Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour) | Oireachtas source

It has put an end to Anglo Irish Bank, Irish Nationwide Building Society and IBRC. It has put an end to the payment of the promissory note - that the previous Government saddled on the Irish taxpayers - of €3.1 billion each March for ten years. The Government has exchanged that for a longer-term bond with maturity of 34.5 years. This will have the benefit of reducing Ireland's borrowing requirement by €20 billion, will take €1 billion off the deficit and constitutes a further 0.6% along the way towards achieving Ireland's deficit target.

The Government has another job of work to do now, to which the Taoiseach referred earlier today, namely, that on the back of the agreement made last June on the establishment of the banking union, further work remains to be done in respect of the easement of Ireland's bank debt. Moreover, that is not the only thing the Government must do as it must also instil greater confidence in the Irish economy. It must get greater investment into the economy to create the jobs that will bring about recovery. This is the reason for the work the Government has done on its budgets, in bringing stability to our financial system and on the negotiation of the bank debt arrangements, all of which contribute to stability. One builds investment on that and creates the jobs that are necessary to bring about recovery. It is all tied together and while it will not happen overnight, in two years the Government has made far more progress than any of the sceptics and cynics thought it would be able to make this time two years ago.

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