Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I make a plea to my fellow Deputies who catastrophise about what would happen if the Government took a stand to look at the literature and examine what happened in similar situations. They do not need to believe me. John McHale, who is the chairman of the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council, said at a conference a few months ago that the consequences of this sort of crisis were significantly less than most people believe. I urge my fellow Deputies to look at the literature and, please, not to quote the example of Argentina. We are in no way similar to Argentina.

I accept there will be consequences if the Government accepts the motion and Dáil Éireann insists that the Executive we hold to account act in this manner. However, there does come a point when one must take a stand. There comes a point when we must say, on behalf of the Irish people, that we have done everything asked of us and we are now into our fifth year of this. The European Commission's analysis shows that we have paid more than any other country to stabilise the European financial crisis. When the figures are adjusted to account for our small size, they show that we have paid 18 times more than German citizens. There comes a point when we must say that we have done what was asked, we cannot do it anymore, and we are not willing to allow our country and our people to continue to bleed. We must take a stand.

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