Tony Killeen (Clare, Fianna Fail)

Part of this debate has been conducted as though, were the arrangement with the European institutions and the IMF not to be entered into, Ireland could operate without any borrowing whatsoever. Some of those who appear to put forward this idea simultaneously appear to operate as though it would be possible to operate exactly as we do at present, with borrowings of approximately €18 billion per annum. We need to establish clearly what are the exact parameters. One of the parameters, of course, is that if we were not accessing this funding from the European institutions and the IMF, we would be accessing it in the markets. An element of this discussion has centred on the interest rate we are paying for this facility. Those who have been talking about such matters forget that the last time Ireland went to the market - last September - eight-year money was costing just over 6%. In fact, the entire borrowing in this deal, which is for an average duration of seven and a half years, costs an average of 5.83%. It is cheaper than the last time Ireland went to the market to borrow money for a commensurate length. That point about the interest rate should be noted. At that point, which was in September, there were no complaints about the rate of interest on our borrowings. In fact, there were few enough complaints about the fact that we were borrowing to the extent we were.

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