Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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As a new Deputy in 2011, I recall the Minister of Finance speaking on a regular basis about how our debt was unsustainable. By contrast, there is now a view, one that is proclaimed both here and abroad, that the debt is sustainable. Back in 2012 and 2013 there was pressure on the Government to achieve retrospective recapitalisation, in other words, to ensure our European partners treated us like partners by helping to ease our burden of debt. What steps can the Government now take in terms of debt recapitalisation, a debt write-down and so on that would actually ease the risk factor that is the level of debt within the economy? Paying down debt will reduce it, obviously, but there are other approaches the Government could take to bring it down.