Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein)

If there is one word which sums up Irish and European political leaders during the past week, it is "failure". In Brussels last Wednesday the European Council failed to reach the promised and much hyped comprehensive deal to end the eurozone crisis. Later that day the leaders of the European Council and the European Commission, together with the IMF and leaders of Europe's banking sector, failed to reach a workable deal to stabilise the financial system. Once again, the Irish Government failed to even get a seat at the table when the most important discussions were taking place. It is not as if this would really have mattered, particularly when one considers the position taken by the Minister for Finance and the Taoiseach on their way to Brussels. In advance of negotiations that would see the Greek Government secure a reduction in its debt burden, the Irish Government stated unequivocally - not for the first time - that it would honour all of its debts, including those which do not even belong to it, namely, the toxic banking debt with which we were saddled by the previous Administration.

Gone were the pre-election promise not to pay a single cent more of toxic private banking debt, the promise to amend legislation - contained in the programme for Government - to allow for the restructuring of unsecured and unguaranteed senior bonds and the promise the Minister made in Washington last June to the effect that senior unguaranteed bondholders in Anglo Irish Bank would be burned. Once again, the Irish delegation sat through a eurozone summit and askied for nothing, offered nothing and quietly hoped that something would be thrown its way. When the serious discussions were taking place between the European Union, the IMF and the banks, where was the Irish delegation? It was either in an hotel or on its way back home. When Greece was securing a reduction of 40% in its debt-to-GDP ratio, did the Minister even ask whether we could obtain a similar reduction? In the discussions in which he engaged at the summit, did he make the case for a reduction in the private banking debt imposed on the taxpayer by the previous Government? Did the Taoiseach raise these issues? Unfortunately, I and many others know the Minister did not. While Greece secured a debt write-down, our Government gave a promise to force Irish taxpayers to pay every cent of toxic private banking debt, even where there is no legal or moral obligation on the Minister or his colleagues to do so.

If this was not bad enough, the Minister then came back home and told people the deal signed was in our interests. He told us this agreement would help stabilise the euro and assist Ireland's economic recovery. Worse than that, he suggested we were lucky not to have secured a debt write-down. He explained that had we had such misfortune, we would have been saddled with a decade – 16 years was trotted out by the Government – of deep austerity. These claims are untrue. It is sad the Minister has reduced himself to the level of throwing out this nonsense on the airwaves in an attempt to confuse listeners.

Today, Greece's debt-to-GDP ratio stands at 180%. The write-down struck last week in Brussels will see that ratio reduce to 120% over ten years. Even then, Greece's debt will not be sustainable. Ireland's debt-to-GDP ratio, however, is nowhere near that figure. According to the Department's prediction, it will peak at 118% in several years' time. A write-down similar to Greece's would bring our debt-to-GDP ratio down to between 70% and 80%. Would Ireland suffer 16 years of austerity? Would we have no moneys to pay our doctors and nurses? Has Greece no moneys to pay its nurses and doctors? Of course it has. It is still in a programme and yet it gets a 50% write-down of its debt. The Taoiseach and Minister for Finance, along with other Government spokespersons, tried to confuse the people with rubbish last week, however. This was done in an attempt to put on a brave face when in fact the Taoiseach and Minister for Finance walked away from a crucial negotiation after betraying the people and the commitments they made in the elections only eight months ago. The Minister for Finance was reduced to telling absolute lies and trying to confuse the people.

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