Ms Nessa Ní Chasaide:

Good. With regard to Senator Norris's comments in respect of private sector debt, we believe that all forms of debt are a double-edged sword for global south countries and global north countries. We have pointed out that the rise in private sector debt held by southern governments has the benefit of reducing the need for the ideologically focused and often very intrusive and extremely damaging policy conditions that have been the track record of the World Bank and the IMF. However, private sector loans open up another problem of a build-up of high levels of expensive debt in global south countries. We believe that the governance of loan contractions should have a high level of participation by the people in global south countries. In our own country we have learned that the hard way, and that parliaments should have a much stronger role. Many of our partner organisations in Africa, Asia and Latin America are campaigning for much greater parliamentary oversight of loan contraction decisions. We are also supportive of a process within the UN system, led by UNCTAD, which has been to launch a set of responsible lending and financing principles. However, these principles are somewhat narrow in their focus and are not legally binding.

The problem with the international debt system is that there is no legislation governing any of this. We do not have any legal solutions when countries enter debt crises, and it is then a political battle for the indebted governments in question to decide what is the most just action for their people and an action that involves a low level of risk in terms of what they will expose themselves to if they do not pay. On that basis, we are part of a global movement which is calling for an international dialogue on innovative solutions to debt crises. The case of Grenada is one such example, which was mentioned by my colleague Ms Morina O'Neill. The Minister with responsibility for economic issues has called for what he terms a debtor-creditor conference, whereby Grenada would call all its creditors to that country and to negotiate a debt settlement. This happened 60 years ago when Germany got a debt write-down of approximately 50% after World War II - both sovereign debt and debts held by people and businesses. Such models, which do not preclude unilateral action by global south governments in not paying their debts but also include multilateral solutions such as debtor-creditor conferences or the establishment of an international debt court, are what we are interested in exploring.

With regard to the vulture fund case, we would greatly appreciate being allowed to get back to the committee with further suggestions around legislation in this area, because this is something on we are collaborating with our UK and Belgian partners.