Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The actions of the Fine Gael-Labour Government will determine whether every person in the State will be saddled with thousands of euro in debt or whether that burden will be electronically extinguished by the Central Bank. The signing of the promissory note has been a disaster for the State. The opportunity cost is significant. The money could have been spent on jobs, hospitals, education, housing, transport infrastructure and Garda stations. The note directly translates into water charges, home taxes and higher rates of PRSI, universal social charge, income tax and VAT on the hundreds of thousands of families living on the edge. The wealth of the nation is being retrospectively swapped for defunct, toxic private debt.

This year, the State is literally falling over the 120% debt-to-GDP sustainability ratio, but neither the Taoiseach nor the Tánaiste can summon the nerve to follow through on the mandate they received at the election to seek a write-down. The reality of people's lives jars grossly with that of our overpaid negotiators, such as the Minister for Finance, who is telling us not to get too excited about the two months remaining in which to get a deal.

Today, I met a student from west Dublin called Seán. He is representative of hundreds of thousands of people who are living on the tipping point. Banking debt and austerity have pared his family's earnings to the bone. He is concerned about whether his family will be able to pay for him to attend a third level college. The fees would tip the family over the edge as regards earnings versus expenditure. Seán asked the question why the Government would pour billions of euro into banks that destroyed the country instead of investing his family's hard-earned tax money in educating the next generation. I could not give him an answer.

In the main, Seán's generation will judge this Government on whether it writes down the debt or shares the burden with a generation that has not even been born yet. Two years ago, the Government parties broadly agreed with Sinn Féin's current position, but the Government's inability to negotiate and its singular strategy of ingratiating itself with the ECB have sorely let the country down.

The Government needs to outline the objectives clearly and to communicate real red lines, pivotal to which is that there should be no deal without a write-down. It must also demonstrate our deeply held intent to reach a resolution on this issue with the ECB. Equally, it must show our preparedness to walk away from the March payment of the promissory note if no fair resolution is forthcoming. If the economic self-interests of larger EU member states are more equal than the economic self-interests of smaller member states, we are in a bad state.

Fianna Fáil made catastrophic blunders in the bank rescue process, but Ireland's total bailout price tag reflects actions compelled by the ECB. Some claim that monetary financing is outside the legal remit of the ECB, but the truth is that the ECB has often tailored its rules to suit circumstances. For example, the bond buying programme, long-term refinancing operations and the ongoing manipulation of collateral requirements have long blurred the line between fiscal and monetary policy.

Most Deputies enter the Chamber with a desire to leave something lasting behind for future generations. Unless the Government gets real about the promissory note, the Minister of State's legacy will be a generation scattered throughout the world and a broken Ireland left behind. Ireland cannot carry this burden by itself.

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