Séamus Healy (Tipperary South, Workers and Unemployed Action Group)

The guarantee to large investors and bondholders must be revoked and small individual investors in credit unions must be compensated. There must be a default on repayments to international finance houses. The payment of the cíos dubh - €5 billion this year and €9 billion by 2014 as a minimum - is unsustainable and will devastate families, the economy and the country if it continues. However, the default is not a magic bullet that will solve people's problems. Any decision to default must include a clear statement of alternative policies. The electorate would be entitled to such clear information in any referendum.

The super rich, including tax exiles, must be made to show a little patriotism. Other than Luxembourg, Ireland has the highest income per head in Europe, but it has one of the worst distributions of wealth in the world. The problem is that most of the wealth is in the hands of a tiny super rich minority. The top 6% of super rich people still have €250 billion in assets, approximately €85 billion of which was irresponsibly borrowed abroad by banks and lashed out, effectively unsecured, to developers and others. An emergency, one-off 20% levy on these assets would recover €50 billion and the super rich would still be super rich.

There is a national economic and social emergency. The economic crisis is resulting in an unprecedented onslaught on living standards, spiralling mass unemployment and a dramatic rise in poverty. Meanwhile, billions of euro are being taken from working people and given to bankers, developers and international speculators. I reject the so-called solutions to the economic crisis based on slashing public expenditure, welfare payments and workers' pay and pensions. No just or sustainable solution can be based solely on the market. Instead, I favour democratic and public control over resources so social need is prioritised over profit.

There are only two solutions to the national economic and social emergency facing the country. I favour defaulting and, importantly, making the super rich pay their fair share, which they were not made to do under the previous Government and are not being made to do under this Government. There must also be a derogation from any regulation protecting those taking money out of the country. To a large extent, the rich have fled the country with billions of euro since last June. The second solution is an extreme right-wing solution, that is, to default and make the poor and middle income earners pay while the super rich and tax exiles escape with the loot.

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