promissory notes. Its argument is that this funding was temporary and has to be taken out of the system, as such, because otherwise it would increase the amount of money in supply, resulting in the printing of money and so on. Who should pay this bill ultimately? The senior bondholders were repaid. The junior bondholders took losses of approximately €15 billion across the banks but the senior ones were all paid in full. More than half of the money is now Government debt, which is sovereign debt. The balance is debt also but it is with the Central Bank of Ireland as opposed to being held by third parties.

Ultimately, who should share this burden?