Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour) | Oireachtas source

We did not, actually. I am glad that Deputy Adams made that point because we did not say that. I want to correct that point and I am glad that Deputy Adams has given me the opportunity of doing so. From the very beginning of the crisis at the time of the bank debt, we were often asked whether we would default or refuse to pay if we were in government. We always said we cannot default, we have to renegotiate. We committed ourselves from the outset, including the time that we were in opposition, to the strategy of renegotiation. When the two parties that are now in Government committed themselves to that strategy at the time of the general election and when the Government was formed, there were people - including commentators and those now on the Opposition benches who were then in government - who said it could not be done, it would not succeed, we would not be allowed to do it. I have quoted one political figure who expressed it clearly. Some of the commentators, who are now writing about flaws in this and are trying to find some hole in it, were the very people who said at that time that it was fanciful to renegotiate. Yet we did renegotiate.

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