Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Dublin North Central, Labour)

Even somebody like me would know that gamble is not worth the risk. We may lose this battle on the €1.25 billion, and it is right and just that we in this Chamber at every opportunity have the right to discuss the process. Payments like this should not happen without having a proper discussion or debate through the likes of a private Member's motion. That is the way Parliament should work and I welcome the opportunity to discuss the issue. This is something about which the public will want a very tight explanation. Unfortunately, we have little more to say than that we do not think it worth the gamble.

Effectively, we are looking at a process of working with our European partners on something that is much more valuable, which is deconstructing the promissory note and changing it so we get some real change for this country. What would happen if we defaulted on this or previous payments? The European Central Bank, ECB, might have found it interesting as it has €110 billion in the Irish banking system at 1%, and it may have increased the interest rate. What would happen in that case and how could it be explained to the people who are rightly protesting and want to know what on Earth the Government is doing?

This is something we inherited and it is not of our making. Nobody in this Chamber would agree that this is the fault of the Fine Gael-Labour Administration. We are dealing with the issue as we find it, although we are not happy about it. The bigger game is the €30 billion figure, and I am not somebody willing to win a battle to lose a war. We should be careful about the information we send to our constituents when we are, correctly, discussing this payment to the unsecured and unguaranteed Anglo Irish Bank bondholders.

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