Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)

Perhaps 15 Puma search and rescue helicopters at €400 million will do. Or what about the submarine Greece is buying, which is ineffective and out of date? It has a huge cost and will facilitate further skulduggery on the part of multinationals. It is ridiculous that such a purchase is even being contemplated by a Government which must be bailed out.

The only solution to bond holders who gambled, as they did in this country and many others, is to stick it to them and say, "Sorry, hard luck, you are not getting your money. You will get it when we can afford it". They speculated and gambled and that is the only realistic alternative. If bondholders are bailed out they are encouraged to continue their speculation. That is where the capitalist system has arrived. This type of vulture capitalism has been going after one currency after another. We saw this before the euro was created and we see it again now when speculators try to destroy the euro and economies and ensure they will take whatever penny, pound, euro, or whatever, out of the economies of the European Union.

We have given away our sovereignty in recent treaties and cannot depend on or defend our economy. The vested interests will not allow us to do that. This Government, through this measure and others it is contemplating, now suggests we should give away further sovereignty so that other countries may have control over our budgetary process. They have that already, in many ways, under the Growth and Stability Pact. That is not good enough. If this country is to be sovereign it must stand up to the bondholders and should not facilitate them, in Greece or anywhere else.

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