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

The key substance of the Bill is that whereas previously the promissory note was owed to Anglo Irish Bank now this money will be owed to the Central Bank and the European Central Bank. In the first case there was some chance for us to repudiate a debt which is not ours, but once we do this and once these assets and liabilities are transferred to the Central Bank there is simply no way we can repudiate the debt.

The last bit of leverage with the ECB in terms of demanding a write-down will be gone. We were told that the winding up of the IBRC was part of the discussions as a prelude to any deal, but once this is done the ECB does not have to give the Government anything at all, despite any promises it may have made to the Government in the negotiations. That is because we will have fully taken on board the liability for the promissory note, which is what section 12 of the Bill does.

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