Thomas Pringle (Donegal South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to the debate this evening on the Private Members' motion tabled by the Technical Group on the promissory notes. It is interesting that Members are debating this issue tonight while rumours are flying everywhere on Twitter, on news headlines and so on about the deal that supposedly is being done in respect of the promissory notes. Members are being told by the media that the Minister will make a statement in the Dáil and is scheduled to come in at 9 p.m. While this has been seen on Twitter and everywhere else, the Members of the Dáil know nothing about it. They are in this Chamber debating in a vacuum because they do not know the detail of what is being discussed. They do not know the detail of the basis for any deal on which the Government might be negotiating because the Executive does not believe in briefing the Dáil on the work it does. Consequently, Members cannot know what a likely deal might look like, except by looking at Twitter and the rumours that are flying around.

However, Members do know the Taoiseach is adamant that Ireland has not and will not ask for a write-down of any debt. They learned over the weekend that the European Central Bank had rejected the proposal from Governor Honohan because it would be in breach of Article 123 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. It is very interesting to hear the bank make this point because it proves the treaties and rules of the European Union are, once again, a moveable feast. When it suits those concerned, they can use those rules to reject a deal but if they wish to do a deal, they will bend the rules to make sure a deal happens. By any estimation, the granting in the first instance of emergency liquidity assistance was a breach of the treaties, as was the purchasing of distressed Government bonds, as the ECB has done in recent years to the tune of more than €240 billion. Similarly, the provision of loans to European banks in order that they could purchase Government bonds also is in breach of Article 123 of the aforementioned treaty. However, last weekend the ECB chose to ignore these issues and to claim it could not do a deal on the promissory note for Ireland because it was a breach of the treaties. I very much doubt whether the Government negotiators have pointed this out to the ECB. When Europe wants to do something, the treaties are not a barrier to making it happen and this is something we all should have learned by now. The Government should have learned this and should put it up to them in the negotiations on the promissory note.

Media reports indicate the board of the IBRC already has been stood down and the receivers are in place but the nature of the deal still is not known. The rumours suggest the deal will be on long-term bonds, on which we probably will pay more over the years and will make our grandchildren liable for the debt with a balloon payment at the end.

There is no legal basis for the debt and we are not legally obliged to pay it but we will be making it into senior Government debt, bringing all the legality that this entails. If legislation comes forward over the next couple of days, the Labour Party will vote on the replacement of the promissory note; the party may not have voted for the bank guarantee but it will vote to ensure that our grandchildren will carry the debts of this illegal promissory note.

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