Peter Mathews (Dublin South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Does anybody recall the photograph in the Irish Independent on 10 October 2009? It was a picture of Professor Patrick Honohan, President Barroso and Joaquin Almunia, the wise men who said that the Irish people needed to make up their minds quickly and called on the Irish Government to move fast to have the NAMA legislation enacted. That was done around 7 November.

The next landmark day was in March 2010, following the first PCAR, when we were told Allied Irish Banks needed €7.9 billion and Bank of Ireland needed €3.5 billion. It was admitted on 30 September 2010 that losses in Anglo Irish Bank amounted to €22 billion and that the total loss of the banking system was €50 billion. The 30th of September is significant because it was on that day the surreptitious payment of €7.9 billion by the then Anglo Irish Bank was made to senior unsecured bondholders, the guarantee on those bonds ran out and my telephone calls in this regard to the Central Bank, Financial Regulator and Anglo Irish Bank went unanswered.

The European Central Bank can move fast when the interests of the euro system and others is at stake but moves slowly when it comes to addressing the promissory note, which was a wrong move for the Irish people. The promissory note was created for the first time ever in the euro-system to validate and regulate the advances of a greater amount of exceptional liquidity assistance. The rumours tonight are that the ELA will move back to the Central Bank of Ireland and that a long term bond will be created. However, there will be no debt write-down. The ELA created in IBRC was to allow for the redemption in full, without any losses, of senior unsecured bondholders. The system was maintained by the establishment right up to 29 November 2010 when the troika came to Ireland concerned only with the €135 billion to €140 billion of exposure of the ECB to the Irish banks.

It is wrong that there will be no write-down of the ELA, which is secured by the promissory note. It is absurd that I do not have the time to explain this properly, as I have done on several other occasions. People have chosen not to inform themselves on this issue. It is wrong that the ECB can move as fast or as slowly as it likes to protect the system. The people of Ireland have been at the receiving end of this. I heard it mentioned last night that although we have no moral obligation to pay this debate, we have a legal obligation to do so. We do not have a legal obligation to pay it and I will explain why.

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