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

Will the Minister explain his remarkable comment that there should not be a write-down of our debt burden? Is it not a fact that being a good boy in the class and submitting to the austerity poison being inflicted on us to pay back bankers' debt has not worked? This can be contrasted to the resistance of the Greek people, where there is a 21% write-down in their debts, with talk of further haircuts on the debt. That is because the Greek people are fighting back and the Government is finding it difficult to impose austerity. The people are out on the streets and the result is a write-down on the debt. The lesson is that all the bankers' gambling debts are to be paid if one is the best boy in the class and does what he is told but there is some write-down if the people get on the streets, fight and stand up to these dictators in the European Central Bank, the EU and the IMF.

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