Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein)

Cuirim fáilte roimh an rún atá os comhair na Dála ón nGrúpa Teicniúil. Tá sé fíor-thábhachtach go bhfuil an cheist seo, a bhaineann le Banc Angla-Éireannach, á phlé againn.

I welcome the opportunity to discuss this motion. I am conscious Sinn Féin brought a similar motion before the House last year. It is opportune, in particular on the eve of this Government's handing over of €1.25 billion of taxpayers' money to unsecured, unguaranteed bondholders. Much attention is being paid to what will happen tomorrow. Let us also be conscious of what happened yesterday when more than €30.6 million was paid to unguaranteed bondholders. Next week, €20 million will be paid out and in June a further €500 million will be paid. This is not a stand-alone issue. This is a repeated transfer of taxpayers' money to speculators.

Despite repeated attempts by my party and others to have the identity of these bondholders revealed, the Government continues to shield them. We know that the day one list has been sought. I call on the Government and on the Minister for Finance in particular to publish the day one list for Anglo Irish Bank, which lists the names of those who bought bonds on the day the bank was nationalised. It is likely they are private speculators, investors and hedge funds who were betting on the financial markets. It is also highly likely that they bought these bonds at a dramatically reduced value. The bondholder who will receive the €1.25 billion will get a massive windfall from the Irish people to the tune of millions of euro.

I am not surprised at the number of empty benches on the Government side. Fine Gael and Labour Party Deputies must be deeply embarrassed by their Government's actions. After all, it was only a few short weeks ago that the Government wrenched €3.8 billion from the economy in the form of spending cuts and taxes. The €1.25 billion due to be paid tomorrow equates to almost two and a half times the total cuts in social welfare in 2012, more than twice the amount of cuts to the health service announced in the 2012 budget, more than eight times the total to be raised from the household charge this year, and almost ten times the amount to be cut from the education budget in 2012.

The Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Varadkar, has been mentioned a number of times in this debate. He told us on Sunday that not to pay these Anglo Irish Bank bonds would be akin to setting off a bomb in the middle of Dublin. That horse has already bolted. The December budget of this Government blew a hole so big in the finances of low and middle income families that it will take years for them to recover. All the while this Government is fleecing the taxpayer and dismantling the public services, it is handing over billions of euro to Anglo Irish Bank bondholders.

Worse than that is the national scandal that is the Anglo Irish Bank promissory note. This is an issue I have been raising in this House since early last year. Despite promises to break with the failed banking policy that was pursued by Fianna Fail and the Green Party, Fine Gael and the Labour Party have signed up to it lock, stock and barrel. Under the Anglo Irish Bank promissory note, payments will transfer from the Irish people to that bank up to 31 March 2031.

The first payment of €3.1 billion was made on 31 March last year and the Government will again make a payment of €3.1 billion in March of this year and of every year for a long time thereafter. On the total cost of the Anglo Irish Bank promissory note, I again challenge the Minister for Finance because he simply does not know what it will be. Although more than €47 billion will be transferred to Anglo Irish Bank, there will be a cost associated with borrowing that from the State, which, at a reasonable interest rate of 4.7%, will be at least €74.63 billion. That is what it will cost up to when the last penny is transferred to Anglo Irish Bank. This equates to approximately 30% of the current national debt and it will add €3.1 billion to the Exchequer deficit every year. This payment is so absurd that a national campaign has been formed in recent days - a meeting is being held in the Teachers' Club as I speak - comprising academics, community organisations and different groups that have come together under the banner of "Anglo: Not Our Debt". Its purpose is to campaign to knock some sense into the Government and to join with others who have campaigned continually on this issue in a call to suspend this payment.

The promissory note is not our debt. It should not be placed on the shoulders of the people, we simply cannot afford it and the mealy-mouthed approach by the Government must end. I again call on the Government, just as I called on Anglo Irish Bank, the Governor of the Central Bank and the Minister for Finance in the early days of September before there was any mention of renegotiating the promissory note, to state clearly that this State is unable to pay the promissory note. It should enter into negotiations with the ECB, which will be the beneficiary of that payment, not to tweak around the edges by reducing our costs marginally, however welcome that would be, but to have the promissory note parked for an indefinite period until this country can recover.

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