Thomas Pringle (Donegal South West, Independent)

This motion calls for the bank bailout deal with the IMF-EU to be put to the people. It is as simple as that. The bailout that has been debated in this House over the past few days is in the form of a further capitalisation of the zombie banks. I refer to Deputy Nolan's contribution, in which he stated that it was not €24 billion of taxpayers' money that was going into the zombie banks. However, it is taxpayers' money, as it is coming from the National Pensions Reserve Fund, to which taxpayers have contributed over recent years. Moreover, it is coming from €7 billion that the former Minister, Deputy Brian Lenihan, placed on deposit with the banks when he refused to undertake the recapitalisation before the election and which also came from the National Pensions Reserve Fund. Furthermore, the money that will make up the difference and which may have to be borrowed becomes taxpayers' money when the taxpayers borrow it. It becomes taxpayers' money that must be repaid at 5.8% interest to the EU and the IMF.

The Government hopes this will be the final recapitalisation needed for the banks and last night, Deputy Mitchell mentioned that she had hope for this recapitalisation. Hope is all that one is left with because while one lives in hope and that this will be the end, I do not believe this will be the case. Earlier today, the Minister for Finance stated that the recapitalisation was a huge success because Bank of Ireland shares have jumped in the markets on foot of the news. The share price has jumped because the speculators know the Government will do everything in its power to protect them and their investment and that they can make short-term gains on the same markets that have frozen Ireland out from sovereign borrowing.

Last week, Members debated the universal social charge and everyone is aware of the harm it has done to working people. The next three years will see more austerity with €3 billion to be taken out of the real economy each year to meet the terms of the bailout deal. This will be to bail out French, German and English banks that fuelled the madness of the last ten years while the Fianna Fáil Party cheered it on from the sidelines and added fuel to the fire with its reckless policies. These policies in respect of the bailout now are being continued by the Government. The latter has taken Fianna Fáil's clothes, which I must say fit them well. The austerity Ireland is facing will see small farmers, the unemployed, pensioners, low and middle-income earners, as well as children and the sick, being punished by the Government. The effects of this austerity package will be the closure of small schools and hospital wards and the removal of income supports for farmers, working families and the unemployed. This will lead to further stagnation of the domestic economy. This week has revealed a fall in VAT and income tax receipts and the increase to €1.4 billion in the first quarter of this year of interest payments on the national debt. This spiral of reduced tax receipts and further austerity will push Ireland further over the precipice into the restructuring the Government states it cannot countenance.

However, an alternative has never really been discussed. A referendum would allow such a discussion to take place, which might see the development of surprising alternatives. Such a discussion could put the people first and not the banks and spectators. Although the Minister of State, Deputy Brian Hayes, last night stated that he sought an honest debate on this issue, he did not bother to address a substantive issue in the motion, namely, calling for the Irish people to have their democratic rights confirmed and the question put to them on the EU-IMF bailout. Instead, he moved an amendment that bears no resemblance to the motion. I must ask the Ceann Comhairle for a ruling in respect of Standing Order 53, which states "Every amendment must be relevant to the motion to which it is proposed". I believe this amendment has no relevance to the motion that was placed on the Order Paper by the Technical Group.

One has been treated to speaker after speaker on the Government side waffling on about the bank bailout itself, while clapping themselves on the back with regard to how they now have sorted it all out. While time surely will tell, of greater interest is the Government's reluctance to debate the issue of the merits or otherwise of putting a question to the people and letting them decide in a truly democratic way what they wish to do about a bailout, thereby gaining a definite mandate from the people to negotiate a new way that puts ordinary working people and families at the heart of the solution, not the banks and the class that have put us into the hands of the IMF and the EU.

Speaking on RTE's "The Late Debate" last night, Deputy Keaveney gave the game away when he stated the reason the Government would not hold a referendum was that it knew the answer, namely, that people would reject the bailout out of hand. It strikes me that, although the Government has a significant majority, it must table an amended motion that praises itself and the steps it has taken to resolve the issue.

See this speech in context