Colm Keaveney (Galway East, Labour)

----- default is in the interest of this country. Deputy Boyd Barrett has spoken of those whose fingerprints are on the scene of the crime of this country's economic disaster. As he tucks himself up in bed tonight with a cup of cocoa, I ask him to think carefully about who would benefit from a default, with reference to those who tiptoed out of the market in 2005, 2006 and 2007. In the context of the significant deleveraging that would be forced on Ireland with regard to the assets on the books of the Irish banks, who would bottom-feed on the forced sale of the aforementioned banks' Irish performing assets? It would be those richest 300 people to whom the Deputy referred, who would take advantage of the strategy of default. Such people would return and would bottom-buy assets that would have been forced on to the market as a consequence of the default. One would see a frenzy of bottom-feeding on Irish and international property. If the objective of Deputy Boyd Barrett is to line the pockets of those 300 people whom he regards to be the richest, then the default strategy will benefit them.

The European approach to burden sharing has developed over the past two and a half years. At the outset, subordinate debt was viewed as being an unrealistic target.

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