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

What is the alternative to this? It is hard to explain in three minutes, but I will say this. First, the debt is unsustainable. Our debt was €25 billion in 2007. That is our debt. All the rest is odious debt which results from the crisis and the recapitalisation of the banks. We cannot pay it and we should not pay it. We should tell Angela Merkel we cannot pay it and we will not pay it, either acting unilaterally or to force her to the negotiating table, but it simply cannot be done.

The Government's argument all along has been that, if we do this, we will be cut loose and we will be left with a €15 billion or €18 billion deficit. That is not true. The Government should own up on this one. Most of the deficit it is talking about is debt interest next year. The Government has to admit this as it is in the troika figures. Currently, our primary deficit is €3.1 billion. That is what we actually spend over what we get in tax revenue. The rest is debt interest.

See this speech in context