Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)

Exactly, which affects the ordinary working classes in the main.

All of that money has been taken out of the Exchequer and is contributing to job losses. Europe may not be interested in this and it is perhaps why the Minister was not pushed about attending the latest emergency meeting to deal with the euro crisis. The consequences of what is happening are that people are becoming unemployed, children are going to school hungry, children with disabilities do not receive proper services and hundreds of thousands of Irish people are emigrating.

People are not going abroad to get work experience to return in a year or two, despite what some people seem to think. They are moving lock, stock and barrel to Australia, America, New Zealand and further afield. The investment of the Irish people is being lost to future generations. Their skills are being lost to our economy, yet nothing is being done. The Government is more concerned about dealing with Anglo Irish Bank bondholders than creating jobs.

If we asked for a similar write-down of debt to that obtained by Greece our debt would probably be sustainable. It would be easier for us to begin to rebuild our economy in which people have work and can pay their fair share. The vast majority of Irish taxpayers are on low and medium incomes and are suffering the consequences of the ills of the previous Government but the problem is being compounded by the ills of the current Government.

I am being constructive in saying that the money can be spent in another way and we could have a stimulus package to help retain some of the jobs in the retail industry. Such a proposal is constructive and not, as other Deputies have suggested, irresponsible. It is irresponsible not to negotiate, set out a stall and demand a write-down. The Government is irresponsible because it has not done that.

The State, because of the Government, has taken an unsustainable course of action to pay unsecured bondholders in full. It is not sustainable because it is morally wrong and economic madness. The term "economic treason" was used by the Tánaiste, a term which could be used to properly describe the current course of action, namely to continue to pump more money into a black hole to sustain a pension fund in Germany or other financial institution while Irish jobs and companies are collapsing left, right and centre.

I am interested in whether the Taoiseach is answering to what he considers to be his real boss. His real boss is the Irish electorate. However, he seems to accept what comes from the diktats of Angela Merkel and those in the Christian Democratic group in the European Union and that what he is doing is being a good European. There is nothing Christian about making the poor suffer for the benefit of the rich. In the Bible I read I thought it was the other way around, that is, that the rich were supposed to suffer to help the poor. The script might have been rewritten by the Government, as the Minister and the Taoiseach have rewritten their pre-election promises.

The poor should not be suffering the consequences of greed and arrogance but they are. We are calling, in a constructive fashion, for another direction because the approach of this and the previous Government is not working and will not work. It is making life unbearable for hundreds of thousands of people in the State. It is unjustifiable because such people did not cause the problem in the first place or benefit from the greed or arrogance of those who went before them.

Unsecured bondholders should not be paid a red cent. Frankfurt's way should be rejected. In its election literature the Labour Party said it was "Labour's way or Frankfurt's way". The same situation pertains now. There is a different way which involves investing Irish taxpayers money and ensuring over time we pay our sovereign debt. Nobody is saying we should welch on it but we will pay it when we have the money and are good and ready.

We should invest money in jobs and recreate the economy. We can then consider addressing Ireland's debts. In the meantime the Government should go to the 15th EU crisis meeting and ask for a similar write-down to that of Greece, which it might get. It would make the situation sustainable for the Irish people.

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