Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)

I just did so. Is it not the case that the Government's policy amounts to borrowing billions of euro, which we cannot afford, to put the money into private banks? Why does the Government continue to do this when the strategy has demonstrably failed? Banks will not lend, no matter how much recapitalisation they get, and at a European level, they are not investing. Will the Minister of State explain the logic to me?

The Minister of State has given no detail about what will result from this seismic shift that took place last week. She has said it is a high level political agreement to recapitalise the banks directly through the ESM. How is that in any sense going to relieve the burden on ordinary people? Even if the debt to GDP ratio is reduced, will the public not pick up the Bill on the other side through our contributions to the ESM, which we must fund? Given that the hole in the Spanish and Italian banks is estimated to be in the region of €2 trillion, with the ESM only having firepower of €500 billion, is it not guaranteed that the full €11 billion call on the Irish people is likely to come to pass?

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