Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

We have moved on. As I have stated on many occasions in this House, having 17 central banks in the euro area and 27 in the EU is a nonsense. There should be only one central bank, and it should take over the Irish debt. The removal of this debt from the backs of Irish taxpayers should be the focus of the Government in negotiations on this issue. This debt is being carried by the Irish Central Bank, which is only an off-shoot branch of the European Central Bank, of which our governor is a member. On the table of any negotiations in regard to fiscal compact arrangements should be that the European Central Bank take over the debts which existed prior to the putting in place of the ESF. Had the ESF been in place earlier, we would not have had to go down the expensive promissory note route. There is a compelling case for the Minister to go to Brussels prior to the due date of the March payment to negotiate that the European Central Bank take over these debts at a maximum 1% interest rate or that it absorb them in terms of any new arrangement to be entered into in Europe.

Many people - I am sure other Members have said this - have made a return of up to 100% on these bonds, which were trading at 50% of their euro value more than a year ago. Following the statement by the Minister, Deputy Noonan, that we would guarantee these loans and pay them in full, the bonds increased to par value. Had the Minister, Deputy Noonan, been clever, the NTMA could have purchased them on the secondary market at 50% value, thus saving us half the amount we are currently paying out. The reason I say that the balance due to the Central Bank is now the big issue is, there is now only €1.8 billion of senior unsecured bondholders remaining after this payment which I expect will be made tomorrow.

I welcome the statement in the motion that the Government not pay the promissory notes for Anglo Irish Bank-Irish Nationwide Building Society debt on 31 March. The Government needs urgently to renegotiate this matter in Brussels, Frankfurt and so on. Everyone who has met the troika knows of the IMF, which has an American background. It believes in the capitalist system and that if a bank is a dead duck, it should be allowed to fail. It is far more sympathetic than are people in Europe about some of these bondholders taking a hit in respect of Anglo Irish Bank. I would welcome further discussion on this issue.

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