Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)

I put it to the Minister that the EU's threats are empty. They will not pull the funding on our banks because the reason this policy was introduced was to save their banks. That is why they demanded that we put in place a guarantee of the banks and that we pay off the bondholders. It is to protect their banks. They realise that if our banks go down, their banks go down. This is the bargaining power we have but the Minister refuses to use it and that mystifies me. One can only conclude it is because the Minister is part of a cosy club of the elite in this country and throughout Europe which is protecting its interests at the expense of working people. I put it to the Minister that if we say "No"-----

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