Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)

Members were told that burden sharing with bondholders would be sought by agreement and through clear, determined and competent negotiation. A few short months later, the Government's record on negotiation has been found wanting. Despite the pre-election hyperbole of Fine Gael and the Labour Party, they have also been found out because the current Administration's failure to renegotiate this debt, in conjunction with the travesty of its medium-term fiscal statement announced last week, paints its own dismal picture. The last crowd in government walked us into a crisis and the Government now appears intent on keeping us there. Tax revenues continue to fall and the drop in VAT receipts is a grim reflection of the decimation of the domestic economy and people's spending power. These trends are due to the austerity measures directed by the Government at middle and low-income earners and of course growth projections continue on a downward trajectory. Hospital beds remain closed, special needs assistants in schools have become a privilege and not a right and the elderly face into a winter with savage cuts to their gas and electricity allowances.

It is simply wrong and indefensible for the Government to impose such sustained austerity and hardship on the people while at the same time presiding over the payout by Anglo Irish Bank to a single unguaranteed unsecured senior bondholder last week to the value of $1 billion. As the Minister is aware, the Anglo Irish Bank promissory note is an outrage. However, it is simply not good enough for Labour Party and Fine Gael Ministers or their backbench colleagues to come into this Chamber and bemoan Fianna Fáil decisions in government as a fait accompli. By removing the financial obligation on the public purse created by the promissory note, the Government could reduce Ireland's debt to GDP ratio to approximately 87%. This could ease the State's transition back into the international bond markets, thereby reducing the deficit and getting the economy and society back on an even keel. While tipping one's cap to our troika partners in the hope of a pat on the back and a few shillings in one's pocket is not good Government, it is telling. I believe the refusal to step up and seek openly a renegotiation of the Anglo Irish Bank promissory note and the unsecured unguaranteed Anglo Irish Bank bonds encapsulates the political and social mindset of Fine Gael and the Labour Party in government.

Negotiation is a dialogue in which two sides meet, arguments are made and a compromise eventually is found. I am not talking about a unilateral act but about a process that requires a mature and confident approach. The socialising of private debt is unsustainable. The practice of using taxpayers' money to repay the Anglo Irish Bank promissory note is reprehensible and unnecessary and Ireland cannot afford the social repercussions of paying for speculators' bad gambles on bad banks. The money is needed for job creation, capital investment, next-generation broadband delivery, hospitals, teachers, gardaí and all the services on which citizens legitimately rely. Now is the moment for the Minister and the Government to understand the debt of Anglo Irish Bank is not the people's debt and the people should not be asked to pay the debts of Anglo Irish Bank.

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