Luke Flanagan (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Independent)

The Government has advised us on several occasions that actions have consequences. I am well aware of that. If the bank were to give me €10,000 tomorrow morning and I decided to lose it all in a bookmaker's shop, I realise there will be consequences to my actions. If I lose, the bookmaker is not obliged to return my money. On the other hand, the people to whom €1.25 billion was repaid today have been taught that there are essentially no consequences to their actions. They took a risk which did not turn out as they hoped. Some of them sold on the bonds, in some cases for as low as 54 cent in the euro. Unlike somebody like me, who would not burn down the bookmaker's shop if my losing stake was not repaid, these people are repaid in any case. If Paddy Power was being run by the Government it would be out of business by now.

We are told that if we kick up a row about repaying these bonds we will be slapped on the wrist. One Government Deputy observed that there is €110 billion in the banking system, put there by the European Central Bank, and if we do not repay this money the bank might raise the interest rate it is charging us. The reality is that if that were to happen, we would be unable to repay any of the money. We are the man or woman in the street who is sure the banker will tip his hat to us for fear we will not pay him back. That argument has been going around for a long time. It is an argument members of the Government were using before they came into power. Unfortunately, that is now forgotten and they have become so responsible that they no longer run the country. When I lived in Germany I never voted for Angela Merkel's party. There was no opportunity for me to vote or not vote for her on this occasion, but the Government is letting her and Mr. Sarkozy run the country. It promised to get tough with these people and to work for this country. If it had done so, we would not have had the debate today on the Water Services (Amendment) Bill because there would be enough money to run the country without the need for such measures.

I do no accept the scaremongering which says we will be locked out of the markets if we do not repay this money. I know of several business people who found themselves unable to repay their debts in the past and were obliged to go out of business. Over a period of years they went back into business and nobody had a problem with them. People move on, just as the markets will move on. They have already done so in the case of Iceland, with that country's credit rating now restored to health, thus allowing it once more to borrow on the markets.

Some people argue that we cannot know the consequence of a failure to repay the bondholders. However, there are certain facts of which we can be sure. We will still be producing just as much food as we are now and there will be a demand for it from all corners of the planet. People will still want to come to this country for tourism reasons. The multinationals are not here for the craic or because we pay back debts we do not owe. They are here for other reasons and those reasons will still apply following a default. It will not all fall apart if we default, a word which some are afraid even to say.

How will the Government succeed in terrifying people after it has put through the next several budgets? The only threat that will be left in three years' time is that if we do not pay the bondholders we will not have enough money to pay the interest on our debts. According to the figures from the Department of Finance, we will have a primary surplus in 2014. The only fiscal deficit we will have in that year will be the interest we are paying. How will the Government frighten us into submission then?

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