Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)

I wish it was the case we were in a situation where these so-called leeches, a term I reject, were in a position that they wanted to lend money to Ireland. The tragedy of what the Government has inherited is that the international markets would prefer to lend money to Thailand or the Bahamas than to the Republic of Ireland. That is the plight the Government must undo and what we will undo during our term of office.

The reality is that this is a path which will take time as well as clear and hard choices. In the programme that has been announced and in the work that has already been done, we have seen the clear intent and ability of the Government to do this. This Government differs from the last in that it knows the current plan on offer is not working for the State, for its ability to return to the financial markets or for the banks. It also differs from the previous Government in that it knows, given the state of affairs we have inherited, that we cannot get money from anybody else. Therefore, what we have, we must work with and improve, which is what the Government is committed to doing.

What we have already done, and outlined to the House, concerns the subordinated debt that is held by Anglo Irish Bank and Irish Nationwide. The Government has made clear its commitment to work in that regard. We need to find a way of making burden-sharing happen but it needs to happen in a multilateral context. There is €35 billion of senior banking debt, to which Deputy Pearse Doherty referred earlier. Out of that, some €16 billion to €18 billion is unsecured and unguaranteed, and this is where any state would have a chance of making a gain. If we were to attain a haircut in line with what has been achieved in previous situations, there would be a gain of €8 billion. The equation this Government must weigh up is in regard to a once-off saving of €8 billion versus the €70 billion of funding at 1% that is coming in to keep our banks open.

The Government represents ordinary people - those going to schools and hospitals, who need their banks kept open. We know it will take longer than three weeks to make progress on that but we have made a good start.

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