Peter Mathews (Dublin South, Fine Gael)

I wish to share time with Deputy Anthony Lawlor.

I am grateful for the opportunity to contribute. This is an emotive debate because we are discussing the fallout from an agreement made with the troika in November 2010, which came like a financial tsunami at the country. The ECB woke up to the fright that it had an exposure of €135 billion in loans to our banking system and, in turn, to our economy and there was a deficit in the public finances of approximately €20 billion a year. The improbability of getting the €135 billion back when the Government faced an annual deficit of €20 billion was alarming. The memorandum of understanding was cobbled together by the IMF, the EU and the ECB in emergency mode and this coincided with the financial crisis that was about to explode on the eurozone and the world. That was the confluence of events that led us to the memorandum of understanding, which required us, as part of the algebra, to repay the agreement loans by realising €5 billion through the sale of investments.

I am glad the Government has renegotiated this amount down to €3 billion with a balance of €2 billion for debt repayment. The repayments relate to the debt taken on on foot of the memorandum with €1 billion to be reinvested in State enterprise. However, this is an opportunity for us to think in bigger terms and to examine the woods, not the trees of that agreement. We must consider the number of variables in the overall equation rather than concentrating separately on each of the variables and the fractions or decimal points that go with them. As a nation, we should continuously review State investments in enterprises. For example, employment should be examined in order that there is refreshed rather than stagnated employment. Are the people in those enterprises learning new skills and engaged in continual professional development, which is required in all professions nowadays? The agreement at least drives the Government parties to review our investments whether those are in Coillte, Aer Lingus, ESB or Bord Gais and that is what they are doing. Rather than squabbling about the arithmetic of the €3 billion being divided into €2 billion and €1 billion, we should have a calm, measured review of the investments. There is an opportunity to realise some of the investments and invest in fresh sectoral opportunities in the economy and that is what I advocate.

It is also useful to connect with our creditors, including the ECB, whose governing council meets today and it is hoped the Governor of our Central Bank will robustly persist about the provenance or origin of the emergency liquidity assistance in IBRC and about the ECB advances to AIB and Bank of Ireland with a view to restructuring, renegotiating and writing down those debts because only then will it be possible for the two remaining operational utility banks to pass on write downs to their customers, which are the households and businesses that are being crushed by debt that is astronomically higher than any other country in the developed world. That is the opportunity but let us take down the tone to one of measured, constructive co-operation. Let us insist to our creditors that we should sit down with them to examine this.

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