Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Independent)

This Bill, taken on its own, is worthy of support. It will bring about a significant increase in the lending capacity of Europe. It will give Ireland a significant interest rate reduction and a much-needed decrease in our annual payments on our debt. It will give the fund the ability to intervene in the primary and secondary bond markets. I agree with Deputy Ross that it is a sticking plaster, albeit a very useful one. The Bill on its own is worthy of support.

Over the last two days, some Ministers and Deputies have claimed a great deal of credit for these benefits. I do not know how much credit they deserve. Perhaps they deserve the credit they claim. Looking at the negotiations from the outside, it seems that when the Government went to Europe to look for interest rate reductions and the latitude to deal with some of the bondholders, the answer was "No". It seems that these concessions were correctly taken in an opportunistic manner, which is understandable. Essentially, they came about because the Greek economy is imploding. I hope the Minister and his team of officials helped to achieve some of these concessions. Credit is absolutely due to them for everything they secured.

My concern with the Bill is that it moves us further down the wrong path in the context of the evolving economic crisis in Ireland, Europe, the US and around the world. It seems to reinforce many of the mistakes that have already been made at European level. The European solution seems to have had four main planks so far. The first involves forcing European citizens to pay the losses and forgone profits of investors in banks - the infamous unguaranteed senior bondholders. The second plank seems to involve using more of the money of the same citizens to over-capitalise all the banks, including the failed banks in Ireland and throughout Europe. No European bank has been allowed to fail, not even those that should have been. The third plank involves the banks lending vast sums of money to the same citizens, through their governments, to pay back the losses and profits of bondholders and to over-capitalise the banks. The fourth plank seems to involve enforcing very severe austerity. It is hoped that the combination of the four planks will somehow stimulate sufficient GDP per capita growth to allow us grow our way out of problems like our debt and our unemployment rate. That plan is not working, as we know.

I would like to take a look at what has happened in Ireland so far. It is estimated that when the dust has settled, the Irish people will have covered approximately €100 billion of other people's losses. I am sure many Deputies read a recent report suggesting that the unguaranteed senior Anglo Irish Bank bonds are set to become some of the most profitable such bonds on earth. It is particularly galling that the Europeans are forcing us to repay the full amounts on these bonds to speculators who are sitting on vast sums of money. They have absolutely no moral right to those profits. It is something we are being forced to so.

Research that was undertaken by Deutsche Bank last December combined personal, corporate and national debt. When Ireland is compared with the rest of Europe in that context, our level of combined debt as a percentage of GDP is approximately twice the level of next nearest country and approximately two and a half times bigger than the average. Much of the conversation has related to the national debt, whether we can service it, be it 100% or 110% of GDP, and the fact that other countries are dealing with it. When one examines the total quantum of debt with which Ireland is dealing, it turns out we are completely on our own. No other country is near us. That is something else that is going on. We know that the over-capitalised banks are not lending. There are figures to suggest that very few appeals are being made under the process that has been put in place. We can all give examples of people who have made inquiries on behalf of companies that seem to be in good shape but have been told not to bother applying. In other cases, banks have said they will not lend unless they can take the family home as collateral against the loan.

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