Clare Daly (Dublin North, Socialist Party)

I move:

"That Dáil Éireann:

notes that

- the Government intends to pay €1,250 million to unsecured Anglo Irish Bank bondholders on 25 January, 2012;

- these bondholders are anonymous speculators, many of whom bought Anglo Irish Bank bonds at between 50% and 80% discount and who stand to make huge profits if they are paid full face value for the bonds;

- the Government intends to make a payment of €3,100 million on a promissory note for the Anglo Irish Bank/Irish Nationwide Building Society (INBS) debt on 31 March, and that promissory note payments to the value of €3,100 million will be made every year until 2023, with further payments due after that date also;

- Anglo Irish Bank/INBS payments will reach at least €47,000 million by 2031, with future related borrowing and interest charges bringing the possible total cost of the Anglo Irish Bank bailout to approximately €85,000 million;

- the Government plans to raise up to €1,200 million per year by 2015 through household and water taxes, deepening the impoverishment of ordinary people – and especially the unemployed and low paid; and

- while payments to un-named bondholders are prioritised, the Government plans to cut thousands of jobs in the health service, to close hundreds of nursing home beds, to cut 3.5% from education spending over the next three years, and to cut €475 million from welfare spending this year; and

resolves that the Government:

- shall not make the Anglo Irish Bank bond payment on 25 January, 2012;

- shall not make any further payments to Anglo Irish Bank bondholders; and

- shall not pay the promissory notes for the Anglo Irish Bank/INBS debt on 31 March, 2012 and shall not make any such payments in the future."

I wish to share time with Deputies Collins, Healy, Mattie McGrath, Pringle and Donnelly.

I have moved this motion on behalf of the United Left Alliance and members of the Technical Group who support it. We are discussing this motion against the backdrop of the parents, students and teachers who had to take to the streets in their thousands last week against the cuts to DEIS schools; in the context of the almost 100 guidance counsellors who packed the Visitors' Gallery last week in opposition to the very short-term lunacy of the cutbacks in career guidance counselling at second level; against the backdrop of the €800 million in health cuts on top of a system already creaking under 12,000 health service job losses; and against the butchering of social welfare that has seen so many people suffering severe austerity every day. We have to discuss these payments against the backdrop of recent studies and surveys which revealed that half of families in this country are struggling to meet their ordinary household bills. Into that foray the Government is imposing a new household tax, a tax that will see pensioners and people in receipt of social welfare pay the same amount as a millionaire. This is a gateway tax, a new tax, which is not progressive; it does not deal with property or wealth but is a regressive tax on people's homes, the roof over their heads, which is hardly an asset and in many senses is a liability. It will see householders pay more than €1,000 per annum by 2014.

We have all this hardship and pain and for what? The answer the Government gives us is that it needs the money and we are in an economic crisis. There is no doubt that we are. The key questions that must be asked are why is that the case and how we will we get out of it. Ordinary people everywhere tell us it is galling that as this hardship and pain is imposed on them, we are preparing to hand over €1.25 billion, eight times the amount of the annual household tax, to unsecured Anglo Irish Bank bondholders. We are preparing to hand over €3.1 billion, more than the entire primary school education budget for the country, in promissory notes on foot of the Anglo Irish Bank situation at the end of March. These are moneys which were not part of any agreement and which will be paid over by a Government, whose parties stood before this electorate and promised they would share the burden and deal with the bondholders. Shame on the Minister of State and his colleagues in that regard.

I am glad at least this time around we have an opportunity to discuss the issues in regard to this tranche of our money that is to be handed over, unlike on the last occasion when the Government would not agree to change the Order of Business and allow the matter to be discussed. We lay down a challenge to every Deputy; they all have an opportunity to have their say and put forward their position on this matter. They must ask themselves, individually and collectively, will the payments of €1.25 billion and €3.1 billion to Anglo Irish Bank help or hinder us? We do not have to be geniuses or fortune tellers to know the answer to that question. It will be more of the same that has led to the problems we have now. We can categorically state that the payment of these moneys will have cataclysmic consequences for ordinary people in Ireland unless a halt is called and the demands of the motion are implemented, namely, that the Anglo Irish Bank moneys would not be paid and that the promissory notes payments would be suspended. We should remember this is not a payment of €3.1 billion this year, it is €3.1 billion for the next ten years and further billions for the next ten years after that. This is economics of the mad house - the payment of €30.6 billion in capital, which is 26% of our GDP. It is lunacy.

The Minister, Deputy Varadkar, said that if we do not pay this it would be like setting off a bomb, but a bomb for who? We very much agree with a community activist, Mr. John Bissett, who pointed out that this Government is constantly setting off bombs in the community, the impact of which is being felt by the poor and those on lower and middle incomes, the unemployed and pensioners. That is having much more devastating consequences than any bomb would have in this regard.

We acknowledge that the motion coincides with the launch of the Debt Justice Action, a coalition of NGOs, unions, solidarity groups and eminent individuals who are dedicated to popularising the arguments against the continued madness of these payments to Anglo Irish Bank. Likewise, a large number of high profile individuals and academics signed a letter last Saturday advocating that the Government abandon its course of austerity and bailouts. We want the Government to start listening to the groundswell and emerging counter consensus, of which the ULA is very happy to be a part, with regard to the disaster the Government has stood over in the same way as did its predecessors. We need to take on board the lessons of what happened in Latin America and other countries, namely, that these policies will result in ruin if we continue to pay illegal debts, a solution which is completely and utterly unworkable.

We must ask what will happen if we do not pay this money? The Minister, Deputy Varadkar, said the roof will fall on. Yet, in reality, he is saying that the Irish Government is a willing lap dog of the ECB, which is demanding that we pay a debt that is not ours in order to protect European banks. What will happen if we do not pay this money? The first answer commonly cited is that the ECB would cut off funding to our pillar banks. Let us examine that. That is not plausible as the pillar banks are being maintained to avoid contagion and it is clear that such a measure would provoke contagion if the ECB collapsed funding in that regard. Why would it take that action when it has been trying to avoid it since 2008? We are also told the measure would result in a loss of investor confidence. With Government bonds now rated as junk and given that we are not in the international market, that risk is not of any consequence. It would probably help us out given that we are being downgraded even when we are paying all the bills.

The other threat is that there would be retaliation by the troika. The promissory notes are not a condition of the bailout and would not directly affect the loan agreements. We would prefer to take that risk, which we believe is minimal, rather than accept the hard fact that unless the Government changes course and ceases paying over these moneys, we have the certainty that the pain and hardship being inflicted on ordinary people will continue. What is the reward for the bailout and austerity? Absolutely nothing. We have worse growth rates and debt levels than those predicted and unrelenting hardship.

The opportunity is being put before Members of the House tomorrow night to say "enough is enough". We have a chance to reverse this lunacy and make a stand for the betterment of all our citizens and to be a beacon for our colleagues throughout Europe.

See this speech in context