Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein)

I accept it is not appropriate to use the word "lying" in the Chamber. The Minister either deliberately misled us or was ill-informed at the time. What I am saying is what the Minister said in terms of not needing the EU-IMF bailout because we could depend on the international bond markets. The difference between my approach and the approach taken by the Minister four weeks ago is that he was depending on the international bond markets and was allowing private debt to become sovereign debt. The reason our yields on ten year bonds has spiked to 9% is the international bond markets believe the Irish State does not have the ability to pay its debt. We do not have the ability to pay because we have tied in private bank gamblers' debt with sovereign debt.

I referred earlier to the information given by Mr. David McWilliams. If we separate bank and sovereign debt our debt to GDP ratio will be below that of other countries. Let us take the example of Belgium, which yesterday raised money at 1.8%. Our debt to GDP ratio and, indeed, our debt to GNP ratio would be below Belgium. It is implausible for the Minister to argue that the bondholders would not look at us if we took this approach.

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