Peter Mathews (Dublin South, Fine Gael)

That is why, to get the concentration and the thrust to act to that end, it is important at every opportunity to get the concentration of the minds of the people who make the big decisions in Europe and the ECB. The way to get their attention is to do as I have suggested, which is not to renege on or default on but, to get their concentration, to withhold 0.25% or 0.5% of the quarterly or monthly interest charges on the emergency liquidity assistance. This should be done because that emergency liquidity arose as a result of senior bondholders being paid in full when there was no acknowledgement of the scale of bank losses in this country.

I know that is a fact because I spoke to President Van Rompuy about five months ago, and he admitted he had not been aware that as much as between €70 billion and €100 billion of bank loan losses had arisen in a period when €70 billion to €75 billion of senior bondholders had been redeemed in full. That brought a new complexion to the situation in which the banks now owe the Central Bank of Ireland and the ECB a total of approximately €150 billion.

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