Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I cannot quite believe that this is happening to the Irish people, notwithstanding the efforts of the Government. When the dust has settled, €142 billion of senior debt, guaranteed in 2008, will end up being paid; €35 billion committed to Anglo and Irish Nationwide will end up being paid. All this is to be paid by the Irish people. The motion before the House asks Dáil Éireann to welcome the restructuring of the promissory notes. This is not a money Bill. This is a motion asking for us to welcome something; it is not asking for our permission to spend the money. In my view this is probably unconstitutional. If Dáil Éireann is not explicitly asked for permission to spend this money, it will have made a mockery of parliamentary democracy in this country.

The restructuring proposed is that the IOU issued to Anglo Irish Bank and Irish Nationwide by Fianna Fáil on behalf of the Irish people be exchanged for 35-year Government bonds. Some argue that this deal is worth accepting. It may be worth about €4 billion in today's money and it reduces the short-term funding requirements for the State. Some will argue that we are asking our children and our grandchildren to pay this debt instead of us paying it, that it would be cheaper for them to pay it in 35 years' time than for us to pay now. We do not know if this is true. Others, including me, while accepting the short-term gain, argue that it is not worth the long-term cost. That cost is accepting that the Irish people will pay €35 billion to cover the losses of Anglo Irish Bank and Irish Nationwide. We will also pay €20 billion in interest. The total amount to be paid out over 35 years will be approximately €55 billion.

Regardless of which side one takes in this debate, I would assert that we probably all believe several things to be true: first, that it is fundamentally wrong that the losses of Anglo Irish Bank and Irish Nationwide are borne by the Irish people; second, that the €35 billion committed by Fianna Fáil was not done for the benefit of Ireland; it was done in 2010 for the benefit of Europe; third, that there was little obvious advantage to us doing this for Ireland; and fourth, that it would be both preferable and reasonable that the burden for stabilising the eurozone would be met by the entire eurozone and not just by the people of Ireland.

I ask the House to think about what the Cabinet is asking us to welcome. It is asking us to welcome a restructuring of the debt. However, the Minister, Deputy Noonan, has confirmed that they never looked for any reduction in the total amount of debt owed. The rationale given by the Minister was that they would not have been given it, that they would have annoyed the ECB in asking. Because Greece did so, therefore, the decision was taken not to do so.

However, the Minister is correct in that Greece in fact asked for a write-down. The Greeks were given a write-down of €110 billion on their sovereign debt because they asked.

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