Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Tánaiste told us there would be light at the end of the tunnel but for many people there is not. For many people, the light at the end of the tunnel was his words that it "lifts that burden from the Irish taxpayer and means that the European taxpayer, at a general level, through the ESM is basically taking on responsibility for it", as well as the quotes from other Ministers. Unfortunately, they did not run with the ball. What they did was sit on their hands and allow the whole thing to start to unravel. They have decided to cobble together this agreement and present it in a way that means we are supposed to welcome the fact all of this will be paid by the Irish taxpayer but it will be done in the future.

It is very clear that it is Frankfurt's way. There was an open goal and Ireland ended up scoring an own goal. We should have pushed this issue to a conclusion by insisting on the separation of banking and sovereign debt and refusing to pay a cent more on the promissory notes. In fact, I doubt Frankfurt even thought it would get its way in such a comprehensive way. It could have only dreamed that the Irish State would voluntarily latch the most toxic of its toxic banking debt to itself. Frankfurt has definitely got its way and Frankfurt knows the Irish people are committed more than ever now as a result of the Government initiative to repay every single cent of the Anglo Irish and Irish Nationwide debt.

Fundamentally, this deal can be summed up as winding down the bank but not winding down the debt. The Minister, Deputy Noonan, tells us that this deal is akin to having one's mortgage repayments deferred over a longer period, a claim he repeated again tonight. The problem with this comparison is that when people are paying a mortgage, they have a house, but we are paying a mortgage for the gamblers, the bankers and the criminals - we are just paying it over a longer period of time. That is what the Government believes is fair. Anybody who watched the Irish Nationwide programme last night would have seen one Deputy make a star appearance beside the former Taoiseach as they announced the bailout of Irish Nationwide. Let us look at whose mortgage we are actually paying over a longer period. The people who have been asked to bear the brunt of this, whether through property taxes, increased PRSI, a reduction in services or reduced wages in the public sector, have not built a house and are not getting the benefit of a house paid for over a longer period. However, thanks to RTE last night, we have seen some of the debts we are paying.

The Minister is right. There are some houses that were mortgaged and for which I and every other citizen and taxpayer will be paying for the next 40 years. One of those houses is Updown Court. This is what we will be paying back and what the Minister wants us to applaud. He wants us to pay in the form of a sovereign debt the losses this property incurred. Five swimming pools, a cinema, ten-pin bowling, stables, a garage for eight limos, a helipad, a squash court, floodlit tennis courts and a heated marble driveway-----

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