Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein)

I will address these questions in a thematic way. There are two issues, the first of which is the way the Taoiseach responds to questions. I asked direct questions - Nos. 4 and 5 - about the Taoiseach's priorities and whether he would raise the issue of the cut in the bailout's interest rate at the forthcoming Council meeting, but he did not answer either. There is a difficulty with how we do our business. Second, the manner in which the Government is dealing with the EU is a debacle. It is a bit like the emperor having no clothes - depending on which Minister is speaking, it will be on, it will not be on, we are going to burn bondholders, we are not going to burn bondholders. All the while, the unsustainability of our large debt is being ignored.

Promises are being continually broken. For example, it was promised that not one red cent would be given to the banks, but they were then given €24 billion. That is €13,000 from every worker. Remember the universal social charge and the public service issues we discussed, in particular the health service. The Labour Party should be ashamed of its involvement in these measures.

Will the Taoiseach reflect on my genuine point about how we conduct our business? Is the Government committed to burning the senior bondholders in Anglo Irish Bank and Irish Nationwide, as the finance Ministers promised recently? Will the Taoiseach tell our European partners that we will no longer take orders from Frankfurt and that we will not sell off our State assets or impoverish our citizens from this point forward? This debt is unsustainable.

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