Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

Did the Minister have an opportunity to read an article in yesterday's Financial Times, which said that Ireland needs high coupon rates to attract investors? It said Ireland "had to offer 25 basis points, or one-quarter of 1 per cent, over average European government bond yields, which was at the high end of expectations". Does the Minister agree Irish bonds are now priced in the same way and only slightly below the highest cost in Europe, which is Greece, and that effectively our bond rates are almost 1% over what they were a year ago when Ireland was one of the best risks? Ireland has gone from being one of the best risks on bonds to being the second highest, after Greece, within one year.

The Minister's scheme valued the cost to the taxpayer of the rise in borrowing costs as being €1 billion over ten years, based on an increased spread of 15 to 30 basis points. Already, as this week's bond issue shows — he was boasting about it in a reply to an earlier question — it is already 0.25% extra. It has gone up 54 basis points on the Financial Times bond index, as listed in yesterday's paper. The Minister keeps boasting about the scheme. It has addressed the liquidity, but done nothing to repair the holes in the banks' capital position or address the impairment of asset values. When we repay our national loan, it will now cost the Irish taxpayer an enormous extra percentage.

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