Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein)

In Ireland we could deploy our National Pensions Reserve Fund, €5.3 billion of our own resources, in partnership with the European Investment Bank and consider key strategic projects. However, we have decided that capital investment, the low hanging fruit, will be drastically reduced. There is no vision. The emphasis is on always complying with the numbers.

On sovereign debt, we all know there must be a realistic write-down of debt. That is what the markets will respond to. They know that we cannot sustain our levels of debt. We cannot have growth in these countries and in the wider eurozone unless we have a realistic and fair deal for our people. We must also look at the European Central Bank and redeploy its resources and give it the capacity to purchase government bonds in the primary markets. The banking issue is a core issue. The core banks in Europe that engaged in reckless lending-----

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