Tom Fleming (Kerry South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

On the night of the bank crisis in 2008, one of the greatest scandals and con jobs ever, even in international terms, was perpetrated on the Irish nation. The previous Administration was sold a pig in a poke, to put it in mild terms, and fed false information regarding the solvency of Anglo Irish Bank and Irish Nationwide. This was done in the hours leading up to midnight and it was revealed at five minutes past midnight that this information was a complete fabrication. As a result, a crippling burden has been imposed on this generation and future generations.

D-day or 31 March is fast approaching. As recently as 19 December 2012, the International Monetary Fund warned that Ireland's economy could stagnate, leaving the country in a distressed state for years. It insisted that the European Union help reduce the burden of the bank debt and urged agreement to restructure the €31 billion Anglo Irish Bank promissory notes well before March when the €3.1 billion repayment falls due. The IMF sent a strong signal to the European Central Bank that it must act decisively on this issue and stressed that Ireland also needs a deal on the additional €31 billion it pumped into the zombie pillar banks before the bailout. One option suggested by the fund was the implementation of the European Stability Mechanism.

The managing director of the International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde, made some strong statements recently in which she accepted that the IMF's economic model was wrong. The implication of her admission is that the fiscal compact to which we signed up will eventually destroy Europe's economy. The IMF realises that the Merkel-Sarkozy axis focused on achieving debt reduction through austerity and increased competitiveness and considered these measures the most effective means of controlling the crisis. This view was strongly supported by Ireland. In October 2012, however, the IMF concluded that the economics underpinning its assumptions may have been wrong and conceded not only that austerity does not work but that it is counterproductive.

I and many others believe we should, at a minimum, obtain an agreement extending the timeframe for repaying the promissory notes to at least 30 years and reducing the annual repayment to a nominal amount. Such an agreement would not be new in Europe, as Germany only recently finalised its reparations to the Allies agreed after the First World War. This bond, which extended for more than 90 years, established an international precedent. If we were to adopt a similar mechanism for repaying the promissory notes, it would have the least possible impact on Irish citizens and enable us to regain our sovereignty and return to the international financial markets.

The €30.6 billion promissory note will, with interest, eventually cost €47.4 billion. We need to secure a notional interest rate of 0.2% at most. These compromise measures could be pursued in the event that all else fails.

Relevant to the moment, the ECB recently-----

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