Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Independent)

I propose to share time with Deputies Clare Daly, Mick Wallace, Richard Boyd Barrett, Catherine Murphy and Shane Ross. We will be brief but devastating.

Last week, the Minister of State, Deputy Creighton, and I were on "Prime Time" discussing the European crisis. The Minister of State said that one should not shout a negotiating strategy from the rooftops. I agree with her that one should not do that but the problem is that we are shouting a negotiating strategy from the rooftops. At the press conference with the troika, we heard the Minister for Finance say that we are not in the business of not paying our debts and that we want to be a country that pays its way in the world, is seen to pay its way and, consequently, is trustworthy for investors. The Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Howlin, said we have established a clear relationship of trust. Had the people of Ireland seen the clip of that press conference in January or February before the election, a significant number of them may not have voted for this Government because that is not what the parties now in Government were saying. The Minister for Finance, Deputy Noonan, described the agreement then as an obscenity and there was much talk of adopting a much more vigorous negotiating strategy with the troika and the bondholders. We have not seen this, while our strategy, at least publicly, is that we state we will pay everyone, including the various bondholder and sovereign debt holders.

Others have adopted different negotiating positions. The Greeks have said that they will not pay it. The Government suggests the Greeks are in meltdown but this is not because of their negotiating position, it is because their economy is not well developed. Iceland also adopted a more vigorous negotiating strategy. Now, the major world banks are playing hardball and are not going to engage in bondholder write-down. Every time that the Government states in the national and international media that Ireland will pay all its debts and, essentially, everyone else's debts, it makes it harder for us to negotiate because it sets the expectations of the market that nothing other than that will happen. I encourage the Government to adopt publicly a much more vigorous position.

See this speech in context