Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Independent)

Understandably, there is much talk about sovereign debt and whether we can repay it. I saw some data yesterday dealing with our total external liabilities and comparing them to a bunch of other eurozone and EU countries. Our total external liabilities are a factor of 17 times higher than GDP. It was interesting that the next nearest country had liabilities of a factor of six times higher than GDP. Taking our total quantum of debt, including commercial, national and private debt, we are completely on our own and nobody is near us, including Greece, Portugal and the UK. It is entirely unsustainable.

As a result, I have been advocating over the past few weeks and months for quantitative easing, and the Minister expressed tacit approval for the measure. What concrete actions are being taken by the Taoiseach, Minister or other members of the Government to push a policy of increased quantitative easing as one of the policy solutions to the current crisis?

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