Liam Twomey (Wexford, Fine Gael)

There is no doubt that this is a political and economic crisis across the 17 nations of the eurozone. Many of the comments tonight make the issue out to be simplistic and basic and suggest it is a question of whether we pay or do not pay our bondholders. They suggest that somehow the Government does not have a clue what is going on in Europe and that it is responsible for this awful mess. If it was only so simple, it would be easy to solve this crisis.

What Greece is going through currently is horrible. Its debt is unsustainable and it faces a bleak future and a desperate decade. Some people feel that even the 50% haircut of the debt owed by private banks in Greece will not be enough to get Greece out of the position it is in. That is a terrible situation to be in. If there is one country the situation in Greece does not apply to, it is Ireland. Members of the Opposition speak about sovereignty, republican sentiment and nationhood, but try to drag down the level of the country in this Chamber. It is pitiful and annoying to have to listen to that. I wish they would grow up and stop talking like that. We are not at that level. Most commentators agree our position is fairly sustainable. Our road to recovery will not be affected by Government policy now. It is events outside the country that will have the greatest knock-on effect here, such as a global recession or the failure of the eurozone to get its act together.

I agree with many of those who have spoken on this issue and pointed out that the eurozone comprises 17 sovereign nations that must work together. Allowing Sarkozy and Merkel control and lead events in this regard is not producing the result we expected. Perhaps that is to do with the situation for Mr. Sarkozy and Angela Merkel in their own countries. They face elections in their countries and face an examination of their position by their people. This may not be constructive towards sorting out the crisis in the wider eurozone.

One thing that is clear is that our Government is doing its job. The Taoiseach is doing his job and the Minister for Finance is doing his. They are building our recovery bit by bit. Members of the Opposition like to go for the big bang theory. They like to think that we can somehow set off a major explosion and that everything will be sorted as a result and we will resolve the crisis. Sinn Féin, in particular, loves the big bang theory. I wonder what would have happened if the election went a different way last February and our Minister for Finance in Europe now was Deputy Pearse Doherty. If he were Minister, he would be going to Europe and telling Angela Merkel and Sarkozy what to do. He would pay nothing to bondholders and would burn all around him. I would love to know what our economic situation would be now if he was in charge. For all the hype, bull and false anger he expresses here, is he really as reckless and irresponsible as he likes to indicate here? The absolute nonsense that has come from Sinn Féin and some Members of the Opposition with regard to a policy for dealing with and resolving this crisis would frighten the daylights out of people.

Deputy Donnelly asked a very sensible question this morning in the Chamber about what would be the consequences if we defaulted. There is a need for us to drill into that a little bit more. However, from what I can gather, it seems the most benign situation is that the European Central Bank would be unhappy with us and the very least it could do is raise interest rates on money we borrow from the bank. As we intend to borrow tens of billions of euro from the ECB over the next couple of years, our little pyrrhic victory gained from not paying the bondholders would quickly become a massive cost to the Irish taxpayer. When members of the Opposition show such great concern about those individuals who are lying on trolleys, living on social welfare payments and relying on old age pensions, do they realise the least benign consequence of defaulting? The least benign consequence is that the State would not be able to borrow money anywhere. If we were not able to borrow money anywhere, as was pointed out by Deputy Spring, we would be left with a deficit between what the Government earns and spends.

This hypocrisy particularly belongs to Sinn Féin. Armchair economists in the Technical Group do not really bother me that much, because they do not affect the overall situation. However, Sinn Féin sells a policy to the people and it projects itself as offering this alternative policy. If Sinn Féin policies do not stack up, it must be exposed by us in the Government. Are Sinn Féin Members saying they would rather gamble with cutting pensions, social welfare payments and pay to gardaí, nurses and teachers by a third in return for burning bondholders in Anglo Irish Bank? That seems to be the most significant consequence of what could happen. If ECB rates went up on money this State needs to borrow to run the country, at the very least we would definitely see it impacting on our hospitals, schools and services we provide to the sick and vulnerable in our society. This needs to be exposed strongly. When Deputy Doherty comes back into the House to make his next "angry young man" speech to the nation, he might tell us the consequences of Sinn Féin policy. I am not an economist, but I have listened to many things and I am still waiting for Deputy Doherty to provide the consequences of his party's policy statements.

This is why I support fully what the Taoiseach and the Minister for Finance are doing. They are not putting the future of this country at risk. They are going out and negotiating our position. We are winning some days and we are not doing as well other days, but we are constantly chipping away to make life better for the people. We must not at any stage let a rush of blood to the head dictate economic policy for this country. There are many unpredictable variables in the eurozone at the moment. There is much happening to the world economy. We are a very small part of that and we are very fortunate that we have managed to get as far as we have got over the last few years. Any individuals who are undermining our sovereignty and our future as a republic need to be questioned on the policy positions they are trying to get the Irish people to take on board.

I do not mind the simplistic talk of the some of the Sinn Féin backbenchers about a lack of leadership, or that we are rigid in what we talk about, because all that is just simple rhetoric. However, they must explain the overall consequences of their policies to the Irish people, as must any other Member who talks about burning bondholders.

Fianna Fáil Members have also spoken about burning bondholders in Anglo Irish Bank. This is quite ironic, considering we have paid €97 billion to bail out the bank. We have a responsibility for €700 million of it this morning and another €3 billion next January, while €94 billion was the responsibility of Fianna Fáil when it was in Government.

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